Recent content by tbtc

There's an interesting discussion here. Could GBR bring Cross Country DOWN to the standards it experienced under British Rail? Presumably some people have (conveniently?) forgotten how bad it was in the BR days. After all, Virgin named their transformation "Operation Princess", given how much...

I don't bother posting so much these days, but I simply had to see this map that's apparently responsible for all the social ills of modern day life, wow, that's quite an accolade! More seriously, it's a great looking map, easy to understand, simple looking (in the best meaning of the word!)...

I think a lot of people are either unaware of what "InterCity" actually was, or are misremembering it to suit their agendas InterCity was the sector with BR's profitable corridors That's basically it. NSE became the sector for the remaining routes in London/ Home Countries, Scotrail for all...

Thanks everyone for the corrections, it's interesting to go over all of this and fill in a few blanks Maybe it would never have lasted even if COVID hadn't come along, routes like the X58 to Dundee seemed a risk to reliability, but it was good to see Stagecoach trying to adapt to new demands...

A few thoughts/comments (in no particular order): In the real world, we are spending big money on additional platform capacity at Forster Square for London trains to have a platform to recover at/ wait until it's time to head back to Leeds, currently they can sit for over an hour in Bradford...

It was (and probably always will be) the high watermark for 'Express' services in Fife - everything scheduled for coach operation unless specified) Glasgow to Halbeath was every fifteen minutes: Half hourly to Chapel and Kirkcaldy (X27) Half hourly to Glenrothes, Cupar, Dairsie (X24 to St...

I was at Beamish a couple of weeks ago and heartened at the good numbers of people eschewing the 'obvious' 1913 centerpiece for the 1950s semi detached houses etc in the post-war section (which opened in 2022) The novelty of a section that's only been open three years will have added something...

It's a fine name and colour, albeit a very 'busy' livery on the launch bus, but expect that to be toned down significantly before 2027: eye-catching is great for publicity images but doesn't work so well with damaged panels Green is a colour associated public transport in West Yorkshire...

That was my first thought (Birmingham to Brighton had some merit but not the northern section). The Newcastle bit felt like a token side-salad, only included to generate a bit of publicity in the North East (headlines in the local press there like "Sunderland train operator seeks new Gatwick...

Sheffield: Every route will have changed since the city’s road layouts have changed (most significantly to accommodate the forthcoming trams in the nineties but also schemes like pedestrianisation of Leavygrave Lane meaning university routes can’t make the old left turn off the ring road, more...

I think that there are two fairly distinct things getting discussed here A “simple” Stocksbridge - Barrow Hill (Chesterfield) service seems a relatively low cost reopening (I mean, it’s going to cost a fortune, it’ll be terrible value for money, it’ll avoid a lot of residential areas en route...

Apologies for repeating myself, but we seem to be having the same arguments on multiple threads… If the argument is that that “TOC X is so busy that it needs 10x26m trains, not just on certain sections but permanently coupled together” then TOC X can afford a second Guard/ Trolley, whether...

I wasn't the one who said it’d be “economically viable”, I’m just questioning what you meant by “economically viable”… since it sounds like you were suggesting it’d pay for itself, or at least that it’d be so busy that trains could run with no subsidies… … but it sounds like you’re backtracking...

It was half hourly pre-Covid, but it was every twelve minutes with through trams to Hillsborough* in the early days of Supertram (when Meadowhall was just a shuttle to the city centre) My take on the branch is that it’s a problematic stub (like Malin Bridge) which should either have been built...

The problem there is that you’re doubling costs (second coach, second driver) for the number of people inconvenienced - presumably the company have done the maths and decided that the big increase in expenditure wouldn’t be rewarded with a commensurate increase in revenue