The cheap yet slow way of getting from Newcastle-upon-Tyne to London Road and rail competition, whether private car versus train or scheduled coach versus train is far from new. The private car was, and remains, a threat to the viability of any communal transport options due to its convenience and perceived economy. The opening of…
Category: British Rail
Ten Things That Millennials Never Enjoyed About Train Travel: The Not So Perfect Ten
Ten things about British rail travel that people born after 1980 never had the chance to enjoy or endure For many passengers, today’s trains are shiny and efficient beasts. Some might say they are a little devoid of character. Sometimes they look scruffy or sport garish liveries. In the space of forty years, the joys…
Train Seats in All Parts: The Not So Perfect Ten
A selection of the best train seating positions on Network Rail metals and preserved lines If you travel by train in the peak hours, there are two inevitabilities. One is the fact you’ll need a mortgage for the rail fare or the season ticket. The other, are the chances of getting a seat. Which is…
Forgotten Rail Journeys: York to Shrewsbury and Aberystwyth
A look at the long forgotten overnight train from Yorkshire to Mid Wales Till fairly recently, a lot of our post was delivered via rail with road for the last mile journeys to sorting offices. Before Railnet’s last hurrah for the Travelling Post Office, the TPO trains were a common feature of our railways. Mainline…
Straight Outta Bolton: A Passenger’s Eye View of Overcrowding on Northern Trains
In Pictures: The Evening Crush Hour Over the last six months, there has been a lot of coverage on the Southern Rail strike and the cancellations faced by its commuters. The main reason for the strike is the introduction of Driver Only Operation on 8 to 12 car units. That’s right: 8 to 12 carriages,…
How I Miss BR Rail Blue (and the use of Rail Alphabet on All Station Signs)
Why, oh why, does our rail franchisees insist on liveries inspired by 1990s football strips? Call me old (well, I’m almost 37 years old for goodness sake anyway), but I hanker for the smooth, smart, yet strikingly modern liveries of the British Rail era. I hanker for their discipline and adherence to the Rail Alphabet…
How Privatisation Killed Off the British Rail Sandwich Joke
Heard the one about the Northern Rail sandwich…? Thought not. If you visit a busy mainline station anywhere in the United Kingdom, today’s concourses resemble a small town shopping centre. It is a far cry from an era when the only shops were those of W.H. Smith and Son, John Menzies, Finlays or Wymans. Other than newsagents’ shops,…
Slam Door Trains We Have Known and Loved: The Not So Perfect Ten
A good excuse to reminisce about pre-privatisation diesel and electric multiple units Alongside today’s Pacers and Sprinters, our first generation EMUs and DMUs were known in the late 1980s as Heritage Units. The bulk of which being slam-door trains.
Greater Manchester Set to Lose Another 17 Trains
Anger as bankers move electric trains to the West Midlands Almost a year after the DfT’s imposition of an evening peak for Greater Manchester’s rail users comes another body blow. Porterbrook Leasing, who owns most of Britain’s trains has refused to offer 17 Class 323 electric trains to Northern Rail’s successors in 2016. Instead, the…
A Ghost of a Chance: Manchester to Chester via Reddish South?
New hope for Britain’s most notorious ghost train Over 26 years ago, the once frequent Stockport to Stalybridge train was dramatically cut back to a handful of journeys. By 1993, a single journey either northbound or southbound. At present, the parliamentary train only runs out of Stockport with its lone journey departing at 0922.
Right at the Heart of Things – Part Two: Tourist Attractions in 1980s Manchester
The second part of East of the M60 journey into 1980s Manchester After spending too long in the Manchester of 2014, we shall return to the 1980s. This time, to the tourist attractions which put our city on the map – as today’s ‘must-visit’ destination for short breaks and day trips.
Right at the Heart of Things – Part One: Shopping in 1980s Manchester
East of the M60 travels back in time, to an era of a fully toilet tiled shopping centre In the last week, I have been trying to imagine and recollect the joys of a trip through pre-1996 Manchester city centre. Some regular readers of this blog may be too young to remember the UK’s third/second/first/first…
