Reopenings - the positive narrative the railway industry needs !

[Magdalia]

The figure of 37 passengers per train has been quoted. For 36 trains per day (18 each way) that is almost 500 000/year, quite respectable for a single station. If each contributed £10, then £5M/year in farebox. True you would have be spend carefully on re-instatement and use written down not leased stock, but not impossible.

If reopening the line costs £100m, and the funding costs 5% per annum, then your fare box income of £5m only covers the £5m interest costs.

 

[Zomboid]

If reopening the line costs £100m, and the funding costs 5% per annum, then your fare box income of £5m only covers the £5m interest costs.

These are entirely baseless made up numbers, of course...

 

[Magdalia]

These are entirely baseless made up numbers, of course...

5% per annum is not a baseless made up number, it is roughly what debt finance costs.

Given that it is very unlikely that reopening a line is going to cost less than £100m, it illustrates why a reopening generating £5m of farebox per annum income isn't going to happen, at least not while the interest rate is near to 5%.

 

[Nicholas Lewis]

5% per annum is not a baseless made up number, it is roughly what debt finance costs.

Given that it is very unlikely that reopening a line is going to cost less than £100m, it illustrates why a reopening generating £5m of farebox income isn't going to happen, at least not while the interest rate is near to 5%.

The Northumberland Line was just shy of £340m and whilst it has impressive ridership its fare income stream doesn't cover operating costs let along contributing to capital costs of 17m pa( at 5%). There was never an expectation that would happen of course and its all about how you put a value on the benefits it brings across the wider community. That said its shows the scale of costs that any promoter now has to find and you can be sure it will be a lot higher on a route that's been abandoned. So we need to go back to the spirit of the Light Railway Orders from the past perhaps to come up with more cost effective solutions.

 

[Zomboid]

5% per annum is not a baseless made up number, it is roughly what debt finance costs.

Given that it is very unlikely that reopening a line is going to cost less than £100m, it illustrates why a reopening generating £5m of farebox per annum income isn't going to happen, at least not while the interest rate is near to 5%.

The 5% isn't made up, but the 100M and 5M are just plucked or of nowhere

 

[WAO]

If reopening the line costs £100m, and the funding costs 5% per annum, then your fare box income of £5m only covers the £5m interest costs.

Exactly.

You should start off with the likely income/benefit then try to match your capital/operating spend to that, if possible, rather than propose to spend £20M - £30M/mile for a single track 50mph railway on an existing roadbed with largely intact structures and then be surprised at the abyssmal BCR.

WAO

 

[yorksrob]

There probably isn't a rule of thumb for cost because it'll depend on so many factors.

Directly to where though? Plenty of villages were left miles from the railway line in pursuit of connecting to a mine or getting out of the way of the local Lord.
And then there's the question of the town not being the same as it were 150 years ago. If the town has grown away from the railway there's no point building it to the wrong side of town.
There will be some places where the old railway is still a sensible alignment to use (e.g. Newbiggin-on-Sea) but plenty where it isn't (Lewes-Uckfield)

They usually tried to get to the main towns in the area. Think Hailsham, Steyning, Blandford, Wadebridge etc. Some of the intermediate villages might have been out the way, however those don't tend to be the settlements we're most concerned about rejoining anyway.

 

[The exile]

Exactly.

You should start off with the likely income/benefit then try to match your capital/operating spend to that, if possible, rather than propose to spend £20M - £30M/mile for a single track 50mph railway on an existing roadbed with largely intact structures and then be surprised at the abyssmal BCR.

WAO

Maybe, but remembering that in many ways, farebox income is just the icing on the cake.

 

[Magdalia]

The figure of 37 passengers per train has been quoted. For 36 trains per day (18 each way) that is almost 500 000/year, quite respectable for a single station. If each contributed £10, then £5M/year in farebox.

The 5% isn't made up, but the 100M and 5M are just plucked or of nowhere

It wasn't me who plucked £5m of farebox income from nowhere! I used £100m reopening cost as illustrative because it has £5m of annual interest costs to match the £5m of farebox income.

 

[WAO]

Maybe, but remembering that in many ways, farebox income is just the icing on the cake.

That's why I used the term "income/benefit"

I wonder how a BR CCE's practical scheme, using in house resources and re-used materials, would compare with an outside consultants' project cost, with Group Standards, ISO9000, Treasury rules, optimism bias etc?

WAO

 

[Magrar]

Having travelled up and down the Ashington line now, I can happily report it only has three problems.

The stock, the stations and the frequency.

Two are unfixable without MAJOR capital investment. So never. The stock will get replaced eventually. But it would surely be sooner if someone in authority saw these noisy, disgusting, smelly, belching utilititarian boxes through the eyes of someone who would travel by rail by choice, and is concerned about the climate. They are at least clean and comfortable on the inside. In a depressing kind of way. An old lady forced to work into her eighties way.

It is quite true to say all that's been done is add a little bit of Northern network. And when the paint has faded and scratched, the concrete dulled, the artificial looking natural plants and equally wierdly artifiical lanscaping has really gone to seed, they will be on the money. It will be indistinguishable from other tired old neglected uninspiring unattractive unambitious Northern branch lines.

The mind numbing automated announcements, the delays and generally haphazard levels of customer service, from stellar to gruff, was to be expected I guess. Having a bag of rubbish rubbed against my leg, and the guilty party neither noticing or caring, was not.

Nothing to shout about. Business as usual, until GBR hopefully sweeps it all away. Or probably not. How many years has Northern been in public hands now?

I at least now have a good idea where the forecast overshoot comes from. The planners clearly didn't consider the pull factor of having apps that can tell you when the train is REALLY going to turn up (if at all), and so you can book a taxi, call a mate for a lift or just otherwise drive themselves, in minutes, for a quick run to the platform steps.

Most users I saw arrived by car or taxi, since as I previously said, someone clearly wanted to design these car parks with platforms attached, for the age of personal motor transport. Buses very much secondary. Rail/taxi apps for a crap box of a basic single track railway, negate pretty much all the upsides of an app based fast clean bus service still having to contend with increasing traffic congestion on the key regional roads, such as Ashington to Newcastle.

I was in danger of not getting a bike space once, but all that tells you is that on a hot summer weekend day, the line attracts at most, four bikes for a moderately full four car set of mostly car/taxi users. And all the station bike racks, impossibly complex looking thngs, were empty. As expected. You'd be mad to use them.

I did like the welcome to our station poster designed by little kids. Bedlington? Fun and safety themed. Clearly enthused by their new line. Too innnocent to know any better. It seemed to say a lot about the whole project, that either there was only the budget to make one sign for an entire station, so you notice it by chance, or there are others that have been damaged and removed without replacement.

I saw one encouraging sign of this being a case of local staff for local trains, a sweet throwback to the Beeching era. But it was something that if a manager saw, could get you the sack. So one can assume there is little to no managerial oversight, or the managers do not enforce their written policies, and their managers could care less either. As you assume happens all over the Northern network. Because it is what it is. Nothing to about about.

The latest Northern adverts proclaim some kind of local link. I'd be offended by that on this showing. Given there's more here to be embarassed about than the few genuinely good things.

The best thing was the fun, cheerful, engaging guard who delighted passengers young and old with her humour and zest. But she was a woman, young, white, working class, Northern, and not remotely living her life as if she was in constant fear of abuse, assault, or other general mysogyny, so she won't really fit into the GBR culture I fear. She was undoutbedly at risk of offending someone with her spontaneous wit, so maybe on borrowed time, policy wise. So good for her, for proving that there is something special that marks out the north from the south.

 

[yorksrob]

Having travelled up and down the Ashington line now, I can happily report it only has three problems.

The stock, the stations and the frequency.

Two are unfixable without MAJOR capital investment. So never. The stock will get replaced eventually. But it would surely be sooner if someone in authority saw these noisy, disgusting, smelly, belching utilititarian boxes through the eyes of someone who would travel by rail by choice, and is concerned about the climate. They are at least clean and comfortable on the inside. In a depressing kind of way. An old lady forced to work into her eighties way.

It is quite true to say all that's been done is add a little bit of Northern network. And when the paint has faded and scratched, the concrete dulled, the artificial looking natural plants and equally wierdly artifiical lanscaping has really gone to seed, they will be on the money. It will be indistinguishable from other tired old neglected uninspiring unattractive unambitious Northern branch lines.

The mind numbing automated announcements, the delays and generally haphazard levels of customer service, from stellar to gruff, was to be expected I guess. Having a bag of rubbish rubbed against my leg, and the guilty party neither noticing or caring, was not.

Nothing to shout about. Business as usual, until GBR hopefully sweeps it all away. Or probably not. How many years has Northern been in public hands now?

I at least now have a good idea where the forecast overshoot comes from. The planners clearly didn't consider the pull factor of having apps that can tell you when the train is REALLY going to turn up (if at all), and so you can book a taxi, call a mate for a lift or just otherwise drive themselves, in minutes, for a quick run to the platform steps.

Most users I saw arrived by car or taxi, since as I previously said, someone clearly wanted to design these car parks with platforms attached, for the age of personal motor transport. Buses very much secondary. Rail/taxi apps for a crap box of a basic single track railway, negate pretty much all the upsides of an app based fast clean bus service still having to contend with increasing traffic congestion on the key regional roads, such as Ashington to Newcastle.

I was in danger of not getting a bike space once, but all that tells you is that on a hot summer weekend day, the line attracts at most, four bikes for a moderately full four car set of mostly car/taxi users. And all the station bike racks, impossibly complex looking thngs, were empty. As expected. You'd be mad to use them.

I did like the welcome to our station poster designed by little kids. Bedlington? Fun and safety themed. Clearly enthused by their new line. Too innnocent to know any better. It seemed to say a lot about the whole project, that either there was only the budget to make one sign for an entire station, so you notice it by chance, or there are others that have been damaged and removed without replacement.

I saw one encouraging sign of this being a case of local staff for local trains, a sweet throwback to the Beeching era. But it was something that if a manager saw, could get you the sack. So one can assume there is little to no managerial oversight, or the managers do not enforce their written policies, and their managers could care less either. As you assume happens all over the Northern network. Because it is what it is. Nothing to about about.

The latest Northern adverts proclaim some kind of local link. I'd be offended by that on this showing. Given there's more here to be embarassed about than the few genuinely good things.

The best thing was the fun, cheerful, engaging guard who delighted passengers young and old with her humour and zest. But she was a woman, young, white, working class, Northern, and not remotely living her life as if she was in constant fear of abuse, assault, or other general mysogyny, so she won't really fit into the GBR culture I fear. She was undoutbedly at risk of offending someone with her spontaneous wit, so maybe on borrowed time, policy wise. So good for her, for proving that there is something special that marks out the north from the south.

It's a frequent (yes, half-hourly is frequent) passenger service that exists where there was none a few years ago.

That's about as distant from "business as usual" as it's possible to get on the railway.

 

[Zomboid]

The stations aren't architectural marvels, but come on... Lots of people are using a half hourly train service to get around where it wasn't possible to previously. And the reality is in 2026, lots of people drive to the station. You've got to cater for people's actual transport requirements, not just the ones you'd like them to have.

 

[Killingworth]

Having travelled up and down the Ashington line now, I can happily report it only has three problems.

The stock, the stations and the frequency.

Two are unfixable without MAJOR capital investment. So never. The stock will get replaced eventually. But it would surely be sooner if someone in authority saw these noisy, disgusting, smelly, belching utilititarian boxes through the eyes of someone who would travel by rail by choice, and is concerned about the climate. They are at least clean and comfortable on the inside. In a depressing kind of way. An old lady forced to work into her eighties way.

It is quite true to say all that's been done is add a little bit of Northern network. And when the paint has faded and scratched, the concrete dulled, the artificial looking natural plants and equally wierdly artifiical lanscaping has really gone to seed, they will be on the money. It will be indistinguishable from other tired old neglected uninspiring unattractive unambitious Northern branch lines.

The mind numbing automated announcements, the delays and generally haphazard levels of customer service, from stellar to gruff, was to be expected I guess. Having a bag of rubbish rubbed against my leg, and the guilty party neither noticing or caring, was not.

Nothing to shout about. Business as usual, until GBR hopefully sweeps it all away. Or probably not. How many years has Northern been in public hands now?

I at least now have a good idea where the forecast overshoot comes from. The planners clearly didn't consider the pull factor of having apps that can tell you when the train is REALLY going to turn up (if at all), and so you can book a taxi, call a mate for a lift or just otherwise drive themselves, in minutes, for a quick run to the platform steps.

Most users I saw arrived by car or taxi, since as I previously said, someone clearly wanted to design these car parks with platforms attached, for the age of personal motor transport. Buses very much secondary. Rail/taxi apps for a crap box of a basic single track railway, negate pretty much all the upsides of an app based fast clean bus service still having to contend with increasing traffic congestion on the key regional roads, such as Ashington to Newcastle.

I was in danger of not getting a bike space once, but all that tells you is that on a hot summer weekend day, the line attracts at most, four bikes for a moderately full four car set of mostly car/taxi users. And all the station bike racks, impossibly complex looking thngs, were empty. As expected. You'd be mad to use them.

I did like the welcome to our station poster designed by little kids. Bedlington? Fun and safety themed. Clearly enthused by their new line. Too innnocent to know any better. It seemed to say a lot about the whole project, that either there was only the budget to make one sign for an entire station, so you notice it by chance, or there are others that have been damaged and removed without replacement.

I saw one encouraging sign of this being a case of local staff for local trains, a sweet throwback to the Beeching era. But it was something that if a manager saw, could get you the sack. So one can assume there is little to no managerial oversight, or the managers do not enforce their written policies, and their managers could care less either. As you assume happens all over the Northern network. Because it is what it is. Nothing to about about.

The latest Northern adverts proclaim some kind of local link. I'd be offended by that on this showing. Given there's more here to be embarassed about than the few genuinely good things.

The best thing was the fun, cheerful, engaging guard who delighted passengers young and old with her humour and zest. But she was a woman, young, white, working class, Northern, and not remotely living her life as if she was in constant fear of abuse, assault, or other general mysogyny, so she won't really fit into the GBR culture I fear. She was undoutbedly at risk of offending someone with her spontaneous wit, so maybe on borrowed time, policy wise. So good for her, for proving that there is something special that marks out the north from the south.

A very full outsiders view, based on possibly one trip?

Unmanned Northern stations are generally bleak. These are modern utilitarian based on standard kits of parts. If the weather's inclement sit in your car until the train is arriving.

Car parking is already inadequate and more is to come - at more expense, of course. Fares into Newcastle beat parking costs in the city so train with free park and ride is a very good deal.

Class 158s may be old but they've been spruced up well enough to continue for probably 10, maybe another 15 years. Electrification could come by then, wishful thinking? Ironic that the North Eastern Railway introduced electric trains into Newcastle about 1904.

Frequency at half hourly 6 days a week would make many Northern route users quite jealous. Sundays should be half hourly too. Adding more frequent services would be very challenging on single track sections and using paths into Newcastle Central in conflict with the ECML.

But who's paying for it? Surely that's the 4th very big problem? It underlies better rolling stock, frequency, better stations, electrification - and the unmentioned very reasonable fares. Can they be sustained?

 

[Magrar]

I can only repeat, the premise of this thread was not, are we glad there is a railway line where there previously wasn't. Obvious yes is obvious. It asks the question, is there anything here worth shouting about.

The thought that those disgusting noisy units will be used for another ffiteen years, is horrific. Not so much a shout, but a scream.

Half hourly is indeed frequent for Northern. Bleak stations are the norm. Catering for cars is the norm. And if you cast your eyes elsewhere, particularly foreign shores, you'll see why Northern is not the envy of anyone anywhere. It's those and many other reasons.

I can only tell people who clearly do not approach the railway with the eyes of potentially new users looking for something to shout about, when you lose access to a phone, and when the service is inevitably delayed by the same old tired excuses, things that, on a brand new line could have been engineered out from the outset for MINIMAL cost, to have to stand on a bleak platform for stretches of twenty minutes at a time, repeatedly, being blasted by filthy smoke and defeaning noise, with nowhere inviting to go to kill a few minutes or ten because, as we know, this area suffered terribly by being left behind precisely due to being viewed as a backwater where providing the basic utilities was sufficient, is not a pleasurable way to spend a good chunk of day out in the region by rail. You don't get it on the buses. It's bad enough you would and should trade journey time for a better all round service, in my view.

The day had many highlights. It's a great area with lots to shout about. The train line, and the visible signs of drug use in town centres, were the two low lights. As smacked out as they were, I bet even they could detect that this line has been built for those with the money to afford motorised personal last leg transport. The message is received and understood.

Ashington especially, is a large town, you're going to spend a good thirty minutes just walking to the station from some parts. Quite how many can afford that motorised option there, is a good question. I would not shout about being so generous to wealthy rural dwellers, in their earshot.

Electrification of this line would be something to shout about. Let me know when to shout. I'll pencil in January 3026.

Yes, NER were groundbreaking. That's kind of the point. The only ground broke here, surprised the diggers to learn there were these strange tunnels down below, formed by some alien long forgotten culture. Who knew? Literally the people of Ashington.

 

[The Mercian]

What’s that expression, great is the enemy of good.

 

[martin butler]

I dare say every region has its own cases that cry out for a line, closed either due to Beechings axe, or later,

Even Sussex where I am lost quite a few lines, take the Polegate to eridge line, for example, Hailsham, for example has grown over recent times, to an extent that the line today might have never closed, the Uckfield to Lewes, would have been seen as a way to prehaps relieve some traffic from the Brighton main line,

Across the border into Hampshire, can a case be made for say the hayling island line? using lightweight rail buses, or trams now, or the Alton to Fareham line? then of course theres the mid hants, ideal, for diverting if Basingstoke has problems,

 

[geordieblue]

this line has been built for those with the money to afford motorised personal last leg transport.

Ashington station: in the town centre
Bedlington station: in the town centre
Blyth Bebside: walking distance for much of north Blyth (could in fairness be improved by a bridge over the A189)
Newsham: walking distance for much of South Blyth (could’ve been built further north, closer to Newsham town centre, but this would’ve been on a heavily constrained site)
Seaton Deleval: walking distance for most of Seaton Deleval (hard to see how it could’ve been built closer to the centre)
Northumberland Park: direct connection to the Metro.

Most of the stations en route also have buses passing near by; fares are incredibly cheap and heavily subsidised; ticketing is fully integrated with the Metro; services are frequent…

I don’t really get your point. You say that it’s good news the line is open but you’ve said almost nothing positive about it and the positive comments! Yes, it’d be great if the line had been electrified from the beginning, but this changes a relatively simple reopening with relatively limited infrastructure spend (outside of the new stations) into a much broader project. If you’re electrifying the line you need to procure appropriate stock; probably remodel Heaton to some extent; probably wire the Morpeth turn back/to Metrocentre so other services can go over to electric too and turn a micro fleet into a less micro fleet…

For what it’s worth I hope the line is electrified soon (alongside other lines in the north east: the amount of running-under-wires at present is pretty scandalous). But I can see the attraction of delivering a simpler scheme more quickly rather than bundling electrification etc into it and probably doubling the cost (and a project twice as expensive would probably never have been approved).

 

[The exile]

Ashington especially, is a large town, you're going to spend a good thirty minutes just walking to the station from some parts. Quite how many can afford that motorised option there, is a good question. I would not shout about being so generous to wealthy rural dwellers, in their earshot.

And the alternative would have been?
Leave things as they are so those who cannot afford motorised transport have the choice between a long bus journey or nothing? Trains can, unsurprisingly, only pick people up at railway stations so unless you happen to live opposite one, you’ve got to get there somehow.

 

[swt_passenger]

Blyth Bebside: walking distance for much of north Blyth (could in fairness be improved by a bridge over the A189).

But there is already a footbridge over the A189? It was there on opening day, and even if its not yet shown on Google aerial view, it’s on the current Google Streetview.

 

[geordieblue]

But there is a footbridge over the A189? It was there on opening day, and even if its not yet shown on Google aerial view, it’s on the current Google Streetview.

Good point! - which further demonstrates how daft the idea is that this is a line only designed to be accessed by cars

 

[Transilien]

I saw one encouraging sign of this being a case of local staff for local trains, a sweet throwback to the Beeching era.

What do you mean by this? Does it really matter what area the staff come from?

 

[Magrar]

The lack of ambition and insight in this thread is the whole point.

It takes zero intellectual effort, zero vision, zero, to build a railway station in a town centre with a car park attached, with all other possible means of getting there, given less priority. It's how it's been done for 60 years. And we know the costs. Environmental, societal, economic.

How does that fit with the various initiatives by government to literally transform how we live, work and travel? It doesn't. It literally ignores them.

By the time you have gotten on a bus anywhere on the outskirts of Ashington or a nearby village, got off at the bus station, walked all the way to the station, the last leg right around a building site (which maybe in god knows how many years time will be a nice pedestrianied thoroughfare linking the town centre proper to their new station), even if you have timed it perfectly and the train is on time, you have lost all possible journey time advantaged over just getting a bus. Waiting a further 30 minutes should car drivers have held up your bus journey, is the extra kick in the teeth.

People must be fuming, having to go through all that, while cars and taxis just pull up right at the platform, or park a few yards away, in the adjacent sea of ugly tarmac, that could have been literally anything nicer.

 

[yorksrob]

The lack of ambition and insight in this thread is the whole point.

It takes zero intellectual effort, zero vision, zero, to build a railway station in a town centre with a car park attached, with all other possible means of getting there, given less priority. It's how it's been done for 60 years. And we know the costs. Environmental, societal, economic.

How does that fit with the various initiatives by government to literally transform how we live, work and travel? It doesn't. It literally ignores them.

By the time you have gotten on a bus anywhere on the outskirts of Ashington or a nearby village, got off at the bus station, walked all the way to the station, the last leg right around a building site (which maybe in god knows how many years time will be a nice pedestrianied thoroughfare linking the town centre proper to their new station), even if you have timed it perfectly and the train is on time, you have lost all possible journey time advantaged over just getting a bus. Waiting a further 30 minutes should car drivers have held up your bus journey, is the extra kick in the teeth.

People must be fuming, having to go through all that, while cars and taxis just pull up right at the platform, or park a few yards away, in the adjacent sea of ugly tarmac, that could have been literally anything nicer.

The problem is that it takes shed loads of money to reopen a passenger railway in England such as this.

For someone to say it takes "zero ambition, zero intellectual effort" etc to achieve a reopening such of this sort, suggests a lack of comprehension of the obstacles that are, and have been in place against local railway openings for decades.

I think that you may be correct that integration with public transport, station architecture etc could be improved for future schemes, but without projects such as Blythe/Okehampton providing the bread and butter service to local passengers proving the way, future projects are unlikely to happen.

None of this distracts from my main point that the industry has a perception problem in terms of being able to get projects done that benefit people within decent time and a good budget. The reopenings have provided this.

 

[Nicholas Lewis]

The problem is that it takes shed loads of money to reopen a passenger railway in England such as this.

For someone to say it takes "zero ambition, zero intellectual effort" etc to achieve a reopening such of this sort, suggests a lack of comprehension of the obstacles that are, and have been in place against local railway openings for decades.

I think that you may be correct that integration with public transport, station architecture etc could be improved for future schemes, but without projects such as Blythe/Okehampton providing the bread and butter service to local passengers proving the way, future projects are unlikely to happen.

None of this distracts from my main point that the industry has a perception problem in terms of being able to get projects done that benefit people within decent time and a good budget. The reopenings have provided this.

Ashington and Portishead are coming at huge costs when you consider they are largely existing railway lines so get any line from nothing to new railway is going to be even more. What we need is leadership that challenges the status quo and gets these projects to afordable levels. BR showed it could be done in the 80s when it had its back against the wall and worked out Thatcher wasnt going to sign blank cheques.

 

[yorksrob]

Ashington and Portishead are coming at huge costs when you consider they are largely existing railway lines so get any line from nothing to new railway is going to be even more. What we need is leadership that challenges the status quo and gets these projects to afordable levels. BR showed it could be done in the 80s when it had its back against the wall and worked out Thatcher wasnt going to sign blank cheques.

The point is that these are much more cost- effective and immediate compared to the grandes projects.

I've not done a comparison in the costs between BR projects such as Thameslink, Birmingham Snow Hill, Windsor link etc and more recent openings, but if they were done more cost effectively, then lets learn lessons.

 

[Sonic1234]

What we need is leadership that challenges the status quo and gets these projects to afordable levels.

Too many snouts in the trough in consultancy, legal, health and safety, finance, "best practice" etc.

"Professional services" is what we do as a country.

 

[Magrar]

The problem is that it takes shed loads of money to reopen a passenger railway in England such as this.

For someone to say it takes "zero ambition, zero intellectual effort" etc to achieve a reopening such of this sort, suggests a lack of comprehension of the obstacles that are, and have been in place against local railway openings for decades.

I think that you may be correct that integration with public transport, station architecture etc could be improved for future schemes, but without projects such as Blythe/Okehampton providing the bread and butter service to local passengers proving the way, future projects are unlikely to happen.

None of this distracts from my main point that the industry has a perception problem in terms of being able to get projects done that benefit people within decent time and a good budget. The reopenings have provided this.

Afaik Ashington was neither on time or within budget, and hugely disruptive. Even though the obstacles were known.

It is a given that building a railway takes a lot of money. A lot of money gets spent on new developments in town centres even now. There is never any perception there as far as I can tell, that someone hasn't at least tried to be innovative and forward thinking, even if that's only because policy forces them to.

Why should the railway get a free pass, and just deliver a bread and butter offering, as if Ashington was merely a tool to unlock bigger pots of money for the projects they really want to do?

Like I said, nobody is saying don't be glad it was done. But shout about it? You're only going to highlight the issues of what an uninspiring and not remotely forward thinking piece of work it really is.

 

[WAO]

It was Chris Green who said that a railway should be boring, i.e. just does what it says on the tin without drawing attention to itself. Cost over-runs and delays are part of British life.

It sounds like this re-opening, of a mere provincial branch line, prosaically carrying many to work, shopping, leisure, VFR etc, is on that measure, a success.

WAO

 

[Magrar]

It was Chris Green who said that a railway should be boring, i.e. just does what it says on the tin without drawing attention to itself. Cost over-runs and delays are part of British life.

It sounds like this re-opening, of a mere provincial branch line, prosaically carrying many to work, shopping, leisure, VFR etc, is on that measure, a success.

WAO

Boring is fine if indeed it does what it says on the tin.

(although why they ignored how car companies and the historical train companies took so much pride in presenting a luxury high class experience, is beyond me. This isn't Soviet Russia. We aren't numbers on a spreadhseet)

Afaik this line has all the delays and other operating issues as other Northern lines, so no, the tin is a lie.

And being blasted with filthy smoke and deafening noise because they couldn't even be bothered to provide an actual proper shelter that is entirely closed from the elements, never mind a waiting room, is very much not boring. It's horrible. It's depressing. It's disgusting, when we now live in an era where even the most basic of cars and even buses, has what were considered luxuries only a few decades ago. I know that compares a vehicle to a stop, but you get the idea.