Recent content by Chester1

Where are those skyscrapers in Birmingham going to be built? Have a look at the spatial plans for both city regions. Birmingham will run out of easy sites to redevelop in next 10 years or so and will end up on a London style situation where almost any large development is contentious. Greater...

I could never understand the need due to proximity to a huge park. Castlefield Viaduct serves a genuine need for green space in central Manchester and that makes funding easier. The full project will connect an area of very high housing density with the city centre too. This project reeked of...

The bottleneck is Deansgate-Castlefield to St Peter's Square. The viaduct between Cornbrook and Deansgate-Castlefield has a higher capacity because its segregated.

Oswestry Station is a large site and complete separation shouldn't be a problem. The deal breaker is the cost of a branch line that serves a small town without being a significantly better rail head than Gobowen. Okehampton works because the length of the branch and location of the primary...

There is no real chance of a proper rail service. Previous attempts have got nowhere because Oswestry is far too small to support a short branch line. Okehampton is different because it acts as a rail head for a huge catchment area while Gobowen station is just 2 miles from Oswestry. With no...

Is the heritage railway still wishing to run a regular service over the northern level crossing? The level crossing is a major factor in favour of heritage vs reopening. Its likely the former would be satisfied with just using the crossing for occasional empty rolling stock movements in early...

What government or other state entity posters are put up in Wales only written in English? That is illegal under Welsh law. If it is done by mistake then no doubt it will be pointed out quickly and in the mean time everyone can understand it. A Welsh only poster in Stockport is useless to...

Legally Wales is a Welsh speaking country and the Welsh government has a policy of prioritising the Welsh language. It is a long standing policy and people have voted for Labour (and previous coalition partners) on that basis. English in England and Welsh in Wales makes sense apart from Chester...

I agree it woud be absurd for the Marches line but there is no practical issue with switching the langauges around at Chester for Holyhead - Manchester Airport and Llandudno - Liverpool. I have a pet hate of systematic oppression etc being used to justify double standards. Applying a consistent...

That is second half of the problem. The first half is the low probability of XC receiving a large investment in rolling stock in the next few years. There was over a decade of overcrowdinging before 6 x 7 coach HSTs where replaced by 7 x 5 coach Voyagers. This was later increased to 12 sets...

Can you honestly say you would be suggesting this if there hadn't been a service in the 60s? What real world problem based on modern demand and infrastructure does this fix?

With a recent refurbisment and probably only 10 years left of service that is probably the only plausible cascade option. An internal cascade would be a cost effective option if DfT decide upgrade the XC services but it is possible. I think I caused some offence a while back by saying I was...

Deeside Industrial Park is huge and I am sure the BCR will reflect that much of it will be out of walking distance of any station. I briefly worked on a project there a few years back and the bus provision bordered on non existent. It is designed for cars.

The options Ryanair will have if EU implement the new law are return to pre 2018 situation or shrink the second bag size. I can't see them being prepared to transfer luggage at gate line again and that means shrinking the bag size. The EUs proposed size would enable everyone to bring two bags...

It is the bag I use for work. The laptop compartment at the back can fit the spare jeans and the tablet. Everything else goes into main compartment. There is enough space to buy a small gift for the Mrs. I don't care how much luggage other people use as long as the EU doesn't force airlines to...