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I agree. I am all in favour of services having distinct brands. I know I have referred to Europe a lot, Germany (where I have used rail services more than anywhere outside the UK) in particular but this is precisely what happens there. Without looking at the past with overly rose tinted...

I don't see how this issue is one that isn't being addressed in dozens of EU countries at the moment. We also already have this situation in the UK already. Merseyrail services terminate outside of the area covered by Merseyside's ITA, as do some of TfL's services. TfW procures services that...

The key part of my post was it referred to routes/services that were historically operated by Intercity i.e longer distance, higher speed, limited stop services. If some of these services arent commercially viable, should they run at all? If they didn't run, could the capacity released be better...

I'd personally like to see the core routes of BR's Intercity Sector operated on an entirely commercial basis and not subject to any concession, management contract or franchising. They could be merged into a single state owned limited company, as per DB Fernverkehr in Germany or SJ AB in...

Two different options were considered. Both included a bypass of Stafford. The more radical option included a new 250kph alignment south of Rugby. I first read about this in a Railway Magazine article about the Railtrack WCML upgrade sometime in 2001. I've only seen a route map in an old...

If the project had gone ahead at all I think it would have depended how many of its components were completed. By itself I am not sure the rolling stock would have been significantly transformative unless the route upgrades had also taken place. The most potentially transformative scenario is...

The term nationalisation and public ownership are used interchangeably but whilst nationalisation is a form of public ownership it isnt the only one. A rail network could be comprised of multiple publicly owned companies. In fact in the UK, this already is true with the likes of LNER. I...

What did Arup's Grand Central proposals entail? I've tried to find the report online but not even able to track down a copy.

Technically we already have a publicly owned freight operator in DRS, albeit owned by the Nuclear Decomissioning Authority rather than, as is the case with most EU state owned operators, who own a freight subsidiary.

I think the question is really not what if privatisation hadnt happened but what if the privatisation that the UK undertook hadn't happened. It is reasonable to conclude that some form of privatisation would have happened but not necessarily the particular model the UK adopted. The reason for...

I'd wondered if the Germans may have upgraded the ECML to provide enhanced journey times for trains from London to the North-East and Edinburgh, perhaps with some high speed cut offs, not unlike Virgin's East Coast franchise bid in the early 2000's. That wouldn't be instead of the HS2 eastern...

I appreciate German urban redevelopment had great assistance from the RAF and USAF. The Cold War also froze redevelopment in Berlin to an extent not found elsewhere in Germany, particularly the west. However I still think Berlin HbF is an interesting contrast to HS2 particularly Curzon St. HbF...

The old phrase last in first out probably applies to the Great Central. For any section for it to have been or to be useful, circumstances would have needed to have been different, in particular transport policy and also how transport policy aligned with land use planning policy. The fact the...

I was going to set aside any issues with the German planning system. Personally I think something approximating to the Y network would have been proposed by the Germans. However I think they may have proposed the core route somewhere between Coventry and Rugby, with a spur connected to the...

The German ICE network is a mixture of upgraded and new build lines. Some routes built to 300kph standards others built/upgraded to 250kph and lines upgraded to 200kph (125mph). Most, but by no means all, ICE services run into the existing central stations in the major cities they serve. This...

The Llangollen station to Llangollen Goods Junction section of the Llangollen Railway was once part of the double tracked section of the Ruabon to Barmouth line between Ruabon South and Llangollen.

Given the MML seems to have been the more competitive route and added to that provided better connectivity, why is the loss of GCML evoke so much interest (I am being slightly hypocritical here, I enjoy a good 'what if' debate)? What would the GCML give us today that don't have, either if it...

I know the merits of the GCML as a HS2 alternative and various what if the GCML hadn't closed topics have been discussed here and elsewhere. By asking my question I am not intending to stray into either. What I am hoping to find out is which of the two routes afforded the quickest journeys to...

I have come late to this topic but it is a subject I have been interested in for a long time. I find it simultaneously amusing and frustrating that any suggestion that we reform the NHS is dismissed as an attempt to end up with a US style system. Even European systems are often dismissed as...

I agree that the UK has a rather abysmal record delivering infrastructure. I also agree that even if HS2 is descoped or scrapped in its current form, some form of relief line will still be needed for the southern end of the WCML at the very least. However I think you over state the impact having...