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I ignored neither, I merely noted the calculation problem. But a lot of research indicates that suicide is often impulsive to the point that a lot of people who are deprived easy access to means will not spend effort obtaining one. Consequently, some portion of the impacts associated with those...

I suspect an underground aggregate unloading system would be substantially cheaper than a passenger station. A loop in the running tunnel, then use hopper wagons in a short "box" containing an Merry Go Round style unloading pit with an aggregate hoist. Either put the unloading track in the...

HGV collisions cause approximately 175 fatalities in other vehicles/on foot per annum. That is approximately 11% of total road fatalities. However, externalities are notoriously hard to disentangle, so I'm not sure how feasible it is to do that without an academic study that is far beyond my...

I think, rather than going for wagonload freight with shunting, it would be cheaper to go for containers and simply swap containers between trains. But I think the only way to get a freight system that can cover its costs would be to spend a huge amount of capital on Chunnel gauge or better...

Someone else yearns for a return to the GNER livery I see! Personally I'd prefer just going to a dark colour all over, with an off-white on the doors for disability contrast. What colour that is less important to me. EDIT: What about BTC Black and Silver?

I wonder how it'd look with a very dark navy blue and a dark red, and some sort of grey standing in for the white. After all its going to get covered in dust and grime in short order anyway!

My understanding is that the second locomotive is often dead-in-train to reduce the shunting requirements at the destination. Given the lack of a multiple unit system capable of communicating through the consist, the second locomotive is just cargo. Additionally I was under the impression that a...

Well that is the practice now, but it is not an immutable law of the universe. It would be entirely possible to physically separate the relief lines from the rest of the network and leave them connected solely to the Crossrail core. We might debate the relative merits of that, but it is not...

True, but if we could give Elizabeth line the reliefs to themselves (so the platforms could rebuilt for Level boarding) we could do something like 8tph to Heathrow off Elizabeth line all day and 8tph offpeak to stations beyond Hayes and Harlington (compared to 4 now) and 14-16tph during peak. I...

I don't think there would be much at all in the way of journey time savings from a fast tunnel between the vicinity of Acton Main Line (on approach to Old Oak Common) and only Slough. The line speed is already pretty high and its only ~25km, you might save a couple of minutes, but if that, the...

The last time I tried to calculate this, I came to the conclusion that fuel duty, fuel VAT and the HGV Levy was somewhat more than the budget of National Highways - in other words HGVs certainly pay the full costs of the trunk road system in England.

I'd think Saltash-Plymouth Laira would be a better choice than the Devon banks, about 10 route kilometres gets you 20 ish minutes per direction of charging, even for trains not terminating at Plymouth. It's only about 16 route kilometres (albeit including the annoyance of the bridge). It could...

Mauldeth Road for Withington

The target is expressed in change in net tonne kilometres, not paths. Surely we could obtain a 45% increase in cosntruction goods by increasing the trainweight by ~45%, whilst keeping aggregates trains within the range of existing container trains (up to 775m long). EDIT: I've taken a look at...

Whilst making trains longer does make them consume very slightly more capacity (takes slightly longer to clear junctions etc), meeting the requirements with much heavier trains would allow it to be achieved without using many more paths, surely.

Yes, essentially driver disembarks at the west end, presses a plunger and (assuming the route sets) the train drives itself to Acton Yard. Whether the driver that collects the train (assuming its not just going to Acton yard) at the other end is the same driver (who took another route) or not is...

A lot of those limitations are due to a risk to life. If the train runs through under ETCS control with noone in the cab, there is no risk to life. Especially as the bulk of trains are just going to be full of stone or steel.

Well..... if such a project allows radical increases in Elizabeth line service west of Old Oak Common..... it could bring in quite a bit more ticket income than electrifying to Oxford. Elizabeth line ticket revenue was ~£670m in 2024/2025 and is reportedly still growing.

There doesn't seem to be much traffic towards the south from north of Sellafield, most traffic at St Bees etc is towards the North, and if that bit is out because of the tunnel.... On a peripheral note, does anyone know why the route via Egremont (through a town and some sizeable villages)...

It may be cheaper to build a single (or double in a single bore) track tunnel for freight trains, which could be potentially operated without crew in the tunnel. That might be cheaper to build given the much fewer (if any) lives at risk, allowing more relaxed safety approaches.