This thread is for talking about railways, and things related to railways, in the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. Trips, tracks, tickets, trains and stations, they're all good - making up rules is boring so let's just be normal. Questions are, of course, most welcome.If you feel like travelling, head over to National Rail Enquiries (nationalrail.co.uk/); tell it where you're leaving from and where you're going to, and it'll tell you how you're going to get there; then it'll hand you over to a train operator to buy a ticket. The golden rule is that it doesn't matter which train operator you buy a ticket from, as they'll all sell you a ticket from anywhere to anywhere, for the same price. If you're a visitor from overseas, your best option is probably Trainline (thetrainline.com/) - they charge a booking fee on top of the ticket price, but they'll accept just about any payment card. There's also trip.com/, who are apparently a 'thing' with overseas students: I've not used these myself, so please speak up with any thoughts.Here's a few links:~The Man in Seat 61 (seat61.com/) - easily the best rail travel resource out there.~Geoff Marshall (youtube.com/@geofftech2) - Likes trains. Mostly harmless.~A Visual History of Railway Rolling Stock in Great Britain (gaelan.me/br-stock/)~Realtimetrains (realtimetrains.co.uk/) - live train timetables: ideal for keeping on top of ETAs and platforms.~TIGER (tiger.worldline.global/home/) - live station departure boards.~Traksy (traksy.uk/live/) - live signalling information.~Openrailwaymap (openrailwaymap.org/) - railway infrastructure, mapped.What's happening?~Phase One of High Speed 2 (Birmingham-London): hs2.org.uk/~Belfast Grand Central: weaverscross.co.uk/belfast-transport-hub/~The Transpennine Route Upgrade (electrifying the Liverpool-York mainline): thetrupgrade.co.uk/~The Midland Main Line electrification (still no website!)~The East Coast Digital Programme: nextgenerationrailway.co.uk/
What's in the news lately?~Cost of the delayed Southwestern 'Arterio' trains' introduction - five years! - has been withheld due to concerns it would 'prejudice commercial interests' (bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-berkshire-68239657)~Government repeats inaccurate claim of HS2 funding being 'reallocated', claims to be spending fictional cash on roads (railwaygazette.com/uk/high-speed-2-funding-reallocated-to-roads/65999.article)~75 stations in the Midlands and Manchester to trial contactless ticketing (modernrailways.com/article/contactless-trial-midlands-and-manchester)~Edinburgh consulting on second tram route (railmagazine.com/news/network/2024/02/14/consultation-on-a-second-tram-route-for-edinburgh)~...and TfL consulting on a DLR expansion to Thamesmead (tfl.gov.uk/corporate/about-tfl/how-we-work/planning-for-the-future/dlr-extension)Cool stuff to do? (suggestions welcome!)~lner.co.uk/our-destinations/popular-destinations/trains-to-york/things-to-do-in-york/ - take a trip at 125mph from King's Cross to York. Make sure to spend an hour or two in the National Railway Museum near York station, and take in York Castle and the city's Viking history exhibits afterward.~avantiwestcoast.co.uk/where-we-go/destination-guides/lake-district/ - journey through the Dales into Oxenholme, and go mountain biking through the gorgeous natural scenery of the Lake District national park.~www.sleeper.scot/destination/ftw/ - take the Caledonian Sleeper from London to Fort William, then change onto the westcoastrailways.co.uk/jacobite/steam-train-trip/ Jacobite steam train that'll take you over the famous Glenfinnan 'Harry Potter viaduct'.~scenicrailbritain.com/lines/st-ives-bay-line/ - the St Ives Bay Line will take you to the sandy beaches of Cornwall.~cadw.gov.wales/visit/places-to-visit/caerphilly-castle/ - visit the largest castle in Wales, a short walk from the station.(and the previous thread, if you're weird: >>1962311)
...and today we're reading The Railway Navvies, by Terry Coleman. The blurb puts it quite eloquently:>This is the definitive story of the men who built the railways – the unknown Victorian labourers who blasted, tunnelled, drank and brawled their way across nineteenth-century England. Preached at and plundered, sworn at and swindled, this anarchic elite endured perils and disasters, and carved out of the English countryside an industrial-age architecture unparalleled in grandeur and audacity since the building of the cathedrals....a history of the actual, literal building of the railway. You'd be surprised how long the work was carried out by sweat, muscle and, when that failed, dynamite; ironically, the Victorian contractors, who harried up scores of Scots and Irish and aimed them at an unsuspecting countryside, didn't want anything to do with that steam-powered nonsense until well after the Railway Mania period had come and gone. It's absorbing stuff, pick it up if you can.
Today I learned that Liverpool isn't on the CrossCountry route. One of those quirks of history maybe?
>>1983363In a saner universe Liverpool-Norwich would be an actual big-boy inter-city service: go from end to end and you'll interchange with three major mainlines, but the direct service is operated by a thirty-year-old two-car regional DMU + is thus slower than going via London.
>>1983363The CrossCountry Route is SW-NE (the route itself is defined as Bristol TM - York via Birmingham, Derby, and Sheffield). Liverpool was part of the Trans-Pennine Route (Liverpool to York via Manchester, Huddersfield, and Leeds). Virgin XC did serve Liverpool for a few years with trains to/from Paddington, Brighton, Portsmouth, but these services were withdrawn in 2003. LNWR currently run Liverpool - Birmingham so the current XC franchise also serving this route would just be duplicating services on an already congested part of the WCML
Why does Sadiq Khan think it's a good idea to replace the stock on the Picadilly line before the bakerloo line when the bakerloo line if fucking up precisely because of its older stock
>>1983433The first impression tourists and foreigners will have of the tube will most likely be the Piccadilly line which starts from Heathrow as opposed to the Bakerloo which starts from literally who-ville.
>>1983435I know thats the real reason but I want to know if they gave a nonsense reason thats just a load of cope
>>1983506i don't think there's a way of spinning 'we're at break-even at best, and given the people in power don't like london, its mayor, or rail in general, help isn't on the way' even in consulting-speak la-la-land. which is why they'll sit on it instead, same as crossrail 2, the northern line split, expanding the overground etc etc
What are some good day trips from York?
>>1983509Jump on the train to Manchester Airport and take a tour around the preserved Concorde: https://www.runwayvisitorpark.co.ukThey recommend getting a taxi on the website, but there's a bus that runs from outside the airport station as well. There's not an awful lot to it besides the aircraft - call it two, two and a half hours if you stretch it out a little? - but on a nice day you can sit on the grass with a picnic, and zone out watching the planes taking off and landing next door.
>>1983507I like to fantasise about the London bits of South Western Rail and Southeastern rail being turned into Overground lines
>>1983509I'm doing a few in the next couple of weeks mate. Going to Glasgow for the day and then Leicester for the space centre.Could always get the East Yorkshire Round Robin ticket too
Grand Union have been given the go-ahead to operate as the WCML's first open-access operator next year, running between Stirling and London.>https://www.orr.gov.uk/search-news/orr-open-access-services-given-green-light-between-london-and-stirling>Grand Union Trains will introduce four new return services per day between London Euston and Stirling stations. These services will also call at Milton Keynes Central, Nuneaton, Crewe (subject to agreement between Grand Union Trains and Network Rail), Preston, Carlisle, Lockerbie, Motherwell, Whifflet, Greenfaulds and Larbert. Larbert, Greenfaulds and Whifflet will receive their first direct services to London.Scanning through the linked documents suggests they'll be using off-lease Class 22x trains, presumably the very same trains that Avanti will be handing back once the 805 and 807s come into service this year; so, more of a Hull Trains-but-for-Scotland type of thing, than a Lumo-but-WCML type of thing.
>>1983859interesting to bypass Glasgow and see a big enough market for it. I don't know if Scots are too fond of a diesel service when the whole line is electrified.
>>1983873fair point. still, regarding glasgow, i'd imagine directly duplicating the service already offered by Avanti was a no-no, whereas offering a brand-new intercity service to quieter stations, at GU's own commercial risk, was an 'alright then, off you go' kind of thing. like you could argue that's the purpose of a privatised railway, to incentivise that sort of entrepeneurship.re the trains, the original application was for GU to use 'new build bi-mode rolling stock': presumably another 800, going by the lovely render i found, and hitachi are probably ram-jam as it is. there's also apparently issues with the WCML power supply and the big 'nobody knows' issue around HS2, so, it's a known quantity instead
>>1983878how about calling the service the bypass train and not just bypass Glasgow, Manchester and Birmingham but London as well.
that old chestnut rears its head again: https://uk.eu-supply.com/ctm/Supplier/PublicPurchase/78987/0/0blah blah blah remove some of the shops you don't like, blah blah blah something about hanging out on platforms, blah blah blah check documents on trains like it's the 1920s. i think that just about covers St Pancras?
no, wait, forgot 'just join up HS1 and HS2 like they're lego, simple as'
>>1983878>re the trains, the original application was for GU to use 'new build bi-mode rolling stock': presumably another 800Allegedly Hitachi's recent price increases for new 80x units stopped GU from considering these, they had planned to use class 93s but scrapped that idea too for some reason. I suppose if they do end up using class 221's they'll be able to poach drivers from Avanti who already sign the traction & the route, but that hardly mitigates the fact that they'll be using diesel trains (and ones that are already unpopular with passengers) over a fully electrified route.In other news, the track for the EWR project between Bicester & Bletchley is now fully laid. A generally good news story (leaving aside the fact it really ought to be electrified), but you wouldn't know it from the BBC, who've devoted most of their story to people whose lives have been utterly ruined because they've had to look at some diggers and because now people might want to move into their townhttps://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-oxfordshire-68500700
Is Locomotion worth a visit? Much to see?
what is the greatest british locomotive design of all time, and why is it the 37
>>1984447The granddaddy of today's fast passenger services, of course. Powerful enough to cruise at 100mph along the East Coast, while scaring the absolute ever-loving shit out of kids and the elderly at the stations along the way lol
booking a trip for later this year, and I've had a little 'lightbulb moment' as to why the carriage letters on the 800s don't go in alphabetical sequence: it's so that regardless of whether you're in a five, nine or ten-carriage train, your seat reservation will more or less be the same.A, B and C will be the same whatever you're in. G will always be the cafe car. D and K will always be the composite First and Standard coach, whereas L will always be an all-First coach. it's not much, but I thought it was rather clever.
>>1984447The 140. Simple and cost effective.
>>1983386Went on this service from Manchester to Nottingham for the cricket. A 2 carriage 158 was laid on. It's packed at the best of times butthat was just ridiculous.
>>1984513not denying the deltics are among the greatest ever, but it's not like you still see them on revenue service today like with 37s
>>1984557>Pacer but with a gangway front endWhy didn't they retain this feature on the 141 onwards? It helps with making it look more like a proper big-boy DMU and less like the glorified Leyland bus riding on a coal wagon that it was. It might have helped reduce some (certainly not all) of the scorn people held towards Pacers over the decades.
>>1984447>what is the greatest british locomotive design of all time, and why is it the 37Not even close
>>1984513What I never understand is how HSTs and even modern DMUs can go even faster when their power units look smaller
>>1984625Rail between London and these cities is bad enough, I never though about how much worse the service between those cities probably is. Honestly I'm surprised the service even exists.
>>1984724Lighter construction & better efficiency. Deltics are carrying steam generators & the water for them, for a start. One engine instead of 2. AC traction is lighter than DC generators & traction motors etc.
>>1984716do you see any bellows on that thing? it wouldn't hodl up for passengers going through it
>>1984729Works fine on the tube.
>>1984734there is a reason you're told not to go through those things you know?
>>1984735Has anyone actually died doing that? I'm always scared to use it.
>>1984723no idea why i like these so much
>>1984910They have a classic utilitarian industrial design, a nice beefy metal box that moves things around. Form follows function, and machines that are very good at what they do end up having an unconventional beauty of their own.It's a surprisingly old design too. As far as I'm aware the first shunter that looked like a class 08 was shunter 7079 built for LMS in 1934, which makes the basic design 90 years old this year.
>>1984948Forgot my image
>>1984948>It's a surprisingly old design too. As far as I'm aware the first shunter that looked like a class 08 was shunter 7079 built for LMS in 1934, which makes the basic design 90 years old this year.It's basically a diesel engine on top of a steam loco chassis.
For tra/n/sportation and cost of living what are the best cities in the UK? Manchester, Glasgow, Birmingham and Newcastle?
>>1984980St. Davids
>>1984980Crewe is an unimaginable shithole with all the trains you could ever ask for.
>Waterloo station set for huge “London Bridge style” upgrade>https://www.ianvisits.co.uk/articles/waterloo-station-set-for-huge-london-bridge-style-upgrade-70934/Clickbait title, but interesting nonetheless. Saving you a click, it's basically about opening up the brick arches underneath the station for passenger use, like they did with London Bridge. And, of course, there it is: say the line, Network Rail!>with new office space built above the station to help fund the upgrade.
"you know the gigantic plot of land north of the river that we really, really, really want to flog off to our private equity vulture mates to use as debt collateral? how about another?"
>>1984095I actually fucking despise NIMBYs
>>1984980I'd pick Glasgow out of those 4 but only because I've never been to Manchester and I've never used public transport in Birmingham or Newcastle.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UQnCy82yaVE
>>1985613My favourite, on the other side of the coin, are "enthusiasts" who treat their choice to use the railway like a weapon to be wielded, with terrible consequences. 'i have been travelling from Little Squatshitt to Dumbfuck-By-The-Trees for three decades ... !! TOO SEE FAMILY !! .... sadly the "Powers That Be" at the railway company has now lost my business... time to go door to door instead LOL.....' etc etc
You know. Proper brainmelts who never forgave Harold Wilson for withdrawing the Deltics, or they were personally offended at having their ticket checked at the station, or something equally crackpot
>>1985633>I've never been to ManchesterWe can only dream of living a life as blessed as yours
>>1985735kek
pinched from Reddit: an IET parked up at Waterloo this morning, a test run for when the WCML is shut around the Old Oak Common construction site. Apparently there's been one in Euston as well, I've not found any pictures of it though.
>>1985848>Apparently there's been one in Euston as wellFound a photo of it. Apparently GWR would prefer to use Euston rather than Waterloo whilst Paddington is inaccessible
>>1985887>https://www.therailwayhub.co.uk/69459/the-future-of-great-western-railway/>Euston, he says, is the preferred option. Not because Waterloo is a bad station, but because the former has more facilities suitable for GWR passengers."You see, Kent, our customers are rural bumpkins, and the sight of buildings with more than three storeys would only frighten them."
>https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cz7z6xnpyn6oJacobite services suspended "until further notice" as WCR seek ANOTHER exemption to the rules on central door locking. Absolute mongs, WCR have had an age to make their stock compliant, and the ORR has offered to work with them on a reasonable timeframe to get it done so they could keep running their train that shits money. Instead, it's "nah, we'll just keep trying for a full exemption", and they've absolutely fucked it
>>1986183Aren't there some spare Mk3 coaches they could buy that have already got plug doors fitted?
>>1983386>the direct service is operated by a thirty-year-old two-car regional DMUOh hey, they're going for a refurb this year:>https://news.eastmidlandsrailway.co.uk/news/the-big-regional-refurb-emr-announce-start-of-m-project-to-revamp-regional-fleet>EMR's Class 158 fleet mainly operates on the Liverpool to Norwich route via Nottingham, Manchester and Sheffield. The trains will receive new seat covers and foams, an interior refresh and CCTV.The 170s are quite nice as they are, for privatisation-era DMUs in regional service; mind you I'm on the south Transpennine route, and I've heard that some of the stock that bimbles around the Nottingham area (the actual East Midlands, lol) is still in its old Scotrail livery inside
>>1986183It's not unreasonable for a heritage train to retain heritage features.
>>1986317>I've heard that some of the stock that bimbles around the Nottingham area (the actual East Midlands, lol) is still in its old Scotrail livery insideThe EMR 170s mostly have their old London Midland interiors.t. travel on them a lot between Leicester and Nottingham
That isn't the issue, though: the issue is that WCR had a string of completely avoidable safety-related fuckups some time ago, and in the course of the investigations afterwards it turned out they were run like your dodgy mate's plastering company:>The safety culture at WCRC was found by the investigation to be weak. This was evidenced by a number of factors, including the lack of traction inspectors, failure to test for drugs and alcohol, failure to download data from OTDRs to analyse individual driver performance, failure to maintain OTDR equipment correctly, failure to report missing seals on safety equipment where they were required to be fitted, failure to keep proper records, and failure to improve following [an incident the previous year]....and what's worse than a fuckup is when the fucker-upper doesn't seem to understand, or care about, the depths of their fuckups: after having their licence taken away they kept selling railtour tickets, even while they were under investigation, on the assumption that it'd all blow over and it was just a paperwork exercise.>Responding to a comment by [the WCR owner] that "We are co-operating with the ORR in its enquiries, but from what we can see, all it is doing is keeping a watchful eye on what is going on", Rail editor Nigel Harris expressed astonishment at the "jaw-dropping" comments as criminal charges could lead to imprisonment following a guilty verdict.So here we are in 2024, they've had literal years to sort this out, and now a week or two before the final deadline (and having taken Network Rail to court about it and promptly lost the case) WCR are pleading poverty and blowing it up into an issue: meanwhile someone at NR has basically said 'failure to prepare on your part does not constitute an emergency on ours', and here we are. Laying on the elf-n-safety!!! bollocks and crying about the authenticity of heritage features is just muddying the issue, which is that WCR is not a trustworthy, stand-up company.
>>1986393They've been like this for years.https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2015_Wootton_Bassett_rail_incident>In May 2016, the RAIB published a report on the incident, which largely blamed the incident on the train crew tampering with a safety system that would otherwise have safely brought the train to a halt.
>>1983273>A two hour trip on a dilapidated rail network, yes that'll be 300 pounds sir The UK Train network is an absolute tragedy. It sums up the state of the whole country really, was once ok could have been better now just being asset stripped >But muh cross railNo
Something's not quite right here
>>1986544just peeking if there's a chance to overtake
>>1986599SHALL I DO 'IM?
I'm not reading all that shit
Ripon is a city, an actual honest-to-God city with a cathedral and everything, and you can't get a train there. If you wanted to go, you'd need to get a train to Thirsk then get a taxi. Fucking Yorkshire cavemen. Or you can get a train to Knaresborough, wherever the fuck that is, and then get a bus. Is Ripon the least accessible cathedral in the country?
And while I'm ranting...how do YOU spell "leisurely"?
>>1986872You can thank Dr Beeching for that. Maybe the Ripon line will reopen someday; who knows.The number 70 bus runs from Thirsk to Ripon but – goodness me – there are only four services a day.If you can get to Harrogate, though, the 36 bus runs half-hourly from there.
>>1986876I was looking at the 36 bus. I can get it all the way from Leeds to Ripon! But if I'm just going around visiting random nice-sounding places, I would be mad not to check out Harrogate first since I've never been there either.
>>1986872>Is Ripon the least accessible cathedral in the country?In England, maybe. In the UK, that goes to either St. Davids or Kirkwall. Peel on the Isle Mann also if you include crown dependencies.
>Congratulations on your purchase of CLASS 805/807 AT300 PASSENGER TRAIN SET.(the 221s are due to go off-lease by the end of June, so these will (hopefully) begin trickling into service in the next six weeks or so)
>>1986964Why has the drivers manual got so many pages? I was informed by many experts on Tw*tter that the extent of it is:>push lever for an hour or two a day, four days a week>collect £100k/year
>>1986969Yeah but yeah, you see, yeah, it's all in Punjabi and Hinduese and Tagalong and all that. Then they 'aff to do the marching around with the union afterward singing Das Capital or whatever it is. It's a fackin' joke is what it is, not like in Germany or them other places.
>>1986972I know you're being facetious somewhat but you picked three languages from countries where anyone you meet who is from there is going to be fluent in english and yes I know "tagalong" and "hinduese" are intentional misspellings for humour value but couldn't you have picked like japanese or hungarian or somewhere that is known for locals who speak bad to no english
>https://ageofthetrain.retropia.co.uk/post/151555739315/intercity-sleepers-1993Is there a market for a Plymouth to Glasgow via Bristol sleeper these days, do you think?
>>1986872>>1986950https://www.wellssomerset.com/getting-here>There are no direct train services to Wells but there are several choices of station with connecting bus services to Wells.>1) From Bristol Temple Meads railway station catch the 376 bus service to Wells. The bus stops outside the train station. There are no changes of bus along the route and the journey is approx. 1 hour. >4) Castle Cary railway station is the closest to Wells, approx. 15 miles. However, there are not as many train services compared to Bristol and Bath. There is no regular direct bus service to Wells from Castle Cary. You would need to get to Shepton Mallet and then catch the 174 bus to Wells.Fucking hell.
>>1986969I see comments like that all the time, and I don't know what's worst: the belief that driving a train is easy, the misinformation about how much drivers earn, or the disregard for the effect the job can have on one's personal life (e.g. the need to be well rested, the psychological impact of incidents, etc.).
>tfw you're Quantum Leap-ing through universes but stuck in the one where BR was actually sold off by the Major governmentguess i won't be needing this any more
>Is there a market for a Plymouth to Glasgow via Bristol sleeper these days, do you think?I have no need to go to Plymouth during the day let alone during the night so I'd say there is no market for such a service.
Makes me so mad, in a good way, seeing stuff like this, https://www.varamis.co.uk, because it's like 'what if trains carried parcels and stuff from station to station, and big-ish train stations had an office to co-ordinate moving the things around??' is lost knowledge or something.The entire e-commerce revolution happened while everyone was fucking around knocking down parcels offices for car parking space. What a colossal missed opportunity
nice
>>1983509>What are some good day trips from York?It's pushing the boundaries of a 'day trip', but when I was working in York pre-pandemic and felt like a sly weekend away with the GF I'd book Friday afternoon off and head to Newcastle on the train, change onto the coach waiting at the station, and take the overnight ferry from North Shields to Amsterdam. You can leave your luggage on the ship and spend five or so hours on Saturday shopping & sipping coffee by the canals, before sailing back again Saturday night & getting back in your front door by early Sunday afternoon.
Something mildly interesting I just noticed: the Caledonian Sleeper called at & left from King's Cross this past weekend, rather than Euston.
...if you're stuck for something to read as well, take a look at this: it's been possible to buy train tickets online for twenty-five years, and 'how it all works' is usually overlooked. Here's a retrospective. https://www.f17.co.uk/blog/25-years-of-online-rail-retail/forewordI found this bit interesting:>One of the concepts that took hold in this era [2010-2015] was the concept of making online retail platforms available via APIs - system-to-system interfaces - rather than just via a web front end. >The early uses for these APIs included travel management companies and online travel agencies, who already had booking engines, but simply wanted a pair of interfaces to "get fares" and "book fares". This allowed rail to appear in integrated booking platforms alongside hotel, air and car hire. Later, direct to consumer propositions (such as Loco2, Virgin Trains Ticketing and Uber) would be developed upon these type of APIs, reducing the amount of technical complexity that needed to be recreated.>The GB rail market is relatively unique. In most of the EU, and indeed globally, the national railway provides these APIs. This reduces the complexity of bringing a basic proposition to market, but limits the ability of retailers to innovate as they are constrained by the APIs published by the national railway.>In the GB rail market, however, third parties take the raw data and as a result the provision of APIs for search/booking inventory is a competitive market space with a choice of different API providers available, or the ability for retailers to build their own business logic. Online retailers such as Trainline and RailEasy diversified into providing their platform as a service, with others such as SilverRail being 'pure play' API providers with no real online presence of their own.>Interestingly, many players in the GB market bemoan the overheads of the GB approach, whereas many players in the EU market bemoan the inflexibility of the EU approach.
...i.e. modern rail ticketing is an actual, concrete example of 'entrepreneurial flair' brought about as a result of the railway privatisation process, where 'the bulk of the commercial incentives in the supply chain are to sell more tickets, not to sell more software changes', and more importantly 'customers have more choice of how to pay for their train travel than at any time in the railway’s history'.You can dither over whether more ways of paying is better than one single website to rule them all until the cows come home, of course, but this is just what's been going on for the past quarter-century.
>49Cool story bro.
>>1988949Yes, the collapse of punctuality is why Railtrack collapsed; massive compensation payouts and public outrage about them getting dozens of people killed by being cheaparse corner-cutting turds certainly had nothing to do with it. What a bizarre infographic.
>>1988510You just know
>>1989050I mean, it did, albeit indirectly: the train operators were entitled to compensation payouts as well, due to the network-wide short-notice speed restrictions that resulted in the timetable being mostly wishful-thinking for months. It sounds glib but punctuality isn't just for customers' benefit, it's to make sure the crews are rostered, trains make it back to depots for cleaning and fuelling, the maintenance regime rumbles on, etc
In light of recent events ... I think this was the last major strike threatened under BR, besides the signallers' strike in 1994 on the eve of privatisation. Parker was right, in retrospect: the late seventies-early eighties wasn't a particularly happy time for the railway, with the lowest passenger mileage since the Beeching days, and after this came the Serpell report and the withering-away of parcels and post traffic.Not saying then and now is equivalent, of course, more like a mirror image: contrast a popular Conservative government still riding a post-Falklands high, facing down a union demanding they keep working practices dating back to the days of steam, versus the current bunch of incompetent bastards with absolutely nothing in the tank.
>>1988949http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/3255972.stm>First-class train travellers speeding along GNER's East Coast route can get fast broadband net too as wireless web trials get under way from 1 December.>The train company is the first to offer wireless net - or wi-fi - in a three week trial on one train, in the hope of attracting more business travellers.>Last Updated: Tuesday, 2 December, 2003, 11:47 GMTIt'll never catch on.
bumpplease read my thread where i complain about shit nobody cares about
>>1990068welcome to /r/uktrains, take your pick from the below posting templates:>the class 800 seats: three mega-hitlers or just two?>here's why double-decker trains are VITAL because ... double-deckers>[picture of a train at a station] guess where this was taken>if the ticket i bought says 'from X at xx:xx, can i travel on the Y at yy:yy train instead'
Network Rail's CP7 began this month, lasting until 2029, and details what they'll be up to as regards the railway's infrastructure. The whole thing can be found here: https://www.networkrail.co.uk/who-we-are/publications-and-resources/our-delivery-plans-for-2024-2029/...but I found a few interesting nuggets amongst the faff:>We will commence a programme of re-signalling in the Carlisle, Preston and Warrington areas, starting the transition to modern European Train Control System (ETCS) signalling. This will be the first implementation of ETCS in the NW route and will increase capacity on the WCML and enable HS2 trains to run on our infrastructure, reducing maintenance workload and removing signal sighting problems.>Promoting safety through level crossing closures: WCS is undertaking level crossing closures in Marston and Kempston as part of a comprehensive risk reduction strategy, prioritising the safety of both the public and railway users.>Revitalising for passenger safety: the full platform renewal at Milton Keynes underscores our commitment to passenger safety, helping to ensure the longevity of essential infrastructure for a secure and reliable commuting experience.>Deployment of ETCS as part of the East Coast Digital Programme has been ring-fenced through CP7. We will complete a major re-signalling programme in Cambridge, which includes interventions to support asset condition through re-locks, re-controls, targeted refurbishment and life-extension activities. In addition, we have allocated funding to support early development of ETCS in the MML, to support delivery in CP8.>Freight revenue: We are planning for freight growth of 7.5% by the end of CP7, supportedby our renewals plan and the delivery of key enhancement programmes such as TRU....probably more to be found in there as well, but it's dry reading
>>1990089>Tories: bad or really bad?>Labour: proof of bipedal invertebrate lifeforms unknown to science
>>1984513I love how the Deltics - all British locos, really - are a hefty beast of a machine ... with those little plastic window wipers on their flappy little sticks. Dragging 700t of coal around at 2am, in the pouring wind, rain and snow, must have been an experience, especially in the solo-driver dieselisation era when it had previously been a driver & fireman.
You are given the power to go back in time to save ONE (1) axed line. For the good of the UK, which one do you pick?
>>1990865Great Central
>>1990865>>1990870>anything but the Woodhead line
Yes southeastern, that will be £1.85 of delay repay please
>>1990865Varsity lineIt was profitable and allowed diversionary routes around London.>>1990888>WoodheadIt was a bad decision in hindsight, but there were good reasons why it closed. Once the coal traffic dried up the writing was on the wall.
>Booking with TPE>Costs £11 for an advance single back home in 2 weeks>Costs £7.55 for an advance single next weekHow the fuck can it be cheaper to wait a week before you depart to book. I fucking hate they're the only TOC I can use
>>1983435If first impressions from tourists mattered so much they'd get rid of WHSmiths from airports.
Why does the 465 make such a weird noise when it pulls away from the station? I don't know why but it scratches something in my head when it does it
>>1990865Great Central by far, because IIRC it was built to European loading specifications to link with a future channel tunnel. If it hadn't been closed, it would have been natural to make Marylebone a non-terminating London stop of Eurostar, with the rest of the train going on up the mainline.
>>1989209it's easy to forget just how completely fucked everything was at the time. one week after the Hatfield crash, Railtrack went and shut the entire northern leg of the WCML with about three hours' notice (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/989218.stm)... and then six weeks later, things still aren't any better (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/1049771.stm)>850 speed restrictions imposed initially>572 still in place>40mph limits at 140 sites to be raised to 60mph>About 200 of the 20mph restrictions to be >raised to 40mph>3,700 sites checked for gauge corner cracking>117 miles of tracks re-railed out of 426 milesamazing how there's this wealth of information still out there from primary sources, but it's impossible to actually find because searching for anything is such absolute fucking shit these days.
>>1991084>it was built to European loading specifications to link with a future channel tunnelIt wasn't built to a continental loading gauge neither was it built for the channel tunnel. That's a myth frequently stated as fact for some reason.
>>1991195I'll take your word for it, I heard it bloody years ago so it could have been bollocks.
Someone's going to get killed at Euston one of these days. They've already gotten in trouble for their cack-handed crowd mismanagement, and that was before they took down the nice big departures board and replaced it with those silly mini-boards.
and also: fuck's sake. https://www.modernrailways.com/article/ecml-december-2024-timetable-deferredThere goes my direct London connection this year :/
I don't know anything about trainspotting, but I was on a train at the weekend and I wondered if it was a Pacer, so I looked it up. I have never done this before. It wasn't a Pacer, it was a Class 150 which is apparently something called a Sprinter, but it was still older than I am. Still, it was definitely interesting to read about the train I was on while I rode it to Chester (nice place by the way; lots of opportunities for walking around but frankly an utter pain to get to by train).
>>1991505Based as fuck, that's how I got into trains too. Just got bored on my commute one day and wondered what I was sitting on. That's how it all starts, anon!
>https://www.railadvent.co.uk/2024/04/100000-grand-national-racegoers-use-liverpool-train-services.html>100,000 Grand National racegoers use Liverpool train services>Merseyraill came out as a winner at this year's Grand National Festival as it coped with over 103,000 journeys by racegoers travelling to and from Aintree.Cool, cool.>As well as putting on a 7½-minute service, Merseyrail gave away 5,000 pairs of famous flip flops and kept racegoers at Moorfields, Liverpool Central, and Aintree stations entertained with live music....'famous flip flops'?
feel like shit just want her back x
>>1985887Why not use Marylebone? Surely easier to reach?
>>1986998Thank you beeching!The strawberry line would be very useful if it were open as a diversionary route, but it's now under the axbridge bypass and development in Wells
>>1991827I wonder what the little booths were intended for?
>>1991837I don't think there's a link from the GWML to Marylebone, without going the super-long way around - meanwhile there's a convenient-ish link at Friars Junction, just west of the Old Oak Common construction site, that can get you to Euston or Waterloo ... I suppose if they were to use Waterloo they'd need to fire up the diesel engines, as there's no overhead power in that part of town, and thread ten-car intercity trains around London commuter trains
>>1991814>famous flip flopsSo the lasses don't have to walk around all day in their high heels. Good for their legs but handy for safety aswell, as they're less likely to trip on a platform after a gallon or two of prosecco. Was in Lime Street on ladies day at Aintree a few years ago and the station was full of women wearing flip flops
Crewe to Euston on WMR and Marylebone to Stourbridge Junction on Chiltern tomorrow lads, what am I in for?
>>1991983a sore bum lol(and also the Parry People Movers, quite possibly the oddest-looking 'what if the DLR was a proper train' set out there)
>>1991827'Waterloo' rhymed quite conveniently with 'vindaloo' for the Fat Les song. Must be counting their blessings they're not having to find a rhyme for 'St Pancras'
>when the Eurostars pass each other
>>1991915why do I only learn about the pissed-up posh totty AFTER these things happen. why do you keep things from me, anon
https://www.railmagazine.com/news/2024/04/25/labour-launch-plan-for-rail>Labour launches plan for rail>Shadow Transport Secretary, Louise Haigh will outline plans to pursue the creation of the Great British Railways (GBR) body which it intends to be led by “rail experts” rather than Whitehall. However, the plan also includes the creation of a new passenger watchdog, the Passenger Standards Authority.>But the creation of GBR is one part of Labour’s plan, as Haigh will also announce a clear move towards public ownership of the nation’s railways, by aiming to bring government passenger contracts once they expire into the public sector within its first term of office, reversing privatisation by the end of 2029 at the latest. This it believes will prove better value for money for the taxpayer than buying operators out of their contracts early.Announced at Trainline HQ, and made a point of saying 'yes we're keeping the name'. Mixed feelings.
>Liverpool Street>doesn't take you to Liverpooltypical
>>1993641>Leicester Square Station>doesn't take you to LeicesterFucking TfL
>Waterloobit smaller than i thought it'd be
