I think we have moved directly from Spring to Autumn in this country and bypassed summer. It is raining again, perhaps St Swithian came early this year? Apart from the human and economic loss, the railway has been very badly hit with Sheffield, Rotherham, Doncaster and the Aire Valley very badly affected. There are various pictures on Network Rails Media site (www.networkrail.co.uk) which can be looked at. Diversions are in place for a lot of the freight traffic, however one of the consequences of running a lot of the network close to the bone is(are) that some of the options available such as alternative routes, single line working cannot be used due to staff shortages and the like.
In other news, two more franchises have been awarded for passenger traffic, West Midlands goes to Arriva and East Midlands to Stagecoach. National Ex (previous holders of both) are having a very rough time of it. Deutsche Bahn have purchased EWS in its outright, so CNs interest in British Railfreight has now ended and Gordon Brown has picked Ruth kelly as the next SoS for Transport....er....ok.
Aahh!
One forgets that the preserved lines have taken an equally hard knock.
I'm considering using the train for a trip to Blackpool from here in Stockport, I haven't used the puffer for some three years, I hope I am not disappointed.
John Baker
Tried the Trainline site for a super economy fare (return) and was quoted 64 Quid Sixty Four Pounds! that will buy me enough petrol to do 800 miles! in the car, as there are four of us that means enough for 3,200 miles, that's Blackpool and back 24 times!!
Ye Gods!!
£64 sounds very steep. If you have the time it's worth looking for options.
A couple of my friends came from Barrow in Furness to the Keighley gala.
They saved £5 each by getting a Barrow-Carnforth return, then a Carnforth-Keighley return.
Anyway, I've just booked my 2008 holiday:-
http://www.usabyrail.co.uk/railtrips.htm
Southwest Chief is the one transcon train I've never ridden, I've never ridden the Grand Canyon Railroad (we went by bus), or Metrolink, and despite visiting Chicago many times I've never ridden CSSB.
In fact to my shame it's three years since I last went railfanning in the US. If we did'nt keep buying such stupid cars we might have more spare money!
Simon,
Just had a look at the US fan trip site and I must say that I am impressed. I dare not chance a glance at the price tag until I have had a couple of large whisky's.
I think the Jensen may be the better buy!?
John Bakeer wrote: Tried the Trainline site for a super economy fare (return) and was quoted 64 Quid Sixty Four Pounds! that will buy me enough petrol to do 800 miles! in the car, as there are four of us that means enough for 3,200 miles, that's Blackpool and back 24 times!!Ye Gods!!
John,
I've just tried Stockport to Blackpool (return) on National Rail Enquiries - http://www.nationalrail.co.uk - and the highest standard class return fare it shows is £16.80, so I don't know where the £64 one comes from....
...just thought - if you ask it for a fare for 4 people, it quotes the total fare i.e. 4 x £16 = £64 (4 x Stockport - Blackpool saver return ticket), maybe this is what happened ?
Tony
Well, the word seems to be that CN have finally had enough of EWS and it's going to DB.
Can't say I'm sorry really. In fact I'm surprised that this has'nt happened earlier. CN have never seemed particularly interested in EWS and a DB buyout would consolidate the French operations.
Deutschland, Deutschland uber alles....
Tony,
Used the 'dog & bone' got a booking for 4 open returns for £64.00 (£16.00 each), could have booked on specified trains for £44.00 (£11.00 each). Is it me? or am I not reading the web site correctly.
Mr original enquiry was for one passenger only and not four.
CN got EWS by default when they took over Wisconsin Central, Ed Burkharts baby. A real story of boardroom scullduggery.
Ed is still active in Europe, I suspect he may still have an eye for a UK operation.
I see that ARRIVA have "won" the Cross Country franchise, and, guess what? they plan to increase "certain" fares by higher than inflation.
While I've never taken one of Branson's trains, living as I do in the Celtic fringes, I certainly respect him for the investments he's made in his franchises' rolling stock, and the way he seems to listen to what his passengers want.
Shame.
Martin
Martin,
Virgin West Coast was doing fine, I don't know about Arriva, I think their buses look scruffy.
I wonder what Bransons bid would have been like if he had built a whopping fare increase into his calculations? I live 100 metres from the WCML in Stockport (9B) and the Virgin stuff looks great. Besides, Sir Richard is a fellow Yorkshireman.
It's Virgin Cross Country that's gone, not West Coast.
Arriva seem to have mixed results in the UK rail market. Northern Rail became a bit of a shambles but Wales and West seemed a fairly well run operation.
My concern is that XC is a very specialist operation - probably unique amongst our franchises because of the huge size of it's operation and it's co-dependency on so many other TOC's. It's taken Virgin a while to get the operation bedded in but it seems to work now.
A new operator will need to maintain the status quo, I think, and I'm not sure that Arriva will be up to that.
I'd have preferred NEX.
With the DB/EWS deal now all but nailed on, we're heading into some interesting times.
Simon Reed wrote:. Northern Rail became a bit of a shambles but Wales and West seemed a fairly well run operation
55015 - Are you suggesting that under the old Prime Minister Mr Branson would automatically have retained the XC franchise regardless of the credibility of the other bidders?
Oh goodness me no...surely not...because we have, do we not, a thoroughly transparent political system in our democracy.
Transparency means that you can see through both sides.
Simon Reed wrote:55015 - Are you suggesting that under the old Prime Minister Mr Branson would automatically have retained the XC franchise regardless of the credibility of the other bidders
55015 - Are you suggesting that under the old Prime Minister Mr Branson would automatically have retained the XC franchise regardless of the credibility of the other bidders
It may have double glazing, but defective glazing has a mist in between.
I'm with Tulyar on this one. Arriva would seem to have cracked how to appeal to / sell snake oil to (you choose) our civil servants, as there seems to be absolutely nothing in their track record (no pun intended) to suggest that they might ever come near to delivering what the passenger-***-taxpayer requires.
The problems Tulyar speaks of at Wolverhampton also happen down this part of the world. While we rail minded people fully appreciate that bridge bashing incidents, farm animals on the line, etc., etc., are not jokes made up to excuse late running, but when such incidents occur over a hundred miles away, and it's your train that gets stopped short leaving a wait of an hour or more 'til the next one, you'd give anything to be served by a franchise that early on saw the sense in arranging "International Rescue" trains as emergency back up.
Passengers are not mugs; they know all too well that Murphy's Law will strike from time to time, and will put up with the ensuing service disruption in reasonably good humour. But that can all change if they notice that the local Train Operating Company doesn't actually give a fig about service and hasn't got a Plan B anywhere in its locker.
I think another Welsh contributor to this Forum has remarked that Arriva is often mispronounced Arafa (Welsh translation: SLOW DOWN !!)west of Offa's ***.
Hwyl,
In case you're wondering, the bit word asterisked out is the Latin word for "with" and certainly not rude at all.
Don't worry Martin - we know what it means although perhaps we must now refer to the medieval boundary between England and Wales as Offa's Haha.
Living in Bradford and commuting to Leeds I observed Arriva's incompetency with Northern Rail on a daily basis. I thought that Wales and West were a little more switched on, at least in terms of striving for an integrated network, but I'm always prepared to be proved wrong.
As I said in my initial post on this subject XC requires a degree of specialist handling and frankly I don't think Arriva are capable of it. I was under the impression that NEX were also front runners and from the way they've handled MML I thought they'd make a decent job of it.
Branson's star is clearly no longer in the ascendency. With a Scot at the helm now I wonder how Stagecoach and profits-Firstgroup will do in the next round.
I will be swopping my job from running trains to running canal boats and barges shortly! It's a bit wet over here at the minute. Someday soon, we may actually see that big yellow thing and blue sky.
It's the reverse of El Nino apparently - El Raino.
My dad has been in hospital recently so I spent the weekend in Cumbria - strangely, Barrow, which is usually one of the wettest places in the UK, enjoyed unbroken sunshine nearly all weekend!
Thameslink 2000 has finally been approved! £5.5 billion. What was the original estimate, I wonder.
A rebuild for Reading, capacity improvements for BNS...where will this munificence end? Well it will end fairly shortly, I suspect, if another election is announced.
Called at Margam last evening (first visit this year, I'm sad to say) and, as ever, found enough movements to keep me imterested until sundown.
I noticed that the Down Main seems to have been relaid in the new heavy rail, and was pleasantly surprised to see it stamped BSC.
Simon, is the Workington plant still rolling rails, or has it all finished and this was something "prepared" earlier?
The other major change was the new signalling and bi-direction running capability from Margam Moors to Bridgend West Jct. While the crossing where I lurk had signs warning that trains might approach on either main line from both directions, I wonder whether Network Rail has done a few school visits to warn youngsters tempted to stray near the line over their summer holidays?
Martin.
I expect that any BSC rail is old stock.
Workington finished about 6 months ago and all rail is now rolled at that place in North Lincolnshire that the swearing detector does'nt like!
The problem with Workington was a logistical one primarily. The rolling mill was at 90 degrees to the sea and the Cumbrian Coast Line, and sandwiched between the two. This was all very well until CWR was demanded in longer and longer lengths - basically the cost of rebuilding the plant latitudinally was prohibitive.
I had a tour of Sc****orpe about this time last year and saw their new rolling mill which is pretty immense.
I've also had a trip out today - round the Harrogate loop behind the Duchess. A very fine way of spending a morning and not really bad value at £20 York to York. So much so that I'm doing it again next week with the A4!
I read the other posts on this forum and feel very sorry for many of the steam fans in North America. I was able to leave my home this morning, drive for just over an hour, enjoy 40 plus miles of steam action (the last 20 or so miles at 75MPH), drive home, get some lunch and go to work at 14.30!
Another Tuesday - another spin round the loop this time with the A4 which was pretty lacklustre compared with the Duchess. What I did'nt realise is that last Tuesday was a first and last with the Duchess. They found out the hard way that it was out of gauge by scraping a bridge!
Next week is a Black 5 - 45231, which I don't think I'll bother with, then, if repaired, Lord Nelson.
Thanks Tulyar - my dad is on the road to recovery and, hopefully, an all clear.
I suppose my comment about sympathy for our North American friends ought to extend to diesels too. The Western, and the 40 are regular mainline performers and I understand that Deltic D9000 is'nt too far from being repaired.
Yes, I'm looking forward to another outing behind D9000/55 022 "Royal Scots Grey".
Also toying with the idea of having a run with Princess Lizzie down the South Devon switchback!
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