leyton.org

I’ve previously written about my experiences with the west coast mainline, and that it was now my preferred way of travelling to London. It seems I’m not the only person who’s impressed with the new service, as the BBC has been covering it’s success (you need to read past the “upgrade warning” headline) - it’s ahead of it’s passenger growth targets, but may actually reach capacity within 10 years.

It’s all good news for the anti-airport lobby. People are returning to the trains, when they provide a good service. Unfortunately, it costs a lot of money to build and maintain a rail system like this, and it’s still incredibly frustrating when the trains slow down due to interference on the tracks, delayed trains and other problems.

Here in Scotland, with elections next year, all the major parties are talking about upgrading the Edinburgh/Glasgow railway link, which is appallingly slow, and somewhat unreliable. Took their time, but can they really invest what is needed?

But the west-coast mainline is proving a real success story. I hope they can get the occasional delays worked out of the system, and find ways to resolve the capacity problems (and get a decent weekend service, please?), because otherwise we’ll all find ourselves forced to use the airports more and more, and I don’t honestly think anybody really wants that.