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What would be best structure for passenger railways under GBR? Do we need to have more than 20 train companies? My solution would be just six Inter-City Network South-East Regional Railways Merseyrail Scotrail (including Caledonian Sleepers) Transport for Wales These names will look familiar...

I’ve booked a steam railway tour in Kent and Sussex in April and, rather than go for the inclusive price with rail travel, I’ve decided to book my own rail tickets, from Exeter (Polsloe Bridge to be exact) to Maidstone and return. I have a fare of £69.95 for a super off-peak return with Senior...

The Guardian reports that many bus services in England could be cut when emergency Covid funding expires at the end of March. Bus operators have to give six weeks’ notice to withdraw or vary a route and are said to be compiling lists of services which might be scrapped after 31 March. Generally...

I've come across these codes on bridges etc. but don’t know anything about their origins. I assume they originated with the civil engineer's department. These are the codes to report if you witness a bridge strike or other incident. Do they date from BR days or go back to the pre-1948 companies...

Lines converted up to now are all in metropolitan areas. Future expansion will probably include tram-trains Manchester - Rose Hill and Sheffield - Doncaster, although the latter looks a long way off. Proposals to convert Watford - St. Albans and the Isle of Wight line were not pursued; one of...

"Oh no, not another one." New timetable starts on Sunday and I've read on Facebook a suggestion that there could be disruption due to withdrawal of rest day working. Can anyone confirm whether or not this is true?

I don't know if this has come up on the Forum before. The idea was floated some years ago at Plymouth City Council, citing the example of the Tamar Valley line, where narrow roads and the lack of river crossings made bus access to the city difficult from several villages on the line, notably...

Without wishing to deprive Saltburn folk of a decent train service (and I've never lived in the area), does this line justify three trains an hour, especially when other lines in England are due to suffer long-term service reductions (i.e. not just Covid-related)? Examples would be Buxton, the...

I've been reading Robert Pritchard's article on the new class 720 in the latest "Today's Railways UK". The narrow seats and gangway are well illustrated. He wonders if these will be the last trains specified with 3+2 seating throughout. Living now in GWR land, I find the class 150s here with 2+2...

In 1970 you also had heavy locomotives like the Warship and Hymek illustrated, which would cope better with the conditions than the lightweight units in use today.

Today (Sunday) I spent half an hour observing operations at Exeter St. Davids from the car park. I’ve been under the impression that, since privatisation, connections are no longer held except for the last train of the day. This is what I saw happen today - I could see from RTT that both the...

Since living in the south west I’ve discovered that both GWR and XC are joining and dividing some trains at Plymouth, with only one of a pair of coupled IETs or Voyagers starting from or continuing to Penzance. On Tuesday, the Voyager working the 06.10 Derby - Plymouth was attached at Plymouth...

A bus route from Swanage to Bournemouth across the Sandbanks Ferry still operates and in the past there have been others, e.g. across the Saltash Ferry before the road bridge opened, but what others survive? There must be some in Scotland - regular local bus routes as opposed to coach...

A new survey which suggests that a third of British adults are prepared to risk their lives to retrieve an everyday object such as a mobile phone or a bunch of keys from the track has been described by Network Rail as 'shocking'. From "Rail News" 12th July 2021...

The Gov.UK website reports that disabled passengers will have better access to public transport, under a new strategy that will boost inclusivity across the entire network. https://www.gov.uk/government/news/national-strategy-to-boost-accessibility-for-disabled-passengers Despite progress in...

Following on from Avanti, GWR is also making temporary changes to train times in Devon and Cornwall (i.e. cuts) with effect from Monday 26th July. The changes are due to members of staff - in particular drivers and guards - having to isolate following contact from NHS Test and Trace. While a...

According to the BBC website today, England will move on 19th July into a period without legal restrictions where the public will have to exercise "personal responsibility" including on face masks, the housing secretary has said. Robert Jenrick told the BBC's Andrew Marr that people would "come...

Oxford - Cambridge (apart from the Bletchley - Bedford section) was the major closure added to the list after Beeching's departure from the BRB. The direct line to Blackpool Central was another, but there were several more.

I was going to post this before the recent announcement about a new railway structure. Our answers might now be different.

We’ve had two recent threads on the subject of lineside passes being discontinued. Now the SVR has gone one step further and also imposed a ban on future privately-run photographic charters. In an interview General Manager Helen Smith said “the income we receive from lineside passes and...