Thursday 12th September 2024 What is going on with the Isle of Wight's railway? The Island Line’s first closure of recent times was between 4th January and 1st November 2021. Originally billed to last three months with a March reopening, it dragged on through the summer season and lasted for a total of 10 months.... Continue Reading →
Thursday 15th June 2023 I blogged about the West Ealing to West Ruislip ‘ghost bus’ when it began back in January. Readers may recall Arriva owned Chiltern Railways' rail replacement division awarded the contract to operate this useless single bus journey a week on a Wednesday morning to Diamond South East for an initial three... Continue Reading →
Thursday 8th June 2023 It's been a strange few weeks for bus and train passengers using Oxford's railway station. Not only has a long planned closure of busy Botley Road necessitated bus passengers from west of the city alighting short of the station and enduring a seven to ten minute walk under the railway bridge... Continue Reading →
Tuesday 31st January 2023 Message to email subscribers: I am very sorry some subscribers didn't receive Saturday's blog and quite likely today's too. I have raised this issue with WordPress and asked them to urgently look into it. One of their “Happiness Engineers” (yes, really) has been in touch to advise ‘there is an ongoing... Continue Reading →
Sunday 27th February 2022 In last Tuesday's blog about the Brighton Main Line blockade I mentioned a rail replacement bus was providing a direct journey between Seaford and Uckfield. As that seemed an unusual link - something not normally possible either by bus or train without changes and extended journey times - I thought I'd... Continue Reading →
Tuesday 22nd February 2022 A deserted Hassocks at 07:30 I was up bright and early yesterday morning taking a few rail replacement rides to see how Brighton Main Line commuters were faring on their first weekday of the blockade without trains. It was soon apparent, as in 2019, extensive pre-blockade publicity had done its job... Continue Reading →
Sunday 20th February 2022 It's a bit déjà vu on the Brighton Main Line this week. Flushed with a successful nine day blockade south of Three Bridges to Brighton and Lewes during half term in February 2019 which at the time was billed as a one-off efficient way of completing a whole host of upgrade... Continue Reading →
Friday 15th October 2021 Rail. Replacement. Bus. October 2021: warning for February 2022 already As you can see down here in Sussex Rail Replacement Buses are front page news again as GTR and Network Rail's media machine begins the warm up warning to give rail passengers plenty of advance notice of next February’s nine day... Continue Reading →
Thursday 21st February 2019 It's reminded me of London 2012. Aside from the brilliant athletes and the behind-the-scenes organisational excellence it was the deployment of Games Makers which made for such a positive and enjoyable visitor experience despite mega crowds and challenging transport logistics before and after events. When the wash up review of this... Continue Reading →
Sunday 17th February 2019 It's been publicised for over a year; preparations have been going on behind the scenes for much longer than that. It was originally planned to happen last October. Now we're finally on the cusp of the biggest rail replacement ever as the nine day Brighton Main Line closure is hours away... Continue Reading →
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