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The RAIB report on Talerddig came just a day before this terrible event and reading it is a reminder of just how thoroughly these things are investigated. When it is eventually concluded we can expect not just a complete explanation of the sequence of events and immediate causes but also an...

A number of recent accident reports have highlighted how quickly modern trains accelerate which means even a collision where one train has just started moving (as would appear to be the case here) can still result in a significant impact

According to the BR loco database it was grouped with 10201/2 as a D16/2. Whether that's correct or not I don't know.

The D600s were never 'Class 41'; they were all withdrawn before any class numbers were allocated in 1968, and retrospective myth-making has given them this title. Their BR classification was Class D20/2, using the BTC system that predated the 1968 one.

They can't, though. There is no provision for Penalty Fares in Scots law.

That's very true, but we are now more than 30 years from the directive and the 'liberalisation' of European rail is still a work in progress - somewhat different from the smash and grab operation performed in Great Britain between 1993-96!

That was also true. But none of the other major EU partners felt it necessary to privatise their national operator to meet the directive. The 1993 Act used the EU legislation as a mechanism but it was engineered to preclude any 'easy' recreation of a national train operator

That's spot on. The 1993 Railways Act was deliberately constructed to make any sort of nationalisation very difficult, and until the new legislation is passed, the legal administration is pretty tortuous. The irony of course is that the ideological motivation was to keep the railways out of the...

Penalty Fares are a civil enforcement scheme in law, and the legislation requires specific signage to be in place for them to be enforceable. However, the Railways Byelaws also apply and as soon as you are on railway property you are bound by them - these byelaws amongst other things include the...

I provide input but am not a decision-maker, however despite accusations to the contrary I don't advocate for higher fares. Myself and professional colleagues are concerned with trying to make the system work but the decisions about fare levels and other major decisions are ones for Government...

I'm not advocating for higher prices and I agree that there is a real need to have affordable flexibility in the fares structure. The only reason I edited the post is that I only realised after I had posted that the specific quote I'd responded to wasn't in answer to one of mine. This forum...

Where an industry is privatised, it has a regulator - such as in Switzerland. Fare regulation was only introduced in Great Britain because of privatisation. Publicly owned industries are governed by elected bodies, there is no precedent for them being additionally regulated. TfL doesn't have...

Are you seriously saying that being able to look up and buy a fare in real time from your pocket hasn't made a difference to how people compare travel costs? If I were going from London to Manchester tomorrow in 1985, I'd have to call up to find out the fare, and then buy it in the morning...

Well, as someone inside the industry who knows how it is managed I can tell you that the way the industry is run has changed dramatically since February 2024.

Firstly, until Labour came to power, the effective nationalisation of revenue was considered transitional - there was no state-controlled management of fares policy; it was for TOCs to propose. Secondly, the announcement is the tip of the iceberg. The work actually began under Virgin Trains East...

Indeed, the definition of 'improvement' will vary from person to person. Bluntly, if a majority find that the price remains comparable and booking/flexibility options meet their needs it will be a success. If people can't find a fare at a price they are comfortable with it will fail. The finer...

There's a difference between trialing a specific new fare structure and the need to move on from a 41 year old fare structure devised before the internet was invented. The notion that the default position of any structure is to go back to what it was simply doesn't reflect changes in society and...

The finances of TOCs are nationalised. Delay Repay is underwritten by the taxpayer. In some cases some costs can be recovered from third parties which may be insured.

My own experiences of BR days is that, operationally things were recovered more quickly. Failed trains could be recovered by a nearby loco, the massive coupling incompatibility and computer systems on rolling stock that control everything didn't exist whilst with 'person hit by a train' type...

Any guesses how many Delay Repay claims will initially get rejected because 'computer says arrived only 7' late'...?