Recent content by Northern_Light

As things stand at the moment, there are no plans whatsoever to electrify the line between Aberdeen and Inverness. Not too hard to see why. Currently the line is being improved to (among other things) bring the journey time between the two cities to 2 hours. All well and good so far. But...

Will we give the authors of this report the benefit of the doubt re Bucksburn/Persley and say that they simply haven't made up their minds yet about the best location for a new station between ABD and DYC? If this does see the light of day (probably well into CP6), I would most seriously...

More powerful rolling stock? Additional freight passing loops? Does this imply that they plan to upgrade the line to full on 125mph standard? If this is indeed the plan, then of course it does make sense to have the improvements in place prior to electrification. But at what cost? I can't...

Agree with you entirely. Unless we reach the point that running express services from Aberdeen to the Central Belt becomes viable, then I think that this would be a rather pointless exercise. As it has been said that not even 1,000 passengers a day cross the single track section to the south of...

I feel that if anything does end up being scaled down, then it will be the complete doubling between Aberdeen and Inverurie. The Woodside/Mugiemoss/Bucksburn stretches look challenging to say the least and that is before we even look at the Denburn. On top of that there is the level crossing at...

And you quite correctly point out that there are population issues to the west of the city. Only towns of any consequence outside the city boundary are Westhill and Banchory. The population of the former is over 10,000 and indeed Westhill is a significant employment area. But it is only 6...

Is Aberdeen really all that badly served? Let's take a look and see... To the south, FSR offers 1tph to each of GLQ and EDI. In addition to this, East Coast run 3tpd from KGX and 1tpd from LDS. And there is of course the additional daily service from Cross Country. Up north, FSR run 11tpd...

Reopening this line would certainly see Dunfermline better connected to surrounding towns, which would surely be a benefit to these places as much as it would be for Dunfermline. Services between Inverness and Fife/Edinburgh would also see an obvious time saving. But I fail to see how this...

Bit different up here in the north of Scotland. Not so much as a single train running! I understand that the New Year holiday is relatively new south of the Border, so I can see why people down south would find reason to grumble about station retailers picking and choosing when they open...

I drive lorries for a living round Aberdeen, and in all my years in this game, I can honestly say that I have not encountered more than ten or a dozen females in this game. Perhaps train driving, like wagons, just doesn't appeal to the vast majority of women? Or is the MP trying to say that...

As others have said, it may well be that the time of 170s on inter city routes up here is coming to an end. But I have an idea for some of them. In my corner of the world, the railway really has no business being a success, what with so few towns being served by the network. Peterhead...

Reading through all this report, I notice that the Aberdeen-Inverness route has been upgraded to inter city as opposed to its current rural standing. They wouldn't run Voyagers/Meridians on this line surely?

Won't some of these become available after the likes of the GWML/MML electrification is finished? How much journey time savings would the 220s and 221s offer? My understanding is that you can't even do the "ton" on any stretch of the line between Aberdeen and Dundee. As for the 222s, I...

The Formartine and Buchan line to the north of Ellon is what I would have kept for this purpose. If NR ever restore a rail service to the likes of Peterhead and Fraserburgh(don't see this ever happening,sadly), I just cannot see them reopening this rather long winded path to Peterhead. Mind...

So ATOC are saying that if BR were still running the show the very welcome wiring of the main line through the Valleys (among other things in Wales) wouldn't have happened?:o