75,000 Unlawful train fare prosecutions & UK’s final coal train runs | Ep 40

Could 75,000 train fare evasion prosecutions be unlawful? We discuss train operators’ use of the Single Justice Procedure and the rather extraordinary situation that appears to be unfolding in the courts.

The Isle of Wight railway – Island Line – faces LONG closures for maintenance – AGAIN.
LNER and other train companies launch a Be Kind initiative to tackle unacceptable abuse towards staff.

It’s the end of the line for King Coal on rail – a 200 year old relationship ends when the final coal train runs.

And in good news, the railway family raise £200,000 in the 3 peaks challenge!

This week’s quiz: My first is in copper but not in gold, my second is in tin but not in bold. My third is in magnesium but not in silver. My fourth is in zinc, but not in river. And my fifth is in metal, but not in wood. I am sleek and I am fast, but who am I?

In this episode:

00:00 Intro
07:28 General Election 2024 – It’s polling day!
10:32 Railway news round up
15:08 Feedback on our Andy Byford interview
17:11 Be Kind initiative for World Social Media Day
22:10 Unlawful train fare evasion prosecutions
30:03 Island Line closures
34:39 More trains planned for the West Coast Main Line
40:52 Final coal train runs in the UK
45:58 The Quiz
49:59 Three Peaks by Rail challenge
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Credits:
Presenters – Nigel Harris (@railnigel on X) & Richard Bowker CBE (@SRichardBowker). General Manager: Stef Foster (@stefatrail)

coming up on today’s green signals your Railway podcast could 75,000 train Fair evasion prosecutions be unlawful the aisle of white Railway Island line faces long closures for maintenance yet again Ln and other train companies launch a beind initiative to tackle unacceptable and growing abuse towards staff it’s the end of the line for King Cole on rail a 200y old relation ship ends and in good news the railway family raises £200,000 in the Three Peaks [Music] Challenge and welcome to Green signals from me Nigel Harris in lovely Lincolnshire on polling day I’m going to admit and and me Richard Baler here in Wilshire and because there’s been no Time Warp it’s also polling day here yes we don’t normally record quite so late but we had a few technical issues and things to do so we’re we’re a bit hard against it so we’ll crack on because Richard has to edit it all once we’ve done for publication a bit later first of all many many genuinely humbled thanks to the incredible number of you who have left us super thanks again this week on YouTube Chris Exley Robert Walsh Rob staff audian Wacky Racers John Kirkman Rod Jenkins Matt Jackson John pickup Brian Newton Donald Thompson Stuart Broadbent and the independent Brig line rail group plenty of whom have actually left us super thanks more than once indeed since so many of you are now contributing regularly we’ve been thinking about how we could come up with something that delivers even more value to those that are supporting us so Faithfully and in part this was inspired by This brilliant comment from regular listener Steve others who said what another cracking episode especially the interview with Tony Bush Steve went on years ago you had to wait monthly or bought nightly for your favorite magazine to appear in your local news agent but now we’ve moved on and we’ve got two Railway experts talking real Railway stuff filled with great humor not sure about the experts bit Richard I think you know there’s an old saying isn’t there that an expert um X is something that has been anert is a drip Under Pressure fantastic when I do the the TV news things I always ask him not to build me as an expert on the ticker at the bottom of the screen can we please have specialist but there you go anyway this got us thinking and so we’ve come up with a bit of a cunning plan as Black Adam might have said we have indeed we’re actually going to launch a sort of special member service for regular viewers and listeners on Youtube it’ll be YouTube to begin with because the way that the audio platforms work is slightly different um but the idea is that the there will be an opportunity to sign up to be a member um there’ll be a small fee uh in return uh you’ll get members only exclusive content which is going to be brilliant by the way we’ve got some big plans exclusive access um to some uh special shows we’ve got planned including some live ones and some q&as and a special gift as well to say thanks for being member and probably quite a bit more it it does it does cost us um money to produce the shows particularly when we go out and about you know if we take if we go out somewhere um so the membership scheme is you know is not really a commercial Venture it’s just to help us to do more of this and to grow the channel and and produce hopefully some more great content I’m really looking forward to it especially the exclusive content because we we’ve got some good ideas we’re kicking about which um which I think will be good so shall we share when we’re going to launch it well yeah it’s um it will be before the end of the summer um we’re just putting some finishing touches to it now um Stephan IA decided is actually quite straightforward to do on YouTube but we also want to make sure there’s a few things that once you’ve done them you can’t undo them so we just want to make sure that’s right incidentally you’ll still be able to listen um to all the stuff that we do today uh for free that’s not going to change doesn’t change will always be free yeah the membership scheme is kind of for extra is for extra stuff um as I said we got some great ideas planned actually we had some fun brainstorming that didn’t we so we did and it’s been driven by the green signalers themselves as a result of these growing number of um indeed of super thingss we’re trying to find out how we can expand um on on on that so it’s excellent stuff I might even sign up myself Richard excellent that’s right I want to be member number one so there you go now we should also mention the latest from our listeners around the world we had Stuart harod who listens regularly from Denmark thanks Stuart but we have to say the winner this week is almost certainly aliser Ali Weaver who emailed us to say I just wanted to say thank you for the excellent podcast I really enjoy I’m currently on a sabatical from the rail industry and I’m using green signals to keep up to date with all the latest Railway industry news you recently asked where we listen to the show well this morning I was listening to the podcast after camping in the ugam chatal national park near Tash Kent usbekistan blim you need your teeth in for that one I I was dreading it coming up and I thought I’m bound to stumble over this very well done so I might not got the pronunciations right but by God I got through it um Ali continues Helen my girlfriend kindly took the attached photo keep up the great work we will and if you watch on YouTube you can see Helen’s photo of alist right now now before we go on actually talking of watching on YouTube um we did have somebody um who uh sent us a really interesting comment because you remember last week we we talked about our um we talked about our faces didn’t we well we did because we had a bit of a joke about it somebody said that they wanted to see our faces and move the microphone I think you quite rightly said that’s the first time anybody’s ever said that and um we both felt a bit sort of sheepish didn’t we because we got a message after from somebody saying well actually it is a serious issue I’m hard of hearing and I rely on lip reading a lot and if that microphone’s in front of your face I can’t say and I can’t understand what you’re saying so apologies for maybe treating it a bit lightly when it came up it was more a comment on us than the definitely you know um but as you can see we’ve both moved our microphones you can see our M and our apologies to anybody of heard of hearing who’s been struggling a bit hopefully um you can now you can now keep up so thank you for the um for the offer and we’re always happy to help if we can to make green signals more accessible to anyone now for a variety reasons not least thanks to Richard Landrover which gave up the ghost this week um we’re recording this later than usual so on the same day we intend to publish it no pressure e but as I said early it is a election day and it’s very early and I was on the polling station steps at 7:00 this morning to exercise me franchise and have uh duy put me cross in the Box are you excited Richard um I think it’s going to be a remarkable day um I’m the same as you I I I will be making sure I I I vote later later it’s one of those things where I think you know there’s so many places in the world where you can’t do what we’re all doing today um that it’s just I think we got it almost like duty to to do it so we’ll do it um later I even though I think the outcome is going to be as predicted I still think there’s going to be a couple of surprises along the way there will and and I agree wholeheartedly me me dear old late mom always used to say you should never waste your vote um and when you look at the TV screens about some countries overseas where they’ll queue for hours in the blazing sun to vote and people have died for your vote um to say I’m just not going to bother for me he not on um so please do um always remember that I agree it’s going to be a remarkable day I’ve got some I tweeted about this last night and it triggered quite a debate I said I’ve got some important choices to make today in Morrison’s about what my snacks are going to be for election night which I always sit up and love and I said I was initial thoughts were for hula hoops and um and Skittles and it triggered triggered this enormous discussion going on about Pringles and biscuits and what people’s snacks were for overnight so I’ll be there on Twitter tonight um as I always am it’s always good fun do you stay up at all no I tend not to I I it’s not going to change the outcome is it I and I don’t find it all that compelling to watch I did do that in 97 I admit I did that in 97 because it was such a an amazing evening in so many ways know I was a much younger man and we’d had basically 18 years of then conservative government so I did stay up for that one but but no won’t do it um I think it’s going to be interesting I mean the thing we’re really interesed of is what does it mean for the railway right um I and I hopefully um a new dawn um on the manifesto we covered this on in a show the other week uh labors is the one that does it for me on Railway matters doesn’t mean I agree with everything that’s in the rest of the document because I’m sure as heck don’t but on the railway stuff I think that one does it um because it goes further than the uh the government’s plans for reform and there’s a real pragmatism about what needs to happen immediately but we’ll wait and see we shall see indeed will just one last point on the election stuff Richard being compelling the 16 cabinet ministers are regarded as highly likely to lose the seats um so the idea of 16 Portillo moments which I think was 1997 could be quite compelling stuff especially if it involves Grant shaps um but there you go we’ll move on let’s go to the railway Roundup um which went down very well last week first we have some news from the US where full environmental approval has been secured for the full route from San Francisco to Los Angeles for the California High-Speed Rail Authority it still has some pretty significant funding issues um and although we’re delighted for our American cousins I have to say Richard it’s pretty depressing that the US hardly known for its Progressive thinking towards passenger r ways can make such a bold step with high speeed rail whilst here in the UK we’re going backwards and and it’s not just that project either there there’s others you know there’s uh there’s bright line and there’s the Amtrak stuff no it’s it’s it is it is a bit depressing um from one extreme to the other though highp speed rail in the US um as you mentioned we see that um the island line on the aisle of white is to close completely from the 6th of September to the 6th of October for Vital maintenance worse the uh the bit at ride Pier is to close from the 6th of September for 9 months for further life extension work um we’ll talk a little bit about the island line later on the show but it’s um it’s kind of deja vu for those guys again isn’t it it is indeed some good news on ticketing East Midlands Railway EMR has launched a new ticket type which allows flexible customers I don’t mean customers who can bend um the opportunity to save up to 50% on tickets 50% you heard that right Em’s new secret Fair launched in partnership with seat frog offers a unique opportunity for those who are flexible with their travel times and means customers can travel with EMR between Nottingham and London and Darby and London for as little as12 or between Sheffield and London from £6 as well as between Sheffield and Liverpool for just four quid you can’t Grumble at that can you we’ve put an expl of how it works on the website check out the additional resources for episode 40 I like it good bit of innovation it’s great we actually asked them if they’d like to come on the show and they said um no I think they’re bit more polite that but they but we weren’t trying to catch them out so if if you are listening anybody from East Midlands Railway or um transport UK limited um you know it’s an opportunity to come and and tell us about it and promote what you’re doing because it sounds great indeed and Dominic Booth is never normally shy of promoting what’s going on you no actually and we’ve got a uh a transport UK story later on the show so maybe we’ll come back to um back to Dominic then um just on on the news just finishing off the news round slightly more solemn news story this um but but really important uh on Friday the 28th of June rail industry leaders and local residents joined forces to unveil a new stained glass window in St Peter’s Church Hixon marking the pixon rail disaster of the 6th of January 1968 horrific it was horrific um and Manchester to London uh service around 300 passengers on board collided with a road transporter which I think grounded on the level crossing it was carrying like an electrical Transformer big and very solid 120 tons um and it collided into that and tragically the driver the the assistant a spare driver and eight passengers died um this window has been designed and installed by local business owner Glenn rayon and it’s been funded by organizations across the railway family including Cross Country Network rail of anti Co West Coast and aslef um so that’s you know well done them it was unveiled in The Village Church to represent decades long relationship between the railway the former RAF base at Hixon and the and St peters’s parish and they had a dedication service um and a wreath was laid at The Headstone that they didn’t sold in 2018 actually to commemorate um those who lost their lives in the Hixon rail disaster A fitting Memorial indeed so well done I mean you can it makes you blood run cold doesn’t it that that Transformer grounded on the crossing and how everybody concerned there must have felt when the bells and Sirens went off and the barriers came down and Round the Corner came a Express at line speed just awful no there there is now a a bridge there but um nonetheless a lot changed as a result of that accident and um for the better um before we move on um because that’s it for the railway news round up this week um Nigel but it’s worth a quick mention of our Andy biford interview it is it just reminded me when you’re talking about highspeed rail in the US um because that’s obviously what Andy’s now doing uh leading an tr’s highs speed rail program we published the interview with Andy on uh YouTube channel and on audio uh on Tuesday the 2nd of July for those who are new to our Channel or aren’t aware of this particular um show it’s definitely worth a look Andy’s had some extraordinary jobs he was CEO of New York mass transit authority he was commissioner Transport for London loads of other Big Stuff um I think of all the videos that we put up I mean our videos now do get lots and lots of views and lots and lots of comments this one pretty much every person who’s listened to it has left a comment saying wow I’m just blown away goodness you know so do listen to it it’s on our Channel um Andy biford and uh it’s it it will it will blow your mind it’s it’s fantastic it will from the days of your days at University together to the is carrying out of probably the biggest job on all the continents in transport capitals but what struck me was um and I don’t wish this to sound condescending or pting what a nice bloke he came across as as well as being vastly experienced really astute absolutely on on the um on the ball I find myself more than once thinking ring him and ask him to come come back and sort the mess that we’re sitting on our well I asked him that question I mean I’m not going to tell you what he said because you have to listen to the um you have to listen to the interview but I did ask him that question would you come back and sort a few things out so listen to what he said interesting very I had nothing to do with it Richard did it this is one of Richard’s projects and did a brilliant job with it and it is fantastic um I think Richard said once before this is this is not a question you must watch it you I guarantee um that you’re going to enjoy it and be inspired by it um okay be kind something really important that needs highlighting to make world’s social media Day on Sunday the June 30th a cross industry team came together to make a short but very powerful video where just a small selection of the highly offensive messages sent to social media and customer contact center staff are read out the video powerfully describes the impact these horrible words have on those who receive them and concludes with an appeal to remember that those teams are there to help and it genuinely isn’t their fault and venting on them is not on here’s the video take a look [Music] you’re a with no gcss your only option was to work on the trains take the passwords off your in turn and bring the grown-ups back into the room you’re useless you’re a [Music] you’re a big fat nasty um reading that makes me feel pretty worthless plenty of people could do the job better than you you’re an embarrassment to your family I hope you rot in hell you’re a stupid have a nice day playing social media thieves you’re are not a joke and don’t cry over these messages CU you deserve every AB get animals anyone with half a brain would correct what job you’re doing reading that makes me feel pretty pointless um makes me feel quite intimidated we understand sometimes things can go wrong but please remember that we are here here to help I am someone’s mom I am someone’s daughter I am someone’s son I am someone’s best friend I’m someone’s sister and I’m someone’s Dad we are someone’s mom please remember to be [Music] kind I am someone right thanks to lenr for sending us the film so we could include it in this week’s show let us know what you think it is part of the industry first beind campaign introduced by lnr yet another great initiative by L with the launch of be kind badges these are warned by real colleagues and actors a reminder that they are people too and request kindness and deserve it demand it actually other train operators including Great Western Railway trans penan Express and Southwestern Railway soon join the campaign now more than half of UK train operators are involved with more set to follow hopefully the entire other half be kind supports both Frontline visible staff as well as those who work behind the scenes communicating with customers via social media and email train operators have found that when delays or cancellations happen social media teams in particular are often on the receiving end of the most UPS setting hurtful messages and abuse it’s just I mean i’ I’ve spent some time standing behind some of the social media teams and just watching what happens on the screens and the idea of a day of that toxifying your brain and then going home to your family it must be just awful so you know if you stood on a platform and your day has been wrecked I understand how irritating that is but don’t take it out on the social media teams no no I I mean I like you both in a professional and in a sort of personal capacity I’ve met thousands I mean literally thousands of people who work for the railways over the years and I can’t I can’t think of anybody who didn’t want to just do a good job you know so you know when things go wrong yeah we all get a bit frustrated but there is literally no justification for ever taking it out on no poor person that’s actually trying to help you so this is this is a great initiative and um to be applauded if you wouldn’t say it to the face don’t key it and send it send it online and the roow is often at it well it’s always at its best isn’t it when it’s backs against the wall and that’s when the railway people deliver of their best it’s always been the case fa Fair here’s an amazing story that’s been bubbling away for a few weeks now but deserves to be aired widely I I have to say I was gobsmacked a numbering was um it had somehow slit my radar and when I we all talked about it I read I just couldn’t believe it and number of news outlets have reported that passenger Christian Waters had been unable to buy a ticket because a ticket machine at his local station was broken he was subsequently taken to court for fair evasion under the single Justice procedure and successfully prosecuted but he and others In fairness fought back well done them and what seems to have unfolded since is quite extraordinary it is um I mean Fair evasion is a serious issue absolutely and nothing new um so and as the railway companies have made very clear there’s lots and lots of ways to buy a ticket um and you know that’s that’s what we all must do but it’s what’s happened in this par the circumstances around this one are really interesting as you say so what happened right well the story’s been reported widely it but it did get in lots of places now but it did get a really significant write up in the London evening standard on the 14th of June then again about a week later on the 20th now the standard says that rail firms have been accused of misusing the courts um because it’s it they’d revealed tens of thousands and that is you know tens of thousands of people have been convicted of fair evasion um in what appeared to be unlawful FastTrack Court hearings now why why is that even a thing well since 2016 some train companies not all but some train companies have been pursuing um alleged Fair Dodges using something called the single Justice procedure SJP right SJP was set up I think in 2015 and its purpose was to allow magistrates to decide on minor offenses like um you know watching the teley you haven’t got a TV license that sort of thing um but um they were to do that without the need they able to do that in writing rather than the defendant having to go to court it was designed wasting time yeah yeah but it appears that the legislation which set up SJP does not permit rail firms as private prosecutors to use something called the regulation of Railways act 1889 and yeah I haven’t made that up rora um 1889 is the legislation I think it’s section five which is used to um deal with Fair evasion good grief and that’s because when SJP was set up it did not include the regulation of Railways act 18889 as part of the um as one of the bits of legislation that could be used through it so there you go it looks like um it was um it was not included in the scope of SJP so Northern government owned since 2020 of course is the company that brought the action against Mr Waters it was subsequently settled we understand so we asked them for a comment they declined to come on the show there you go but they did say there are multiple ways to buy Northern train ticket including on the app our website ticket vending machines or ticket offices and our colleagues are happy to provide advice if needed we remind people of the need to buy tickets at stations and on trains our Focus remains on ensuring that all our customers are treated fairly which means ensuring all passengers Who board our trains have a valid ticket fa enough Northern stopped bringing new cases under the single Justice procedure for offenses under the regulation of Railways act 1889 in January and are reviewing its previous use okay Richard so that’s their line and I suppose because the test cases alive it’s what we’d expect but um how many cases in total it’s quite a big number isn’t it it is a very big number um there are six test cases um going through the courts presently and in a recent hearing at Westminster magistrates Court I think that was on around the 19th to the 20th of June um so probably when the standard were reporting on this the chief magistrate gentleman called Paul goldspring said his initial view was that all of the offenses which were not covered by the 2016 order so he’s talking about the use of SJP but prosecuted under the SJP process are void wow um as a result almost 75,000 convictions may have been legally unsafe now couple of really important points to make number one I mean that’s not all that’s not Northern right that’s everybody okay um so but it’s 75,000 what he also said was that had the regulation of Railways act 1889 been included within the SJP process then um his view is that those prosecutions would have been would have been okay so this you could argue this is technicality um but nonetheless it’s it’s certainly a very embarrassing one and a and a pretty a pretty troubling one really but that that’s the kind of number we’re talking about here so what on Earth happens next well so mentioned there’s that test those six test cases what’s happened is the chief magistrate he’s written he’s asked the train companies who originally prosecuted those particular six cases okay with you right to say whether they agree with his uh view about it not being safe because they shouldn’t have use that process by providing him with written submissions so they basically got that go they’ve got some homework right if when they’ve done that there’s no consensus between what his view is and what they think then there’s going to have to be another hearing which I understand will be uh in the same court around J um and around July the 19th so you know this has still got some um process to go and it’s important to draw the distinction between legally unsafe and whether or not the people did it uh because it seems to imply that most of the you a good number of those prosecutions would have been justifiable but we’ve got a technical loophole here through which the railway are what a he has he has said very clearly you know had had the regulation of Railways act been part of the SJP process then they would have been correctly prosecuted so yeah he’s he’s and I think it is really important to point out that you know nowadays there’s so many different ways of buying a ticket um the railway regulations acts um you do have some um a defense against prosecution if you can demonstrate you could not buy a ticket by any means um Christian did because machine was broken before he got on well there’s apps right and there’s other ways of do not everybody has a smartphone well and that’s why it gets a bit more complicated but but so but your point is still right this is not saying all of these cases didn’t weren’t wer weren’t shouldn’t come at all they just use the they use the wrong process and fair dodging is an absolute Scourge yeah you know so they do need to uh to Clump down on it righty ho R okay at the top of the show we mentioned that the eight and a half mile island line on the Isle of white has yet more closures planned the entire route from ride pierhead to Shanklin will close between 6th of September and 6th of October for Vital maintenance according to Southwestern Railway the section of line on ride Pier will close from September the 6th until May 2025 while life extension work continues and this is not the first time the line has been closed for extensive periods the route was closed for 10 months only in 2021 for a complete overhaul including track and signaling and the pier was then also closed for further nine months in 2223 with less than half of the planned work completed apparently winter weather that was worse than expected was to blame but you do wonder about it just seem to go on and on such a short piece of Railway being permanently um not permanently being so often disrupted um and I’m sure questions are being asked as to whether a bus might do the job better and you have to say that might be a bit tough to answer given the experience on the aisle of white I noticed that even Graham Eckles of this Parish tweeted the other day that it was maybe time to give up on the island line well that’s a bold that’s a bold thing isn’t it I think I think the politics of that would be very very difficult um the a of white um does have a sort of a a bit of a sort of political ecosystem of its own really you know you have lots of issues around um the faeries for example um so I think that would be pretty tricky but you’re I I agree that uh it does seem to be kind of continuous and ongoing and in fact you know we asked Southwestern Railway uh if they would come on and talk about the island island line um and uh here’s the thing they said Not only would they like to do that but they actually really like to do it with um with network rail bring a friend which well but that’s great actually that’s fantastic we have a really good discussion about it we can and we will unfortunately because of the election obviously today netw rail have been prohibited from um doing any public media appearances I I I still don’t understand why I mean I I just think that’s really bizarre it’s not like we want to ask them their view on you know um global politics want to ask him about the line from ride to Shanklin which doesn’t quite strike me as um on the same scale but there you go um so they couldn’t come on today but they’ve said they like to come on um very soon and hopefully we’ll be able to get that organized um next week and we’re also going to um hopefully invite on the chair of the islands Bus and Rail User Group who I suspect will have some views on oh yeah um Mr eckel’s suggestion no doubt so just quick question for you Richard I’ve postulated in the past should it does it have to be part of a massive franchise like southwestern Railway or should it be a micro franchise I did wonder once whether the H White Steam Railway should take a micro franchise on the whole what was left of the Railway um I think the challenge is that uh there are costs there are fixed overheads which if you have it on its own um you have to have whereas if you have it as part of Southwest Railway that you can basically get a bit L say lose them but but but but their Mar the the line becomes a marginal cost rather than having to have all its own same overhead now could somebody like The All White Steam Railway run it I I don’t I don’t know it’s you know light Railways are different to main I I don’t know really but I there’s also the question of if there are significant infrastructure issues as there clearly are with ride appear um you know the Al White Steam R was not going to fix that would all have to be done by you know it was just a an idle musing you’re being Whimsical and nostalgic aren’t you you’ve got the idea of little terer Locos whatever they were sort of poling down to Shanklin I’m not saying we should put it back to the LSW r44 tanks but uh you just look at all solutions don’t you when you got a problem and that that sort of occur me anyway let’s move on let’s move let’s come back from our trip down memory lane and move on yeah in the land of Agatha Christian Miss Marvel well um actually I’ll tell you what on the subject of deja vu which um is is certainly what the Arden line is uh facing uh news broke this week um of more trains planned for the West Coast I thought it was full well um yeah I mean there are places where it’s where the number of paths available and the number of people with access rights is pretty much the same number yeah but everything runs at the moment we know some of the freight stuff’s you know going through sort of an economic cycle but no I agree I thought I knew this Railway line pretty well right but everybody seems to have um found some more space this one’s a bit cleverer actually this one’s a bit more um a bit a bit more subtle so the proposal um from uh London Northwestern Railway which is part of Transport UK Group which were the guys that were used to be AO or aello so they run East Midlands Railway as well and they’ve got greater angle right so this is um do the organization that Dominic booth and his management team did um did a buy out of um so anyway London Northwestern Railway have said that they want to improve connectivity between the Midlands the Northwest and provide more choice for passengers and under the proposals they’re going to extend their existing Services between London Houston and crew through to Manchester and services between staff and crew would be actually extended to Manchester Airport um and they say that this will bring additional capacity to Manchester it will also create new direct links from roule Lichfield Tamworth and addon in the West Midlands um to Manchester and Warrington and this will happen from Summer 2026 so quite quick to implement yeah well I suppose the issue here is it’s it is extending an existing service they say though I mean that’s sounds straightforward but of course it never is quite so they say they’ll work with existing local operators Network rail to determine what the best solution is they’ve got to tie in that in with upgrades to that are planed for Manchester Victoria Station the transpan and Route upgrade and there’s other things going on in the Northwest so it’s not it’s not a straight it’s not like oh yeah let’s do it from tomorrow but it is as you say it’s you know planned for relatively short short term and we thought that talk Innovation was dead there you go I did see though that Ian McConnell managing director of West Midlands trains operator of lnwr said this proposal is the common sense solution to increase connectivity between the Northwest and the West Midlands following the cancellation of the northern leg of hs2 he went on to say with platform space at Houston at a premium the best way to provide New Journey opportunities to Manchester is simply to extend existing Services rather than trying to squeeze more trains onto the congested West Coast main line by which I suppose is meaning the South because it would be new trends on the North he extends them but this was his best comment additionally unlike the Open Access model at which we all sit to attention um the millions of pounds of extra Revenue our proposals would generate will be returned to the taxpayer providing a win-win for rail passengers close quote discuss Richard balker well it did make me smile I suppose the only thing it could said is in Brackets afterwards which of course won’t be abstractive you know I mean it was it was quite a cheeky comment um and they were you know was they were pressing quite a few buttons there um throughout that release um Henry M murison who’s the chief executive of Northern Powerhouse and a big big uh advocate of more you know more transport investment in the in the Northwest he tweeted the following when he heard about this and he said extending a stopping train from crew to Manchester may have some benefits but it is not a significant connectivity Improvement between Birmingham Manchester rest of the Northwest and Yorkshire that is the big hole in the government announcements from last Autumn I.E when they canceled um the HS 2 Phase 2 to to Manchester and you need more long-term Capac you need more capacity longterm to fix and I have to say I think he’s right so this is you know it’s a it’s a good thing it’s probably a good thing to do subject to their being capacity um and there are issues at crew and there are issues at Manchester um but let’s assume they can resolve those this does not do what hs2 would have done let’s be absolutely clear about that and uh yeah it was a clever press release but um being the cic I am I can’t help thinking that the DFT probably quite likes it because it will convince itself and want us to think it does exactly what you’ve just said it doesn’t well that’s probably very true Nigel um I mean there was a little bit but there did go oh brilliant because they’re not an Open Access operator these guys they’ve got a contract so there’s a bit of well um actually there is some something Innovative there’s something proactive so you know who who came up with the idea was it them or was it the DFT was both I suppose in a way it doesn’t really matter but I think you’re right that there’ll be some going oh we can be seen to have done what hs2 would have done no that that that absolutely is not the case so good idea but not the solution um that you claim it I wouldn’t mind betting that’s exactly what people in the DFT are thinking yeah anyway lnwr will formally submit its plans to the office of rail Rail and road or later this year and if approved the new Services could commence from May 2026 once additional train crew have been recruited and trained we should definitely ask lnwr on to the show to see if they’d like to chat a bit more about this it’s a long time since we talked to Dominic Booth anyway it’s about time he got his um his backside into our studio chair isn’t it yeah no he’s a great guy and that would be good so we’ll we’ll see what we can do so if you’re listen to this Dominic conid consider yourself invited if you wanted Dominic’s Men Please pass it on to him and tell him to give us a call slightly sad one here and and a very salutary one piece of big news in the last week is the fact that the ve very last coal train on Britain’s Railway bringing to end a partnership that’s existed since the first steam locomotives run on Britain’s Railway 200 years or so ago has run the very last train of 1650 tons of coal was delivered by GB rail Freight to uniper ratle Ona Power Station As It prepares for closure itself on the 30th of September incidentally 1,650 tons of coal is enough to generate electricity for approximately half a million homes for an 8-hour period to Mark the end of this partnership GB rail Freight name the locomotive that pulled the last train 66781 Ratliff Power Station first commissioned in 1967 this power station is the last operational Coal Fired power station in the UK just mull on that for a minute has four 500 megawatt units and its total 2 gwatt Capac capacity is capable of producing enough juice to power more than two million homes roughly the whole of the East Midlands area and I see it working quite a lot Richard I wonder what’s going to happen when it’s gone are we going to have enough wind and all the rest of it over its 57 years the electricity generated has produced enough energy I love stats like this to make more than a billion Cups of Tea every day and over 21 trillion overall rackliff power station will remain operational until the end of September you’re the accountant Richard tell me what a trillion is uh in this country I think it’s a thousand billion okay because it’s not the same states is it I I do you know I can’t remember I know that because in a billion in the states is a million million whereas a billion here is a th billion can’t remember either yeah I can’t remember about a trillion but anyway I’m pretty certain here it’s a thousand billion anyway it’s a lot it’s a lot um there’s some other I was looking at this there’s some other incredible stats around Cole I mean it Cole’s always been synonymous with the railway and not not just for moving it obviously but um for putting stuff in Steam Trains um before the minor strike which is which is uh 40 years ago now because it was 1984 um the railway carried uh the year before that um just under 90 million tons of coal right um I mean that sounds a huge number I mean bearing in mind a hundred years ago um the UK was producing around we were digging out the ground around 300 million tons of coal per anom we were exporting quite a lot of it but I mean it’s just extraordinary numbers but we were moving by rail in 1983 about 88 million tons um then we had the minor strike and in the year of the strike that dropped dramatically partly because well mainly because they weren’t digging out the ground but also because the rail unions said well we’re not moving it I suppose that was in sort of solidarity with the national Union mind workers and it dropped something like 15 million tons now after the strike had finished I think a lot of people um certainly the rail unions thought it’ll just come back um but it never did not to those levels and of course the numbers of pits then dropped considerably I mean we had about 170 pits before the strike and now of course there’s none right uh we have actually carried a lot of coal in the intervening years because there’s been quite a lot of imported coal and actually this last train you’re talking about was imported coal I think it came into mingham I’m not sure from where but then it moved to Ratcliffe from immingham um but that’s it now it’s now it’s gone and I suppose it’s just it’s inevitable really in a low carbon uh economy as we’re trying to get away with it but it is as you say it’s an extraordinary um moment in history well even relatively recently the settl in carile was up graded wasn’t it for imported coal coming in at the old iron terminal at hunterston and going south over the settling carile but this wasn’t the first time the unions got it wrong on it will come back the 1955 foot platem men strike yeah decimated the Freight Market and everybody thought it would come back and it just didn’t I know I know I mean we’re going to end up in a point where you know we’re using coal less and less uh generally um you know when blast furnaces are moved over to Arc furnace is and um you know there’s there’s there’s less and less of it being burned but so it is it is quite an amazing it is quite an amazing moment the only thing I think is interesting is you know you hear people say oh yeah but why should we bother because you know the building a cold power Power Station every week in China or whatever it is so whatever we do is a drop in the ocean I I still think we have to you can’t think like that we can’t think like that so no it is a an amazing moment anyway talking of amazing moments should we do the quiz always a highlight of my week Richard that’s a fairly dramatically poor week then I clearly must clearly clearly must be having some very dull weeks anyway I couldn’t possibly comment on that so U so last week’s question on the quiz it was quite a straightforward one really um I asked who said the following if you’re in the hanging mood hang people like pictures in the best light and the answer was of course the former chairman of British Rail s Peter Parker he had a couple of absolutely brilliant quotes I’ve got his I’ve got his book here I don’t know if you can see that the autofocus I have to um I should have to get a copy and read it it’s really good book if you’re listening on audio and haven’t any idea what I’ve just done it’s a it’s his autobiography called for starters this is one of my favorite quotes in it he says they’re like sort of little um sayings phrases he said do not ask Frank Sinatra his view on the atomic bomb ask him to cun and I must every time I open social media to see the latest person offering the world their view on how to sort the railways out I do think of that um for me his best quote was that wonderful one about the crumbling edge of quality the crumbling edge of quality is a great line isn’t it um but he had many he was he he was a very quotable spot on it was um we put the uh all the correct answers in the electronic hat and the winner is Martin brailsford um from Chesterfield who um sent us an email with the correct answer so Martin please do email us again and tell us where you would like us to send your mug it’s info@ greens signal.org we’re guessing it’s Chesterfield but we probably need to be a bit more specific than that uh and we will get it on its way to you and I apologize by the way um for those there’s I think there’s two people still waiting for mugs um it’s been in Bonkers couple of weeks but I will get to the post off and we have we have to do everything you even put them in the packs and send them off don’t you Richard we do everything we do everything we are you know there’s no yeah absolutely entirely self-sufficient Chief cooks and bottle washers so this week’s quiz um it’s a riddle I’ve gone for a riddle um I have no idea I quite like these but I’m not sure whe there are any good making them up but I’ve had to go so um here it is uh I’ll read it out um but only once and then we’ll put it on the description on our YouTube and the description section on the YouTube channel and we’ll also put it on the website in the additional resources for episode 40 so if you don’t write this down yeah I know 40 40 anyway here’s the question so it is a riddle right my first is in Copper but not in Gold my second is in tin but not in bold my third is in magnesium but not in silver my fourth is in zinc but not in river and my fifth is in metal but not in Wood I am sleek and I am fast but who am I so that is this week’s question very good Richard very good if you think you know um I mean I always think with this you know we think a that’s going to catch him and then five five minutes later you know somebody’s on the WhatsApp our little WhatsApp group going can you believe it they’ve got it already it’s just quite extraordinary um but anyway if you think you know uh either pingers an email at infog greens signal.org or put it on YouTube if you put it on YouTube the world sees it so that’s entirely up to you of course but um but there you go and we’ll announce the winner next week I do enjoy the quiz and clearly green signal is do as well on to this week’s good news story We congratulate all the teams of rail family members who took part in this year’s Railway children Three Peaks by rail challenge well done them they raised around 200,000 which is a fabulous amount of money for the railway children and they will notice that in their accounts um according to a post that Nick Millington Network rail route director for rails and borders um put on LinkedIn I think Nick helped arrange it as well he’s he’s he did he did Fast amounts of work is that man good man Nick there were teams from here we go deep breath Mery rail East Midlands Railway greater angular greater angular greater Anglia you haven’t got your teeth in yet have you I’m not properly caffeinated Richard greater angl it will completely fool the poor all lip readers won’t it um greater Anglia Vil porterbrook DFT h 2 O Seaman Mobility rssb Hitachi rail cross country trains Network rail transport for whales Morgan Syle tfl and olom and there were more as well so apologies if you were not included in the list but take a goal start and go to the top of the class it’s an absolutely brilliant achievement so well done to everyone who took part and all those companies and others who have supported their teams in raising £200,000 fabulous amount of money it’s absolutely superb well done all of them it’s not a it’s not an easy gig that actually you know that three Peak thing um hard work no no it’s not and I have seen pictures um looking down the length of the carriage with all these bodies sleeping on the floor between between Peaks I’m not even going going to what it must smell like in there but who knows who knows all those sweaty feet with the boots off anyway I think we’ got it first time you didn’t need to elaborate but anyway right go on and sadly that ended on I’m not even sure it’s sadly actually I personally I’m quite relieved but anyway what we gonna say sadly that’s all we’ve got time for this week thanks so much for watching and listening don’t forget to give us a thumbs up leave a comment if you’re on YouTube and if you haven’t already subscribe to the channel and please do join us again next week so until then it’s goodbye from me and and it’s goodbye from from me we love it that you’re with us do come back next week goodbye [Music]