Jacobite steam train saga latest & RAIB answers YOUR Flying Scotsman crash questions | Ep 52

Jacobite steam train – we ask the ORR’s Chief Inspector about the ongoing central door locking saga

The RAIB answers YOUR questions about the Flying Scotsman crash report

And we talk about that dreadful BBC Panorama on HS2.

In this episode:

00:00 Intro
00:54 ORR's Richard Hines interview
19:37 BBC Panorama on HS2
37:09 Flying Scotsman crash report questions
43:45 Thanks to SuperThanks and Members
45:31 Railway News Round Up
45:58 Arriva Group proposals to fix Britain's railways
47:45 The Greatest Gathering announced
49:22 New tactics to tackle cable theft on the railway
50:12 Squirrels on a train
51:51 Green Signals to be live at RIA conference!
52:56 The Quiz
56:16 Keighley and Worth Valley Railway Bridge 27 complete

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[jay]

Mature and robust approach with a sincere and genuine tone. How refreshing... demonstrating what professionalism in journalism means. Thank you gentlemen.

[PaulWright]

Congratulations on a great episode gentlemen, especially Richards deep dive into the numbers concerning HS2. I ashamedly admit I was a nieve objector, relying on mainstream media headlines and sound bites, and as a result built up a negative train of thought, but since listening to these episodes concerning HS2 and being more reliably informed of its benefits vs costs, I would now consider myswelf to be a suporter of such. This is all down to your unbiase and thorough reporting as well as your in depth knowledge of how the railway could and should be run. I look forward to the next episode.

[ChrisExley-skfh]

Respect to Richard for a well-informed piece about HS2a. Your handle on the money and earnings that the line and will need and generate was very positive.

Mr Gilligan, is it the same man implicated in something to do with writing a newspaper piece about WMD and the demise of a civil servant?

Lazy journalism by the BBC. Could Green signals not generate a programme to support HS2a to a television company. Might need a title that avoids the toxicity of HS2. Perhaps taged on to rail 200.

Well, done guys, keep up the good, interesting, evenhanded and positive reporting.

[marionbloom]

Nigel, you hit the nail on the head when you talked about the management of risk through change. This was what caused Hatfield and Potter's Bar. Many people especially the unions blamed these on "Tory privatisation", but the issue on the ground was that when the work was moved to contractors, there was insufficient oversight and regulation of untrained and inexperienced companies and people doing safety critical work. This is obviously not an inherent fault of privatisation as such, because the aviation industry is highly privatised with contractors and maintenance engineers and they operate safely. It seems to me that the rail safety regulators did not recognise the need for a changed regulatory system that would be fit for purpose, and fell down seriously on their job. I find it frustrating that the safety regulator was never held accountable for their failure in this - fines and sanctions were handed out to the contractors, but the regulators as always held themselves above blame. Who polices the policeman?

[Harryful]

Just stumbled across this channel!

I remember watching Nigel Harris in “Story Of Steam” documentary many years ago! So glad to see you doing regular content now Nigel! Subscribed and all the best!

[GuyChapman]

My wife used to work for Tony Marchington. For this and many other reasons, the Scotsman is in my DNA.

[rogergann]

First a big thanks to you both for such excellent in depth discussion on all matters railway. I came across your channel just a couple of months ago, and it's so interesting. I'd like to comment on your discussion about Euston and crowd stampedes. It's not just a Euston problem. I regularly use Glasgow Central station (Scotland's busiest), and I believe the problem is largely due to very late platform annoucements indicating train departures. Most often plaforms are announced with only 5 minutes to go till departure of local trains. Back in the day in my youth, this was not the case, and platforms were indicated much earlier. Also the train indicator boards now in use are in my opinion pretty rubbish and need to be much larger and more visible. Glasgow Central did recently change the lettering colour from orange to white which has helped with clarity. What are your thoughts on the lateness of platform announcements and why is this sytemic? Keep up the good work.
Roger

[trevorrothwell]

Loved the story about the persistent Surrey squirrels! Several times I have been joined on the Circle line at Edgware Rd by itinerant pigeons, who have accompanied me for a station or two. Very calm passengers though; clearly much better behaved!

[gzknk]

CRM in the aviation world was born from the bad old days when airliner captains were autocratic kings and the FO and FE were his serfs. That set up played a major role in many aircraft accidents.
CRM changed all that to the crew (only a captain and FO now in flight deck, but including the cabin crew) working as a team with the captain being the team leader and everyone contributing and FOs not afraid to question the captain's actions if they think so doing will contribute.
My experience of some heritage steam lines (by no means all) leads me to believe that the concept of CRM has barely touched them. Yet.
Vince Chadwick

[little_britain]

Sadly, most journalists are humanities and arts majors, not STEM types.

[allanmorton]

Great set of interviews this week, good to see the safety emphasis being maintained. Also great debunking of Andrew Giligan who really needs greater understanding of the network before giving his views.
The BBC doc was limited in focus just seemed to be about a certain set of numbers without any greater context. Expecting these numbers to be deemed bad regardless of the greater project scope. I love the HS2 channel videos which really show where the money goes, even if some things still seem over engineered.

[cd]

Brilliant work of the HS2 cost/GDP £ numbers by Richard, it really puts the whole scheme into context when you think of that vs the likely 100 yr+ usage and payback 👍🏻

[Wren]

Thanks

Have you thought about speaking to BBC Newswatch about the Panorama programme?

[JudgeGeneHunt]

Euston - I use Euston weekly and its badly set out from a customer perspective, meet me there any Thursday at 3:30pm ish and Ill show you.

[vecbh]

I really do enjoy your podcasts. It's refreshing that special interest interference groups and individuals do not have an exclusive hold on progress in my country but flourish the world over. Also, where else can one learn of the exploits of dissident squirrels?.

[MasterMoyle]

WCR need to sort out the MK1 coaches issue as theres been reports of people fainting inside those MK2 coaches. I used to support WCR but that has now long since gone considering how much trouble has been going on with them, SPAD with the Jacobites (mainly down to the muppet that was driving either 45212 or 45407 that day), not fitting CDL, purchasing coffin MK2's and then going back nearly 10 years the Wootton Bassett SPAD incident.

They need to lie down on their bed of nails and accept that they need to buck up their ideas or be struck off completely, fit CDL to their coaches aswell as fit an acceptable window bar design on their droplight windows (VT's design being the one to go for NOT that crap one that LSL uses). Either fit CDL to the MK1 coaches OR fit the insides of the MK2 coaches with the same style of windows that the MK1's and early MK2's have. Travelling in modern MK2's on steam tours just isn't right so just fit the f**king MK1 coaches with CDL, I mean HOW HARD CAN IT BE.

[GreenJimll]

Heh, it was Nigel who introduced me to the phrase "JFDI" on the platform of Loughborough Central many years ago. Glad he's still keen on it! 🙂

[Crepello]

The PWI has just uploaded an excellent video on YouTube about the (so far) missed opportunity for rail freight through the Chunnel. It's great this story has at least some limited coverage now but I recon everyone needs to know about it, not just us rail fans. To me it's a complete no brainer, spend 50 million EUR upgrading the 2 rail routes up to London to W12 Gauge. That's all that's needed. Opperation Brock (when there's delays at Dover Port) apparently costs five times that per day!

[stephendavies]

WCR has to be careful as LSL has already parked their tank (Blue Pullman train) on its lawn (in the sidings) at Fort William. LSL would be only too pleased to eat WCR's lunch (run steam trains).

[johnarnold]

Another great episode and I’ve been sufficiently challenged by your quiz question that I may have a go! Keep up the good work and thanks also from a Yorkshireman for your Lancastrian praise for the KWVR!!