Sorry - I've looked it up - the Suffragette Line. Not sure I could have guessed that!

4 - Barking Riverside (?)

In the breathless world of shock horror probe Reach local newspapers (or perhaps some cheap AI they now use to write this stuff?) - it does, as it will (partly) replace stories on 40 year old trains breaking down in Devon!

BTW^▸ (by the way), I agree with CfN on the repaint/vinyl issue. All they need is a GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) logo on the side for the time being, much in the way the C2C stock drafted in at the height of the cracking IET^▸ (Intercity Express Train) crisis did, or the Thames Trains liveried Turbos acquired FGW^▸ (First Great Western) Link logos for a couple of years after termination of the former's franchise. Spend the time and money saved on more maintenance of the rest of the current fleet.

Don't get too excited, Grahame!

In the case of the West Highland line, this is simply one train a day in each direction will now have one of the converted class 153s (24 extra seats, plus plenty of room for bikes, skis etc.) added. I assume that it is just stations beyond Crianlarich that have been extended where necessary, as south of there (if its anything like the service I used a few years ago) some of the trains will be 4x2 car units, dividing or joining 2 sets of 2 at Crianlarich when the Oban and Fort William services part or join, some of the Oban trains being 2 units. If I recall correctly, the class 156 units are about 150 seaters, so a 300 (or 450 until Crianlarich) seat train to or from Glasgow gets a modest number of extra seats on one trip a day.

On the Kyle line, my recollection from a trip in 1981 was that the trains were 4 coach trains, consisting of Mk1 corridor stock. The seconds would therefore have each held potentially 64 passengers, 32 in the brake coach, but presumably there was either a first class coach (48 in an open coach, 36 if corridor) or a composite (56), so the nominal capacity of each train was between 166 and 220), whereas a class 158 is (I think) 138. However, outside crowded peak commuting trains, 4 people sitting across the bench seat of a second class Mk 1 compartment was unusual (and not that pleasant!), so it was actually more like 156 to 168. It looks like the capacity has actually increased, but presumably at the eastern end at peak times (Inverness commuters?) the trains struggle with the demand.

Did that last train to Kyle you mention in the old 3 out, 2 back service pattern simply return empty to Inverness? I do though recall getting up very early for my trip from Kyle to Inverness in 1981, joining the workers from the Applecross oilrig yard on the Kyle ferry to get to the station from our holiday accommodation on Skye, so it seems unlikely that there was not a train stabled overnight for this service.

Well - hopefully both the PAC and vast number of UK^▸ (United Kingdom)-knockers might take some comfort from this take from DW (Germany's answer to BBC^» (British Broadcasting Corporation - home page)) -

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VlDChSmyf-0

Seems like it's a universal problem!

I am afraid you have either Jack Straw or David Blunkett to blame for this. At one time, a bounty was offered (I think it was £1000) to any lorry driver who reported an illegal migrant on their truck. During the tenure of one of them as Home Secretary (possibly under advice from the Home Office officials) this changed to imposing fines on anyone found with an illegal immigrant on their vehicle.

I remember hearing this on the car radio, in busy traffic, and noting what a large proportion of the trucks were "curtainside" vehicles, with fabric sides that are tied down and rolled up to facilitate the loading and unloading of palleted goods by forklift trucks, realising how difficult these are to secure and how important they are for the efficient delivery of goods, and despairing at the poor quality of policy making sometimes shown by our governments and their advisers. 

And of course, in the interest of balance, the supremely incompetent Robert Jenrick increased the fines from £2000 to £10,000 in 2023.....

Did his parents, sensing his antipathy to railways at a very early age, decide to name him after a railway scrapyard? Is "Cash" a reference to Cashmore's, another prolific breaker of railway stock? Is his middle name "Beeching"?

Is 2 Duirinish? I think I've only been twice, once by road, but it seems to be popular with Highland cattle and looks like it's been plonked in a stereotypical Scottish Highland landscape!

Better still, build trains with fenestration that lines up with windows....please.

There were posters with monthly timekeeping and cancellation performance figures for the operating TOC^▸ (Train Operating Company) or TOCs.

I don't know how you shame a station - almost as poor a choice of words as "smashing a broken railway"!

Hadn't seen this thread before, it predates my membership.



Everyone had it in those days - you'd just walk to the door, open the window and press down on the lever on the outside!

As regards the dispute you mention, it came up on my YouTube feed a while back. It's a little unclear what the rights and wrongs of it are - there's a very angry person who seems to have bought the the station house and is in dispute with Network Rail about rights of access. He's not very good at explaining clearly what the problem is. All kinds of impropriety are being alleged. It's nothing to do with the monster in the castle, the subject of the recent travel ban, as far as I can see.

4 looks like Dingwall

That would get my vote, Stuving - looks like the modern building east of the station in the background.

Hope it was as bright and sunny as it has been today down here Grahame - that's one of the best scenic journeys in the UK^▸ (United Kingdom).

Although it does not really affect those of us in the Thames Valley, that is disappointing. Is it a driver training issue, do they need repair?