2009-04-13
Some Railway Links
Some links from the Guardian and BBC:
Victory of the ‘Shropshire Thunderbolt’
Its staff are polite, serve afternoon tea and let you buy your ticket on the train - and now they’ve seen off competition from Virgin
A lovely story about a lovely railway; one of the four open access operators on the British rail network, and definitely one that tugs at the British love of the plucky underdog. (via anglepoised). The railway’s also featured in last the travel section of the Guardian and a leading article.
Julian Glover on the future of railway branch lines
Britain’s railway operators are struggling badly in the recession. Will unprofitable branch lines survive? Julian Glover visits the country’s quietest station, and asks how much longer trains will run from it
Half the train journeys made in Britain involve only 3% of the stations.
Figures like that were bandied about in the Beeching report - and perhaps unsurprisingly there are people in that story calling for the commissioning of a new version, which, presumably, would have the same (terrible) result. (via Chris)
Edit: there’s a good letter responding to this piece, that’s well worth a read.
Minister to cross Britain by rail
Lord Adonis said he wanted “first-hand experience” of the rail service.
He told the BBC the trip was “deadly serious” and not just a publicity exercise.
I hope this is true. It’s good that he’s going standard class, certainly. He’s also writing a column for the Times as he goes.
