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Wasn't 125 where possible between Birmingham and Taunton part of the originally-conceived Operation Princess infrastructure package? (But unlike Birmingham–Sheffield, Wolverhampton–Stafford, Oxford–Banbury (for tilt), tht bit and several other never got started—and then came the Railtrack collapse.)

Time-limits, both for land-acquisition and for construction were laid down in Acts from very early on. It was very common for contruction times to be exceeded, so there are lots of cases for companies going back to parliament for an extension for that. But also powers were kept alive for quite...

Why can't we do what the Swiss and the Dutch have done for years — decide what timetable you want, and then make sure that in time for its introduction you have the necessary infrastructure to be able to deliver it reliably? (In a much more long-winded and argumentative way this is also the...

No, it was believed that the mining subsidence was done with on that line (and had moved eastwards), so the decision had been to develop Sheffield–Cudworth–Leeds as a fast route and massively upgrade Altofts to Chaloners Whin (as it then still was) as the fast Sheffield–York route — thus the...

Would people want their tax burden to come down if they actually received quality public services, including (in this context) comfortable and fast train services between major cities rather than just to and from London? Thanks to government policies it seems that as road rolling stock (both...

Does anyonme know yetr exactly what he did say? The BBC has been very careful all day yesterday, whilst repeating the "news" at every possible opportunity, to say that it hasn't been able to confirm the precise comments. And what about setting? Are we thinking of throw-away remarks in casual...

At least the digital manipulation (however imcompetent) is more interesting than the original "news" of the release of the image — so important that it had to figure on each hourly R4 news summary on Sunday as well as getting the usual exaggerated TV coverage. Do we really pay a licence fee to...

But civil servants who are very good at getting what they want, especially when weak or ever-changing politicians head up ministries. Surely the whole appeal of "Yes, Minister" and "Yes, Prime Minister" lies in how far we believe there's an awful lot of truth behind the writing especially as...

And that down fast line platform is responsible for the break down to 110 in what would otherwise be a decently long stretch of 125 — non-platform up fast is 125. Going back to the earlier station, there were bays north and south on the up side and then the two through lines. The bays were the...

Then I must be just a few years older than you, but from the north-west of England. I too remember plenty of visual signs of the then-recent war (especially in Manchester and Liverpool) and continuing rationing, with the trip to a centre (which happened to be gthe local Conservative Club which...

How does 29–55 units amd 174–330 vehicles, which seems to tie in with 6-car sets, fit with up to 195 m in length. Even with 26.4-metre vehicles a 6-car set only comes to 158.4 m.

Absolutely! Funny how Little Belgium can have a clear plan for its high-speed network and get on and steadily deliver it, isn't it?

District and Metropolitan refer back to railway companies, so have a perfectly clear railway history connection. Jubilee is every bit as daft and politically-correct as the Elizabeth Line (or the Elizabeth Tower), and wasn't it — like the Elizabeth Line — a late change, from the Fleet Line? But...

If underground through stations can be provided in recent times in Antwerp and Leipzig, why can't they be provided in Birmingham or Manchester? It's not a question of our not having the technology or even the money — just look at the scale and lavishness of Crossrail.

What relationship does any of the new names have to a railway place or a railway line? At least the Tube/Underground names so appear to have some connection (despite what is said above, and except for Boris Johnson's absurd politically-correct Elizabeth Line for the perfect satisfactoriy named...

Zoe Kennedy, in the quotation in post #3: "... we continue to concentrate on delivering high performing services for customers and communities across Great Britain ..." Can "services" really be qualified by "high-performing" when talking of CrossCountry?

When do "four express services per hour" become merely "n trains per hour"? The reason behind the extra calls may be just as you suggest, but more stops and long station-waits are just tedious for the passenger expecting an express service. At what stage is said passenger likely to think the...

Am I alone in never having heard of Steve Wright before the R4 news announcement yesterday afternoon?

Very much so — but rather typical of modern Britain for many years now.

How long is it since we really had a cabinet of heavyweights and a shadow cabinet capable of genuinely holding the government to account?