Tuesday 17th January 2023 2023 will see another impressive number of new railway stations added to the network. This follows a busy 2022 when five new Crossrail stations opened (Canary Wharf, Custom House, Tottenham Court Road, Woolwich, and Bond Street) as well as two others (Reston and Barking Riverside). This follows only two openings in... Continue Reading →
Thursday 15th December 2022 I spent a couple of days earlier this week in Inverness checking out some recent bus and train developments. 1. Request to Stop This innovation is being rolled out by ScotRail on the Far North Line from Inverness to Thurso and Wick. The idea is when passengers require a train to... Continue Reading →
Tuesday 25th October 2022 A new National Rail station opened for business yesterday as the TfL run Elizabeth line finally welcomed Bond Street to the network. It was only three years and ten months later than originally expected from the "Crossrail is on time and on budget" fantasy world of the previous management. That was... Continue Reading →
Thursday 28th July 2022 Today sees the start of the Commonwealth Games in Birmingham continuing through to Monday 8th August. It's a great opportunity for public transport to show off its credentials, as happened during the 2012 Olympics. But, oh dear, ten years on and circumstances are rather different, not least the impact of driver... Continue Reading →
Thursday 21st July 2022 As TfL advised “do not travel” due to the record breaking temperatures, Monday also saw the much anticipated 2.8 mile extension to the Overground from Barking to Barking Riverside open for business. It brings a 15 minute rail service taking a scheduled seven minutes to the huge 179-hectare brownfield site on... Continue Reading →
Thursday 26th May 2022 Four things struck me when riding the new Elizabeth Line alongside thousands of excited passengers on Tuesday's grand opening day. First the sheer scale of the cavernous station structures particularly underground. Liverpool Street I remember the exciting new Victoria line in the late 1960s bringing noteworthy improvements to the London Underground... Continue Reading →
Tuesday 24th May 2022 TPE staff with an original station sign There will undoubtedly be early morning shenanigans today with thousands out celebrating London’s new railway opening its central core gate lines for the first time, but today I’m bringing you news of a comparatively minor development - yesterday's opening of another railway station closed... Continue Reading →
26th April 2022 An £82 million face lift to transform Coventry's railway station has just been completed. It certainly looked eye catching from the media coverage I’d seen so I paid a couple of visits last week to take a look for myself. £40 million of the funding came from West Midlands Combined Authority’s Devolution... Continue Reading →
Sunday 23rd January 2022 I recently took a ride up to Luton to check out progress on the new £225 million DART (Direct Air Rail Transit) shuttle which will link Luton Airport Parkway station on the Midland Main Line and the Airport terminal building. Ever since Luton Airport Parkway station opened in 1999 a bespoke... Continue Reading →
Tuesday 14th December 2021 The winter rail timetable began on Sunday incorporating LNER's new once a day direct service between Middlesbrough and London; a much improved timetable from GWR on the Severn Beach branch; a new direct hourly shuttle service linking Crosskeys with Newport in South Wales; and the return of Gatwick Express branded trains... Continue Reading →
Wednesday 24th November 2021 Let's get something straight from the outset. It's great to see daily passenger trains running again between Exeter and Okehampton after all the "restoring your railway" and "reversing the Beeching cuts" rhetoric from Government, so very well done to everyone involved in this project. But to be pedantic Network Rail Western,... Continue Reading →
Tuesday 21st September 2021 The last time a new station opened on the London Underground was 2008; the year the Piccadilly Line reached Heathrow's Terminal 5 and Wood Lane opened on the Hammersmith & City Line. Yesterday saw much celebration and excitement as the Northern Line's Charing Cross branch trains got to run beyond Kennington... Continue Reading →
Monday 10th May 2021 It's just over six months since the new station at Kintore reopened for business on 15th October 2020. I caught up with a visit today to check it out. I was interested to see how the new station, located 12 miles north west of Aberdeen and costing £15 million, compared to... Continue Reading →
Wednesday 28th April 2021 It's all happening in Barking. And it's looking pretty good for the potential 26,000 public transport using residents the development known as Barking Riverside is hoping to attract as the promised 10,800 new homes planned for the next few years come on stream. Rail operator c2c has just started work on... Continue Reading →
Friday 16th April 2021 It used to cost just £14 to land on Monopoly's Bow Street but in 2021 the latest new station of the same name (added to Britain's rail network on 14th February) has come in at a tad higher cost than that - an eyebrow raising £8 million - to build. And... Continue Reading →
Friday 4th December 2020 I've had a look in a bit more detail at the fifteen ideas for Restoring Your Railways recently awarded up to £50,000 each to investigate whether they have a realistic business case. I can only offer a ‘back of the envelope' view but I reckon I won't be far out, especially... Continue Reading →
Saturday 15th August 2020 A brand new station at Horden opened quietly without any ceremonial ribbon cutting, balloons or cup cakes during the Covid-19 'essential travel only’ lockdown era on Monday 29th June. I wrote about it on 5th May as part of a review of ’50 new stations’ but to recap ….... Continue Reading →
Monday 3rd August 2020 It was pats on the backs all round at Network Rail and GoVia Thameslink Railway (GTR) this morning as although operational problems a plenty caused by damaged overhead lines near Farringdon meant disruption for Thameslink services across the network, the opening of Stevenage’s new ‘turnback’ platform 5 was rightly being celebrated... Continue Reading →
Tuesday 2nd June 2020 The Government’s Restoring Your Railway Fund is a £500 million pot to “kickstart the restoration of lines closed more than 50 years ago”. It’s had a few launches. Boris Johnson promoted the commitment during the election campaign last November on a visit to Fleetwood then at the end of January Grant... Continue Reading →
Tuesday 5th May 2020 Fancy a new rail station in your neck of the woods? If so, now’s a good time to get your persuasive case ready. Post Covid-19 deep economic recession aside, the Department for Transport and Network Rail are inviting bids for the third round of their New Stations Fund (NSF) in England... Continue Reading →
Sunday 23rd February 2020 If was 100 years ago it would be called Norton Junction Station but as it's 2020 today's brand new addition to the National Rail network is christened Worcestershire Parkway. The £22 million GWR run station is located where the North Cotswold Line (from Paddington and Oxford to Worcester) crosses the main... Continue Reading →
Tuesday 17th December 2019 A second new station on Britain's rail network opened on Sunday (in addition to Warrington West which I visited yesterday). This one's at Robroyston, located north east of Glasgow so I popped up this morning to see how it compares. It's on the Glasgow to Edinburgh line via Cumbernauld and Falkirk... Continue Reading →
Monday 16th December 2019 One of two brand new stations opened for business on the rail network yesterday, Warrington West; so I took a ride there today to take a look. But just for fun I decided to go the long way round from London and sample GWR's new speeded up timetable which also began... Continue Reading →
Tuesday 4th June 2019 Sometimes it's instructive to turn up at the launch of a new rail station a day late. Opening ceremonies can be tedious affairs with dignitaries descending the scene, wooden speeches, congratulatory words, smiles all round for the cameras, pats on backs, then back to their offices. The second day often has... Continue Reading →
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