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I believe Upper Tyndrum, Rannoch, Spean Bridge and Fort William are all fine for 5 coach trains so don’t need any additional works to accommodate these trains. Corrour will continue to be 1 door opening. Dumbarton Central is fine for 7 coach trains too. The only operational issue I can see...

I used that service about 2 years ago after attending a dinner party in Glenfinnan to get to my hotel in Lochailort. Probably a fairly niche market though. Chatted to the driver as I boarded to request the Lochailort stop just in case I didn’t manage to catch the guard before Lochailort.

Two missing station reopenings from the list: Howwood 2001 Gartcosh 2005

The current timetable includes a Winchburgh slot and has been signed off by Transport Scotland. It just needs the money to build the station now. Location is north of the new bridge, rather than under it.

Not least because the chord isn’t happening in the next 10 years whereas the station is needed ASAP. If the chord were happening the location isn’t that much worse than the proposed one but it isn’t as good.

In general TS hate station reopenings as they usually make the railway slower for existing passengers, more expensive to run and there is often a good reason why stations closed in the first place. They rarely make good business cases but when they do happen it’s more likely to be due to...

That’s not quite what happened. The developers committed to pay for the station and West Lothian Council were going to include a requirement to build it in the Legal Agreement back in 2011 when they were issuing the planning permission. Transport Scotland objected to the station being included...

There would be a certain logic in Girvan being one of the 8. Once Girvan is electrified and included in the Glasgow - Ayr electrics you could run a battery Girvan - Stranraer shuttle 2 hourly service. Signalling wise this could pretty much operate “One Engine in Steam” but you’d still need...

The reference is to Dunfermline now being Scotland’s 8th city. Scotrail’s 7 cities Intercity branding hasn’t caught up with Dunfermline’s new legal status.

Seems likely. Could see an argument for Stirling or Carstairs instead of Clachnaharry but suspect remote canal bridge monitoring is so niche as to be expensive to implement. However I’d be certain that Banavie will survive as one of the 8. RETB plus the canal makes abolishing it very unlikely.

I would think it’s more likely to be Edinburgh, Glasgow, Dundee, Aberdeen, Perth, Inverness, Clachnaharry and Banavie.

Yes but because the cost saving is smaller (About £8k per annum less for Ticket Collectors compared to Conductors) compared to saving an entire salary in other TOCs the risk/reward benefit for strikes is different. Essentially not worth a costly strike for fairly small savings. As more...

The Balmoral always brings to mind the (possibly apocryphal) story of a very senior London media executive who late at night migrated down to the Balmoral bar from the George Hotel during the TV festival once and demanded a Gin & Tonic. “Madam” said the barman “I’m afraid after 11pm the bar is...

I would say that is a pretty accurate list. Agree that Winchburgh and Auchenback are the only Tier 1 candidates. Some others that might be on the radar in Tier 2 (best of the rest) would be: Evanton - population of 1500, timetabling should be possible in Tain services but marginal business...

People are always posting this but there is limited evidence for it. The journey times and loadings on Neilston and Newton are well beyond ideal tram capacity in the peaks. Yes you could increase frequency with trams but would the overall peak capacity increase? I'm not convinced.

The Dunblane - Aberdeen planning document also lists: Hilton Junction TSC Perth MPTSC Inverkeilor TSC as well as Drumlithie, Invergowrie and Greenloaning that you already have.

I was using the request stop at Schwendi on the Berner Oberland Bahn (BOB), Switzerland this week. Worked perfectly. Had 2 different buttons on the machine - one for direction Grindelwald and one for direction Zweilutschinen. They are under a live screen that shows the trains due in the next...

Not that I am aware of. The timetable can supposedly accept calls at Winchburgh without any additional infrastructure but my understanding is that some elements in Transport Scotland were concerned about reliability of Newbridge Junction after opening of Winchburgh

Which is not to say that Almond Chord will never happen but that Winchburgh needs to try and make a working business case prior to the chord opening as Almond Chord won’t be happening in the next 10-15 years.

My understanding is that everyone is now agreed Winchburgh station needs to proceed assuming Almond Chord never happens. So it’s making the funding and timetable work on the existing line that is now the only option.