Recent content by Peter Wilde

If we are doing more appropriate alternative names for the station at OOC, how about “Failing Fantasy Moneypit Junction” ?

Not a great performance by DB on our early April trip. ICEs both ways (Frankfurt Flughafen to/from Mannheim) were running late with extended journey times - and with the normal requirement to only travel on ones pre-booked service relaxed. At least that part did help us. Engineering work...

Maybe, in the easy sense in terms of sticking to each closure shortly after they’ve announced it. The project as a whole however is running late. The re-routed Wisley Lane, over a new bridge over the A3, was supposed to open “in autumn 2023”. The bridge is built, but the road over it is still...

Thanks for helpful replies. Point remains though that the National Rail journey planner is atrociously unhelpful. I would never have thought of looking at routes via Epsom - always tend to avoid that line, as it’s slow; and especially so since post-Covid, SWR halved the previous normal service...

Planning a simple trip in April on Sunday 21st (Horsley to Streatham, should be do-able changing once at Clapham Jct) But, National Rail journey planner gives this message "This journey is not a permitted route and may require multiple tickets. Please re-plan your journey”. WTF ?? There...

Tourists like holidays on islands because their isolation makes the vibe a bit different. That even works for the Isle of Wight! Connecting the Channel Islands by rail tunnel would ruin that. Not to worry, it will never happen as it’s unaffordably expensive.

Interesting idea but not sure if this works. Thought the point of developing biocoal - a work in progress - was specifically to make a coal-like fuel suitable for heritage steam engines. Jury is out on whether or not it will prove economically feasible and can be made "green” enough (e.g. can...

I don’t have a problem with the names. I do see a problem with the colours, even for people with average to good eyesight. For example the reddish-orange one and the reddish-purple one can only just be distinguished on the 'potted version" of the map that only shows the Overground. When the...

Happens (maybe too often). Are the toilets working? 1707245424 The 455 original vs refurb debate will always divide opinion. Points on both sides. I was at first dead against the reduced number of seats but was eventually won over. At least SWT’s new interiors made it clear the trains were...

The big technology challenge is making autonomous vehicles capable of driving safely and efficiently - not in well behaved traffic in wide American spaces, but in the full range of cramped conditions on British/European roads, with cramped roadworks, policemen, badly marked narrow lanes, drunk...

That seems an interesting and well thought out proposition. In considering whether a safety case could be made convincing, there are some arguments on both sides, including: How much safer would a shrouded, bottom contact third rail system be, compared to the bare top-contact Southern legacy...

Paranoia about lost bags? Maybe. But does happen - to me once when travelling to a holiday and was highly inconvenient (ski tour in wilds of Norway, no shops whatsoever accessible to buy replacements for missing specialist kit). Some of my family lost all 3 of their bags from one flight -...

Lots of misconceptions and evidence-free arguments have appeared in all this. Like: “Most people on Ryanair have found out how to travel without luggage”. Well, that kind of statement is disputed by some. However, let’s assume it is true to some extent. Why can it happen? Well there are at...

Please note I was not comparing the present generation of EMUs with their immediate predecessors. I was looking further back. Most of my experience (as a passenger on these trains) has been on the southern third rail routes. I well recall much comment (e.g. in Modern Railways) at the time of...

Driving any modern EMU (safely and efficiently) after a short briefing … is surely what ought to be possible, especially if there was more standardisation. (It is what happens in other forms of land transport. I was disconcerted when I bought a new car to find that all I got was a ten minute...