Recent content by aleph_0

There's a risk of serious disruption. If issues do occur, it's likely sufficient road replacement travel will not be available. They have a duty of care to passengers. It sounds like they're going to try to run a normal service, so passengers *do* have a choice. But it's also sensible advice...

Firstly, would emphasise the importance of doing your own research here, whether you pay additional contributions is a judgement call based on your current life situation, retirement plan etc. RailPen should have a document describing the exact terms for your 'section' of the scheme. Wanted to...

Probably not a massive difference, but even with the same number of units, the 5-car sign off will improve flexibility in planning and on the day. At the moment, 4 cars means either 2,3 or 2+2. But this has a knock-on effect - any diagram that couples to travel to Manchester as to be 2-car. Or...

I believe this is a technical limitation. From a data perspective, trains are still cancelled (CAN) or in this case changed (to run Queen Street to Bay only) (VAR), in the backend, rather than deleted. People with tickets on such trains usually get notifications from their booking site, but...

I think you two are talking at crossed purposes. There are options. If a bank needs supporting or building up, then sheet piling or other techniques could be used. Alternatively, getting my crayons out here, there are options for a parallel route or other alignments. There is a track going...

Stagecoach has added a few X132 services in for the Fach, running express from Pontypridd Caddy's to Cardiff. Expect they're unlikely to survive long term. But, as others have said, the rail replacement service is as good as a RRS can be. Combine that with the Rhondda railcard, I can't see...

There are two things happening, so just to be clear, what's being suggested, say you have: £12,000 lump sum from the main RPS £10,000 in BRASS In the main RPS, you can convert the lump sum from a £12,000 lump sum, to an extra £1,000/year pension. It's a fun gamble on life expectancy, but to...

Simon11 makes a very good point, but also it really depends. Many with good fixed mortgage rates would do well to not overpay, and at the very least, just save extra cash at 5%+ interest. Whether to do BRASS/AVCs is more a judgement call of how much cash you'll need in the short/medium term...

I've found a previous thread, but there are a few unclear things: https://www.railforums.co.uk/threads/brass.182512/ I'm not railway staff, but my understanding is that BRASS is just the branding of the railway pension scheme's AVC offer, which is a defined contribution-type scheme - i.e. you...

Might be worth having a conversation? If that's on M27 rootstock, we're talking a ~6ft tall tree, which doesn't look like it's an issue (although hard to tell from pic). But on more vigorous rootstock, 10-12' height might be? We're now out of planting season, but replacing the trees at this...

Just to emphasis for 185's benefit, when looking at RTT, some trains have been deleted from the system. So you might be not seeing trains cancelled on the Treherbert Line, but there have been services deleted, it is normally an every half hour service, there are several hour gaps (looks like...

Trains within the valleys aren't that expensive, really. Day Return between the heads of any two valleys is £3.90, £4.60 return to Taff's Well. £7.90 Return to Cardiff is a bit steep. So there is a risk of switching. Especially at the moment, with the engineering works going on. Long-term...

Apologies for opening up this can of worms. The point made about relief line capacity is fair. To spell out the theoretical argument I had, Crossrail takes about an extra 10 minutes vs. the HX from Paddington. I don't think this is a bad pay-off, especially since we're likely to see a switch to...

Is that really such a constraint to push you back onto a taxi? Changing at Heathrow Central is at most a 5 minute wait in either direction cross-platform from/to the Terminal 5 train. Moderator note: Posts discussing abolishing Heathrow Express moved to...

Moderator note: Split from https://www.railforums.co.uk/threads/crossrail-service-pattern-from-may-2023.242908/ Worth noting that the issue for Terminal 5 is that it's served by Heathrow Express. We're getting into crayonista territory, but I'd very much be in favour of abolishing HX and...