TL: The Double Headed Arrow (UK Trains)

I thinking of starting a rail timeline about a high speed rail network between Scotland and Ireland

Wow, the expense of such a project! Would make the Channel Tunnel and HS2 look like a bargain by comparison.

I would suggest that the E-G would have been upgraded for something like 100 MPH running as Devvy had IC ECML Services extend to GQS. The old Class 47 hauled push-pull sets were, IIRC cleared for up to 100 MPH running, even if the Duffs could only manage 95. Wouldn't take all that much to get the line up to 3 figures AFAIK.
 

Devvy

Donor
This is still really enjoyable and feeds my inner train-enrd and I like how changes in something like the rail network has changed British politics :) Keep up the good work @Devvy :D

Thanks, glad you enjoyed it! :)

I'd still think the Scottish government would have Edinburgh Waverley modernised for the commuter services and some of the intercity services :)

It'd probably be high up on the priority list, but money can only stretch so far, and Velocity will have taken a large chunk of the "rail investment" budget.

I thinking of starting a rail timeline about a high speed rail network between Scotland and Ireland

The cost will be horrific. Economics would suggest that a Liverpool-Holyhead-Dublin route would be best to be honest, but the tunneling would be horrendous (let alone the add-on tunneling to get a high speed route from Anglesey to England and on to the Velocity route!).

Scotland-Ireland is shorter, but has to contend with Beaufort's Dyke which is very deep and will be an absolute pain to get under. Also, high speed link through the Scottish Lowlands from the tunnel to Glasgow area will be more expense, and the potential market of Edinburgh-Glasgow-Belfast-Dublin is not massively high.

Scotland-Ireland is but a pipe dream alas!

So I guess for St Pancras its just the regular British costa,WHSmith and pumpkin cafe

WHSmiths, Boots, Costa, McDonalds, Burger King, Pret a Manger, and Yo Sushi! ;)

....and a token pub somewhere....

WI would suggest that the E-G would have been upgraded for something like 100 MPH running as Devvy had IC ECML Services extend to GQS. The old Class 47 hauled push-pull sets were, IIRC cleared for up to 100 MPH running, even if the Duffs could only manage 95. Wouldn't take all that much to get the line up to 3 figures AFAIK.

Quite....I think something like this too.
 
Scotland-Ireland is shorter, but has to contend with Beaufort's Dyke which is very deep and will be an absolute pain to get under. Also, high speed link through the Scottish Lowlands from the tunnel to Glasgow area will be more expense, and the potential market of Edinburgh-Glasgow-Belfast-Dublin is not massively high.
Well you could do floating tunnels over the Dyke, no?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Submerged_floating_tunnel
Still. Your other points apply.
 
I misremembered; the 47/7s were 100mph capable. The ScR achieved this through the clever use of painting 100 MPH in the cabs. :extremelyhappy:

@Dathi THorfinnsson the Dyke is also full of dumped bombs left over from WW2. IIRC some of them have gas in them.
 
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Just a question, and I know it's not a politics Timeline as such- but what happened to Tony Blair, Gordon Brown, David Cameron, and co here? Simply basic Ministers? Blair in charge of Rail might be amusing...
 
Just a question, and I know it's not a politics Timeline as such- but what happened to Tony Blair, Gordon Brown, David Cameron, and co here? Simply basic Ministers? Blair in charge of Rail might be amusing...
He'll probably attach guns to trains & have them full of ambulance chasers.
 

Devvy

Donor
Just a question, and I know it's not a politics Timeline as such- but what happened to Tony Blair, Gordon Brown, David Cameron, and co here? Simply basic Ministers? Blair in charge of Rail might be amusing...

Blair was quickly working his way up the ladder, but with Kinnock as PM in the 1990s, I see Blair being somewhat stymied and reaching something like Foreign Secretary levels. Gordon Brown...well maybe a dour Home Secretary, or just front bench Labour somewhere.

Cameron; who knows. Major butterflies by this point in politics. He may well have never been elected to Parliament.
 
should transpennie express exist ITTL but be a subsidy instead of a franchise it would basically mean that regional railways would primarily operate in the southwest
 

Devvy

Donor
Still here and floating, but this is basically dead. Personal life has caught up with me.

I have the initial framework of a large redux/rewrite of my original 12:08 timeline with a pod in the 1950s. Maybe next year at some point, I want to have super levels of detail to go in to which I don’t have the time for quite at the moment.
 
Still here and floating, but this is basically dead. Personal life has caught up with me.

I have the initial framework of a large redux/rewrite of my original 12:08 timeline with a pod in the 1950s. Maybe next year at some point, I want to have super levels of detail to go in to which I don’t have the time for quite at the moment.

Oh dear, thought you were back on it
 
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