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what did happen to the euston redevelopment? I see some small improvements are going in but will there be no major rebuild such as at Kings Cross. I could have sworn I have seen an artists impression of the new look Euston somewhere!

snapper makes a good point about the rail lobby. We do tend to scatter gun over many seperate projects and so tend to diffuse our effectiveness. Wales and Scotland have been much more effective in upgrading their networks as their is a central organisation controlling investment and...

The business case issue is a major bone of contention. The way business cases are worked out is skewed against rail. Only direct costs and benefits are taken into account. We all know rail has many benefits which cant be costed directly. Also all the recent re-openings have seen massive usage...

We all know that the Govt is in trouble. We all know that an election is on the horizon and we all know that rail reopenings are very popular with the voting public. By my reckoning we are one of the few developed countries in the world not committing to large scale openings/reopenings of lines...

It appears that all the political parties now see the value of a rail network and also the need to upgrade said network so we are in the middle of a time of heavy investment . I would be interested in your predictions on what else may occur in the next few years in top of the plans already...

That is a very long diagram. Any idea of the kind of mileage that those units will running daily?

It seems that DBS will have finished their disposal programme by the end of the year if the current rate of movements is anything to go by. Considering how lean the network and the fleets now are I was wondering what might be next for the cutters torches. For example is Shoeburyness now...

The argument is difficult to quantify as the subject is so large - the railway network by its nature has always been a curates egg. it is no different today. Taking an overall picture of course they are not better now than in the distant past. The days when every village had a station and...

I did work for BR towards the end of its time and whilst it was very efficient in spending money there was a general feeling that the company's job was to manage the decline of the network as ordained by those on high. It cannot be denied that much of the problems being faced by railtrack and...

I have been away from the UK for a few years but have followed developments on the rail network with interest and actually did an ALR last year to see how things were shaping up on the rails after so many years away. I was very surprised by how vibrant and positive the network felt and also...

As refurb programmes come to an end and the new franchises settle down we are inevitably going to see many old liveries disappear. What do we think will be the next livery to become extinct and what others are on life support clinging gamely to life. Also what liveries are missed and which...

we should be more french - blockade the roads, go on strike and generally cause havoc. thats how you get things done in France. We can write a couple of letters and sit around discussing matters but things take too long to happen in this country. It really needs political will to alter things in...

I remember in the dim distant past when Saturday football extras were all the rage and generated considerable income for BR. I know BR used to dump the worst stock on the trains as the carriages used to get trashed - this was when hooligans used to be rife in English football. I am wondering...

it is - that is great for the wcml but that wont lead to any cascades of any sort - the other main lines will have to wat until IEP makes an appearance and cascades can happen. We are talking seven or eight years maybe to see any meaningful difference. I am not sure what state XC will be in in...

the beauty of a train is that it has no inbuilt redundancy. Aircraft are limited by the number of cycles they fly and once they reach that limit thats it (life extension plans are possible but rare. Trains on the other hand can be constantly updated and revitalised and as long as the bits that...

I suppose we sould never underestimate the idiocy of the common man!! I wasnt really thinking about the London commuter routes when i started the thread as they really are maxed out. I was really thinking more of the rest of the country were often busy commuter trains are 2-car and...

It seems to me that SDO is ok for some areas and not for others. Why is that - are we all so stupid that we are going to fall out of train doors into the track? surely SDO is a better bet than having to extend platforms all the time. I see on the TL proramme a couple of stations cant have...

I think most commentators would agree that we are chronically short of rolling stock in this country. This is I believe an accepted truth. Yet we seem to be able to keep mutliple scrap yards working flat out. On top of this we can find stock to export to other systems - Mk2's to New Zealand...

I was a lowly TOPS clerk in the late 80's and I was wondering if the system is still in use and if not what was it replaced with if anything. For its time it was revolutionary and as a spotty 18 year old it was actually nice controlling some aspect of the railway. As part of our remit at...

Looks better than it did - saying that if you polish a turd its still a turd