D854_Tiger

I tried to keep it politics free (as much as it ever can be) but stating the money has to be found for whatever is desirable (in my case one big **** off train set if I had my way) isn't really being political only stating the obvious. We currently have two entirely different agendas being offered up for the railways, by the world of politics, all I'm saying is at the moment one sounds more viable than the other (but am not saying which) is that OK on the politics. Whatever or whoever and however delivers on the railways is fine by me, I'm entirely agnostic so long as Birmingham gets fifteen new light railway routes, four or five underground lines and numerous heavy rail local stations being reopened. Noting that Germany proves the state can do that in Dusseldorf (a much smaller place) and Japan proves that the private sector can do it also.

I would prefer that there were no homeless people, I would prefer that high property prices were not allowed to totally devalue people's living standards (more so than any wage or tax regime could hope to compensate for) and I would prefer that next time someone has the (in my view laudable) ambition to let 350,000 extra people into the country every year they might at least have given some thought to where they might all live. As to the solution, I keep an open mind, except to say last time massive social housing was tried, in the 1960s, well it hardly turned out well.

It was Labour's idea to have just one TOC per London terminus. New broom remember. Speaking for the West Midlands, I doubt we would now want to give up the three operators that are about to compete for our London fares. Then compete they do, when I arrive at Birmingham International all I can see are Chiltern posters telling me I can get the same thing cheaper form Warwick Parkway.

Be fair he's managing an entire space program as well now. Apparently, on Virgin's first ever flight, the passengers were treated to a (live???) broadcast from the cockpit. After the flight took off and then entered the cruise, the captain and second officer were both seen to light up two huge reefers, at which point, they turned to face the camera, gave the passengers a smile and reveal that the aircraft was being flown by Ian Botham and Clive Lloyd, dressed in full pilots uniforms.

Actually it looks about right to me but I suspect that clip is being highly selective and it's what happens over ten minutes that might be a fairer comparison. But fair play to GW nothing wrong with a bit of hype if the normals are happy to buy into it.

The idea is to encourage some competition and splitting the WoE from the GW could achieve that to places like Exeter, maybe Plymouth and Bristol (via Westbury) to London or perhaps a similar arrangement to the West Coast Main Line where LNW will provided the secondary services and lower but slower (or maybe not so slow) fares.

The Westminster government can make life difficult enough for the SNP that they will either be forced to follow suit or suffer rail services deteriorating. The SNP will then have to find ways to blame any bad outcomes as England's fault (their usual ploy on which up to now they've successfully based their entire political career) but that sort of thing only has so much shelf life and tends to wear thin after a while with the voters.

I suspect the idea is that the private sector provides the vision, not the government, whether that materialises or not is another question but what is sure for any agenda for more state control (which its proponents must first have an answer to) is that the state doesn't have any money, it does however have lots and lots of debt and it has a lot of other funding priorities (such as the NHS) that the voters will always insist comes first. So much needs to be done on UK infrastructure, transport, energy, water, housing and it makes sense to find ways for the private sector to fund those things because it's difficult to see any realistic amounts (i.e. anything like enough) of funding coming from government. Michael Portillo made the point on This Week last Thursday (making the example of the old Soviet Union) that all too often when the state intervenes in the market it ends up with shortages. Well I reckon Beeching could certainly be described as a shortage, so could road congestion and so could the broken housing market that's plagued with state intervention (or planning as we prefer to know it). Then when one looks at the truly eye watering amounts NR wants, just to get up in the morning, it's not difficult to see why rail projects more often than not never materialise. Say what you like about the private sector (and I can think of plenty that's bad to say), but the old state run BA would never have come up with the idea of Ryanair and forty quid fares to somewhere nowhere near Dusseldorf. I remember when Branson first set up Virgin Atlantic, with just one 747 to his name. He was being interviewed at Heathrow by some **** stiring journalist trying to imply his cheaper fares could only be achieved by compromising on safety, "How else was he going to do it." He turned round and pointed at the BA four storey management block and said, "I haven't got one of those."

From an architectural perspective, absolutely, but back in the day the train interest was pretty grim compared to the competition. Two or three Peaks was hardly enticing for a Brummie trainspotter. Mind you, two or three Peaks there now and that would be a day off work and buying a return to London.

Spying on the competition, they lower them down every morning from Moor Street which is just above.

My favourite station that I've never been to (or ever likely to) would have to be Three Cocks Junction, I'm still holding out hope that one day I will get to visit Llanpumsaint. In the meantime this one takes a bit of beating on certain days

Just out of interest - honest.

They're Chiltern Railways surveillance devices.

I suspect most XC passengers could be described as being on the fly in that, despite XC offering some of the longest journeys that there are to be had in the UK, by all accounts, the majority of their passenger journeys average out at no more than sixty miles.

Blimey, the amazing part of that story must be that the train got as far as Basingstoke before it struck anything.

Back in the day, there always used to be loading gauges in virtually every minor siding to ensure freight loads never fell foul of the available clearance. These have all disappeared (I believe) but what has taken it's place as there are still plenty of freights that in theory could be overloaded and engineering trains (such as those wagons designed to carry new point work) and, of course, steam engine tenders. So how do they ensure nothing is overloaded, I ask because, whilst watching some recent Youtube clips, there was this Jubilee with a suspicious looking mountain of coal in the tender.

Ventilation shafts you can hardly miss, even at the three figure speeds, you notice those wonderful shafts of light. When you consider when it was built and the limited technology they had to build it with (called a pick and shovel) it never fails to impress. The A5 crosses the tunnel and from the road you can see the other end of those shafts, where they reach daylight, like castles all in a row.

That were steam worked.

Watching the sheer size of trains those class 66 and class 70 locomotives shift nowadays, there must also be far fewer locomotives that need maintaining.

Which railway magazines do you read and why. I include railway modelling magazines in that question also online or hard copy. Are there any magazines you used to read but have got out of the habit of doing so. P.S. I have no connection with any publisher and have no commercial interest in asking this question. I simply wonder to what extent the availability of the, up to the minute, Interweb has changed purchasing decisions and affected the contents of any magazines. I seem to buy fewer magazines nowadays largely due to less business rail travel and fewer visits to the nearest High Street, thus reducing my exposure to the temptations of W H Smith. I'm more likely to buy a magazine nowadays if a specific article is of interest rather than force of habit with perhaps the exception of Modern Railways which I tend to pick up whenever the opportunity to do so arises. P.P.S. When I say read, I don't necessarily mean purchase.

You do however have to wonder which the passengers will consider to be the premium product when the non-stop flyer flies to terminate at an out of the way Paddington and the poor man's stopper goes all the way to the west end and the city. You have to see BAA's point because my suspicion is that the existing Heathrow Express is going to be shifting largely fresh air around once Crossrail opens and it seems to me as if someone needs to bite the bullet on this (pay up or price up in other words) and integrate the whole operation into Crossrail.

The worst example of transport accounting has to be the government (who shall remain nameless but not the one you might think) that was none too keen on financing anymore light rail schemes. In the costs to be used against the project column, they actually put the lost road tax revenue that would result from drivers switching from their cars to the trams.

Back in the day, when the Soviet Union was busy collapsing, some Black Sea Dan Dare outfit used to fly an Ilyushin into Birmingham every Sunday. Normal routine was to fill with fuel (to the brim) back home with enough to reach BHX and get back (just) however even the slightest delay would foil that plan forcing the Captain to take on fuel at BHX (in precious dollars) thus blowing a hole in any profit. Also normal routine was for the said Captain to declare a fault (which usually mysteriously disappeared on landing) suitable to jump any stack in operation on arrival and be given immediate clearance to land. Needless to say, BHX ATC were getting well p*****d off with this stunt until one day (and them being very-prepared) the Captain declared a fault which, unknown to him in the UK, required a fuel dump before landing. Boy was he ever p*****d off when told this and that he would be grounded if he didn't declaring "Birmingham you are hopeless" to much merriment in the tower. Mind the good citizens of Hampton in Arden (one station up from International) were none too pleased either when a large proportion of said fuel landed all over their summer blooms. P.S. One Sunday another of their Captains was found to be over the limit, after possibly drawing attention to himself by being seen drinking in the airport bar with all the waiting passengers. BHX has never been overly fussy with the kind of exotic outfits they do business with anything to justify that international claim made in their name.

In theory, at least, any taxes added to fuel normally have to be justified by related costs, incurred by the government, such as the infrastructure road vehicles need. That's why similar taxes are not applied to aircraft or trains, both modes having their associated costs met by other mechanisms, though noting the air aircraft need comes for free. Also noting that transport finances in most countries are usually such a byzantine mess of cross subsidy, actual subsidy and cost benefit (surely a misnomer) any concept of transport provision being based even closely to some kind of market principle (i.e. charged according to what it actually costs) has been lost decades ago. Most especially roads, where it takes a whole academic study just to find out how much the system really costs (and that alone should ring all the alarm bells) when even the NHS is not afforded that kind of fiscal laxity. Then, in that respect, air travel actually does pretty well, the airports, the aircraft and the journey all being covered by the fare box is pretty much the exception in transport economics nowadays and, with the latest advancement in engine efficiency (especially for smaller aircraft), we are getting pretty close now to an aircraft journey being no worse for the planet than a car one, most especially if that car contains only one person and sits for most of its time in traffic congestion. P.S. Railfreight comes out very well also, in theory no subsidy and kind to the planet (yes even a class 31), just such a shame the same thing could never be claimed for their major, ever present, competitor.

Some peak time HSTs call at local stations between Bristol, Weston and Taunton, including Nailsea. Guessing a driver training run in preparation for class 800s working beyond Bristol.