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    Funny overheard comments about buses

    Yesterday I travelled on the York University Open Day free shuttle contracted to York Pullman. A lad noticed one of the local buses. 'What's FirstBus doing in York?' he exclaimed to his friend. 'I thought FirstBus was just a Halifax thing.' What have you heard revealing people's limited...
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    MML Electrification: progress updates

    From the posts above I see that Sheffield has complexities. But Leicester, Derby and Nottingham-really? Leicester has the London Road Bridge, but a similar situation in Cardiff was solved with voltage-ontrolled clearance...
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    What if bus deregulation had never happened?

    The Conservative govts before 1997 would certainly have privatised the bus industry, with some element of deregulation even if more limited than the 'big bang' approach of 1986. The National Bus Company was easy to sell off in local and regional chunks as it was comprised of subsidiary...
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    Discontiuous electrification: is it really the best way forward?

    There are reasons to be optimistic about future electrification from reading this https://committees.parliament.uk/oralevidence/15124/pdf/ Peter Hendy and Alex Hynes mentioned the importance of a rolling programme to ensure cost effectiveness and a steady work stream for the supply chain and...
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    MML Electrification: progress updates

    All MPs lobby for constituency projects and try to keep them on government radar, especially during spending reviews and negotiations. That doesn't mean Louise Haigh would have secured full MML electrification to Sheffield, but her influence may have had some effect. Interesting that coverage of...
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    MML Electrification: progress updates

    Yes. I thought that with Louise Haigh being Transport Secretary and a Sheffield MP, the prospects were good for full electrification to Sheffield being at least underway by the next election. She's gone, but it must be done to Derby and Nottingham. There's great regional political interest and...
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    Future of the GWR electrification

    Cardiff to Swansea electrification is a priority for Transport for Wales/Wales Government https://tfw.wales/projects/metro/future-developments/south-wales
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    New Station for Okehampton

    So glad it's not going to be another Parkway, which means nothing more than 'has big car park, near a trunk road or motorway'. 'Interchange' suggests connection opportunities with all kinds of transport, not just between train services. Bradford Interchange was developed by West Yorkshire PTE as...
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    Midland Red buses

    And visit Transport Museum Wythall https://www.wythall.org.uk/
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    Birmingham Trams

    One depot is ok for now. The expansion has been by short extensions, and the new Dudley/Brierley Hill line is close to the Wednesbury Depot. If/when the Eastside line is planned beyond Curzon Street and Digbeth through East Birmingham to North Solihull (Chelmsley Wood/Airport/HS2 Interchange)...
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    Birmingham Trams

    Tram stop electronic displays inform that the service is only running between Wolverhampton and Wednesbury, and there are posters also. The extent of the shutdown is severe. I assume access to the Wednesbury depot is very restricted, but couldn't they have removed a few trams for a Birmingham...
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    Good Customer Service In The Bus/Coach Industry

    The most impressive bus customer service I've seen was on Anglian Buses (pre-Go Ahead takeover and merging with Konectbus) 16 years ago. I was on holiday in Holton, near Halesworth, and boarded the Aldburgh service to do a walk back along the coast. A woman boarding in Holton just after me was...
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    What's happening with the Birmingham metro expansions as of right now?

    I assume the answer is that the work for the Wednesbury delta junction restricts access to the tram depot, and that's why there will be no service between Wednesbury and through Birmingham City Centre to Edgbaston Village for more than two weeks. You wonder if a basic temporary service could be...
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    What's In a Name? - British Bus Companies

    Interesting thread. I'm puzzled why anyone should feel any nostalgia or affection for 'Badgerline' as a brand. I grew up in Bristol Omnibus territory and thought the Badgerline name, livery and style of application was awful. The badger motif looks more like a platypus than a badger. Not sure...
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    West Midlands Metro - Future Feasible Expansion

    Yes, the Snow Hill to Wolverhampton line was the easiest metro line to build, as the old Great Western route was there for fairly easy conversion. But it's not a major public transport commuting corridor, passing through post-industrial Black Country towns, not residential commuter suburbs. And...
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    Network North Electrification Projects

    yes, please move this generally silly thread to speculative-see my earlier post #95 Reopening the 'Little NW', electrifying Skipton-Carnforth..... get real! I don't think even Boris Johnson promised to reverse 'all' Beeching Cuts. Most Beeching cuts were sensible and inevitable, so it would be...
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    Network North Electrification Projects

    Shouldn't this thread be in 'Speculative Discussion'? Keep 'Infrastructure and Stations' for schemes which are under construction, or at least have approval, funding, and a timescale for implementation.
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    HS2 phase 2 cancellation: alternative projects which may take place

    This article is no better informed and as speculative as other coverage about possible rail investment in the North. The map's interpretation of a new transpennine route doesn't match my reading of the Network North 'report' (polite word for it). The section of that report about Bradford refers...
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    HS2 phase 2 cancellation: alternative projects which may take place

    The other purpose of Plan B was to get gullible local media all over the country (covering lots of red wall and other marginal constituencies) to put out stories about railways reopening in all sorts of unlikely places as if they were done deals and expected to happen. I'm thinking of BBC...
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    HS2 phase 2 cancellation : what could/should happen now?

    I've thought about this too, a connection from HS2 to the Birmingham-Derby line near Kingsbury. But not as easy as it might look on a map. The line through Tamworth and Burton would need substantial upgrading, German 'ausbaustrecke' style. Wilnecote/Tamworth is too urbanised for four tracking...

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