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And don’t fixate on ‘cities’. Large towns such as Halifax, Hartlepool, those in populous South Lanarkshire, Nuneaton, Grimsby/ Cleethorpes and so on can benefit from good long distance links too, especially if several can be strung together.

I’m surprised that the gate line role is seen as so limited - basically providing assistance if asked (other than in emergency evacuations and so on). I would have thought that keeping a general eye on the entrance and booking hall area would have been possible, e.g. alert for begging...

Not if the siding length and storage capacity of the terminal can’t handle a jumbo load (as is generally the case).

To give the targets any credibility there have to be concrete signals of commitment that prospective customers and logistics enterprises can see. A good start might to expedite the massive Strategic Rail Rail Freight Interchange (SRFI) at Parkside, as long mooted. This should clearly provide...

Well, there might have been but I suppose that they will just spring the cuts on everyone regardless now. :)

Such things often get shortened to a single syllable with familiarity. See Met, Picc, Vic, Joob… Now joined by Liz.

Hence many lazy users over the years just dropping them in toilet pan, thereby risking blocking then for further use for the rest of the day. Many people have evidently never discovered the concept of a ‘bin’.

If ScotRail and Transport Scotland really needed the units there certainly wouldn’t be any heel dragging from their end. And they’re not the DfT either.

Castle Cary for (say) Taunton-Yeovil. Requires use of a staff-controlled barrow crossing that can often see the ‘connection’ depart. This despite a recent expensive refurbishment that didn’t include lifts.

You can’t just “do away with costs”. It’s a question of how they are fairly allocated to GBR, freight, TfL (etc.), open access and charters. Otherwise you just end up with the head of GBR saying to the DfT and Treasury, “the cost of the network is £xxx,million every four weeks, give us the...

Yes, I spoke with a ScotRail driver (conducted) on ‘one of my old units’ looped in a platform at Lancaster recently.

No doubt about that, Rob. Ever since Regional Railways, through franchising and aided by the Community Rail movement there has been an imperative to fill empty seats on existing lines and within current fleet capacity. Unfortunately this process seems to be bumping up against the walls in terms...

The completion for the York-Northallerton quadrupling was in 1958 under the Modernisation Plan. (Skelton Bridge excepted.) This was associated with the focus on Healey Mills as the main West Yorkshire marshalling yard. So anything other that local freight had no long term future via Ripon. Local...

I am getting less than convinced by your various assertions. The Reshaping Report makes clear that much of the evidence base was from 1961. It is well established that the passenger counts ( for every other station except Ripon apparently) were undertaken over a week in April 1961 before Dr B...

The definitive book on the Strathclyde PTE by Alan Miller - a Glaswegian and PTE staffer - embraces the Clockwork Orange moniker. His book includes a chapter, “The Clockwork Orange Springs to Life”. He attributes the name to press coverage rather than the general public, obviously invoking the...

The current scheduled stage carriage bus, Route 36 is scheduled for around 38 minutes Harrogate <-> Ripon. Ripon Bus Station, such as it is, is far more centrally placed that the prospective future railway station that appears to be on the far side of the bypass. Am I missing something here?

I suppose that Newquay is a comparator, with a population in the 20,000s but through trains to there serve far larger settlements en route as well. And the market is totally different in terms of a very long road journey from London and it being dependent on staycations rather than day trips...

We still seem to be waiting for a clear and authoritative answer to this question. Can we assume that when GBR finally fledges it will need a single, global, certificate for its entire operation? Issued by whom? (I realise that Scotland, TfW, Merseyrail, Transport for London and so on will...

Are current ‘accidents’ routinely treated as Crime Scenes then? (I am not including cases where there is a clear suspicion of line obstruction or sabotage.)

On this aspect in particular it’s worth pointing out (yet again on these Forums) that the performance regime compensation is purely calibrated to cover the Marginal Revenue Effect, i.e. loss of future business triggered by the rail product being seen as unreliable. It does not cover Delay Repay...