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    Electrifying Mainlines for Battery Train operation (using Class 897 as an example

    … and Didcot-Coventry/Birmingham (both routes north of Leamington!) … lots of XC traffic there too … and mostly 90mph (sigh, the days of the tilting 221s in the Cherwell Valley are now far behind us …). From RailMiles: Birmingham New Street — Derby: 40mi 36ch Didcot East Junction - Coventry...
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    Any service crossing in to England should transfer to GBR

    You joke, but from Malaysia to Singapore it used to be like that! You'd actually get off the train, go through customs and so on, with your bags, then get back on to the same train to do the last little bit of the line into Singapore itself. This problem has been "solved" by simply closing the...
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    East-West Rail (EWR) Cambridge - Bletchley - Oxford speculative thread

    UK government petition "The Government must get the East West Rail Line passenger service running ASAP" Originally I was disappointed that there's not also a demand for a public enquiry into the delay, but, to be fair, one step at a time. Get it open first, and then the public enquiry.
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    GWR: no longer possible to book (online) seat or bike reservation except when buying a ticket

    Thanks for the background info @DelW, it's been a busy week and I'd missed those! :)
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    GWR: no longer possible to book (online) seat or bike reservation except when buying a ticket

    From The Oxford Clarion this week: Quite annoying, especially the bike part. No mention made of whether/when they plan to bring it back. Related is the general difficulty of "giving back" a reservation when one wants to switch train ... leading to the vast numbers of unoccupied (by the...
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    Class 08 hydrogen powered

    I accidentally happened on the first page of this thread, and, coindicentally ... the hydrogen buses in Aberdeen have, as it turns out, not succeeded! The technology didn't work (fuelling stations broken since 2024) and in terms of commercial viability, aside from the technical issues, they've...
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    Oxford Corridor Phase 2 & Platform 5 updates

    ... and since the short stay was moved from the convenient location next to the station building to the Becket Street car park (the location next to the station building is now all staff parking I think (maybe also some disabled bays?), and from recent observation generally has many empty spaces...
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    Heathrow 3rd Runway , should they include a rail tunnel?

    Yes, the southern link is in a different place. The tunnels for the proposed Heathrow Western Rail Link looks as if they would go _close_ to the third runway, geographically, but I imagine would be substantially deeper than the M25 tunnels anyway; a more-or-less independent project. Wikipedia...
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    Seriously, how can anyone use the railway for long distance commuting?

    No, and when there is disruption on the roads one's satnav can generally route around it straightforwardly, which generally seems to help enormously in reducing the delay caused by congestion (because the road network is such a large graph compared to the railway network, and one is in control...
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    Seriously, how can anyone use the railway for long distance commuting?

    Indeed, and even noncommuters could use the excellent Recent Train Times service to determine whichever statistically determined likely and likely-worst arrival time for their chosen journey fits their needs, allowing a more informed choice of departure time! :)
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    What would the ideal Oxbridge Arc look like?

    I know, my observation about the circuitous route being the _goal_ was tongue-in-cheek, I'm aware that it's actually a _consequence_ of the desire to serve those locations. That's faster than I expected, and good news ... I really hope that this service will be able to make sense for...
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    What would the ideal Oxbridge Arc look like?

    Absolutely this. Instead of as bendy as possible, which appears to have been the main design goal for the current route. Does anyone know what the ratio of crow-flies to track distance, from Bedford (central station) to Cambridge (central station) with the current plan will be, and the expected...
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    Just saw ICE-L trains, pretty interesting bogie setup and low floor

    That's interesting, and echoes my experience: those were excellent, and it's such a shame they no longer run (Paris<->Madrid was a brilliant service ... but, then again, so is Paris<->Barcelona<->Madrid by TGV and AVE, so that's progress ... 14h19m from London to Madrid on Eurostar-TGV-2xAVE is...
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    Class 168 Refurbishment Discussion and Updates

    My guess was cowley branch line special, to celebrate the announcement that it is funded. Confirmed in RTT. From the Oxford Clarion article, embargo lifted at midnight: [...] [...]
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    East-West Rail (EWR) countdown to entry into service

    Reminds me of what ASLEF stands for! Edit: (and indeed what continues to be displayed in its logo ...)
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    RMT industrial action 5th - 12 September 2025

    TimeOut is being more dramatic with its reporting: Relevant section of page (the rest is more like background information / "how to get around during strikes" etc.) which feels as if it may be based on a simplistic interpretation of the announcements so far:
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    Oxford Corridor Phase 2 & Platform 5 updates

    Not on a mac they're not — ¿see? (option-shift-dash - option-dash gets you an endash – like that, and option-semicolon an ellipsis… right now I can't remember where the vertical ellipsis is, but it's easy enough to find all the special characters by bringing up the onscreen keyboard … iPadOS /...
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    Oxford Corridor Phase 2 & Platform 5 updates

    This. It's just abject. The dumping / "rescheduling" of the western entrance (which would have been / will eventually be, we all hope) one of the main benefits of the whole thing, especially for everyone approaching the station from the west, but for all users in fact, by reducing congestion in...
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    Should "false destinations" be used on slow/circular services?

    No, years ago (when there _were_ stoppers from Oxford to Paddington, before the slows were split at Didcot!). No idea how many announcements there were, but quite possibly none (this is before the 16x refurbs), and sure, if one has got off a train and is looking for the next one, the fact that...
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    Should "false destinations" be used on slow/circular services?

    My colleagues who assumed that the stated destination was the actual destination and got off at Ealing Broadway (which was falsely stated as the destination) on the way back to London from Oxford on a late night service, then having to take some other mode of transport onwards into the city...

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