The railways!

I really mean thanks for the photos, bags. Not only York, but Shildon as well. We go there quite often.

By the way, it is now National switch-off day, so do not expect me to reply after I switch off.

Thanks, Greyduster, for agreeing with me. I'll write it down in my diary, shall I? Then in years to come, I'll wonder what it meant.
This is a joke, by the way, just in case anyone accuses me of being sarcastic. I do not do emoticons.

Thanks for those photos, bags. I lived in York for ten years and they bring back memories.
I haven't replied because I've been busy with family here. Hadn't realised I had to respond immediately!

Your photos show the trains in question. You are correct that it's not Transpennine. However, it is Northern Rail. The trains are built as a bus, by Leyland. Everybody complains about how uncomfortable they are, and they are supposed to be going to be replaced by Hitachi trains being built in County Durham. I think it's at Newton Aycliffe, or it could be Ferryhill. I am sure you will correct me if I'm wrong, and then Ana will agree with you.

Probably Northern will not get the new trains as Northern are always the last in line. We will probably get Transpennine cast-offs.
I do not need to put the pictures on, as you have very kindly done it yourself.

Bags's request of 18.49 - nothing to do with your post, Tegan!

Which question/request was that? May have just been missed. If it was me I did say that my family are more knowledgeable than me and I'd have to ask them [when I see them].

It's very noticeable that certain posters simply ignore questions/requests that they are unwilling or unable to respond to.

Just saying.

I rather enjoyed that! Can we have some more?

Whoops! forgot the link www.docbrown.info/docspics/ArchiveSteam/st_york.htm

Meanwhile (since I have low hopes for that request to be fulfilled), here are some good pics of trains at York, including some transpennine ones which may, just possibly (and what a good thing if they are!), be made partly out of recycled metal from old buses.

post

The transpennine trains I've been on were not buses. Can you pose some pics please, jd, of what you mean?

I'm hoping someone will maintain the Severn tunnel - I was once stuck on a train in it for several hours and sat watching water from the Severn Estuary cascading down the walls from the leaks. Whilst returning home afterwards by taxi (courtesy of the train company) in the middle of the night, we were regaled by a train track engineer (who was sharing the taxi and had also been trapped in the train) with the details of the age of the tunnel and how unsafe it is! I hold my breath when I go through now!

Hence my cynicism about H2 etc. - if we are putting rail passengers' lives at risk every day because of inadequate investment in maintenance, then maybe there are better priorities!

For once, I find myself in complete agreement with Durhamjen! I now feel faint and have to go and lie down in a darkened room!

theconversation.com/without-network-rail-upgrades-the-northern-powerhouse-will-falter-43582

I have members of my family from Spain, Denmark, the US and Norway.

They are embarrassed at the state and the cost of the railways here.
We need to renationalise to get them improved. We pay subsidies and then pretend they are private. The Eastern and Western lines are run by Virgin, when the idea of privatising was to break up monopolies.
Transpennine stock are old bus carriages on different wheels. How was the company allowed to get away with that? It's up North, of course, so out of mind.

It's political.

I agree with all your points Iam.

I suspect it's impossible to discuss the railways without getting political but I'll do my best. I live near Manchester and honestly don't see that getting to/from London 15 minutes more quickly is more important than improving our existing lines. We've had the number of carriages on our trains into Manchester reduced so much that the trains are terribly over crowded and by the time they reach our local station it's vanishingly rare for anyone to be able to get on. Our local MPs have been raising this in parliament for all the good it's done.

The cost of rail travel is problematic, it's expensive and finding your way through the various charges on different train services is time consuming and imo daft.

Tegan's points are interesting

www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2015/jun/26/damning-hs2-report-reveals-serious-cost-concerns

Sorry but it can't be anything but political.

Isn't there talk of re opening some of the lines again?

"Our railways excaped somewhat unscathed after WWII, whereas a lot of Europes were rebuilt and modernised" - unscathed? Well , relatively, I suppose, But they were worn out, and fit mostly for the scrap-heap. The calling in of Dr Beeching was an essential step in saving the railways from bankruptcy.
As for the small branch lines whose loss we mourn, people didn't use them. Beeching did not suggest lifting the tracks and selling the land - that was the government's doing - he believed that some of those lines might well have become viable again, when they could have been re-opened.

So Midland Mainline electrification between London and Sheffield has been been "paused" so that work on Great Western can be safeguarded! For 'paused' read 'stuck in a siding for all eternity'! Up here we know that everything the government proposes for Sheffield is usually a bit too good to be true!

I travel by train quite frequently these days, and was disappointed to hear that the improvements to the trans Pennine express are being postponed. I totally agree with bags about luggage space on the pendolino too. Honestly, there is a lot of England beyond Birmingham and Manchester, and I am fed up with being invisible.

We could have, if we could manage the steep steps lugging a blooming big staircase, gone from our village all the way to Lyon to board our river cruise earlier this year. So it's not all bad.

I think it's a shame that so many small branch lines were cut by Beeching. At one time you could travel to all kinds of lovely places just on the train but now you have to complete your journey by bus(if there is one) or by prohibitively expensive taxi.