Recent content by Wtloild

Hall 'i 'th Wood on the Bolton-Blackburn line - two wooden platforms perched high on an embankment, one either side of a bridge is very exposed on a wet & windy day.

Burscough FC (who also host Skelmersdale Utd) are right next to the Wigan-Southport line (both North West Counties League): Atherton Laburnum Rovers (North West Counties) are right next to the Salford-Wigan line: Bamber Bridge FC (Northern Premier League) are right next to the...

I think all the Westminster press heading up to the Labour & Tory conferences in Liverpool/Brum has spotlighted it a bit more this last couple of weeks.

The Great Pyramid of Giza apparently took 26 years to complete. Maybe time to get some Israelite slaves on the team.

Salford Crescent feels uncomfortably narrow at busy times.

XC with bi-modes would reduce diesel under the wires running significantly & reduce the smog at several major stations. Might also improve the case for small to medium in-fill projects & give us a more cohesive network.

Not been there in a few years, but last time it did, Middlesbrough felt like a badly maintained 1960s makeover of a Victorian poor-house.

Labour's record on infrastructure was far from impressive either. Can't think of anything that wasn't a PFI scam. Agree strongly with point 5, about having a rolling program of electrification, to keep the teams together & generate more skilled supply.

In 2012 when I was off my current job, based between Garforth & Leeds, my boss told me there was soon going to be a new station built nearby (Thorpe Park). 10 years on, it doesn't seem any closer to actually happening. Does anyone know what the latest on this is?

It's my work Christmas do next week in Leeds. Normally nearly everyone would've arrived by train from Lancs, Greater Manchester, Humberside, NE & various Yorkshire locations, but this year hardly anyone is doing so. Confidence in rail in the North as a credible mode of transport is evaporating.

Large: Glasgow Central, Norwich, Newcastle Small: Keighley, Bath, Hebden Bridge

Most journeys in Greater Manchester involve passing through Central Manchester. There's very little by way of connections between the surrounding towns, either by rail or Metrolink (e.g. none of Bolton, Bury, Rochdale, Ashton, Stockport, the Airport, Sale are independently connected to one...

The worry with bi-modes is that whilst they're a good interim solution, they end up as an excuse for never electrifying or for continually postponing planned electrifications ("Graylinged"). There are major routes and/or connecting in-fill in England & Wales that aren't even yet being...

Were the 70s & 80s electrifications up to Scotland simpler due relative to lack of tunnels, stations, bridges & junctions (relative to the recent Great Western, North West & Transpennine electrifications)?

Personally I would grin from ear to ear if/when my daughter or niece do get caught - IMO they deserve whatever consequences might come their way. It just baffled & slightly frustrated me how both have managed to get away with what seems like an easily traceable crime so regularly for so long...