Battle of the barriers - Sheffield falls!

This from passenger and pedestrian champion Richard Malins...

Lord Adonis was in Sheffield yesterday.

The Sheffield Central constituency, which includes the station, is a Lib Dem/Labour marginal and the former Labour MP Richard Caborn is standing down.

It is being contested by Paul Scriven, leader of the City Council, for the Lib Dems, and the ticket barrier scheme is a political embarrassment to the Labour candidate as it has become a serious local issue.

Adonis announced that it will not proceed, pending the creation of an alternative pedestrian footbridge route, and EMT has announced that they have been relieved of the franchise obligation.

No shit Sherlock!

Could this volte-face by the Noble Lord be in anyway connected with events on the 6th May?

UPDATE: This from 28481k, via Twitter...

Hurray, so Park Hills regeneration project is saved (for access, for now)!

UPDATE: The Fact Compiler observes...

Apparently no deal has yet been signed with EMT on this.

So campaigners would be advised not to take their foot off DafT's throat yet...

FuCC... errr... deeply FuCCed! Or not...

This from the BBC...

A minister has refused to rule out nationalising an "appalling" London commuter railway line that suffered almost three months of disruption.

Indeed.

But Eye thinks not.

Readers may wish to look at a political map of the constituencies through which the Thameslink route passes.

The sea of blue gives the clue.

With no votes to be gained FuCC just ain't on 'The Grid'.

If only they had voted Labour... Meanwhile in Aberdeen, trebles all round!

Happy anniversary

A day to gladden the hearts of all railwaymen!

On this day in 1830, at the opening of the Liverpool and Manchester Railway, William Huskisson MP interfered with the operation of the railway and paid for his audacity with his life.

Sadly it's been a bit one sided in the wrong direction since then.

Irish News: IE backing Ahmadinejad

This from the Irish Independent last week...


Controversial Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is campaigning to be re-elected on the plank that his country is advancing as rapidly as a train, only the train in question is Irish, almost as old as he is and until 2007 was delivering freight around the country.

There's a pun here somewhere about Gerrymandering but in the current climate probably best not to make it.

UPDATE: This from Andrew Grantham over at the Railway Gazette...

An Irish diesel?

That's nothing - look at the train on the top of the Islamic Republic of Iran Railways website!

Beats an exported Pacer.