Recent content by mr_jrt

Surely that's no different to a day shift worker having to buy a peak single to get to work and an off-peak single to get home? Arguably paying key workers better would be the ideal solution there? As for the earlier point about simplification being worse...I don't see it as a necessary...

I appreciate it's a bit glib, but my personal opinion is that the railway serves a valuable-but-difficult-to-quantify social benefit, so the obsession over revenue is problematic, to say the least. With that in mind, my proposal is simple. Ideally, reduce off-peak fares to the railcard...

Hard agree, but I can see how it was an easy thing to cut to reduce costs. It would be horrendously disruptive, but it could presumably be added at a later date by reconfiguring the southernmost turnback into a through line to permit the other lines to be taken OOU whilst the flyover was...

An older design had the three turnbacks extending up the NNML corridor under a flyover for the up Crossrail line, with two of them intended for linking to the WCML via the Dudding Hill line. The flyover was removed when the link was cancelled. You can see one of the designs (abet a low-res...

I suspect I already know the answer to this (TfL want you using contactless, even though it doesn't play nice with more complex situations), but figured I'd ask here anyway for confirmation and to vent a bit. :) The other day I made a trip from Brighton to Watford to meet some friends, with an...

Another MML candidate I'd like to throw in would be Burton Latimer. It's quite a gap between Kettering and Wellingborough, it's a four-track electrified section, and has the EMR connect service already running over it.

Recalled having this discussion in the past, and have the info (with links to maps) in my old post: https://www.railforums.co.uk/threads/great-western-electrification-progress.83452/page-184#post-3103125

Thank goodness for that.

..and here's my concept from an even older one, 10 years ago! https://www.railforums.co.uk/threads/new-oxford-station-design-concepts.124180/page-2#post-2487694 &tldr; I proposed abolishing the through roads and using the space to get 6 through platforms and possibly even 2-3 bays.

Oh, thank jeebus, at last, some movement. The reception along there is shockingly bad, made all the worse by, at most, only half the Thameslink trains actually having their wifi installed.

I like to imagine that there would now be a LO service branching south at Victoria Park, heading south through Poplar, running down into a tunnel at Mudchute, and popping back up in Greenwich Park and running to Clapham Junction. :)

Eeep. Because those sorts of contracts famously have such a great track record...one does have to wonder what the attraction to them actually is, given how cheaply governments can borrow money.

My pet proposal is to restore East Grinstead to Haywards Heath, extending the service down to there, and possibly even extending it further down to the west coastway, Brighton, or Eastbourne. Would add some useful connectivity, and a handy diversionary route. There's a lot more you could bolt on...

An alternative I mused back before KX was redeveloped was to pull down the suburban shed and build a new third (or maybe even a 4th?) arch alongside the existing two. I have a sinking suspicion that for a 4th you would have to take a good few metres off the southern end of the canal tunnels to...

Just bite the bullet and new deep bored tunnel from south of Finsbury Park to somewhere around New Cross via Moorgate? Existing Thameslink just handles MML and South Central, and new tunnel handles the ECML and South Eastern.