• How low cost airline subsidies are hampering the great modal shift (RailwayTechnology) • History of Heathrow Express, from WW2 plans, to the future (IARO) • Ireland’s Strategic Rail Review makes 30 proposals to greatly improve railway (RailwayGazette) • Some transport systems hide the network: The map is the network (CityWayfinding) • Four cities that put disabled travellers first: the…
It Seemed A Good Idea At The Time Using an historic variety of vehicles over the years … … fbb’s lovely little local bus company, Axe Valley Mini Travel (no longer actually “Mini”), has run route 899 between Seaton and Sidmouth. Whilst Stagecoach 9A (Seaton to Sidmouth and Exeter) … … follows the obvious main roads all the way, AVT…
Yesterday’s blog was published later in the morning. It was, as usual, fbb incompetence. The blog is republished below today’s offering for those that missed all the excitement. Re-Inventing The Wheel S N C F have come up with a spiffing new idea to serve “low use” branch lines. There is a video. Maybe we could copy the idea. Of course,…
More Stunning Engineering Yesterday, fbb looked at new engineering on the Forth and Clyde canal. There was the canal and the Kelpies at Grangemouth, the Falkirk Wheel linking to the Union Canal, bridges at Stockingfield Junction and rejuvenation and rebuild at Port Dundas in Glasgow itself. In passing we met two old aqueducts, one at Kirkintilloch and one at Stockingfield.…
• £14m in fines levied on TfL & TOL for Croydon Tram crash (RailwayTechnology) • UK announces £680m for Turkish high speed electric railway, but no UK benefit (LondonEconomic) • Northern expanding using classical music to curb anti-social behaviours at stations (RailTechnology) • 3 extensions in 4 years: The Paris M14 Métro line (RailTech) • Centerline, the surprisingly long history…
Stunning Engineering Old And New At Grangemouth, the original route oif the Forth and Clyde canal ran from bottom left on the above Google Earth extract to the top right, where we see the start of the Forth-Clyde Way, the road built on the canal’s route. The watercourse now tuns sharp left and leads to … … the Kelpies. The…
Issue 294 of Passenger Transport is published on July 28. Contents include: LEAD STORY ‘Train beats plane on key domestic routes’‘Majority’ of popular domestic air trips could be completed by train more quickly and cheaply, new Campaign for Better Transport report reveals NEWS DfT pauses bus retrofit funding amid doubtsDepartment investigates variable performance but Transport Scotland backs technology and…
New research commissioned by Rail Partners reveals how competition among train companies is delivering results across Britain and Europe Campaign for Better Transport says that switching just a quarter of the domestic flights featured in its report to rail would save 171,377 tonnes of carbon The majority of the most popular domestic and near Europe flights can be completed…
Department investigates variable performance but Transport Scotland backs technology and continues to fund conversions. Rhodri Clark reports A bus in Glasgow. Transport Scotland is continuing to fund retrofitting through its Bus Emissions Abatement Retrofit (BEAR) programme The DfT has defended pausing England’s bus retrofitting programme while it investigates variable performance. Faced with the same evidence on performance, Scotland is…
It’s seen as a quick financial fix, but the experience of the London Underground reveals the true cost of closing down ticket offices We would be better off re-designing ticket offices so that they become beacons not just of the station but of the wider area A fortnight ago it was revealed that between December 2022 and May…