Andy Bowes-Roden = =

Husband, Dad, Deputy Editor on @Modern_Railways, railway author and campaigner. #FlyingScotsmanBook out NOW on kindle and iBooks. All views my own.

[Andy Bowes-Roden = = @AndyRoden1]

@HamishDBG @SW_Help What frustrates me, living further west, is that it always **was** a quick route historically. The decisions taken in the 1960s may have saved it, but we need this railway running to the formation's capability in the 2020s, not what the 1960s required.

[Andy Bowes-Roden = = @AndyRoden1]

@HamishDBG @SW_Help They're fabulous, I absolutely agree. I wrote this editorial, and if there were anything the railway profoundly disagreed with here I'd have received a rather sweary phone call. None arrived - this upgrade is a case that can be won, I think.

[Andy Bowes-Roden = = @AndyRoden1]

@KymriskaDraken @HamishDBG @SW_Help I will defer to signalling experts on that - but there are very long sections of single track, long signalling sections on the double track east of Salisbury... yet it should be viewed as a main line of huge strategic importance and redoubled and upgraded.

[Andy Bowes-Roden = = @AndyRoden1]

@HamishDBG @SW_Help If you're interested in our analysis, it's here: https://t.co/0vWYaZC5K2. Not a gratuitous plug from me for a change: I think it'll be of interest to West of England line users.

[Andy Bowes-Roden = = @AndyRoden1]

@HamishDBG @SW_Help works, and a new battery-electric train fleet. If you're feeling in the mood to suggest to the powers that are in Westminster it would be a good idea, I doubt anyone on the railway will object, Hamish. It's a vital route decades overdue major investment.

[Andy Bowes-Roden = = @AndyRoden1]

Although, perhaps not **quite** as strong as the stuff @PaulMBigland and I quaffed a few years ago...

[Andy Bowes-Roden = = @AndyRoden1]

Before work this morning, we picked up some bottled water. We get hit by a fair few storms here in Cornwall so it seems to make sense. And if we don't need them, we'll get the home brew on again and have six bottles full of something nice.

[Andy Bowes-Roden = = @AndyRoden1]

@obioneyouknowme @driverbod125 @72Munster I think I'm right in saying this peoplemover is cable driven, so rail adhesion isn't really an issue!

[Andy Bowes-Roden = = @AndyRoden1]

I have just read quite the worst take on driverless trains from somewhere I’d expect to understand the tech and the limitations. Genuinely stunned at the lack of understanding and factual inaccuracy.

[Andy Bowes-Roden = = @AndyRoden1]

@paultrowntree @72Munster I don’t say driverless won’t happen - but if it does it’ll be because the economic and operational benefits are so compelling it’s irresistible. Automation is easy - we’ve been doing it since the 1960s. Going full ATO even is impossible to justify remotely soon.

[Andy Bowes-Roden = = @AndyRoden1]

@Greenironcoxy Yes. In a word!

[Andy Bowes-Roden = = @AndyRoden1]

@RPMarks My long thread on driverless trains a while ago stands. It’ll be horrendously expensive, deliver few real world benefits in most places and depends on a vast programme of infrastructure upgrades we’ll never afford.

[Andy Bowes-Roden = = @AndyRoden1]

@RPMarks Really can’t say: it’s not fair to do so. If you see it, you’ll know about it. I know tech, automotive and railways, and this misses the point spectacularly.

[Andy Bowes-Roden = = @AndyRoden1]

@Thighsofsteel1 Sadly not as I’ve read it in print. I won’t embarrass the author of it but I suspect the reaction from drivers will be interesting.

[Andy Bowes-Roden = = @AndyRoden1]

@MetTimes @sophielouisecc It certainly appears to be on instruction. But it's factually incorrect and misleading. There will be valid criticisms of the government's approach to rail reform - just as there were with the conservatives'. There's really no need to mislead people here.

[Andy Bowes-Roden = = @AndyRoden1]

Lots of misleading stuff about #rail #nationalisation being a disaster (which follows a lot of stuff about it being a panacea), and private operation being a panacea (after years of being told it was a disaster). Neither side is right here. It doesn't matter. What matters...

[Andy Bowes-Roden = = @AndyRoden1]

@CrantockQuarry @afneil BR did. But it took a long while before it found a structure that worked. Sectorisation was quite possibly the best organisation the railway ever had. Also worth pointing out that BR had a world-leading R&D division. Shattered at privatisation.

[Andy Bowes-Roden = = @AndyRoden1]

@sgoldswo I wouldn’t read a thing into that re ownership. It’s autumn, performance declines because the railway tries to avoid trains skidding out of control during leaf fall season. Ownership, remember, is irrelevant to success.

[Andy Bowes-Roden = = @AndyRoden1]

@paul_d_stevens Except that they haven’t always. Thatcher refused to privatise BR as it was working well and not causing her any problems.