Transport Sparks

Transport Sparks. A community for young autistic transport enthusiasts & their families. @sploshy (AS) @richardsw16 (RS) @spittingyarn (AY) tweeting.

[Transport Sparks @transportsparks]

This is a reminder that all the really good Transport Sparks chats, shares, event details and more take place in our Facebook group. Come join us.

https://t.co/5CxOTUurYv

[Transport Sparks @transportsparks]

Happy New Year 🎊 to all of our Sparks!

[Paul Lucas @paul_winginit]

Made it to Ashington on opening day! 🤩 Great to see this former railway reopened and revitalised - it was very busy with lots of “normals” from Ashington riding into Newcastle.

The station was closed in 1964 but reopened TODAY to passengers 😎 #lastscratch

[Transport Sparks @transportsparks]

Exciting...

[Tim Dunn @MrTimDunn]

I’m on the 7am train to Newcastle, then to a destination missing from normal passenger timetables for *60 years*: Ashington, on the 18 mile Northumberland Line. Passenger services were axed in 1964: following much hard work, it reopens this Sunday! There’s still work to do on some of the intermediate stations for a variety of reasons: and it’s taken lobbying, reports, debates, and hard graft since the first attempts to get this line reopened to passengers in the 1990s.

But we are where we are: and today, a preview trip, is about saying chuffing well done to all those who have made this first phase happen and to see what’s due to be sorted in the next phase. How I see it is that the folk of Ashington in a few days’ time will be reconnected to a network that enables travel to the rest of us, to friends and families, work opportunities, days out and trips under the sea to the rest of the world. Those stations aren’t just platforms: they’re portals.

And for the rest of us - get ready to add Ashington and the intermediates along this scenic 18 mile line to your radar: ‘cos a whole new chunk of Britain is about to be connected and open to me and to you – by those parallel, transformational, twin strips of steel.

[London Transport Museum @ltmuseum]

We’re pleased to announce the addition of an incredible new interactive bus display to our Museum.🚍

Visitors can now live out their dreams of driving a London bus, without the license!

Thanks to @TUKLondonBus, @Wright_bus, @navahotech, @HanoverDisplays, @ZenobeEnergy, @rgi_ops

[Trainspotting Dan @tubespottingdan]

Always love it when there’s a London transport round on Pointless

[Transport Sparks @transportsparks]

Nice fact for the day*:

The German word for “rail replacement bus” is “ersatzbus”.

You’re welcome.

*Courtesy of Zoe Williams in yesterday’s Guardian.

[Transport Sparks @transportsparks]

Have you memorised the line names & colours yet?!? https://t.co/rJhFdplHUQ

[Transport Sparks @transportsparks]

Any sparks been for a ride on the 358 today? @TfL @Go_Ahead_London #buses #358 https://t.co/mKkdvW9Bui

[Transport Sparks @transportsparks]

Happy Birthday @Eurostar How many sparks have managed to take a #Eurostar journey?

[TfL @TfL]

Happy 30th Birthday @Eurostar! 🇪🇺

Here’s to another year of travels between London and Europe! 🚉🚂

See you at Kings Cross for the best arrival at our Visitor Centre 😎

#Eurostar30thbirthday #Eurostar30yearsold

[Transport Sparks @transportsparks]

A tube carriage all to myself? Yes please 😃👌

[Paul Sweeney MSP @PaulJSweeney]

After much persistence, a team of us have managed to save around half of the 1980 Metro-Cammell Glasgow Subway cars from the scrap yard.

A huge thanks to @BenDC_ for his relentless work to secure deals for these much loved little trains for and project managing their re-homing.

[Daniel Timms @djstimms]

They make the tube map ugly, they throw up some WILD prices and we don't need them...

IT'S TIME TO SCRAP THE TUBE ZONES 🧵

And introduce a simpler, fairer, better system... 1/n

[Mark Ovenden @markovenden]

One of my favourite bloggers is @ianvisits, he seems to discover #London #transit news before most so I'm honoured that he's first to review my latest book here: https://t.co/0lkY8MPNKe

[London Reconnections @lonrec]

Friday Reads for 10 October: https://t.co/15TF4BUZx5

[Tom Edwards @BBCTomEdwards]

First look inside the new Piccadilly line trains - air con .. walk through and some carriages have no wheels ..

[Sam W @SamMarkWill]

So, this afternoon I got home to find a lovely letter from @northernassist telling me about how they wanted to prosecute me for using the below ticket to travel on the specified route at a peak time.
I paid £1.90 less than the fare they say I should have paid.
A thread 🧵

[Transport Sparks @transportsparks]

I'm sure Sparks know this rule already... but just in case.

[Sam W @SamMarkWill]

So, this afternoon I got home to find a lovely letter from @northernassist telling me about how they wanted to prosecute me for using the below ticket to travel on the specified route at a peak time.
I paid £1.90 less than the fare they say I should have paid.
A thread 🧵

[Tim Dunn @MrTimDunn]

Happy 175th Birthday to GWR’s Windsor branch: opened #OTD 8th October 1849, beating rival L&SWR by two months to start services to that company’s separate station in this royal town. I joined @GWRHelp this morning at a small stakeholder event marking the date (a few Victorians joined us too - evoking memories of the ‘Royalty&Empire’ expo of my local 1980s childhood). The station you see at what’s now called Windsor & Eton Central is not the original, but an 1897 complex built ostensibly for Queen Vic’s jubilee; but the four main platform roads these days have retreated from the building to leave it occupied by a shopping centre, cafes and “The Queen”, the replica steam loco left over from the R&E attraction. The track out is now a single one along the branch from Slough: although the route atop the bridges and viaduct are pleasant still and its shuttle service is frequent. Still, if you go to the bar next to the fake loco, you can then visit Victoria’s royal waiting room which adjoins it: apparently its most popular feature is the (working, but not in use) royal waiting room loo. AND if you fancy a somewhat more comprehensive tale of Windsor’s two rival stations aimed at capturing the heart of the monarch, you’ll find it free, online, to watch as one of my favourite episodes of my #theArchitectureTheRailwaysBuilt TV series here on @StreamOnU : https://t.co/HuaQ4UVhIo 🥰🥳

[Simon MacMichael 🏳️‍🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿🇮🇹🇪🇺❤️💙🚲 @simonmacmichael]

Hell of a railway replacement bus service at Acton Town tube this morning 🤣