Just thought I'd start a thread about controversial railway opinions, which perhaps stem from irrational "feelings" rather than raw logic, and which are perhaps niche.
So I'm not counting things like "Things were better with 50s/87s/HSTs/Kings/Castles/CIGs/VEPs/heritage DMUs/delete as appropriate" because these are common opinions in the rail enthusiast community. Even Pacer appreciation is borderline now, as it's becoming more mainstream now they're gone.
I'm thinking of things which are distinctly "unusual" shall we say, where you might not have many people agreeing with you even on here.
I'll offer two, for starters.
1. Operation Princess was the last great XC timetable.
Why? While I preferred the days of 47s, 86s, and HSTs, I do think Operation Princess was operationally an interesting timetable, connecting different points and offering multiple destinations from a given branch of the XC network (such as, IIRC, Bournemouth alternating Manchester/Newcastle/Glasgow WCML/Edinburgh ECML). It also provided Portsmouth and Brighton with services. I realise it was unworkable, but the whole point of this thread is to throw logic to the wind for a bit.
By contrast XC under Arriva is arguably little more than a glorified metro system. Now metro systems are great in certain circumstances (see below) but I prefer my IC networks to have more in the way of route variety.
2. In the recent (post-2004) era, the high point of Southern/Thameslink was in the early 2010s, prior to the recent Thameslink improvements.
Why? In contrast to the above, for me the current Thameslink is a bit of a sprawling, higgledy-piggledy monster which doesn't feel right for an outer-suburban network. A Thameslink which keeps to a simple, lean network feels "cleaner" to me. So for me the high point of Thameslink was around 2013/4 or so, in the days when it was operated with a mix of 377s and 319s and focused on a small number of core routes. Likewise, Southern was also more interesting in this era, with the "classic" Brighton fasts (rather than the GatEx hybrids) still existing and through services from London Bridge to Tonbridge, which I always thought was nice.
Any more? As I said, there is no need to back up your opinions with hard logic!
So I'm not counting things like "Things were better with 50s/87s/HSTs/Kings/Castles/CIGs/VEPs/heritage DMUs/delete as appropriate" because these are common opinions in the rail enthusiast community. Even Pacer appreciation is borderline now, as it's becoming more mainstream now they're gone.
I'm thinking of things which are distinctly "unusual" shall we say, where you might not have many people agreeing with you even on here.
I'll offer two, for starters.
1. Operation Princess was the last great XC timetable.
Why? While I preferred the days of 47s, 86s, and HSTs, I do think Operation Princess was operationally an interesting timetable, connecting different points and offering multiple destinations from a given branch of the XC network (such as, IIRC, Bournemouth alternating Manchester/Newcastle/Glasgow WCML/Edinburgh ECML). It also provided Portsmouth and Brighton with services. I realise it was unworkable, but the whole point of this thread is to throw logic to the wind for a bit.
By contrast XC under Arriva is arguably little more than a glorified metro system. Now metro systems are great in certain circumstances (see below) but I prefer my IC networks to have more in the way of route variety.
2. In the recent (post-2004) era, the high point of Southern/Thameslink was in the early 2010s, prior to the recent Thameslink improvements.
Why? In contrast to the above, for me the current Thameslink is a bit of a sprawling, higgledy-piggledy monster which doesn't feel right for an outer-suburban network. A Thameslink which keeps to a simple, lean network feels "cleaner" to me. So for me the high point of Thameslink was around 2013/4 or so, in the days when it was operated with a mix of 377s and 319s and focused on a small number of core routes. Likewise, Southern was also more interesting in this era, with the "classic" Brighton fasts (rather than the GatEx hybrids) still existing and through services from London Bridge to Tonbridge, which I always thought was nice.
Any more? As I said, there is no need to back up your opinions with hard logic!
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