RAILDATE 2024.11.01

Your free weekly guide to what's happening and what's new.

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Raildate is a collaboration between the editor and a number of contributors. Please think about supplying links that you spot. The contact email address is: raildate.co.uk@gmail.com

The latest Raildate is always at https://latest.raildate.co.uk

There are sections on:

• UK Rail News
• International Rail News
• Other Transport Modes
• The Weekly Poser (and the answer to last week's poser)

UK Rail News

East

• Southend Pier train still out of action
• Upper deck of Colchester station car park to be demolished
• Reopening March to Wisbech falls below  economic target

East Midlands

• Rail footbridge closure trial to last three weeks

London

• SH2 will be built to Euston
• Who will fix crumbling Camden Town Underground Station?
• LUL Industrial Action - Update
• Poppy day appeal on London Underground
• London Assembly pushes for TfL to gain control of mainline rail services around London
• London Overground’s West London Orbital extension study due soon
• Tim Dunn’s podcast takes a look at the London Overground’s Weaver line
• Paddington platform 14
• Earlier boarding of Avanti trains agreed at Euston
• Regeneration of Bow Goods

Midlands

• Avanti West Coast's Class 807 makes 'soft' passenger debut between London Euston and Birmingham
• Replacing cables on Bridgnorth Cliff Railway
• Private steam hauled charter from Didcot to Stratford on Avon

North East

• A new train line will soon improve access to one of the UK’s most remote seaside areas

North West

• Bridge replacement planned in Stockport with roads blocked for a year
• Channel 4 show features Carlisle's abandoned railway

Northern Ireland

• Portadown to Armagh feasibility study
• Hourly Belfast Dublin service begins
• Hourly rail service between Belfast and Dublin begins

Scotland

• Glenfinnan Viaduct: Repairing Scotland's 'Harry Potter' bridge -
• Repairing Scotland's historic 'Harry Potter' bridge

South

• Lymington branch line closes for viaduct work 
• Island Line: RAIB report into possession irregularities on Island Line last year.

South East

• GTR Thameslink & Southern begin engineering apprentice recruitment drive
• Collision in possession near Strood on HS1 - RAIB report
• Fifty-year-old rails on c2c network to be replaced this autumn
• East West Railway Announces Electrification and Consultation Dates

Wales

• Train crash death cause remains unidentified
• Train smoke is making us sick, say residents
• Complaints about poor coal being used by Welsh Highland Railway
• Cambrian line to reopen following rail accident
• Cambrian line set to reopen on Monday
• A New Station for Milford Haven
• New transport interchange planned for Milford Haven station
• Continuing improvements in South Wales. New platforms, FLIRT driver training.

West

• Late notice engineeringworks near Bristol Parkway
• HST power car Christmas decoration
• Cannington Viaduct

Yorkshire

• I married the train driver who saved my life'

National

• Rail fares set to rise in England next year
• Rail fares to rise, but HS2 will get to Euston
• Network Rail to be abolished under rail reforms as Haigh rejects ‘BR reboot’

International Rail News

Canada

• Drake Street roundhouse in Vancouver
• Drake Street roundhouse in Vancouver

Egypt

• Sinai passenger train launched

France

• Custom locomotives for Paris metro

Ireland

• Study makes case for 'Gluas' light rail system in Galway
• Reinstating an abandoned Irish railway to help shift freight from road to rail

Japan

• Say hi to JR West’s huge new maintenance robot

Norway

• A tram derails and plows into a shop in the Norwegian capital but only 4 are lightly injured
• Oslo tram derails

Sweden

• Rear view camera to be trialled by HectorRail (Sweden)  for reversing movements

USA

• Children saved from car stuck in path of oncoming train
• The quietest stations on Amtrak

Other Transport Modes

Air

• Bearing failure caused aircraft to veer of runway at Leeds/Bradford airport
• Vital air route for NHS patients hard to sustain - Loganair chief

Bus

• Riding Britain’s second highest numbered bus route
• Liberty Bus secure Jersey contract for 10 years
• Bus fares to rise to £3 in England under new cap
• Megabus to reduce service provision in England and Wales

Marine

• Bangor-Belfast commuter pilot ferry service launch delayed
• Tasmanian ship built in Finland to be mothballed in Edinburgh
• CalMac to trial Isle of Man ferry Ben my Chree on Arran route
• Red Funnel car ferry diverted to Eastern Docks for one day

Credits

Thank you to this week's contributors.

• Alan Rushworth
• Andrew Nummelin
• John Oliver
• Mike Price
• Mike Wilcock
• Neil Kearns
• Paul Tambini
• Richard Buckby
• Richard Maund

The Weekly Poser: Where is this?

How well do you know the GB rail network? [OpenRailwayMap snapshot]. Where is it?

Solid lines = Open, Hashed lines = Removed

Please send your answers to raildate.co.uk@gmail.com

Last week's Where is this?

This "temporary" station on Brunel's Great Western Railway lasted 35 years (1838 - 1872). Where is it?

Answer: Maidenhead Dumb Bell Bridge Station to begin with, later called Maidenhead & Taplow. Congratulations are due to the following for their correct answers: Phil Deaves, Dave Goodyear, Richard Whitbread, Peter Tisdale, Paul Hopper, Bernard Gudgin, Jim Allwood, Richard Maund, Leslie Braithwaite, Chris Gibbard, Gérard van Teeffelen

A temporary station was built east of the river Thames at the point where the GWR crosses the Bath Road. Its purpose was to exchange passengers onto horse-drawn coaches until such time as Brunel's Maidenhead bridge was completed (1838), and was named after a well-known adjacent coaching inn. The prominent clocktower was there to advertise "Railway Time". The 1899 map below shows the location; the line had been 4-tracked in 1891.

The GWR Board had already resolved by 1838 to build a proper Maidenhead station west of the river - but it didn't happen until 1871. The Bath Road crossing of the Thames levied a toll until 1911, making the first Maidenhead station far from convenient, but its location did greatly encourage development of the riverside area as a sort-of "Soho-on-Thames" resort. (Popular refrain: “Are you married or do you live in Maidenhead?”). From 1854, the town was served by Maidenhead Boyne Hill station on the Wycombe branch, which was better located within the prestigious High Town Estate. The GWR took over the Wycombe Railway Company in 1867, and converted it from broad gauge to standard gauge in 1870. Only then did Maidenhead get a single station at its current location.

SMALL PRINT

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©  Matthew Shaw 2024