Recent content by fishwomp

So, should we speculate now? Should we all be speculators now? Would that be helpful? The only organization that can say what happened is RAIB: the "rent a theory" TV (and internet ) pundits just won't do the groundwork, don't have access to evidence or data. They were pretty quick with the...

The Oxford Clarion in their weekly update published a link to an ASLEF article about the situation.. https://aslef.org.uk/system/files/2026-08/aslef_journal_august.pdf?ref=oxfordclarion.uk (page 9)

It strikes me as unhelpful. They are telling the public the railway is unsafe - whereas I would expect ORR, RSSB, and the HSE to be all over this if that were the case. It'd also be a bit early to be scoring points.. not knowing the reason for this. Is maintenance and passing out stock as...

Or a zones thing? It's in Zone 2, next stop north is Apperley Bridge is Zone 3, and next stop south is Leeds Zone 1. Or just bad data..

Went past it on the train a few weeks ago and thought - 'wow, that was a fail' - it's as isolated here as it was in the 80s..! It's very curious - from https://railalefan.co.uk/labs/flowstats/KLF/ 1 Kirkstall Forge Leeds 90857 118949 2287 326 +30.9 NT 2 Kirkstall Forge Apperley Bridge...

Shouldn't they have to prove that they can build one station before allowing them to progress to their second.. White Rose is asking.

Indeed, I was meaning historically - the much demonized TOCs.. obviously still a small handful are private for now. RMT has been one of the biggest proponents for nationalisation of them. At least the TOCs were/are incentivized to running trains. Not necessarily with enough seats, nor for...

Rather like the TOCs then. They serve the interests of shareholders. The only difference is that one makes money by running trains, the other doesn't. There is no alignment for the union and operating trains, except that if there were no railway, there would be no union - and its members make...

I've stumbled across some recent docs relevant to this scheme: In June - a public consultation on a new footbridge at Penistone ("at early stage") - https://www.facebook.com/BarnsleyCouncil/posts/have-your-say-on-proposed-penistone-station-footbridge-and-car-park-plans-were-s/1415362297290222/...

I'm expanding on the idea: solve the problem by removing train utility. You just broke all/some XC connections with Barnsley, Huddersfield, Nottingham, Lincolnshire, etc.

Just no.. If we close Sheffield, I think technically we will have solved all Sheffield problems - and at a very low cost. It is an interchange for far too many regional services into the XC network, as well as a big city.. but if we adopt the approach at places like Birmingham too, we might...

Not sure how solving Sheffield's problems becomes building out a tram train network, electrification, and reopening Victoria.. All of that is going to the billions category. That means it won't happen for a decade, and all decisions can be postponed, cancelled, refused, reinstated and all the...

There were sidings at Nunnery and a DMU depot at Darnall in the not too distant past.. Brightside has plenty of railway owned space, but I'd prefer that to be used to make 4-track again - with turnouts to the Barnsley branch nearer Sheffield, higher speed, and thereby reduce occupancy of the...

If we were ranking problems to solve by the impact they're having.. I think it's this: 1. North end platform availability 2. South end platform availability 3. North end number of tracks at throat and approach. 4. South end number of tracks at throat and approach. Why (1) then (2)...

Exactly - "dishonest rail company saves taxpayers millions of pounds on taxi fares" (or, "This one trick the rail operators don't want you to know" if we're being modern) .. but even under a nationalized passenger rail system, isn't that still going to be the case - at least for those freight...