• Our booking engine at tickets.railforums.co.uk (powered by TrainSplit) helps support the running of the forum with every ticket purchase! Find out more and ask any questions/give us feedback in this thread!

Recent content by Clayton

  1. C

    Could railways become high speed roads for automated vehicles?

    Also, the idea of using hired autonomous vehicles falls down once you think of the reality. They’d be full of crisp packets and burger boxes and someone’s done a wee in the corner. How often would they need to return to base for cleaning? And many people would be too self-important to use a...
  2. C

    Could railways become high speed roads for automated vehicles?

    Yes good one. This scenario comes around every now and then and this is a good riposte. Autonomous cars will still get in the way and be ‘traffic’.
  3. C

    RENFE considering London to Barcelona (and perhaps beyond) services

    I probably wouldn’t go by train to Barcelona, but I’ve been from Oxford to Edinburgh a few times and although it takes six hours or more the train is competitive with a flight from Birmingham or Heathrow in both time and cost. And the train is more chilled as long as nothing goes wrong (a big...
  4. C

    Heathrow and BA a disgrace to the country

    BA are fine, certainly better than the low cost carriers. I just read a book and take a sandwich.
  5. C

    HS2 Manchester leg scrapped: what should happen now?

    She’s doing her job as a constituency MP and I do agree it’s a good idea. The country’s too small to require speed over everything else , and railway lines are meant to have stations. If the design had been more pragmatic from the start it might have been cheaper and more popular.
  6. C

    Ayr to Kilmarnock

    When I was a kid visiting family there in the 60s there was a service from Ayr to Kilmarnock often operated by single car DMUs, which I was fascinated by! I wanted to go on a trip in one but when we got to the station it was a disappointingly grubby class 26 or 7.
  7. C

    1970 Paddington - Ilfracombe / Minehead train consists

    If people are interested in this and are on Facebook there’s a great group on there devoted to the Ilfracombe line, run by a guy called Jon Kliem. Lots of wonderful pictures and bits of info - I believe only one Western made it up there.
  8. C

    Projects you'd build but will (probably) never happen

    Oxford to Witney and on to Cheltenham and Cowley at each end. The traffic is just atrocious!
  9. C

    Cross Country Trains produce a useful PRINTED Timetable booklet again.

    I’m on my phone or iPad the whole time but I like a printed timetable for getting an overview of the service. And I have a kindle but frequently go to the library!
  10. C

    East-West Rail (EWR): Consultation updates [not speculation]

    Great, let’s get on with it! I’m looking forward to getting a train from Oxford to Cambridge for a nice weekend. And the line opens up so many opportunities for connectivity on the main lines it crosses - maybe that will be the biggest driver.
  11. C

    UK train passengers face loss of free wi-fi

    Seems a bit crazy as a lot of people like to work on laptops. Being able to do this is something that sets trains apart from other forms of transport. On my phone I just use my data.
  12. C

    How would the U.K. need to adapt if the railway system were abolished?

    I appreciate this is just a hypothetical chat but this would be hopeless. It would take an hour to get out of London and think of all the staff a coach every ten minutes would require- and coaches are hopeless for bikes, pushchairs, etc as well as luggage. Plus where would you put all the...
  13. C

    How would the U.K. need to adapt if the railway system were abolished?

    There won’t be any fuel duty to cut because there won’t be any petrol or diesel cars. And try going round the M25 during a rail strike.
  14. C

    Which type of train still in service today will you miss most when they've all been withdrawn from use on the national network?

    Meh, most of these are just boring units. I guess the HST will leave a gap, being both futuristic and nostalgic.
  15. C

    Should Oxford have a tramway?

    Sadly the roads are generally too narrow. And what advantage would trams have over buses? We’d still need buses

Top