So. Today's thought is the Castlefield Corridor - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Castlefield_corridor .
It's a major arterial route through the City but as per the piece linked, only double tracked.

A broken down train here causes absolute havoc in the immediate area along with significant knock on effects in the local region all the way to major inter city routes.

You can't widen the route (buildings on both sides).

For me, an underground route makes sense, albeit very expensive.

In the meantime, I don't understand why we (the Royal we) haven't got a "Thunderbird" rescue engine on site with a fallback siding so any obstruction can be removed asap, freeing up the corridor and allowing quicker timetable recovery.

Of course, I'm just a dumbass on the bottom rung here. I don't know the costs or limitations of such an idea. I don't believe for one second what I'm suggesting hasn't been considered.

But it does seem silly that the station can't act quicker in these situations.

#UKRail #ManchesterPiccadilly

In the last 12 months, on UK trains, I have:

spent £5461.81 on tickets.
travelled 15137km.
travelled for 6.6 days.

Worked, dozed, stared out the window, read books, listened to music, watched people, watched films, caught up with friends and family, drank tea, drank beer, helped fellow passengers where I could...

...but most importantly, avoided
CrossCuntry like the plague.

#UKRail #Trains

I'm disappointed to see that National Rail Inquiries - that is, the 'official' railway ticket retailer in the UK, operated by the Rail Delivery Group - has started adding automatic redirects to Booking.com when you search for a itinerary. My complaint isn't so much about their use of this hotel reservations intermediary in particular; I'm a customer myself and they're actually somewhat reasonable to customers (their anti-competitive business practices notwithstanding). This is why I'm not happy:

• silently redirecting users to other sites and opening extra tabs is confusing to all but the most tech-savvy users
• there's no option for users to turn this off for good
• it's already a slow and resource-heavy website, and yet is exactly the thing which many users may be using in a hurry and on patchy mobile connections - now, it wants to open up another tab containing loads of images on every query
• this change further entrenches an existing near-monopoly, when this could have been a way of supporting independent hotels and keeping public money in the UK economy

My suggestion is to use TrainSplit instead, who actually know how to make a user-friendly website (I am not affiliated with them nor am I paid for saying this).

#ukrail #railticketing

Excited train related noises

#Aurora #810012 #UKRail #EastMidlandsRailway

At the start of this year I was using TPE's ticket booking system and app.
It is terrible. An incoherent mess. There is not enough time and sweary words to describe how horrible it is.

Then a month ago, @seabass tipped me off about TrainSplit, and I am now forever in their debt.

Trainspilt online, and in the app is how rail booking should be.
Clear, consistent, a range of filters if reqd, good info in the app whilst you're travelling, and unlike LNER, you can purchase more than one ticket at a time!

My favourite option is using Exclude Operators to ensure I never have to travel with #crosscuntry !!!

Thank you @seabass
Thank you #TrainSplit

(They also save you some money...)

https://trainsplit.com
#UKRail

I read this morning that Glasgow Central station is closed after a battery fire yesterday caused a neighbouring building to collapse. Some trains will run through the station but none will stop there.

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2026/mar/09/glasgow-central-station-closed-fire

Are any of my fellow Fedizens affected by this? "Very limited replacement transport" is never a phrase anyone wants to hear...

#UKRail

A question for #UKRail buffs! Can you claim Delay Repay for a delay you would have experienced due to unplanned disruption, but successfully avoided due to arranging alternative travel at your own expense?

Some context for my situation: I'm looking into making a Delay Repay claim for a journey I took from BNP to PAD via EXD on the 28th of January. I had a Super Off-Peak Return ticket from BNP to LON.

Due to Storm Chandra, all the trains were cancelled between BNP and EXD. There weren't any dedicated rail replacement buses during the day, but GWR said that passengers could use their railway ticket to travel to EXD on the 5B bus instead. After catching the next available train there, I would have arrived in London at 17:07 with this arrangement, substantially later than the normal 15:30 arrival for my departure time.

Because I was in a bit of a hurry, I booked a National Express coach from BNP to TAU instead, and therefore kept up with my planned itinerary, with a total delay of just 12 minutes coming into London (15:42).

So my question: can I claim Delay Repay for the 90 minutes I would have been delayed, had I taken the recommended bus route rather than an alternative coach at my own expense? If not, is there any other form of compensation for this kind of disruption? I've looked at the RailUK Forums but my case seems a bit different from other threads about this, because I did use my ticket - just not for the whole route.

Oh, and I need to know by the end of today because I've left it until the last minute 😅 Thanks in advance!!

The Railways Bill will be going through Parliament in the next two days.

Email your MP today about tomorrow's votes:

https://weownit.org.uk/act-now/railways-bill-email

#MP #emailyourMP #UKPolitics #UKRail

A question for UK rail enthusiasts. Everywhere I go by train, I see lots of old bits of stuff lying around by the tracks. Old rails, wires, random bits of metal, etc.
I assume that this is mostly stuff which is left-over after maintenance. But there doesn't seem to be a culture of clearing away all this stuff.
Is there a reason for this?

When travelling by road, you might see all sorts of 'rubbish', but you don't typically see lots of piles of asphalt etc. [Yes, occasionally, and yes, lost traffic cones.]

#UKRail #Trains