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Saw this tweet and others like it doing the rounds, I have removed the bad language. It's got over a million views It's obviously inaccurate in many ways given Network Rail has been state-owned since 2002. Also Greater Anglia and Southern are both state-owned. In reality, privatisation has...

At what location do Avanti do routine driver and staff changes? I know the most obvious one is Preston where the London to Glasgow and London to Glasgow/Edinburgh via the West Midlands do driver changes and the stop staff regularly make an announcement that the shop will be closed just before...

When Virgin Trains first started they had he VT0 route which ran from Birmingham to Swindon via the Golden Valley Line. It of course ended in 2003. How frequent were the services along the route and did it always run from Birmingham to Swindon? It always seemed like a route that Virgin...

This morning I got on a Northern train at an ustaffed station. I bought a ticket from the ticket vending machine but accidentally bought a single rather than a return. I tried the help button on the machine but no luck. When the train I spoke to the guard and mentioned I would need my ticket...

Saw this on a Uttoxeter Forum Is there any truth to this? Having previously lived in Uttoxeter there is some passenger movement from Uttoxeter to Manchester which would benefit from this. Having a second Manchester to London operator would possibly bring in some revenue as with many...

Seen this on BBC News, not sure what to think of it, the current station is a bit drab but given it's location behind a supermarket, it's never going to be the most attractive location. When does the current building at the station date from? I think I remember it being smaller in the early...

Earlier today (21/06/26) I was at Birmingham New Street and it was mentioned that there was a CrossCountry train to Winchester which was not calling at Leamington Spa or Banbury, so the first stop was Oxford. I can't find this train on RTT or anywhere so I was wondering why said train was not...

Back in 2000 on the Manchester Airport to Skegness services there was a lot of variation in the trains used and as a 6 year old kid we had nicknames for the trains. They were "an old one" which was for the 156s in grey Regional Railways livery, "an old single coach one" which was the 153s in...

Looking at the map I noticed that when the Tyne and Wear Metro joins the main line at Pelaw there is a marker to say that there is an ownership change. There is no such mark at Sunderland South Junction when the South Hylton line diverges off from the Durham Coast Line. I was wondering how the...

Earlier today I was having a discussion with someone about paper slip seat reservations, which in 2000 I think were the only type of seat reservations but since the introduction of the Voyagers and Pendolinos which of course have reservation screens, we have seen a slow decline of paper slip...

While I was on the train to Whitehaven today the train stopped short at Millom and we had to get a rail replacement bus to Whitehaven all the way and not just for Corkickle to Whitehaven. It was mentioned there was an obstruction on the line just north of Millom. When we passed through Silecroft...

On Youtube a recommendation came up which was "Nick and Margaret: The Trouble with Our Trains" from 2015. Basically it was Nick Hewer and Margaret Mountford of The Apprentice fame looking at how to maintain the railway. There is a link to it below. In it they mentioned that Network Rail...

Saw this in the news a few days ago. Bit of a silly idea from the Mayor of London if you ask me. While the Elizabeth Line may only take around 11 min more than the Heathrow Express to get from Paddington to Heathrow Central, it's first and foremost a commuter line not an airport rail link...

Looking at Real Time Trains for Cherry Tree it shows the Colne trains departing on Platform 2 while the Preston trains are departing on Platform 1. It also shows the York trains passing through on platform 2 while the Blackpool North trains are passing through on Platform 1. The Colne and...

Seen this in the Westmorland Gazette. I noticed this on the Grange-over-Sands town council meeting agenda recently and it seems that the order has been extended again. The crossing at Bailey Lane has been "temporarily closed" since 2017. Network Rail built a new subway in 2006 which is about...

While I was passing some track workers earlier today I wondered how they communicate with each other? Do they still use basic simplex analogue radios or have they migrated over to the GSM-R system like most of the railways have? I am aware that wired telephones are still used somewhat by...

A friend of mine (no it genuinely is) thinks he left his tablet on an Avani train from Euston to Penrith. As the train terminated at Glasgow Central, I assume that it's the lost property office there he needs to contact. I was wondering how he goes about contacting them? I have told him that he...

Once Great British Railways is created, I was wondering what will happen to the "LNR & WMR ONLY" and other TOC "Only" tickets? I know the open-access only tickets will of course remain but will GBR have cheaper tickets for the slower trains? From experiance the TOC "ONLY" tickets are very...

First off this is not a discussion on the benefits of nationalisation vs privatisation or the merits of a political party's policy on the railways. I was wondering if any party has pledged to reverse the government's plans to privatise the railways. I know when the Railways Act 1993 was going...

Every now and then I see "Northern Rail" used in the media or by passengers, occasionally I see the #NorthernFail on X (previously Twitter) as well even though the Northern Rail brand hasn't been used for nearly 10 years now. It made me wonder what other defunct railway brands just won't...