Just another excuse for a steam loco picture? This was the re-opening at Alloa, in May 2008, of the line to Stirling, and the first passenger train for 40 years. It was pulled for celebration purposes by LNER K4 3442 'The Great Marquess', originally built for the West Highland Line.
Read my December blog for the reasons why I was there on the day.
The good news is that more than 400,000 passengers are predicted to use Alloa station in its first year of operation, compared with a pre-opening prediction of 155,000. The South East Scotland Transport Partnership claims that 30% of the journeys are new trips, 40% of passengers have transferred from buses and 35% from cars.
Time to re-open more old lines and build some new ones?
2 comments:
Love your pic ;)
Rail seems a very positive step forwards - providing solid links for people without cars (or who want to leave them behind). Good, in some ways, that the actual usage is so high. How many other schemes are not followed through on because of overly conservative forecasts.
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