Sunday 9th June 2024 Beginning this series of daily blogs featuring highlights of last week's enjoyable wander around the country using a complimentary First Class All Line Rail Rover (thanks to a year's worth of Delay Repay) is a post about the newly restored railway line to Leven which opened for business exactly a week... Continue Reading →
Saturday 16th December 2023 370 miles north of the brand new Brent Cross West station is the location of this week's second new addition to the rail network map; in the tiny village of East Linton, population 1,790. No, I haven't missed a 0 off. It's a new station for a population of 1,790. It... Continue Reading →
Tuesday 14th February 2023 Inverness Airport railway station had an official opening on 2nd February Back in December I reported on four bus and train developments in and around Inverness: the introduction of Request To Stop facilities at Scotscalder on the Far North Line; new electric buses in Inverness; the about to open Inverness Airport... 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 →
Sunday 9th October 2022 Last week's announcement that Serco will be ending their franchise for the Caledonian Sleeper next June came as no great surprise. I won't be shedding any tears at the company's departure. Unlike Merseyrail where this giant global monolith of an outsourcing business seems to be doing a good job running the... Continue Reading →
Saturday 24th September 2022 An annual ride on the wonderful West Highland Line is a personal must in my book so having missed a full blown Glasgow to Mallaig journey during the pandemic (I managed one trip as far as Tyndrum) it was good to be back on board on Monday last week. It was... Continue Reading →
Thursday 2nd June 2022 Monday last week saw Scotland’s rail timetables slashed by a third with many last journeys brought forward to early/mid evening to better match reduced driver availability due to staff shortages (post Covid training backlog) and ASLEF’s continuing overtime ban in pursuit of a pay claim. Prior to the reduced timetables services... 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 →
Thursday 19th May 2022 Last week was Rail Sale travel week for me. I’d bagged a couple of bargain priced tickets when they went on sale last month for two day trips - one to Cornwall and one to Scotland - as you do. Monday morning last week saw me roll up at Paddington for... Continue Reading →
Saturday 7th May 2022 To Scotland for the first time in my fortnightly A-to-Z wanderings and the wonderful city of Inverness. The administrative centre of Highlands Council, it's a fast growing city - some say it's the fastest growing city across Europe - with a population of around 65,000. Everywhere I went as I travelled... Continue Reading →
Tuesday 22nd March 2022 Photo courtesy Network Rail Aside from the shiny new mega-size stations about to open in the Crossrail core there are quite a few other brand new stations currently under construction on the national network which are due to open during 2022. It’s a bit of a sweepstake to see which will... Continue Reading →
Thursday 4th November 2021 When Abellio was awarded the ScotRail franchise commencing April 2015 I was really pleased to hear their commitment to promoting Scotland’s wonderful scenic rail lines including the introduction of better seats lining up with windows and other innovations including better facilities to encourage cyclists on board with more cycle spaces. Six... Continue Reading →
Wednesday 18th August 2021 It's always impressive to read corporate vision documents. You know the kind of thing. Glossy photos of staff helping smiling customers and paragraphs full of glowing statements about the company's unbridled commitment to customers and how we're at the heart of everything the company does. Sadly they seldom match up to... Continue Reading →
Friday 16th July 2021 There are various ways to reach the Outer Hebrides (aka the Western Isles) by public transport from the south east of England. Travelling via Inverness then the train to Kyle of Lochalsh, bus or coach to Portree and Uig on Skye and the ferry to Tarbert on Harris (or Lochmaddy on... 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 →
Saturday 20th March 2021 'Better' is definitely the word of the week, and I’m not referring to the continued much welcome news of improving Covid infection, death and hospitalisation levels and vaccination roll out (although talk of a third wave in Europe is somewhat concerning just as our irreversible freedom beckons) no, I mean ‘better’... 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 →
Wednesday 17th July 2019 It's been a bucket list ambition for a few years. Travel to mainland Britain's most north westerly point at Cape Wrath and visit by far the remotest bus terminus alongside its famous lighthouse. You can't get more remote than the end of an isolated eleven mile single track road which has... Continue Reading →
Thursday 6th June 2019 It may not rank as high as the West Highland Line, the Kyle of Lochalsh Line or the Far North Line in the great Scottish Scenic Rail Lines stakes but ScotRail have rightly designated the line down to Stranraer as a Scenic Rail Journey and very justifiably so too. While I... Continue Reading →
Friday 3rd May 2019 Finding myself in Glasgow at 7.30am yesterday morning (after my inaugural Caledonian Sleeper Mark 5 journey) I thought it would be an opportunity to continue the first-time experiences by taking a ride on the recently completed electrified ScotRail line to Edinburgh via Shotts and then catch a Borders Buses X62 down... Continue Reading →
Monday 18th March 2019 During my initial trip on a brand new Class 800 train when they began running between Paddington and Bristol/Cardiff at the end of 2017 my first thought was to lament the end of the luxurious comfortable seats GWR had introduced in first class in HST trains the new IEP units were... Continue Reading →
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