Grim British Railway Journeys

[Bletchleyite]

I find the obsession with trees quite irritating. Certainly in the south-east, locals seem to demand trees that hug rail lines to a hazardous extent, causing problems when winds blow, excee leaf fall issues and making every journey like travelling through a boring long green tunnel. There is some hope that NR are upping their game in the worse spots by removing soem trees on their own land, - despite the whining from those who think that their view has priority over passenger safety.

And then when they do, the embankments fall down. They can't win

 

[Malcolmffc]

Thameslink between Loughborough Junction and Elephant used to be a pretty dire display of urban deprivation, but it has improved somewhat in recent years.

 

[Bletchleyite]

Thameslink between Loughborough Junction and Elephant used to be a pretty dire display of urban deprivation, but it has improved somewhat in recent years.

Though the Elephant is still a right dive.

 

[B&I]

Liverpool City Council are using a company called Kingdom to fine people littering and leaving dog mess (I have been fined by them myself. Never again, it was a cigarette end). They seemed to start out just getting people for dropping ciggy ends outside stations (Not the cities biggest problem) and they got a lot of criticism because they were easy to collar and they would tend to pick on people who wouldn't argue, just letting scalls who might cause trouble off with throwing what they wanted where they wanted. They are now being sent out in to the suburbs. The problem is that the local paper has published when they are going to be in what area so you can make sure you don't break the law on that day (Much like people who go on the internet and warn where the speed cameras are). I happily paid my fine and haven't done it again.

Isn't the deterrent effect quite useful? I've heard a lot of complaints about the actions of individual enforcers, but in principle somebody needs to do something to change the culture of total disregard for the public environment in this country.

 

[Bletchleyite]

Isn't the deterrent effect quite useful? I've heard a lot of complaints about the actions of individual enforcers, but in principle somebody needs to do something to change the culture of total disregard for the public environment in this country.

I'd rather enforcement by proper Police Officers than rent-a-thugs, even if that meant higher taxes and higher fines.

 

[shredder1]

Could not complain for a one Euro flight back ! - the approaches were akin to Sheffield in the 1940's , and as for the so called Airport facilities ...it may have changed since then (I doubt it)....

One Euro wow, best I`ve ever done is 2 Euro`s, but yes the airport hasnt really improved any, nice tram system though.

 

[B&I]

I rather like some of these grim stretches of line (e.g. Boro to Redcar) because, as the last traces of heavy industry evaporate in this country, the fascinating (if less than pretty) landscapes which went with it are also disappearing. Soon the only remnants of landscapes like the Liverpool or London docks, the Rotherham steelworks, the Nottingham bicycle factories or the coal waste conveyors of the Durham coast will be old British thrillers. But before anyone says it, I'm glad that I personally am not facing a life working in landscapes like those.

BTW is there a thread on the railways in old films?

 

[shredder1]

I rather like some of these grim stretches of line (e.g. Boro to Redcar) because, as the last traces of heavy industry evaporate in this country, the fascinating (if less than pretty) landscapes which went with it are also disappearing. Soon the only remnants of landscapes like the Liverpool or London docks, the Rotherham steelworks, the Nottingham bicycle factories or the coal waste conveyors of the Durham coast will be old British thrillers. But before anyone says it, I'm glad that I personally am not facing a life working in landscapes like those.

BTW is there a thread on the railways in old films?

Ghosts of past industries, love the old steels works and large factories in places like Bosnia, all derelict and forlorn, they are really photogenic, eerie places, especially after dark.

 

[B&I]

I'd rather enforcement by proper Police Officers than rent-a-thugs, even if that meant higher taxes and higher fines.

So would I, but there's about as much chance of a properly-funded porcine aerial display team as there is of there ever being enough beat coppers to make any difference to problems like littering.

Somehow the numbskulls responsible need to be made aware if the consequences of what they're doing. I live on the corner of a street leading to a Liverpool secondary school, whose pupils use my front garden as a convenient rubbish tip. I wish someone would tell the little blighters that, perhaps, there would be more jobs for them in a few years time if potential investors in the city weren't put off by its permanent miasma of litter. There are a lot of other places I could say the same of: I mention Liverpool because I live here.

 

[B&I]

Ghosts of past industries, love the old steels works and large factories in places like Bosnia, all derelict and forlorn, they are really photogenic, eerie places, especially after dark.

There is something haunting about them. I grew up on the edge of Belfast, and from the windows of my childhood home it looked as if the shipyard cranes were standing guard over the city (even though the yards were 3 miles away). Another, more impressive example: the design of 'Blade Runner' was inspired by Ridley Scott's travels to art school in Hartlepool

 

[shredder1]

There is something haunting about them. I grew up on the edge of Belfast, and from the windows of my childhood home it looked as if the shipyard cranes were standing guard over the city (even though the yards were 3 miles away). Another, more impressive example: the design of 'Blade Runner' was inspired by Ridley Scott's travels to art school in Hartlepool

Yes indeed amazing stuff, I stayed in an hotel overlooking Gdansk shipyard cranes last year, they looked really forboding, the things they must have seen over the years. Some of my fondess memories from 60`s shed bashing trips was seeing the coaling towers against the skyline which indicated which direction the sheds where, especially at ones we hadnt visited before.

 

[ArchieWoodbine]

Bristol Temple Meads - Bristol Parkway at the moment. Extensive track work. Filton Abbey Wood basically a building site, and you also get to sample the delights of Lawrence Hill and Stapleton Road.

There's that bit between Stapleton Road and Filton where there's a huge, scree-covered emankment on one side; a grassy embankment sprayed with concrete on the other - quite a dismal sight even to those sympathetic to construction in general.

 

[ChiefPlanner]

Though the Elephant is still a right dive.

Funnily enough - went through the "shopping centre" yesterday to the station. A definite candidate for demolition. Agreed - the area around LLJ has seriously improved over the last decade.

 

[HowardGWR]

And then when they do, the embankments fall down. They can't win

Might one suggest low growing shrubs, not trees? Just have a trimmer attached to a wagon and then scythe along the embankment, like the farmers do..

 

[duffield]

Seems a bit unfair to bring up the works on Filton bank (Bristol Parkway to Temple Meads) given this is a necessary and temporary situation, and they're also trying to build a new four-track railway which has an existing two-track railway snaking through it!

 

[AM9]

Ghosts of past industries, love the old steels works and large factories in places like Bosnia, all derelict and forlorn, they are really photogenic, eerie places, especially after dark.

I agree, better than boring walls of trees and bushes that could be anywhere.

Funnily enough - went through the "shopping centre" yesterday to the station. A definite candidate for demolition. Agreed - the area around LLJ has seriously improved over the last decade.

The trouble with that is that the developers look like they will do an 'ethnic cleansing' of all the small traders and replace them with flashy national chain retail operations and trendy (chain) coffee shops thereby making the Elephant just like any other centre.

 

[ArchieWoodbine]

Seems a bit unfair to bring up the works on Filton bank (Bristol Parkway to Temple Meads) given this is a necessary and temporary situation, and they're also trying to build a new four-track railway which has an existing two-track railway snaking through it!

Oh quite. There's no pretty way to do major earthworks - it's just undeniably a bit of an eye-sore during the works itself.

 

[anti-pacer]

So would I, but there's about as much chance of a properly-funded porcine aerial display team as there is of there ever being enough beat coppers to make any difference to problems like littering.

Somehow the numbskulls responsible need to be made aware if the consequences of what they're doing. I live on the corner of a street leading to a Liverpool secondary school, whose pupils use my front garden as a convenient rubbish tip. I wish someone would tell the little blighters that, perhaps, there would be more jobs for them in a few years time if potential investors in the city weren't put off by its permanent miasma of litter. There are a lot of other places I could say the same of: I mention Liverpool because I live here.

^^This and definitely this.

People don't understand that inward investors are put off by litter. Apart from being unsightly, you tend to find crime and general anti-social behaviour is higher in dirty areas. People also generally are more likely to feel unsafe in areas where litter is in abundance.

Back to investors, no self-respecting business wants to locate themselves in a dirty area. It's not a great image for them and not a great impression for their clients and customers. Like I said in my OP, two businessmen on the train I was on both commented on these rubbish strewn embankments and general trackside litter, actually more than once. Their accents weren't local and they were on their way to Manchester Airport (I heard them ask the guard what platform they needed in Huddersfield for it). How do we know that they weren't in West Yorkshire to invest?

It's all very well for certain people on this site to roll their 'keyboard eyes' at me because I mention this subject, but I'll say this. It's a railway issue, and whilst not the fault of Network Rail by any means, it's still a concern. It's a subject I feel strongly about and if people aren't interested, I'm not sure why they comment. I have absolutely zero interest in what number of unit I'm travelling on, so don't comment on these threads. Also, I wouldn't dream of putting someone on these threads down because I don't share their views.

If anyone wants to know exactly where this embankment is, it's at the rear of Park View off Slaithwaite Road, Thornhill, Dewsbury. There is a patch of land next to it covered in kids toys that have been dumped there, if anyone wants some!

To give you another insight into Dewsbury's litter/fly-tipping problem, I accidentally came across this whilst Googling the issue. Enjoy!

 

[greyman42]

I suggest you travel along this route and THEN comment. As for me having a "strange obsession" for this topic, well enlighten me as to what is strange about wanting to live in a clean country? Do you think it's acceptable for people to fly-tip from their back gardens down railway embankments, or for people to litter generally?

I am not denigrating the populace of West Yorkshire at all. I was born and live here, although I've lived all over the country. I'm denigrating the scruffy people who can't dispose of their waste properly. Yorkshire, according to a government report I read is the second dirtiest English region (after the North West, and before the North East). I see you're from Sheffield, and you think being "anti-litter" is somehow strange. Is this mindset commonplace in your area? Maybe this explains why we as a region fare so badly. Maybe litter isn't something people in our region care about. Maybe I'm wrong, because according to my local council it's the most complained about issue, so maybe not everyone is like you and people recognise it as a problem.

You mention that most people would be more interested in the stock they are travelling on. Probably true, although as stated in my post the businessmen near me on the train, both not local from their accents, also commented. Is this the impression we want to give?

I have only just contacted Network Rail so haven't had a reply yet.

I will say this though. If the state of our railways doesn't concern/bother/interest you, maybe concentrate on threads that interest you instead of trying to denigrate the ones that don't.

I completely agree with what you say but as you can see, you are banging your head against a brick wall with all the do-gooders on this forum.

 

[B&I]

I completely agree with what you say but as you can see, you are banging your head against a brick wall with all the do-gooders on this forum.

I've always wondered why 'do-gooder' is an insult, and what the opposite of one is (a 'do-badder' ?)

 

[hassaanhc]

Various lines in the West Midlands, such as the approaches to Birmingham New Street and the lines to Wolverhampton and to Walsall (both ways from New Street).

And it's the gateway to the UK's most scenic InterCity mainline, even remarkably close to London. The WCML tells the story of the UK, from bustling, busy and mucky London, past Wembley Stadium, to the rolling hills of the Chilterns (far more scenic than the actual Chiltern line), to the industrial Midlands and North West, to the beautiful Lake District, spectacular Shap (my favourite bit) and up to Scotland's two main cities, both endearing in their own right. I really don't see that there's anything to really hate about it.

Do agree about the WCML vs actual Chiltern line. I was very disappointed the first time I went from Marylebone.

 

[AlterEgo]

Drayton Park to Moorgate has to be a contender - with some stations last redecorated when Network South East was born.....

Greenford branch perhaps another.

Drayton Park is one of my favourite stations because of how jaded it is.

Every time I go back I’m filled with worry that they’ll have cleaned it up.

It’s got a real “Primrose Hill 1994” vibe to it.

 

[AlterEgo]

Hartlepool to Stockton is as grim as it gets. Pacers, Chemical Plants, Mad Max landscape and oddly coloured pools of water

Good call.

I once urbexed just north of Hartlepool in the old magnesia works - it is wonderfully dystopian.

 

[greyman42]

Stalybridge to Man Pic is unpleasant.

 

[AlterEgo]

Though the Elephant is still a right dive.

I was there today, interchanging between Thameslink and Tube. I went into the shopping centre and was shocked at how deprived the area is.

 

[ChiefPlanner]

I was there today, interchanging between Thameslink and Tube. I went into the shopping centre and was shocked at how deprived the area is.

Bombed in WW2 and trashed by the planners and developers post war. Traffic choked and almost Clockwork Orange atmosphere - corporate planning at its worst. Brixton has had some tough times but the baisc good Edwardian and Victorian urban realm has survived and been improved / tarted up/ gentrified - but has character still.

Back to the West Mids - Stechford to Wolverhampton / Soho in winter can be really down heartening - I have yet to fulfill my ambition to go to Severn Beach , ideally in deep Winter.

 

[ChiefPlanner]

Drayton Park is one of my favourite stations because of how jaded it is.

Every time I go back I’m filled with worry that they’ll have cleaned it up.

It’s got a real “Primrose Hill 1994” vibe to it.

Absolute zero investment - and the ghost of train 272 seems to hang around ...

 

[route101]

I once boarded a train at Otopeni Airport station in the pitch dark. No lighting and no white line at the edge of the platform - a complete death trap.

Didnt realise there was a station at that airport . Been on a few trains in Bosnia and Serbia where they leave the doors open and went on an EMU in Istanbul with doors wide open , commuter layout.

 

[otomous]

I completely agree with what you say but as you can see, you are banging your head against a brick wall with all the do-gooders on this forum.

I would probably be a "do gooder" going by what I understand this to mean. This does not mean I approve of littering or vandalism. I'd like nothing more than prosecutions and education to get this shameful element out of our culture.

 

[6Gman]

I rather like some of these grim stretches of line (e.g. Boro to Redcar) because, as the last traces of heavy industry evaporate in this country, the fascinating (if less than pretty) landscapes which went with it are also disappearing. Soon the only remnants of landscapes like the Liverpool or London docks, the Rotherham steelworks, the Nottingham bicycle factories or the coal waste conveyors of the Durham coast will be old British thrillers. But before anyone says it, I'm glad that I personally am not facing a life working in landscapes like those.

BTW is there a thread on the railways in old films?

The Liverpool docks are still there and still used, and visible from Southport trains. They've just moved north into bigger docks.