Browsing All posts tagged under »CrossCountry«

A handy piece of flexibility

April 5, 2010

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Yesterday saw me head into Derbyshire for a spot of exploration in the Peak District National Park. What got me to Baslow for the start of the walk was a two part bus journey. Service 58 took me from Macclesfield to Buxton and service 218 got me from there to Baslow. My trot finished up… [Read more…]

U.K. Train Companies on Twitter

January 8, 2010

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When snow came down on us, the frailities of the U.K.’s transport information provision systems was apparent for all to see. It was that which showed the best side of microblogging services like Twitter. In that vein, here are the Twitter areas occupied by the train companies forming part of the Association of Train Operating… [Read more…]

Hourly?

November 17, 2009

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After last year’s big timetable change, I highlighted on here an inconsistency whereby northbound Virgin and CrossCountry services ran so close together within the hour that we virtually had an hourly service from Macclesfield on Sundays. Well, that seems to have been sorted with a more sensible half-hourly spacing but southbound services would seem to… [Read more…]

They run more trains on Sundays than I thought

November 16, 2009

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Until yesterday, I was under the impression that the Sunday service on the Mid Cheshire railway line between Stockport and Chester consisted only of three trains running each way. There is some vague memory of a timetable of that shape lodge in the back my brain but it’s two-hourly these days and proved to be… [Read more…]

No engine required for a hell of a racket

August 18, 2009

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Last week saw me travel to Aviemore for a few day’s stay by way of the Caledonian Sleeper and I perhaps foolishly stuck with seated accommodation in the spirit of thrift. Scotrail seem to use Mk 2 carriages for that role and the roar when the brakes are applies cannot be missed. Might I suggest… [Read more…]

A ride on an HST

August 3, 2009

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On Saturday, I embarked on a journey that had me travelling on an NXEC HST without going anywhere next to near the stomping ground of the beleaguered NXEC. The train itself was bound from Manchester to Newquay and had been hired by CrossCountry in anticipation of the summer holidaying hoards, not that it was very… [Read more…]

Saving precious pennies II

March 15, 2009

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I was recently pondering a trip to Cardiff and the standard Off-Peak return starting from Macclesfield kept coming to £57.90. This was rather more than I was expecting so my mind turned to the idea of re-booking or split ticketing. It might constrain my journey options (a good few good around by Birmingham) but doing… [Read more…]

They are supposed to be finished…

March 12, 2009

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My run in with the West Coast Mainline Upgrade saga is probably worthy of a longer post but it seems that it is still continuing as much as ever and that’s in spite of their celebrating the end of things not so long ago. Thankfully, Macclesfield is being spared by the latest attentions but weekend… [Read more…]