BBC - England's forgotten railway stations

[miyakoji]

Interesting article, photos of various emotions:

 

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-29816152

[bikkuri bahn]

One station I would like to have seen in its heyday, is Nottingham Victoria, before the rundown of the Great Central route, and when the expresses were known for their fast stops and starts, to better compete with the trains on the parallel Midland Line.

[dabsan]

One station I would like to have seen in its heyday, is Nottingham Victoria, before the rundown of the Great Central route, and when the expresses were known for their fast stops and starts, to better compete with the trains on the parallel Midland Line.

Hi, yes I would have liked to have seen that too! Here is a photograph of a busy looking Nottingham Victoria.

[The Next Station Is...]

I always think it strange how pivotal railways have become to Japanese life and the inverse decline in British life, considering Britain was the first 'railway nation'. Maybe that's too simplistic a view, or maybe I'm just bitter that my train journey into work isn't better!

 

Anyway, I think it's fascinating looking at stations and lines that have fallen out of use, and retracing old routes. Thanks for the link to the article!

[bikkuri bahn]

I always think it strange how pivotal railways have become to Japanese life and the inverse decline in British life

 

Don't feel too bad, at least modal ratio of railways in the UK stands at 5.9%, and I believe is on the rise.  Pity the American passenger train railfan, the modal ratio stands at a miniscule three tenths of a percent!

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rail_usage_statistics_by_country

[Davo Dentetsu]

I always wanted to know how my local rail (the old Elgin, Aberlour and Grantown lines through Morayshire) would have looked today had it still been around.  Always surprising to see old photos of it in the 60s before it all closed.

[railsquid]

I always think it strange how pivotal railways have become to Japanese life and the inverse decline in British life, considering Britain was the first 'railway nation'. Maybe that's too simplistic a view, or maybe I'm just bitter that my train journey into work isn't better!

 

 

I've been reading a lot of encouraging news about investment and new projects (Cross-Rail, old lines being re-opened etc.), but every time I go there and have to deal with the system I just want to hold my head in my hands and groan.

[Densha]

I always think it strange how pivotal railways have become to Japanese life and the inverse decline in British life, considering Britain was the first 'railway nation'. Maybe that's too simplistic a view, or maybe I'm just bitter that my train journey into work isn't better!

I actually wrote an essay about this subject a while back. It's even more strange considering that Britain is actually now buying off railway technology from Japan.

Here is a bit of history on the early days of the railways in Japan, which shows the role Britain played at that time as well: http://www.jrtr.net/jrtr01/pdf/history.pdf

This article has a very interesting photo of Yokohama station in 1872: http://ajw.asahi.com/article/behind_news/AJ201202080001

[railsquid]

I actually wrote an essay about this subject a while back. It's even more strange considering that Britain is actually now buying off railway technology from Japan.

 

And DB is a major train operator...

[kvp]

The cause for the collapse of the British railway industry is actually the result of full liberalisation and separation of rail, rolling stock and service operators. The same would have happened in Japan after 1987 if the JR companies didn't inherit the full infrastructure. This is why JTREC exist and BREL doesn't. This is how the US is buying japanese train technology that was actually developed in the US and only licensed to Japan in the 60ies.

 

 

ps: Four photos:

 

Yokohama station in 1872: (from the article above)

http://d13uygpm1enfng.cloudfront.net/article-imgs/en/2012/02/08/AJ201202080001/AJ201202080002M.jpg

Budapest Western station in 1877:

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/c9/Nyugati_19._század_vége.jpg

Yokohama station (now Sakuragicho station) in 2007:

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/d6/Sakuragicho-station_and_Yokohama_Landmark_Tower.JPG

Budapest Western station in 2003:

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/d9/Budapest_nyugati_trams.jpg

 

You see that Yokohama has been transformed from the flat port area to a business district with skyscrapers. In Budapest... new trams and a nice clock! So while i and most hungarians still prefer to leave old buildings where they are and use them as in the past, the progress in Japan has been much faster in the past 150 years than in Europe. You only need trains when there are a lot of people and cargo to move around and you increase capacity when the current one is not enough. In Europe, most countries don't need more rail because they already have more than their industries require. The same is mostly true for Japan, where you can shoot pictures of disused stations and closed lines far from urban centers and most progress is concentrated to larger cities like Tokyo and on building shinkansen lines. In the UK there isn't a lot of need for passenger rail in the country or a lot a people to move around. On the other hand, british cities with high and increasing population, like London need more capacity and lots of projects are under way to provide that.