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I've done some digging and found out that the derailed loco is a JR Freight EF510-300 class. It derailed at Yatsuhiro station. No injuries have been reported.

And of course from the perspective of politicians, perception matters just as much as reality. Personally I think that fares being seen as complex is worse than fares being seen as expensive when it comes to the railway's reputation.

Which is indicative of problems with the railway, since lines at full capacity and that use dynamic pricing to control crowds should be making enough money to break even. That they aren't suggests that something is costing more than it should - profitable passenger railways do exist in the world!

There was also an "On Either Side" booklet produced for lines in East Anglia. A digital scan can be purchased from the GER Society.

I took @Magrar's complaints as referring to the physical design of the station rather than current levels of rail/bus integration - i.e. they are complaining that the stations are designed, in their view, as park-and-rides first and foremost.

I remember reading an article by a Japanese railway enthusiast on the causes of British railway delays who was baffled at the idea you wouldn't have a couple of spare drivers around as cover...

Number of passengers delayed more than X minutes might be useful.

Actually East Midlands Parkway did trumpet exceeding first-year projections - though their ambition to get to 500,000 passengers a year did not happen. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/8480162.stm Aylesbury Vale Parkway is not actually an instance of projections overestimating demand. The...

The Channel Tunnel is a very unique case due to its scale and nature, what are some examples of more everyday stations and lines that fell short of expectations?

Frankly at this point it is probably a false economy to not have Sundays in the working week, considering the importance of reliable trains to a) attract passengers and b) retain political support for subsidies.

How would HS2 damage Wigan services when even the full original plan with the Golborne link rejoins the WCML before reaching Wigan?

Though you probably shouldn't feel too much better - statistically British project delivery still tends to be worse than Continental project delivery.

Does anyone have any specific examples of cases where projections were overly optimistic, with the specific passenger numbers predicted vs actually seen?

There are obviously cases of things going wrong in other countries as well, but overall continental European countries build things faster and cheaper. For a recent comparison, construction started on Line B of the Brest tramway in April 2023 and it opened in February 2026. Construction of the...

Of course, part of the problem is that building infrastructure in the UK takes longer than other countries - and a lot of that time is not spent doing actual construction.

The 1965 Beeching Major Trunk Routes report gave the potential of electrifying the CLC route as a reason for making Woodhead the main (and perhaps only) Manchester-Sheffield route (as opposed to Hope Valley). If it was electrified, it seems likely that Woodhead would have been converted to AC at...

Japan has more temperature variation than the UK and their railways are well-known for the reliability. Perhaps we should be looking at how they manage weather conditions.

It's a very good idea. I know NJ Transit publishes "Severe Weather" timetables as well. People are much more likely to forgive the railway when there are delays and cancellations as a result of the weather if they know what they are in advance and can plan around them.

I know that Japanese trains have automatic announcements for the emergency brake being applied - it seems to usually be “the emergency brakes have been applied, please hold on” or similar.

The LMS did allow for differentiation between tractive effort ranges - I have a scan of a 1953 Eastern Region route availability book which lists the route availability of a large number of ex-LMS classes, and it shows how locomotives of the same "Load Class", which may have differed in their...