Killingworth
Established Member
Going back to the 1920s, my grandfather was a commercial traveller based in Newcastle. As far as I can tell his patch was Northumberland and Durham. He had a bike and he used trains a lot. Until he was one of the first to get a company car. He could do so much more. And so the world changed.
The railways were built in a world where walking a mile or two to the station was normal. Most people lived within walking distance of their place of work, so rail commuting was at first limited. The peak years of rail didn't last long.
Today we're trying to superimpose a modern transport system onto heritage Victoria remnants of a network designed for a different market. It's almost a miracle it can work as well as it does.
How can we get more trains into shortened platforms in stations now hemmed in by buildings on sold off railway land? And add more tracks without expensive tunnelling?
There's potential to double rail use if the infrastructure existed, but it currently doesn't. If rail use did double that might increase the headline figure of 2% of journeys to less than 4%, because as the convenience of travel improves we make more journeys.
The railways were built in a world where walking a mile or two to the station was normal. Most people lived within walking distance of their place of work, so rail commuting was at first limited. The peak years of rail didn't last long.
Today we're trying to superimpose a modern transport system onto heritage Victoria remnants of a network designed for a different market. It's almost a miracle it can work as well as it does.
How can we get more trains into shortened platforms in stations now hemmed in by buildings on sold off railway land? And add more tracks without expensive tunnelling?
There's potential to double rail use if the infrastructure existed, but it currently doesn't. If rail use did double that might increase the headline figure of 2% of journeys to less than 4%, because as the convenience of travel improves we make more journeys.