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I can't help but think this is a join the dots, connect the closest points of Wales to Northern Ireland, bringing together 4 nations kind of thing, rather than having any real traffic flow logic. North Wales is unlikely to generate much traffic itself, and England - N Ireland flows are almost...

There is already a linkspan at Warrenpoint, though its a single deck one, designed for stern-loading freight vessels. Its 77NM (Nautical Miles) berth to berth from Warrenpoint to Holyhead, however the run in to Warrenpoint is about 10NM, with a speed limit of 6 knots, so it's over 1.5 hours to...

Out of interest, where don't they fit on the Exmouth branch? It feels like a useful combination to be able to run every now and then, such as this situation to avoid 2 car vice 3, it's a shame it doesn't work.

Correct on all counts, especially about the arrival into Kingswear Station. Dartmouth Station, which could also be regarded as the end of the line is certainly underwhelming in terms of numbers of platforms, tracks and trains, having never had any of any of them, but is far from being unspectacular!

I remember them looking very futuristic and posh (though strangely short) in their Alphaline livery running through Worthing, compared to all the Connex slammers. It gave the impression of a long distance intercity type operation that we never otherwise got to see in Sussex

True, though there have presumably been a lot of track alterations to allow the steam railway to run on (mainly?) segregated tracks, and for them to have their own platform, so presumably there were also changes needed on the BR side as well.

Wales & West / Wessex used to brand anything that was booked to be operated by a 158 as Alphaline in my recollection. Certainly they had two-colour maps showing Alphaline vs regular services, which at one point showed practically everywhere as having alpahaline services - at one point even...

Paignton station always feels fairly depressing, compared to the attractive stations at Torquay, Newton Abbott and Exeter St D. I also really don't understand its track layout - a terminus station with two platforms, but one only able to accommodate arrivals feels like an awful loss of...

Stafford in my mind is one of the bigger winners, at least for London services - yes it gets the same frequency, but massively faster, non-stop to OOC, so compared to today the speed effectively gives you the same effect as more TPH, as you can leave much later for the same arrival time. Couple...

But if you have the choice of a direct train which means you have to leave at silly o clock, or a single change when you can leave an hour later (so perhaps no longer such a silly time) I know which I'd pick - that extra hour in bed is valuable!

I think many of these concerns are quite possible to manage. One of the nice things about contactless is that the conditions C,D,E that you mention probably aren't necessary - the charge is made based on the journey you have actually taken, so you don't need to select these in advance. The...

Also the capital cost - you need 10% more ships to provide the same capacity

Looks like a nice train. I'm going to miss perching on the seats at the end of each carriage - my favourite place to commute on the 73. Difficult to tell on the interior picture, but it looks like there is some luggage space next to the doors - there is certainly a vertical handrail each side...

I think its fair to say that if any of the preserved lines could be profitably running a commuter type service, they would be! The fact that very few are would imply that it would be a drain on finances rather than a way to make them more viable. The case of Swanage, where after many years and...

I really like the idea of extending the 'Oyster' contactless system out to cover most of the old NSE area - basically everywhere where a day return is less than the contactless limit i.e. £100 from the summer. I would manage the system as follows: Yellow-type readers at all unbarriered...

Presumably the number of open doors would have contributed to the damage? I would guess that an open door is even more of a structural weakness than a closed one (apologies if I am stating the obvious - I only just thought of it).

That would certainly make sense - and yes I have no doubt that DFDS knows what they are up to!

Ark Dania is an interesting choice - she is only a 12 passenger pure freight ferry, while the other 3 vessels have significant accommodation for accompanied drivers, which appeared to be the main market for this route. I would guess that it was all that DFDS have available at short notice, but...

The thing is, though, this should basically sort itself naturally anyway. Take a train to Plymouth, for example. They depart Pad every hour, so most long distance passengers will probably be at the station in ample time, probably milling around the concourse waiting for the platform number to...

It definitely takes a certain kind of management who sees one particular complaint, and puts in place a complex new system guaranteed to remove that complaint and simultaneously generate a lot of more serious ones! Been there, tried and failed to explain that!