Recent content by David Barrett

Indeed it is not possible to detect the intentions of those in the queue but the actions at the head are obvious and it is the transaction taking place that matters in the first instance. As for office staff, I have come across both types of response where some have concentrated on immediate...

A point was raised at a recent user group meeting meeting with regard to immediate travel and advance/complex journeys being sorted at the head of a queue, where the railway's stakeholder relations representative said without qualification that a passenger needing to purchase tickets for...

Sadly I have to agree. It would be unwise to attempt any major improvement in the absence of resources and whilst I think that a drastically improved service could be established over the joint line using the same number of trains as at present I would not contemplate any such changes without...

Or even pull up the saplings before they morph into trees.

This is quite correct although the main building of the second station survived in use as offices and the guard's signing on point until shortly before demolition in 1971 (despite the earlier removal of the platforms and up side building to accommodate reallignments and what became known as the...

The paint scheme used to seem strange at first to a point, as if London was to the east rather than south. I don't know whether you are aware but some years ago Irwell Press published "An Illustrated History of Scunthorpe's Railways" which may now be out of print but worth looking out for if you...

A jacking and traversing operation by the look of it and quite a common and well rehearsed function executed by re-railing gangs up and down the country carried out with no fuss at the time. Further disruption from this derailment followed with the ban imposed on the type from using the line...

The West Bay, sometimes referred to as the Fish Dock, was lifted and filled in sometime in the 1990s. Its former use during my youth was the stabling of vans detached from the Manchester-Cleethorpes newspaper train prior to their return in the evening although the Gunhouse Banking Engine had...

I recall that, when operated in the OP's suggested form, the stopping service became a closure victim.

Would a yes vote and the ultimate transfer of powers from one side of a line on a map to another diminish the need for travel between the two nations so much or would a force field, a modern day Hadrian's Wall if you like, suddenly appear to frustrate communications after the event?

Indeed, the Hope Valley Line is very useful for leisure travel to the Peak District but then, with stations at Rowsley, Bakewell, Monsal Dale and Millers Dale so was the Peak Forest Route. The withdrawal of passenger services from Matlock Northwards rendered a significant patch of the area out...

An improved GN/GE Joint Line timetable, better connections, much reduced journey times, increased potential taking advantage of at least two shift operation throughout but using the same crew and, in particular, rolling stock as available now? If I was at EMT. I wouldn't dare even think it!

Don't forget that the first step into yield management probably was the abandonment of scale fares and the use of selective pricing adopted, if memory serves me well, in 1967; the thinking then being to charge the highest price considered that which the user would tolerate. It goes back much...

It hadn't changed much by 1961 although our weights and measures were supplemented by common sense behaviour when on or around the Queen's Highway. For all that I do get the impression that there are some people around who are of the opinion that the 1835 Weights and Measures Act destroyed the...

Of course a lot of boxes can be ticked given an opportunistic flow of DMUs from Trans Pennine to Chiltern; if only Leeds was closer to Aylesbury.