New signalling for Great Western ...

[jules]

Evening Pest today:

http://www.thisisbristol.co.uk/change-n ... story.html

In other news: "Local rag appears to get through entire article on railway matters without making a single howler"

It was probably written for them!

[AndyK]

Evening Pest today:

http://www.thisisbristol.co.uk/change-n ... story.html

In other news: "Local rag appears to get through entire article on railway matters without making a single howler"

It was probably written for them!

and the post-Beeching railway network of today is a quarter of the size of the network back then.

Can that be true? Seems exaggerated to me.

[jules]

and the post-Beeching railway network of today is a quarter of the size of the network back then.

Can that be true? Seems exaggerated to me.

No doubt this will open the inevitable discussion

I suppose it depends whether the statement relates to track miles, or to route miles, or even to number of open stations?

The statement rather needs qualifying, but I have a feeling it could be justified by one means or another.

I'd do some further research, but am a bit too busy right now. I have heard though of 6,000 stations reduced to 2,000 - or something of that proportion - in which case it's probably not that far off however you measure it.

[Robin Summerhill]

Unfortunately, the word "Beeching" in the general press is often taken to mean all railway closures of whatever period. There were closures before Beeching ever joined the railways, there were closures afterwards that he didn't propose, and there were even one or two that happened whilst he was with BR that had nothing to do with him! (like the Filton to Swindon local service, for example).

If anybody has a couple of months to spare, just Google "Beeching cuts" and have a look at what comes up! Here's something to be going on with:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beeching_Axe

[free2grice]

<Quote> (Re: Filton bank) ....''It is now creating a real bottleneck for trains at that point, and if we reinitiate the four tracks we can get the trains moving much quicker from Temple Meads to Bristol Parkway, which should slash quite a chunk of time from a Bristol to London journey''.

Are we to expect trains to run from Bristol TM to London via Filton bank once again, as did 'The Bristolian'? <BJ>

[stumpytrain]

Are we to expect trains to run from Bristol TM to London via Filton bank once again, as did 'The Bristolian'? <BJ>

Yes, the current plan is for 4 trains an hour from Bristol to Paddington. Two going via Box from Platforms 13 / 15 as now and an additional two going from the reopened old station Platforms 1 and 0 (if they don't renumber the whole station). Those will be the dedicated IEP platforms apparently.

Alex