What do you want to see in the next 5-10 years?

[whole diary]

[Adelante_CCT]

Easier for the underground though as 95% of stations only have 1 platform to choose from so this can easily be pre-programmed in. Different from mainline stations whereby the train itself may not no until a few seconds before arrival.

[froome]

Easier for the underground though as 95% of stations only have 1 platform to choose from so this can easily be pre-programmed in. Different from mainline stations whereby the train itself may not no until a few seconds before arrival.

If you literally mean a few seconds before arrival, that is appalling. While I can understand platforms do need to be changed due to late trains etc, surely this must be known minutes rather than seconds in advance, and information can then be given to passengers. Knowing which side of a train to exit in advance would help speed up the flow of passengers off some services.

[Adelante_CCT]

The driver will only know at the signal (or two) before the station, this information is unlikely to be passed on to the guard (if one). I would rather the driver concentrate on stopping the train safely and accurately rather than making an announcement to passengers.

The tube announcements are pre-programmed. You can't pre-programme a mainline service, if you could it would probably be based on GPS* and again, it wouldn't know what platform it was on until entering the station.




*I'm sure in the distant future the pre-programmed announcements could tie in with signalling and track circuits etc

[broadgage]

Back to the original question-

1 - Electrification -
      (a)-complete the "stalled" projects to reach Oxford, Bath, Windsor & Henley branches and Swansea.
      (b)-Undertake and publish report on what went wrong with GWML^▸ (Great Western Main Line) project so far. Do not delay 1 (a) while doing this, and make sure those involved with electrification of ECML^▸ (East Coast Main Line) and Norwich and Caambridge/King's Lynn take a leading role (not the usual management consultants/accountants/economists!) who can bring their experience to bear on the exercise. Use it to provide a template for future projects.
       (c)-start planning a 10 (?) year programme of completing electrification of all remaining main lines in GW^▸ (Great Western) network in stages (suggest start with Newbury-Exeter, Bristol-Exeter and Westbury-Bath and Swindon).
       (d) -third rail for Wokingham - Ash Junction, Shalford Junction- Reigate, and fit the pick-ups to the bars on the bogies of the Electrostars so they can run as bi-mode electrics on the North Downs line - and connect (say) Oxford to Gatwick if 1 (a) implemented 

2 - Rolling Stock-
       (a) - refurbish Turbos for their new duties - new interiors with 4 across seating throughout, based on Electrostar fittings. We are probably stuck with them for the rest of their lives. If this is not economic, please let us passengers know asap and plan alternatives!
       (b) - I'll leave others to battle for and against Hitachis
       (c) - XC^▸ (Cross Country Trains (franchise)) to procure 5 coach bi-mode Hitachis to replace 4 car Voyagers, which are cascaded to long distance cross country routes of GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) such as Cardiff - Portsmouth

3 - Franchise

      (a) - Customer satisfaction to become an important factor in awarding franchises
      (b) - Look at the whole franchising model - perhaps remove rolling stock procurement and managing stations, and simply have them doing the customer facing end, so that DfT^» (Department for Transport - about)/ORR^» (Office of Rail and Road formerly Office of Rail Regulation - about) come out from behind the screens, and are directly responsible (and answerable) for properly planned national rolling stock procurement and allocation.

4 - Timetables

A project to take a fundamental look at the whole basis of timetable setting - giving priority to connections at the main interconnecting nodes in the country - Reading, Oxford, Guildford, Swindon, Bristol TM^‡(resolve) and Parkway, Cardiff Central, Exeter St Davids in GW territory.

A strategic overview of transport use, demands and needs to be undertaken, to establish current unmet need or potential demand, and this to be a criteria in timetable setting

5 - Network

Real progress in implementation of East-West link - unlikely to be anywhere near complete!

If HS2^▸ (The next High Speed line(s)) proceeds (I hope it does!), secondary infrastructure planning to be implemented so that those of us in the SW third of the country can link into it conveniently.

That's enough "blue sky thinking" for one evening!

I very largely agree.
The only point with which I disagree is the suggestion to order more 5 car Hitachi units, whether for cross country or indeed for anyone else.
With capacity a growing problem, it seems to me that ALL new trains should be full length, 9 or 10 car.

I fully appreciate that many routes and services can only justify shorter trains, but in my view such needs can be met for many years by cascading EXISTING short trains to where shorter trains will suffice.

Voyagers will be around for many years yet, and 5 car IETs^▸ (Intercity Express Train) are still nearly new, and other short trains exist.
One example would be to build more 9 or 10 car Hitachi bimodes for use on long distance GWR or XC routes, cascading the existing short units to secondary routes or services.