Recent content by William3000

I’ve always felt the multiple changes from St Albans City northwards is unhelpful particular when one compares to the ECML where most people can travel north with a change at Stevenage (it’s two changes from Brookmans Park/Welham Green), and Milton Keynes Central on the WCML, and Reading on the...

That’s really interesting - I’m a regular rail user and even I don’t claim every time. I obviously can’t argue with the stats but when people are delayed and I explain they can use delay repay, literally everyone I’ve ever spoken to about it was unaware of delay repay let alone having claimed...

As an East Anglian - I’m in t shirts throughout winter and certainly don’t need a big coat!!!!

I suspect fewer than 5% of people actually claim 1787691000 I suspect a very small percentage claim

I’m pretty sure the Breckland line is nowhere near at capacity - there are capacity issues at Ely North junction and the Trowse swing bring in Norwich but aside from that there are generally only two trains each hour in each direction and very little freight

My definition of a no brainer is a railway line that is essential in situ and could have services running on - like the reopening of the Camp Hill line or Waterside line. Reopening the join my line through Melton Constable or Kettering to Huntingdon does not count as a no brainer

I wonder whether the Elizabeth Line could be used as an indicator of what’s possible. Shenfield, Stratford in the east and Slough and Reading in the west serve as useful interchanges - whether similar places could do the same north and south of London to avoid long distance running I don’t know...

I find Thameslink incredibly useful from the Cambridge area but I appreciate it suffers from unreliability. There seems to be a common view that Corby and Peterborough are definitely too far out and Cambridge is borderline too far out. I’d be interested to know what people think would be more...

Moderator note - split from: https://www.railforums.co.uk/threads/ivanhoe-line-via-coalville-potential-reopening.262126/ If it did of course. These kind of lines are absolute no brainers for reopening.

Agree - feels that this line in a former industrial area is of sufficient length to justify heavy rail like the Northumberland Line between Newcastle and Ashington 1787371694 Wow - different economic times! Imagine economists concluding that today given Cambridge’s booming economy. But I recall...

EMR’s stop at Whittlesea in the peak isn’t an anomaly in the sense that the long distance services stop at other smaller stations in peaks - Dore & Totley, Hope Valley stations, Langley Mill, Ilkeston, Attleborough, Wymondham all get additional stops in peak times to supplement local or regional...

It has improved - but remains low compared to other similar sized towns like Spalding, Oakham, March etc

I agree. Bletchley would still get 4 trains an hour and 2 trains an hour to Cambridge. Cambridge and Oxford would both get two trains per hour to Milton Keynes Central for interchange with long distance services to the North West. This is more important for Bedford and Cambridge, than Oxford...

Roads can have much steeper inclines than railways though.

Absolutely. East West Rail is of huge importance for all the reasons you suggest and the corridor has changed beyond recognition since it closed - in the year Milton Keynes was established as a New Town I believe. One additional element of EWR that is often underplayed in my opinion is the...