Turbulence ahead for West Coast bidders
To say the Department for Transport has set a major challenge with the next West Coast franchise is a gross understatement.The winning bidder will need to take over today’s long-distance…
Does train beat the plane?
To London. By plane. Yes, I’m sorry, I flew. It wasn’t my preferred choice but it did give me the opportunity to compare aeroplanes and airports with trains and stations.I…
Rail companies have eyes bigger than their bellies
It’s a massive public trust issue. That was Peter Wilkinson talking about the railway’s decision to ditch its long-standing commitment to publish timetables and allow passengers to book trains 12…
May 2018’s timetable wrecks services
Rail has closed the north-south divide. Northern’s services since May 20’s timetable change have been decimated with cancellations and delays. Similar problems wrack Southern’s network.More accurately, the problems in Southern…
Chaos comes from changing plans
Order. Counter-order. Disorder. They might be the makings of military disasters but they apply firmly to railways in Northern England.Most of the disorder flows from governments changing their minds. Privatisation…
Railways cannot afford failure
We believed we could do it. Those words sum up the glorious failure of May’s timetable.They evoke a welcome spirit of trying but ultimately failing. But running a railway is…
How do you fix a problem like rail franchising?
What to do? How to fix a broken railway?The answer rather depends on how broken you think the railway is. It’s caught many headlines and, yes, it has made many…
Uncertainty beckons for rail franchises
Change is coming to rail franchises. Quite what is open to question.Until now, franchising has been relatively simple. The Department for Transport or Transport Scotland runs competitions for a group…
Near misses emphasise need to focus on safety
Egmanton is a level crossing on the East Coast Main Line between Newark and Retford. I suspect few passengers could find it but some may have noticed the windmill tower…
No easy answer to CrossCountry’s conundrum
Cross Country was the forgotten part of British Rail’s inter-city network. It didn’t concentrate on London and so found itself a low priority for investment.It hit privatisation 20 years ago…