Yesterday evening saw the first of this year’s series of Mid-Cheshire Music Trains. Over 60 people from Chester and stations along the line caught the 1907 train from Chester to Plumley. Playing for us were The Time Bandits, Roy Clinging and Neil Brookes with Nick Mitchell and Friends, all part of the Chester Folk Festival. [...]
According to the BBC News website, UK train and bus operator Arriva has agreed to be taken over by Germany’s Deutsche Bahn in a deal worth £1.59bn. Shareholders will now be asked to give their approval. It’s a strange privatised railway in this country. Chiltern Railways, Wrexham & Shropshire, Cross Country and the Welsh franchise, [...]
Most readers will be aware of our tram/train blog and our question – “Why are we waiting?” Here’s the link. MCRUA member, Jim Harkins, FCILT, is Managing Director of consultancy Light Rail (UK) Limited. In January, Jim gave a presentation at Macclesfield Town Hall entitled “The Case for and Applications of TramTrain (a low cost, [...]
Last November, following a dinner I was invited to at which Lord Adonis was the speaker, I put together a post speculating on when we were likely to get some more and newer trains. I was invited to attend Northern’s meeting for Stakeholders last Tuesday. They were able to give us an update on how [...]
After a post about Liverpool Airport. OK! Fair cop! And no, I wasn’t prompted. Yes, Manchester Airport is also pretty easy to get to/from using our line, so long as you’re not out on an early morning flight, or back on one arriving very late. Car parking for a week pre-booked comes out at around [...]
Liverpool John Lennon Airport (JLA) has developed astonishingly fast in the last few years with budget flights to many parts. It’s well known that the airlines pay low landing fees to use it, the Airport making its money in other ways. A week’s parking in the new multi-storey opposite the airport building costs around £85, [...]
We’ve been getting complaints for a few months about the state of the outsides of the trains on our line, particularly the Sprinters. Here’s a picture of a Sprinter departing Mobberley this morning. On our line with its delightful scenery, people enjoy the views. Trouble is, on a sunny day with the sun reflecting on [...]
We’re delighted that thanks to you the Blog keeps going from strength to strength. Thanks for the suggestions we’ve had for improvements. One of these was asking us to make it easy for bloggers to see when new comments come in. We’ve made this change in the last couple of days – see the right-hand [...]
The 4-wheel bumpy, cold, wet, draughty class 142 Pacers have served us “well” for many years. But would we be sorry to see them go? NO!! We’d like class 156 Super Sprinters to be the normal trains for our services. It seems some people would miss them. If you’d like to support them, have a [...]
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