In the early 1990s I worked at Eastleigh Depot in Hampshire with some excellent railway engineers. I hadn’t seen one of them, Barry Stephens, for over twenty-five years but lately social media kept us in touch. Eastleigh Depot is just across the road from Eastleigh Works. Barry is the Managing Director and was instrumental in putting Eastleigh Works back on the railway map. I had seen him […]
Why you sometimes can’t get a seat on the train
Over the years, many people have told me that they should get a refund if no train seat is available. I try to explain that a train ticket is for a journey and not a seat. I usually get a tirade back along the lines of ‘this is outrageous!’ and ‘why can’t they add another […]
We need to restore railway branch lines
The need to restore railway branch lines is greater than ever. I have touched on the destruction of railway lines in the 1960’s in my post on conspiracies and railway closures. Clearly the railway was losing money due to many factors. There remains the view that uneconomic branch lines should remain closed simply because they lost money 50 […]
Why flexible rolling stock would be great for passengers
My previous post about ‘adding’ carriages has fuelled some debate so I would like to discuss flexible rolling stock. Train companies lease far more rolling stock than is required trying to satisfy demand for peak commuting. Indeed during peak periods some Train Operating Companies (TOC) plan to operate around 90% of their fleet. TOC’s can’t plan using 100% […]