Recent content by 8H

There is a continuing obsession with boundaries here, all sorts of boundaries will be disappearing as GBR emerges and as the privatisation era TOC structure become meaningless. We also have long established Wales/England cooperation and a series of service/infrastructure improvements on the...

Thoughtful and positive posts on this subject, especially existing flows and future potential. Service improvements essential but attractive multi modal multi operator ticketing would also help the attractiveness of rail supplant buses dominance at the Wirral peninsular end of things where an...

I suppose the much larger potential with the route is more frequent and quicker public transport from North Wales Coast stations to Wirral and “Over the Water” and thus fewer car journeys. Connectivity at Wrexham and originating journeys there as well as better interchange at Shotton are both...

The whole concept of privatisation era TOC areas and services is redundant anyway. However this if only the Borderlands route wasn’t in Wales at all argument is a red herring. There is a lot of cooperation between the responsible authorities in Wales and in England to improve the service. This...

Absolutely correct, and of course “best“ in this case would also be fastest now, as indeed it used to be.

In complete agreement with you, it’s a route with a decent future, especially if the planned infrastructure and signalling improvements also take place. It doesn’t need reflex knocking copy but critical support. Let’s hope the long term performance trend now is boring and stable.

Only fair to point out that 230006 is bowling along fine today, so far, it’s the 197 that has lost time mucking about early on between Croes Newydd and Wrecsam :D

Hi there! I believe a problem with electric road vehicles is that they still produce 70% of the pollutants that a diesel/petrol vehicle does. With battery tech and rail interface instead of tarmac things might be better by rail? Essentially not sure how road traffic volumes can continue...

Yes you are right to mention benefit/cost ratio, although I didn’t say it, I often wonder is that part of the problem too! Is the modelling and the weighting of factors the way it currently works climate crisis proofed? I am not sure it works in favour of rail, but horribly expensive road...

Aaaaaarrrrgghhh :D 1728217469 Fair play, all reasonable, do you think sometimes us ex and current railway people often end/ended up automatically defending an orthodoxy of deeply ingrained rules and finance restrictions squashing enhancements and innovations? Think Switzerland maybe where...

Always a pleasure to hear someone advocating for and promoting a railway rather than someone being shocked and affronted at a scheme for a new passenger service. There will be many genuine problems to be solved in reinstating this line and legitimate questions regarding its public transport...

I am sure you have a respectable and informed argument here but a substantivd point that the “OP” makes is that you can make the same respectable and informed argument about many, and maybe any Welsh road too!

Excellent positive vigorous argument, makes a change from the backward looking stale orthodoxy that rail inariably has little to offer that we get trotted out on “Rail Forums”

Thought that might be a decent wind up :D However in all seriousness I am not convinced of the likely effectiveness of the now popular city region model. Too much city and not enough region is a likely outcome when it comes to both planning and investment. The centre will eat the periphery and...

Mersey Estuary & Coastal Region, dump the Liverpool bit entirely.