I was just going to add a note to this thread about reports that the Chinese have built an ekranoplan. Here is one from Aerotime:

Supposedly the China Sea is small (and flat?) enough that such a thing might serve to shift an army across it to a beach in short order. Those reports also mentioned the DARPA programme called Liberty Lifter, aiming for a bigger one able to cross oceans. And then guess what - yesterday DARPA announced the abrupt closure of that pgroramme. In Aviation week:

Hard to keep up, isn't it?

 
I think the three stations are Wellington, Cullompton and Haxby near Liverpool. I would have thought a W&C Parkway might have made more sense, but some tanked up lager louts might have other ideas!

 

Is there any commitment to employ enough trained staff to run a train service reliable enough for people to use once the line and stations are provided?

 
Source: gov.uk press release

Three stations... so Portishead, Pill and, er..?

 
 I'd very much like to see the Titfield thunderbolt on a £10 note .

 
Rather fortunate that the same hara-kiri isn't expected of British Transport Ministers/Civil Servants when they get the chop or have to resign due to some past/recent misdemeanour or incompetence - there would be scarcely a lamppost on Whitehall without a (highly subsidised!) body dangling from it! 

 

Commonplace indeed.   There was no shock over the weekend that half the service was lost, and no external cause - "act of god" - to explain it.

The industry's position is indeed odd, and frustrating.

 
Finally finally finally...the green light has been given along with a whole raft of other rail and road improvements. The government has put in a further £27 million. Just the final business case approval and it will be spades in the ground....

 
Pity the 769s couldn't have been fitted with batteries.  Porterbrook likely to be looking for homes for yhe class 350/2's and they did suggest fitting these units with batteries

 

Now I would have said the Penydarren Engine was better known - and not just because this stands just down the road from me:

 

But it was in France not really a UK railway problem

 
Former Russian Transport Minister Roman Starovoit has committed suicide on the day of his dismissal.
Starovoit's death was confirmed by the Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation. They reported that the former minister's body with a gunshot wound was found in the Odintsovo municipal district in his personal car. Russian investigators say they are investigating the circumstances of his death.
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Telegram channels report that a firearm was found next to the body, and the preliminary cause of Starovoit's suicide is a possible criminal case involving violations during the construction of fortifications in Kursk Oblast.
Mash reports that Starovoit signed a decision by the region's operational headquarters to allow the Kursk Oblast Development Corporation to spend 19 billion roubles (US$241 million) and select subcontractors itself.
In addition, the investigation is checking the possibility of Starovoit's involvement in violations in the procurement of medicines for hospitals in the oblast and in the "failed transport reform" in Kursk, which failed to repair tram tracks and deliver new carriages.

Starovoit was testified against by the former head of Kursk Oblast, Alexei Smirnov, who was arrested in a case involving the embezzlement of 1 billion roubles (US$12 million). The same was done by the former director general of the corporation, Vladimir Lukin, and former Kursk head deputy Maxim Vasilyev, who was involved in the construction business. Both are currently in pre-trial detention.

Russian leader Vladimir Putin dismissed Starovoit on the morning of 7 July.

 

Glad to have met your expectations. 

 

Just as I suspected.

 

The Class 76 (EM1) and Class 77 (EM2) locomotives used on the Woodhead route predate the Class 81. They were 1.5kV DC. The Class 81s were the first fleet of 25kV AC locomotives.

 

No evidence that I can post. 

I to have seen the latest joint communication.  I would have grave concerns regarding the process if I was a GWR driver.  Let’s just say, your DDC isn’t as strong as it use to be. 

 
Mr Hutson must have a holiday booked for next month. Plans for cable-cars and pods - nice touch sort of combining them - usually come out in August, when the Post traditionally has nothing else worth reporting on.

 

Not for the airport (though it might manage gradients) but do not rule out the Wuppertal system for suspension about the Avon - I have suggested it for Bath in the past, from Park and Ride at Batheaston Meadows to the Park and Ride at Newbridge.   Hands will be thrown up in horror of course, though I would bet that if it had been installed in Victorian times, it would be a major part of the cit's heritage and hands would be thrown up in horror at taking in down / closing it.   It is, of course, steel wheels on Steels rails, Red Squirrel - just that the rails are above the passengers not below them!

 
I thought people just wasted their time with stories like that on April Fools day

 
The system's capacity of 480 passengers/hour seated (or 780 with some extra standing) could arguably be said to be inadequate for a mass transport system for an increasingly busy airport.  Also sharing the route above the main line between Parson Street and Bristol Temple Meads may raise a few eyebrows at NR/GBR.

 
This, for what it's worth, seems to fit into the category 'Dangleway' according to the Gareth Dennis flowchart. For those who haven't come across it before, it's here:


Image ©Gareth Dennis (see https://x.com/GarethDennis/status/1534621173027323904)

 

It's striking that this is now commonplace. Historically, the railway ran on the principle of infrequent services with a lot of thought put into ensuring that these ran to time - and this carried over into the age of more frequent train provision: the quieter parts of the network didn't experience multi-hour gaps in service caused by cancellations.

As far as certain parts of the rail network goes, in the south west in particular, this principle seems to have gone out of the window. Given the inflexible costs involved in a railway operation, the industry's position on this is... odd.

Mark

 
Perhaps he could link up with Barry 'crash mats' from the Portishead busway PLC to provide a soft landing for derailed podders.....

 
Here we go again.  Bristol Live reports on an inventor calling upon Bristol transport planners to adopt his pod based aerial rail system to link Bristol to it's airport.  The claim is that it would be both quicker and cheaper to build than conventional trams or trains.
A sort of hybrid between a cable car and the Wuppertal Schweberbahn?  Here's the link:

Plan for 'Aerial' transport system to link city with Bristol Airport | Bristol Live https://www.bristolpost.co.uk/news/bristol-news/plan-aerial-transport-system-link-10320952

 
On the £5 note I would definitely have 'Catch Me Who Can' - not Trevithick's first locomotive but probably the best known - because everything else has followed from that.

 

Totally agree.

 

True, but that's not much consolation for those hanging around at intermediate stations in Cornwall and Devon for a couple of hours at that time of night waiting for it to arrive - remember the customers Graham?

 

 
Not fit for purpose ...