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The final chapter in a very sorry tale. Are we surprised that infrastructure is so expensive in the UK with idiots like this in charge? https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/clj9xn33z63o (BBC News item revealing cost of removing concrete from Gt. Musgrave bridge was £352,000, three times the...

According to the BBC it went out on 4G and 5G only. Tough for large parts of Cumbria, the North Pennines, the Scottish Borders and most of the Highlands. Fortunately nobody lives there. :s

On BBC News website today https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-cumbria-64535958 "Cumbria County Council has submitted a bid to the government for a "dynamic passing loop" on the line between Oxenholme and Windermere stations. It is currently single track, meaning only one round trip per hour...

According to BBC News today: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-cumbria-63148929 Great Musgrave bridge: Concrete must be removed by October 2023 Hundreds of tonnes of concrete poured under a Victorian railway bridge will have to be removed by next October, councillors have ruled. The...

Transport Focus has just published the results of their panel survey into Avanti's reduced timetable customer experiences (that's us, by the way). https://d3cez36w5wymxj.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/23120359/Avanti-reduced-timetable-%E2%80%93-passenger-experiences%E2%80%8B.pdf The...

I moved to my current address in 2001. Every year around Christmas time a letter would arrive from Sun Life offering Life Insurance, addressed to the previous owner. For the first five or six years I would dutifully return it to Sun Life with “moved away - no longer at this address” but to no...

Appleby East is Sustrans “dirty little secret”. The land is allegedly highly contaminated with heavy metals, oils etc after many years use as a vehicle scrap yard. The beautiful station building and goods yard were leased out to the current users when the whole line was gifted to Sustrans (as...

Probably the "scenic" section from Ravenglass to Maryport, particularly the 'cliff hanger' around Whitehaven. Looking on the bright side, with a 50mph wind behind it, Aspatria to Carlisle should be OT with the traction motors switched off :))

Thanks for that, it was a report I would have preferred not to make, and I hope I never have to do another. Special thanks must go to the Wensleydale train crew who acted calmly and professionally, keeping us informed and assisting the older folks (me) to de-train down a ladder from the Guards...

Sorry, my mistake. It was a VW Polo.

On the first day of public operation since the January storms, a Wensleydale Railway train has been involved in serious collision with a private car on the Northallerton West section of the line at Yafforth Crossing. The incident occurred at about 2pm when the three carriage train, pulled by a...

Having spent most of today on the loco-hauled services around the Cumbrian coast (yes, I know), it seems that the Class 37’s are not the real problem. Overnight, DRS has installed automatic selective door operation to this service, in the form of two young men in DRS hi-viz vests, who run up...

A fair point. I was using the word "Pacer" as a general term of abuse for the cold, noisy, bumpy experience of travelling on the Cumbrian coast line over the last 10 years. However, as you say, this has been an inauspicious start to the loco hauled services. We are not flying to Mars here, its a...

Today saw the start of Northerns “improved” service from Carlisle to Barrow along the Cumbrian Coast via Sellafield, using a Loco hauled train of four carriages to replace the hated Pacers. It is probably a day that both Northern and its contractor DRS will wish to forget. First train of the...

It looks like this was 455V Daventry DRS to Mossend Euroterminal which seems to have failed just north of Beattock, causing lots of problems for Glasgow and Edinburgh bound services from London and Manchester Airport. I was in Edinburgh awaiting the 1533 to Euston which eventually arrived at...