Recent content by markydh

Platforms 5-8 at Newcastle Central don’t have lift access and are only accessible via the bridge that has rather steep ramps.

Card payments using Stagecoach in the North East can actually be slower because their machines are unreliable and can take 2 or 3 goes before it accepts a card, by which point the passenger would already be sat down had cash just been used, particularly when everyone knows what the fare is...

I’ve never met a single person from Blyth who calls it ‘New Sham.’ New-sum is the correct pronunciation.

Newcastle has progressively had its decker stock raided by other north east depots due to various contracts, so much so that there is a shortage and there are permanent single decker boards on routes that were formerly 100% decker operated. It’s been an issue for a couple of years now.

There is zero benefit to customers across the north and its patronising in the extreme to suggest otherwise. The only place that benefits is Edinburgh, because there’s no way there needs to be 3 trains an hour from Newcastle to London.

That didn’t seem to bother Northern with Leeds fans at Blackburn last weekend…

In short, no. Part of the proposals for the ECML timetable rewrite was a significant change to Northern services around Newcastle. Through running was to be abandoned on all routes. Whether this is still happening in December 2025 I don’t know.

She’s an MP in Sheffield. As with all MPs based outside of the London commuter belt, she will have a constituency home and a London home. So I’m really not sure what point you think you’re making.

Heaton.

The last train from Newcastle to Hexham and back was cancelled. The outbound service (from Middlesbrough) terminated at Newcastle 40 minutes late and the replacement bus then departed about 10 minutes later. It didn’t arrive at Hexham til 2 and then did the return journey.

It used to be so much easier before Go North East made a commercial decision to scrap the Q1/2 and incorporate it into the already circular 53 and 54 (and if memory serves me correctly, the 51 and 52 before that). This is the sort of user-unfriendly thing that I hope franchising with deal with...

You’re assuming everyone is able-bodied. I use a walking stick and walking downhill is actually harder than up hill, gravity being what it is. Dean Street is also incredibly steep, which makes it an even harder walk.

Of course all of this will become moot whenever the new east coast timetable eventually happens, as there won’t be any through services (all trains will terminate at Newcastle from every direction for the majority of the day). As to the original post, given how regularly the Middlesbrough to...

One of the reasons all the Northern services will terminate at Newcastle from all directions is to assist with reliability. Any sort of delay can screw hours worth of services up. Services round the coast pick up delays on a regular basis and it’s becoming more frequent for Boro to Hexham trains...

It is, and most people who are aware of it are completely against it as it reduces links across the north. We in Newcastle absolutely do not need a 3 tph service to London and definitely not at the expense of one of our Leeds-bound services. The cuts that will occur at Northumberland stations...