• 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!

Search results

  1. D

    No Welsh Trains to Manchester Airport (Now approved until December 2017)

    As well as being doubtfully feasible through Manchester the end result of all this would be a very slow service from Chester and North Wales to the airport - approaching 90 minutes from Chester. Isn't the better medium term option to run Chester to the airport via Crewe? I'm aware this isn't...
  2. D

    Budget 2015

    First only won the franchise by making ludicrously optimistic traffic and income projections for its final years. Pulling our with three years to go may have been allowed by the contract but it was still sharp practice which disadvantaged other who made more realistic bids. Just one aspect of a...
  3. D

    Northern/TPE Invitation to Tender published

    The 120 carriages are specified as being for non electrified lines. DMU's, bi-modes or battery powered.
  4. D

    Landslip between Banbury and Leamington Spa (31.01.2015)

    Suggestion by George Monbiot that NR's deliberate deforestation of the cutting may have been a contributory factor in the landslide: http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2015/feb/25/green-natural-disasters-britain-farming-damage
  5. D

    E-smoking question

    I use e-cigs and as far as I know the only TOC to ban them is Merseyrail Electrics. It would need a specific ban and specific notices, as on Merseyrail, to have any effect - e-cigs are not covered by general smoking bans, not least because using them isn't smoking. Even then a ban would be...
  6. D

    Pronunciation of Shrewsbury

    "I once knew a chap from Chester, who called Chichester, Chi Chester" Everyone does. There's a Chichester St just off the town centre which everyone in my experience calls Chi Chester St.
  7. D

    Direct Norwich - Liverpool Lime Street service to be axed?

    Don't see the objection to this proposal, if Norwich - Liverpool is replaced with Norwich - Birmingham XC services, a Cambridge - Nottingham EMT service (or even Cambridge - Crewe) and Nottingham - Liverpool goes to TPEX. Better all round. On the numbers quoted there are only about 30 passengers...
  8. D

    What effect could improved rail services have on M4 congestion?

    To answer the original question - what rail improvements would create sufficient modal shift to affect the need for M4 enhancements? - the most obvious one is a radical improvement in services to Bristol and Filton, following electrification. At present there are two, well loaded, 2 or three car...
  9. D

    Any more DMUs?

    Yes there's a lot of bridges between Chester and Crewe. So what? NR know how to raise bridges and/or lower track. Electrification wouldn't be especially cheap because of the bridgework which is one reason its isn't going ahead, another being that it wouldn't allow much traffic to be transferred...
  10. D

    Should Wrexham redouble now occur following prison approval?

    Can anyone clarify the new 'Wrexham North' station proposed to serve a bus link to the new prison? I assume this displaces older proposals for a new station south of Rossett? The most likely site I can see for a new station is off the big A483/A5586 roundabout. This would serve Gresford and Llay...
  11. D

    Politics between Govt/NR and VT

    Branson leased the Pendolinos on the basis of a double taxpayer guarantee. Angel would not have bought the trains without assurances that: 1. any future franchise would continue the lease 2. if VT went bust the tax payer, through DOR would take over the lease. More fundamentally the trains...
  12. D

    Whitby Second Platform Approval.

    Anyone know what investment is referred to in this report? http://www.thenorthernecho.co.uk/news/10220494.Railway_investment_puts_Whitby_on_track/?ref=rss Sounds like a loop/extra track at Whitby, maybe something extra between Whitby and Grosmont. While on the subject, are there any moves...
  13. D

    Network Rails North Wales Plans

    Queensferry is the obvious site, with another one at Rossett when Wrexham to Chester is redoubled. But why should the Welsh Assembly pay to sort out Chester's traffic problems? Cheshire West and Cheshire Council have no interest in rail apart from London services.
  14. D

    Conon Bridge station re-opening.

    This short platform micro station design, now it has been accepted at Conon Bridge and Beauly, is potentially a very useful idea for new stations on lightly used rural routes. At, say, £500,000 for a new station, with car parking, as compared to several million for a full scale station it...
  15. D

    Cardiff Queen Street improvements

    Worth remembering here that Merseyrail have started the process to procure a new fleet of EMU's by 2018. These are likely to be similar in specification to what is required on the Valleys lines - 3 car trains, 20m coaches, capable of handling sharp curves and steep gradients. There could well be...
  16. D

    Steepest gradients?

    The 1:27 section on Merseyrail is I believe, the stretch from Green Lane to Rock Ferry. Certainly not James St to Hamilton Square which doesn't any notably steep sections. There is a similarly steep climb, but I believe slightly less than 1:27, between Moorfields and Sandhills. It may not be...
  17. D

    Chester Station to City Centre Free Bus Ends on November 21

    The service was originally free only if you produced a rail ticket but that requirement was dropped a couple of years ago. The new service is not being provided by Arriva but by a company called Aintree Coachlines, unknown to me. Welsh bus passes will not be valid, as already explained...
  18. D

    Stafford/Norton Bridge

    NR has published proposals for Stafford/Norton Bridge rebuilding. http://www.networkrail.co.uk/aspx/11026.aspx Basically just 4-5km of new line taking Birmingham-Manchester via Stone traffic over the WCML fasts at Norton Bridge, plus some rebuilding and resignalling at Stafford...
  19. D

    Chester-Liverpool quarter hourly

    Don't know. The application just says "As a result of the above, it will be necessary to slightly retime services between Ellesmere Port and Hooton in both directions, in order to ensure the most robust timetable possible north of Hooton." I would guess they want to keep 15 minute...

Top