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The New York City Subway is one of the world’s most iconic and recognisable metro systems, but looking at a map it appears that most lines trend towards running west across Brooklyn and beneath the river to Lower Manhattan, before turning north to Midtown with lines either continuing north to...

The New Forest Tour blue and green routes are scheduled to pass beneath the Ampress low bridge north of Lymington. With a maximum safe height of 4.3 metres, open toppers can pass beneath the bridge safely, however the buses’ commentary system requests that passengers remain seated while passing...

So I was thinking with the constant demands to improve rolling stock provision on the Portsmouth - Cardiff route, how about we kill three birds with one stone and provide a single standard class of train for the UK regional railway that can use all of third rail, OHLE power and diesel on...

For example, Booths only has stores in the North of England. Shakeaway, a milkshake bar founded in Bournemouth, has 30 branches but most of those are concentrated in the South of England. There are a grand total of 2 branches in the North (Leeds and Durham), one in Northern Ireland (Belfast)...

What do people expect the state of Britain's local bus operations will be like in 50 years time? Assuming passenger figures remain on the same downward trajectory as now, will we end up with a nationalised/franchised/regulated system? Are we likely to see a "one operator per county/city"...

Assuming the SWML between Basingstoke and Farnborough will be closed for some time as a result of the recent landslip, it is inevitable that travel between much of Hampshire/Dorset and London will be significantly disrupted. Without intervention, many major places such as Bournemouth...

Following on from the “Routes that don’t share roads with same operator” thread, are there any bus services within the UK that don’t share roads with any other bus route at all whatsoever? Not even a short section of shared route within a bus station or crossroads. By bus I mean a local bus...

Earlier on today, me and my family were having a discussion on possible ideas to improve the NHS, whether small or large. Unsurprisingly, some ideas put forward by my family were quite radical and probably wouldn’t be policies I advocate personally. At a time when the NHS is at breaking point...

As we know, Manchester is planning to bring a handful of National Rail services serving the city under local control from 2025, with services being branded as part of the Bee Network and integrated with local buses and trams. I was wondering if such an approach would be practical and popular in...

So if all of Britain’s railways somehow closed down and some years later there was a plan to completely rebuild a brand new rail network fit for the 21st century, how would you do it differently to the Victorians in the 19th century? For the main Intercity corridors, I would have 186-200mph...

How many bus routes are there in London that duplicate Tube lines between three or more consecutive stations? Some that I can think of are: 24 and 29 following the Northern Line between Charing Cross and Warren Street 453 following the Bakerloo Line between Charing Cross and Marylebone 9, 14...

It’s that time of year again. While some of the best British sitcoms are enjoyed all year round, Christmas is the perfect time for reliving some of the greatest episodes of all time, and not just the seasonal specials. For me it’s a tough choice deciding which is the greatest of all time. There...

The thread about the sparsity of service on France’s railways got me thinking about how the SNCF TGV network could be reformed to create a German style clockface taktplan network. Unlike Germany, France is very Paris-centric (much like the UK is London-centric), therefore such a plan would be...

The general public perception of a boat service, whether a vehicle ferry, catamaran or hovercraft, is to bridge gaps between two opposite stretches of land surrounded by water. Usually these have no viable land link between them or have a land link the long way round which makes a fast passenger...

Eurostar cover most major cities within a 250 mile radius of London, but one such corridor which isn’t served is Ghent - Bruges - Ostend, an area with a combined population of over 450,000. There is a market for travel between those places but currently passengers from London have to change at...

Most branch lines exist as a means of connecting places off the mainline with the wider rail network. While they likely wouldn’t survive financially without the mainline, passenger-wise they may do well with locals using the line for getting to school, shopping, doctors appointments and seeing...

With London possessing a strong population and economy while vastly different from the rest of the UK culturally, I’ve often wondered what the implications would be if it was an independent sovereign state in its own right. The article below gives a brief summary of some of the benefits and...

Europe as a continent already has a pretty extensive high speed rail network by international standards, although it is still rather patchy in places. Compare that with China which is five times as big, yet has a fully joined-up high speed rail network allowing fast travel between most of the...

Elevators in tall skyscrapers are essentially a means of moving large amounts of people vertically, not too dissimilar to the purpose of trains which is to move large amounts of people in a horizontal direction. Also, many taller buildings have local and express elevators, a bit like how...

When London Marylebone first opened, its purpose was the terminus of the Great Central Main Line, serving trains from Rugby, Leicester and beyond. The Chiltern Main Line back then was part of the GWR route from Birkenhead, which took the New North Main Line into London Paddington. That lasted...