Workington - Railway to the Rescue!

This from Network Rail...

In the last 24hrs the company has identified a site for a new temporary station that could help alleviate some of the problems being experienced by the residents of Workington and the surrounding villages.

The new station will be built on waste-land just over ½ mile to the north of the existing station, reconnecting the two halves of the town that have been cut off following flood damage to the footbridges and road bridges in the area.

Good effort.

UPDATE: This from a Mr Saltaire...

Anyone know why Cumbria's road bridges have proven so susceptible to the deluge whilst railway bridges appear to be holding up (no pun intended).

Perhaps the Highway's Agency and County Council have something to learn from Network Rail?

UPDATE: This from Nigel Harris...

I made the same point in my blog re Cumbrian bridges.

It’s a tribute to the job done by our Victorian railway forebears that they built these structures to last such that they shrugged-off the 1,000 year flood which closed, weakened or swept away the county’s road bridges.

Let’s hear it for the navvies and 19th century bridge designers!

UPDATE: This from Chionanthus virginicus...

Railway Civil Engineers have been particularly diligent after the disaster at Glanrhyd Bridge in October 1987, when the bridge was washed away by exceptional water levels in the River Towy. These under-scoured the piers and unfortunately in the darkness a DMU went into the water with loss of 4 lives.

ATOC tramples roughshod over heritage line

Oh dear.

ATOC's exciting Connecting Communities Report already appears to be falling apart under public scrutiny.

Readers will recollect that the report was widely leaked over the weekend before being officially unveiled on Monday to much media fanfare and misty eyed recollections of pre-Beeching days.

But it would appear that much of its thinking is back of the fag packet stuff, judging by this story in the Herald Express...

THE steam railway company which runs Churston Station says it has not been consulted over new plans to reconnect the line with the mainline route to Newton Abbot.

Andrew Pooley, general manager of Paignton and Dartmouth Steam Railway, says the company has not been involved in compiling the report, which singles out the old Brixham line as one of 14 which should be reopened nationwide.

And he says the idea 'has not been thought through'.

Indeed.

Perhaps surprising that ATOC didn't bother consulting with the heritage line before publishing a report that proposes using its infrastructure for new services.

Doubly so, as the report was written by the former chairman of another heritage railway in the South West.

Is the Eye alone in fearing that ATOC is now more interested in spin than substance?

ATOC issues old record

Deep breath.

It would appear that private sector Train Operating Companies want to reopen lots of stations!

This from the Sunday Telegraph...

The Association of Train Operating Companies is due to give unprecedented backing to the restoration of disused track and the reintroduction of passenger services on other routes which currently only carry freight.

Excitingly ATOC members propose using taxpayers money to do this rather than their own.

No matter.

The list of lines is strangely familiar...

Lines... include the Uckfield to Lewes line in East Sussex, the Bristol to Portishead line and Yorkshire's Harrogate-Ripon-Northallerton route... the restoration of the Manton Curve in Rutland... while reopening the Woodhead line from Manchester to Sheffield...

Can it be?

This is surely an echo of Railtrack's 2000 Network Management Statement?

Is Michael taking up Gerald's mantle?

Careful, there is no Woolworths left to move to.

UPDATE: This just in from Leo Pink...

Gerald Corbet is now at LRC, where they specialise in ensuring that F***-ups don't have embarrassing results.

How come he was overlooked to be NR's new Chairman?