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These are all fair points and as a mere engineer, I clearly don't look at things from an operator's perspective as much as I should. I still maintain that the reliability of the electrification must have some impact on services, and this never seems to be considered when comparing diesel with...

OK, first ask yourself what the UK's public debt is currently running at (when I last looked, it was £1.38 Trillion, that's 1,380,000,000,000). Then, ask yourself where all the world's money has gravitated to over the past ten years. Then, consider whether the comments you made were very wise.

So, the answer to my original question (additional through lines), is in fact no. This is particularly relevant to Alliance, who have no desire to (and would not be allowed to, as they would be accused of being ORCATS raiders) stop at Manchester Piccadilly.

Is there any proposal in the Ordsall Chord / Northern Hub scheme to add any more through lines at Piccadilly? If not, Platforms 13 & 14 will become an even greater bottleneck than they have been for at least the past 30 years.

Sorry, intended to type 3-car. The 250 cars in the OJEU is probably notional and 3-cars has only ever been the requirement.

That depends upon what services Merseytravel asks Merseyrail to operate. I reckon if they only needed to operate the existing timetable, then 54 x 4-car units would be sufficient. However, I understand that additional services, as well as line speed improvements (particularly between Chester...

CSRE and CSR have been supporting Alliance for some time and the Polaris design is very well advanced. Don't worry about the time-scales, they are being well managed by the involved parties.

I almost raised this myself, but didn't because the point I was making was related to the fixed sub-systems being an additional cause of cancellations. However, as you have mentioned it, Merseyrail has 59 x 3-car units and only needs 50 to operate it's current timetable (Grand National week...

You're right, just! For the last quarter that I have data for, the comparative stats are as follows: - Merseyrail: 48,687 trains planned, 283 fully cancelled = 0.58% Northern: 202,449 trains planned, 1,302 fully cancelled = 0.64% However, contrast this with the following franchises who operate...

Which suggests that we ought to be putting more investment into researching hydrogen fuel cells for rail?

Chris, I accept your first point when taking rail as a consumer in isolation, but when we have to choose between the lights going out and heating homes, and providing rail services, I know which we'll choose. On the second point, you're taking too narrow a view. Even in terms of percentage of...

I've said this before, but I will repeat it. The railway is a SYSTEM, of which the train is a sub-system. Whilst everyone acknowledges that electric TRAINS are more reliable than self-powered (diesel at present) ones, this over-simplification ignores the fixed systems that provide the...

Class 379 is one of the first fleets to be fitted with infrastructure monitoring equipment. The principle is that scheduled trains collect data for Network Rail, rather than Network Rail needing to put out so many infrastructure monitoring trains itself. The idea is that more data gets...

Whilst looking at the China rail accident thread, I noticed THIS in one of the links. It's also being reported in Europe, though not very widely. One German report HERE.

All this may be true, but this is to the company's benefit. The bottom line is that the taxpayer funds changes in livery one way or another, through the franchising system. It is not beyond the wit of man for any company to design a simple livery that has a strong brand and could be applied as...

Thanks, the hill didn't look that pronounced on Google Earth!

DfT has published a tender notice in the European Journal, which provides more detail on the timetable for refranchising, as follows: - The Department anticipates commencing the separate procurements of the Essex Thameside, Great Western, Thameslink, InterCity East Coast, South Eastern...

Sorry, you're right and of course I mean Philip Hammond. I'd got so used to Stephen Hammond having the rail brief when the Tories were in opposition, it takes some getting used to another Hammond.

As far as I know, the single line that runs there from Saltburn is still connected. I've never been able to understand why the line curves around the cliff at Saltburn in such a scary way. Does anybody know the history behind this?

Page 13 in THIS document. Also, HERE, under "What will be discussed" and briefly mentioned HERE.