Recent content by urbophile

I don't doubt that buses will be the most convenient transport for most people who live so close to the city centre. But Brunswick, a similar distance away, is a very well used station, even by people travelling only one stop to Liverpool Central. Edge Hill station exists; if it had the same...

If Edge Hill closed, not many people would be inconvenienced. Edge Hill and its catchment would be at least slightly better off from all this; if people started to see it as their local metro station and not just as some kind of steam age anachronism, much more than slightly.

I didn't realise it was closed on Sundays. But Edge Hill is much less of a wasteland than it used to be. It is not so much gentrifying as re-establishing the population density; the expansion of the 'Knowledge Quarter' eastwards will no doubt lead to gentrification sooner or later. I suspect...

This. I got mine early on (must have been soon after 1900) but my wife didn't get it until several hours later. That would explain why some English-language alerts in Wales did't arrive until after the Welsh ones. I think I was overly dismissive above in suggesting a 'boy crying wolf' scenario...

It freaked me out. Most people with phones will have heard abut the BBQ ban through social media, or the news. Everyone will be aware of the extreme heat and dried vegetation . So only a total idiot is going to be lighting a portable barbecue on dry grassland... granted, there are plenty of...

1786726268 Sorry I was going to ask, did the annoouncements say 'not stopping at Cressington', and then realised you had said SDO was in action. I couldn't work out how to delete the quote.

Two of the four longish-distance train journeys I have taken in the last month have been significantly disrupted. Neither was due to the fault of the network or a TOC: one was an 'incident' (aka suicide), one was a lineside fire. Both journeys qualified for the maximum delay repay. No longer a...

What's the betting that they will install new signals or equipment that will need to be moved when the works for the station get underway? Or perhaps they could spin it that it is all connected.

Let's hope that's the reason. I'm happy to put up with the inconvenience if that is so.

What has happened to the selective door opening on the Hunts Cross line? The reduction in service this weekend to every 20 minutes owing to the golf tournament is made worse for Cressington passengers because only alternate trains (one assumes four-car) are stopping there. Not good enough, but I...

Don't know about Bournville. I think Lever had a 'no pubs' policy but there is now quite a pleasant pub in the middle of Port Sunlight which I seem to think was built as a 'temperance' social club. It's hardly near a large station though; you wouldn't change trains there but it is well worth a...

Newcasrle did it. With half the population and economically deprived compared to Leeds. Liverpool managed to get two inner-city tunnels built plus several new underground stations. Yes that was in the 70s and 80s but surely we are not poorer now?

It seems all that Starmer wants to let her have is 'a' tram. Leeds used to have hundreds of trams and many radial and circular routes. Why does every generation in this country seem to be patching up in a makeshift way the mistakes of previous generations?

Yes, but just about everywhere else in the world (certainly, the rest of Europe) unelectrified main lines are rare or non-existent. Why must we always settle for second-best in this country?

Not only depressing but scandalous. Short-sighted thinking seems endemic under this and the preceding governments. Only one of the two likely alternatives is going to bring any sanity and hope.