Recent content by jimm

I've no idea why you think the people planning Telford would have any influence on railway electrification. It took 20+ years from the start of work on the new town project to get Telford Central station built. Even if any West Coast trains did terminate at Wolverhampton nowadays, the idea that...

So are you saying that there was no benefit from Great Western electrification? Overspending and, as a result, not finishing the job properly is not the same thing as there being no benefit - or maybe you enjoyed breathing in all the exhaust fumes from HSTs and Turbos at Paddington and...

We have been told that a lot of the 175s need corrosion repairs, so on the assumption that these two sets may have needed plenty of new metal to replace damaged areas, putting a few coats of paint on them would seem a sensible idea - and was probably authorised a while back. Almost anything is...

While the CLPG campaigned against the closure proposals, what really saved Combe and Finstock from the axe was that British Rail had messed up the applications for closure. The reason given for the proposals was that because so few passengers used the two halts, it would not be cost-effective...

Let's see, you're a tourist visiting Stratford-upon-Avon from London for the day - do you expect: a. A direct, reasonably fast through train service to one of the UK's top tourist destinations? b. Being tipped out at Oxford, Banbury or Leamington Spa to be wedged into a two-car Turbo? Which is...

At the time of the order for the Class 180s in the autumn of 1997, the Cotswold Line was operated by two separate franchises - Thames Trains ran most of the services using Class 165 and 166 Turbo units, while the initial version of the GW Trains/FGW franchise ran HSTs on a small number of busy...

I think they were being a bit optimistic there for vintage traction - the final 34-minute timing seems a bit more like it - but the two-car Turbo on the 05.10 from Oxford to Worcester on weekdays is booked for a 25-minute non-stop run, with a minute or two usually shaved off that. A couple of...

Try asking people living in Gloucester, Cheltenham and station-less Cirencester why it needs a 'large highway'. This work is nothing to do with encouraging traffic from the Midlands to go that way. It's about tackling what has been an obvious problem ever since the A419/A417 was dualled between...

Corrrect. It has always run non-stop from Oxford to Moreton-in-Marsh to make sure it is able to get to Worcester quickly enough to be through Norton junction before the 05.23 from Hereford needs the single line to Evesham. And there isn't a lot of demand for westbound traffic from the...

Can I suggest you get out a map and ask Google to find more recent figures before posting this kind of stuff. Kingham station sits between Kingham village (to the east and its population is right up at the top of the range you give) and Bledington to the west. Then there is Churchill just to...

Pulhams, wich runs the 801 buses between Moreton-in-Marsh and Cheltenham pulled out of the scheme (originally set up with support from the Cotswolds AONB, now National Landscape Area) as it felt GWR was taking too much of the income and while ownership of th firm has changed from the family to...

You need to stop thinking about 'relief' lines. Current operating practice between Oxford and Wolvercote is that container trains use the central pair of tracks as much as possible and are held there while passenger services run past them on the outer tracks. You keep going on about 'huge...

There was definitely a train around that time earlier in the 1980s - 17.40 off Queen Street rings a bell, as I am sure I travelled on a service departing at that time on a Saturday to travel to Corrour, where I got off in in pitch darkness, as it was late October. My family had rented a cottage...

The current situation is that, as noted above, GWR got the nod from the Department for Transport to bid for the paths needed for a two-houry frequency on weekdays and Saturdays. The application is with the ORR but its decision is still awaited. Plus as many 175s as possible need to be in...

On what planet would Heyford station be of any value in this, considering what is planned for the completed version of Heyford Park? It is at the bottom of a road that winds down through the western end of Lower Heyford village and is wedged in next to the canal, with a couple of dozen parking...