Recent content by urbophile

Catching up with Liverpool at last. But not before time. I don't know if Metrolink is described as a 'rapid transit' system, but if so it's a total misnomer.

I maybe misuderstanding, but I would have thought the point of a 'diversity' livery was to celebrate that we are all different, that 'the groups it is representing' include all of us. It's not white heterosexual cisgender native-English-speaking men in one category (that doesn't need to be...

So are people.

Lugano - Basel is a good route. I did it at short notice after the landslip five (? or so) years ago. It didn't take much longer than the direct TGV would have done, if I recall correctly.

At least TfW have a more laid-back attitude to language use than the Belgian railways (or possibly government). It was reported recently that a guard was reprimanded (maybe even fined) for greeting passengers first with Bonjour rather than Goedemorgen, even though the train was heading towards...

Well just imagine what Welsh speakers in Wales have had to. put up with for generations.

The Wetherspoons! Imagine what sort of house you'd give that name to.

Can you buy one at the airport itself, for arriving passengers? It would put me off, having to pay £2 on the bus plus the faff and expense of buying a train ticket, when I could hop on one of several buses (including the fast-ish 500)and do the whole journey to the city centre without changing...

True. But those areas in many cities now are totally changed. Liverpool's Baltic Triangle area is now alive with bars, restaurants and music venues, as well as rapid expanding as a residential area. Many years ago it was largely warehouses, or tightly-packed inner city housing from which most...

In the NW, Skelmersdale, Leigh, Fleetwood for starters. Bury and Oldham have light rail but no Network Rail. Speke is effectively a new town (population I'm not sure, but well over 10k.) Administratively part of the City of Liverpool but a forgotten outpost thereof.

It would make life easier if we did.

I've often been told by staff to use the wide gate if I have luggage (even a small case which will easily get through the normal ones).

I entirely agree, but often missed in discussions of this topic are the needs of the people of Speke. Usually dismissed as a peripheral (and working class) housing estate, it is the size of a market town and really needs better connections to the city centre. Kirkby, a very similar place albeit...

Ideally the former: the residents of Speke deserve a much better connection to the city centre than the current slow bus service. Second best, a tram-train link from the Airport, joining the slow line from Parkway to Edge Hill and then into the city centre either via the Wapping tunnel or...

They are, on Merseyrail.