Rail Re-Openings - Dr Beeching

Post by **cnosni** » Mon 17 Nov, 2008 10:43 pm

raveydavey wrote: ads wrote: I think its a crying shame that given the failings of supertram etc, park & rides seem to have gone until the powers dream up another potential scheme that will drag on for years. Given all the development on Pontefract Lane, I would have thought that a park and ride site at the old wholesale market, accessing the railway on the sidings at Neville Hill just above it, with a drop off point at the old Marsh Lane sidings near the Kremlin would have been ideal. Most of the track bed etc is already there so it wouldn't have been the biggest task in the world, particularly given the amount wasted already in the failed supertram scheme, just a couple of new stations, and away you go. Maybe even give facility for some of the York / Selby trains to drop off in there and it would release some of the bottle neck at Leeds. As someone has highlighted before, another site crying out for a rail connection is the White Rose Centre, shut the under utilised Cottingley station and move it down the lines a bit, and actually get some trains to stop there unlike Cottingley! It's a little know fact that when the White Rose Centre was at the planning stage, they offered to include a new station in the construction. Needless to say the authorities at the time (Notwork Rail?) looked that particular gift horse straight in the teeth and declined the offer. What a clever idea that was.There are, apparently, plans afoot for a "Parkway" station on the Leeds-York line adjacent to the motorway exit at Colton (Thorp Park). I'm not entirely sure how the overloaded current trains would cope with this, and given the current economic climate it's probably at least a decade away, but it is a step in the right direction. The trick here would ,oddly enough,to encourage those people who park and drive to South Milford,Micklefield and the Garforth Stations to drive to a new parkway station at Austhorpe.Therefore the number of stopper trains could be reduced and this will free up paths between Micklefield and Leeds East.Clearly this is ludicrous as you would be putting more pressure on the M1.As an alternative to this any station at Austhorpe would probably be best as a "spur" off of the main line,rather than on it.This would allow Anglo Scots services to pass through relatively unhindered.However ,this is the more expensive option,and therefore wont happen.DOH!!

Post by **chameleon** » Mon 17 Nov, 2008 10:53 pm

cnosni wrote: chameleon wrote: 'There are, apparently, plans afoot for a "Parkway" station on the Leeds-York line adjacent to the motorway exit at Colton (Thorp Park). I'm not entirely sure how the overloaded current trains would cope with this, and given the current economic climate it's probably at least a decade away, but it is a step in the right direction'And to continue the cynicism of the evening, what are the chances that the rail fare and cost of parking there are about the same as fuel and any congestion charge that may come along!It feels more and more that everything has a price, justified or not. Its been mooted before,howver there is talk of a link road in this patch through to the A58 at Wellington Hill,a proposal that appears still to be valid according to to the council Bods at the NGT exhibition outside the Art Gallery last week. Be in no doubt, despite the Highways agency scrapping the A6120 bypass, their relinquishing responsibility by 'De-trunking' the Ring Road and passing it to the local authority allowed the new management to reopen the idea.The initial high-visibility public consultation on the subject seems to have slowed to a halt with the decision to go ahead seemingly taken as read.

Post by **tyke bhoy** » Tue 18 Nov, 2008 9:54 pm

A report on tonights look north says that its easier than ever to dodge fares at Leeds Station because of the new barriers.BTW the replacement annual metro card is made of the same flimsy cardboard as the standard ticket and must be fed through the ticket barriers almost 500 times a year. Something I pointed out to Metro but their response is that technology similar to London's oyster card is being trialled in Sheffield. If (BIG if) the trial is succesful it might replace the Metrocard in 2-3 years time (jam tomorrow, maybe). The advantage of the Yorcard is it will be plastic and will not need to be removed from its wallet twice a day which the current card passes do (dog-eared pretty soon I'd imagine).

Trojan · Post by **Trojan** » Tue 18 Nov, 2008 10:10 pm

tyke bhoy wrote: (jam tomorrow, maybe). The advantage of the Yorcard is it will be plastic and will not need to be removed from its wallet twice a day which the current card passes do (dog-eared pretty soon I'd imagine). Jam today if it gets too dogeared

Post by **tyke bhoy** » Tue 18 Nov, 2008 10:53 pm

Too true Trojan

simong · Post by **simong** » Wed 19 Nov, 2008 10:51 am

Trojan wrote: tyke bhoy wrote: (jam tomorrow, maybe). The advantage of the Yorcard is it will be plastic and will not need to be removed from its wallet twice a day which the current card passes do (dog-eared pretty soon I'd imagine). Jam today if it gets too dogeared Jam this morning in my case. My Metrocard got stuck in the slot so I had to grab one of the Northern staff to get it out. There's a definite design fault in the barrier mechanism as tickets pile up just inside the slot. It's pretty obvious that the mechanisms haven't been tested properly as they have to have half a dozen staff hanging around to clear problems like that. A stored value card would be a great idea as it does reduce those problems enormously, but then Metro would have to get First and Arriva to get card readers fitted to their buses, and, as companies who seem to have an expected life on their buses of about 20 years, it will be a lot of work to get them to spend the money. For that matter, getting Metro to spend money on an issuing system would be a battle - does anyone know if post offices are issuing ticket style Metrocards now? I have been buying mine at Guiseley station as I could see that the barriers were going to be brought into service and the last card that I bought at the post office was still the same bit of dumb cardboard.

Post by **tyke bhoy** » Wed 19 Nov, 2008 11:44 am

Simon, the major reason for the barriers being manned is not to clear problems from jams but to allow through the myriad of people who do not have magnetic strip tickets (25% according to Metro). Those with the long thin tickets similar to the GNER ones. Plus only corporate issue Metro cards have been replaced which could still mean in 10 months before the last annual/quarterly cards without the strip will come to the end of their life.From this http://www.wymetro.com/News/081023-1.ht ... pose=Basic its worse because it looks like only Metro Cards bought at Bus/Rail stations will work for the forseeable and it does mention the scratch off Day Rovers too with no indication they will be phased out.Apparently the Oyster card ( and hopefully the YorCard) can be just waved over a sensor rather than fed through a machine so in combination with a photocard could just be shown on the bus and would not need removing from its wallet at Leeds station. Or maybe they will go with the value card which might explain the 2 year delay in implementation Metro suggested.

Loiner Paul · Post by **Loiner Paul** » Wed 19 Nov, 2008 1:40 pm

tyke bhoy wrote: A report on tonights look north says that its easier than ever to dodge fares at Leeds Station because of the new barriers.BTW the replacement annual metro card is made of the same flimsy cardboard as the standard ticket and must be fed through the ticket barriers almost 500 times a year. Something I pointed out to Metro but their response is that technology similar to London's oyster card is being trialled in Sheffield. If (BIG if) the trial is succesful it might replace the Metrocard in 2-3 years time (jam tomorrow, maybe). The advantage of the Yorcard is it will be plastic and will not need to be removed from its wallet twice a day which the current card passes do (dog-eared pretty soon I'd imagine). Wonder why the technology needs to be trialled in Sheffield? Surely it has been proved to work in London using one of the biggest transport systems in the world.

Post by **tyke bhoy** » Wed 19 Nov, 2008 2:21 pm

It's a different system. Possibly because a Dutch court recently ruled that it was legal for a website to show details of how to clone/cheat the oyster card.This is the card Metro are proposinghttp://www.yorcard.com/default.asp?pageid=1&groupid=1

Loiner Paul · Post by **Loiner Paul** » Wed 19 Nov, 2008 3:36 pm

tyke bhoy wrote: It's a different system. Possibly because a Dutch court recently ruled that it was legal for a website to show details of how to clone/cheat the oyster card.This is the card Metro are proposinghttp://www.yorcard.com/default.asp?pageid=1&groupid=1 Guess that's reason enough!!!!