Reward Video Q&A - Chris

[@SarahWithCamera]

Hi Geoff and Vicki! Hi Chris! Help, I feel like I'm in all the episodes (definitely not embarrassing!) Vicki, thank-you for expanding on the issue of accessibility. If only we'd had another two trains worth: so much to fit in: different service users requirements etc. Definitely worth mentioning tactile maps: Really help some friends. Having a useful ongoing discussion with the lovely London Midland: They have their own forum, and one or two things in the pipeline (Hi London Midland! Hi to the lovely Peter, at Smethwick Rolfe St: thanks for firing things off). Loving all the mentions of Shrewsbury: All The Shrewsbury. Some really great questions there, Chris. Thanks again all.

[@gaz198210]

Dr Beeching is a villain but the real villain in the piece was the minister of transport Earnest Marples. He had interests in road construction and sold them to his wife (dodgy at best) for a nominal sum so as not to have a conflict of interest. It was he who introduced the Transport Act 1962 which dissolved the British Transport Commission (BTC), created the British Railways Board and also made it easier to close railway lines.

[@tsangpogorge]

To be fair most of the closed railways were village branch lines or duplicate routes that were of no use to any one so closure was the correct decision.

[@ianmcclavin]

tsangpogorge I don't think the people in those villages saw it that way!

[@gaz198210]

tsangpogorge the village I live in lost its station. Now some days it takes twenty minutes to get from one end of the village to the other. Where as the trains from Chester to Stockport cruise past the traffic jams. Some may not have missed their station at one time... now they most definitely do.

[@mikebe2090]

Railways & stations were closing in the fifties way before Beeching

[@mattpotter8725]

There's a great BBC documentary on the matter presented by Ian Hislop that explains what went on, and it doesn't show Dr Beeching and Earnest Marples in a good light at all. Vicki, if you read this you should watch this!!! I don't think anyone thinks that there wasn't a trimming of lines, but what was actually done wasn't just barely used lines and duplicate services and the documentary actually showed that the surveys they did to decide on which services to cut were rigged. Marples had a huge conflict of interest and it was basically a government minister feathering his own nest, nothing more, nothing less!!!

[@rogergoddard615]

I'm really enjoying All the Stations. I discovered you after the BBC report and am now hooked! Regarding Beeching, it was necessary to make drastic changes but my regret is that the lines were not simply mothballed. In the 60s the railways were labour and engineering heavy. Nowadays, lightweight electric trains and automation are available and mothballed lines could have re-opened quickly and run at a profit. I know this is happening in some places but in many others that option isn't available due to land being sold off and built on. Keep up the good work you two!

[@jerrytrueblue]

Absolutely loving All The Stations! I live in Ontario Canada, never been to Britain....... your series makes me homesick. My friend Barb lives in London Ontario, she is not a computer user, she watched a couple with me, said you are both cuties and told me the Toronto Korean Times newspaper is writing about the popularity of All The Stations. ATS is so relaxing and I so much appreciate it. You are holding the world at bay for our enjoyment too. It's a love story too.... with 3 main characters..... Geoff, Vicky and All The Stations. Cheers kiddos Jerry Walker in Everett Ontario, Canada

[@SamSitar]

you can do it yourself. explore all the greyhound bus stops in Canada!

[@buzzukfiftythree]

All the Swiss Stations next please! Now there's a country with loads of stations, a fantastic rail network and fabulous scenery. Great videos guys and good luck with the rest of your journeys

[@jamesdavison1786]

buzzukfiftythree it’s somehow more expensive than the British railways; although it’s the only one more expensive in Europe

[@jonbaldwin]

The problem with the Beeching cuts was the loss of the infrastructure. They should have mothballed lines rather than selling them off entirely. Many closed lines could now be useful but we didn't see the value in keeping the routes between towns and cities free of new developments.

[@ianmcclavin]

Jon No way would they be considering closing, for example, Three Bridges to East Grinstead now, had it survived.

[@Mortimer50145]

I fully agree. Stopping running the services on some of the lightly-used lines was probably the right decision *for the time*. But the trackbed should have been protected in case it was ever needed as a route in the future. It is difficult to imagine what the attitude was in the early 60s (I was born the year Beeching produced his report) but it is hard to imagine that *no-one* asked the question "what if these lines are ever needed again?" or "what if all these shiny new motorways become congested with traffic?". I do wonder whether some of the passenger census data was biassed - I've read reports of surveys being done at off-peak times or during school holidays and then extrapolated to make it look as if this was always the number of passengers. Even if the mothballed lines were eventually turned into cycle tracks (as has happened with *some* disused lines) that would be better than putting them out of public use and turning station sites into housing or industrial estates. Imagine if the scenic Scarborough to Saltburn line had survived, with its stunning views over the sea near Ravenscar and running right next to the beach in Sandsend. That would be a real money-spinner for sightseeing today, in the hands of either National Rail or a private heritage railway. It is interesting to speculate how many lines that Beeching closed would be profitable today if they had stayed open, either with a parliamentary service or as protected trackbed. Did they seriously consider cutting costs by having unstaffed stations and other ways of making railways less labour-intensive? Maybe they did and the unions vetoed it, with that strange attitude that they had that it was better for a line to close and everyone to lose their jobs than for the line to stay open but with far fewer people needed. But it's difficult to put yourself in the shoes of the decision-makers in the early 60s when there was a slash-and-burn attitude to old, unnecessary buildings, railways etc - more "out with the old, in with the new" and less preservation and forward planning. So perhaps we shouldn't be *too* hard on Beeching and the people that commissioned his report and implemented it - they were typical of the time. Mind you, in all the interviews that I've seen with Beeching, he does seem to be insufferably smug, bumptious and "I know better than you" which can't have endeared him to the public.

[@gobears6487]

Mortimer50145 Don't know if you are a fellow historian, but EXCELLENT answer!

[@Mortimer50145]

I've been interested in the history of railways for as long as I can remember. My grandpa, although he was a teacher and headmaster, was passionate about railways, right from when my dad was born on the day that Mallard set the 126 mph record and grandpa named dad Nigel after Sir Nigel Gresley. I can remember lots of conversations with grandpa about the "evil demon" Beeching. I can see both sides of the coin. Railways *were* losing money hand over fist, partly because of old-fashioned working practices with over-manning, and two people in the cab of a diesel (to mimic the driver and fireman of a steam engine). There was also the fiasco of the huge investment in good marshalling yards such as Toton and Horbury when railways were starting to earn less from freight than from passengers. But I do wonder whether some creative cost-cutting that didn't involve total line closure might have kept at least *some* of the lines alive long enough to benefit from the modern resurgence in passenger numbers as the car has become a victim of its own success and also people are starting to commute further. The ability to predict a couple of decades into the future might have been a good idea :-) Nowadays there is the big debate about HS2. Should the money be spent giving people from the north. who already have a good service to London, an even faster route? Or should it be spent on reopening stations and maybe even lines which benefit people more fundamentally (it is better to give people a service that they didn't have previously than just to give them a faster service).

[@buzzukfiftythree]

Totally agree. The Uckfield line in East Sussex is a classic case. Services used to go on to Lewes and Brighton and there is talk of resurrecting the line beyond Uckfield to serve as an alternative to the Brighton main line. But quite a bit of the old line has been built over which would make it considerably more expensive to re-open. The spur from Eridge into T Wells (currently used by the Spa Valley Railway) has also been built over with a Sainsbury's between T Wells West and the Central Station. It takes 1hr 45 mins on the bus from TW to Brighton.

[@JBLewis]

The world needs more railways. AMEN!

[@briancarson9309]

I have not been to Birmingham, but I enjoyed seeing your photos of the station. It looked great.

[@davidprice6994]

me and the staff at Stevenage station are enjoying your videos everyday but i must stress that with all this modern tech stuff with online ticket buying etc is putting us booking staff jobs at risk with less people each year using the ticket office or the customer service desk where i used to work.Its good in one way but you could never ever replace a person in front of you, helping you out with your enquires etc .nice video guys

[@CJT80]

David I know someone who works at RYS, and I had a chat with them about the cuts... you can never replace a human being with a machine when it comes to tickets... the knowledge a person holds is amazing. I have several friends who are Visually Impaired (VI) and for a VI person those ticket machines are a nightmare! I fully support having a ticket office!

[@davidprice6994]

CJT80 thank you and agree 100%

[@villevirtanen00]

In Norway on our famous Bergen Line, almost all ticket(information) offices have been closed, sadly. Most Norwegians have a smart phone, yes, (and there is a ticket app on your phone which is all that is required as a ticket) but what about the tourists or other visitors that are not familiar with the station or surroundings? Some of the stations are still staffed by our equivalent to Network Rail but they handle train movements only and hide away when the trains are not arriving or departing. It might be due to the privatisation that the current government has opened up to. Certain lines will be put up for tender, a ridiculous move btw.

[@qwertyTRiG]

David Price Here in Tullamore (Ireland), there are frequently no staff, and the lift to platform 2 is constantly out of order. No access for disabled people.

[@jamesmb7760]

mhm my mum and me loves to talk to an actuall person to buy tickets than using tech that sometimes doesn't make your day.

[@michaellee8410]

Hi Geoff and Vicki. Good questions. Beeching's spec was to make the railways pay and avoid duplication, so he chopped all those lines. Eg Wolverhampton to Paddington. What was not considered were the towns between. Also it should be a service which was not considered . So I agree with Geoff. Also glad you like Birmingham, a lot of people are pleasantly surprised.

[@tomporter83]

The Beeching question can't be answered purely as a yes & no. Some cuts were needed - the fairly recent (by then) nationalisation meant there was a lot of duplication of lines which were originally competing companies. That led to effectively double cost in areas with no extra benefit. However, the scale of the rationalisation was undoubtedly too far, and there are cases where lost lines would be incredibly useful now (although realistically in some cases the saving from closure and not operating them for 50 years can be more than the cost of re-building - therefore monetary benefit but maybe not social benefit)

[@gobears6487]

Tom Porter another good answer, alongside the Mortimer one...

[@FarlandHowe]

Once upon a time, I walked the wall of Conwy at about 5 am. It was a memorable experience.

[@Wandering1500]

Thing is about Beeching is that something had to change for British Railways. It was running at a huge loss, and it was trying to provide services for traffic that was rapidly disappearing. Even in the mid 1960s the main source of income was freight, not passengers, You can argue that the correct response would have been to invest in the network and try and increase passenger and freight traffic, but BR had already seemingly wasted £1.2 billion on the 1955 modernisation plan, and failed to reduce the operating losses. PS Moor Street is a gem of a station.

[@AntonyLvids]

Well done on reaching halfway and loving all your videos. I think it is simplistic to call Dr Beeching a villain. We would all love to think he is, but the world was a very different place in the 1960s. Many of the branch lines were closed before his time and several lines which he said should be saved were closed anyway. He was also the inspiration behind the Freightliner network which has been a great success. I think if he had known what would happen in the future, he might have acted differently but then we now have the benefit of hindsight. To me, the villainous act was the wanton destruction of the trackbed including the demolition of stations and bridges. These have made it financially and logistically much more difficult to justify reopening closed lines. I believe that the routes of old railways should have been protected for at least 50 years. This would have made the damage more reversible. As Geoff alluded to, we now have ways of running lines much more cheaply, but these methods weren't even dreamed of in the 60s. Enjoy the rest of the trip and keep sharing it...We all love it!

[@camillabeckman4055]

Geoff, now that you are approximately 50% through your epic Journey. How do you feel our railways are holding up ? Do you think previous generations would be pleased at the way we have treated their legacy ? Or do you feel that we've let those previous generations down with our continued cutbacks and rationalizations. For me there's nothing worse than after the fanfare of a new station opening to read in the very very fine print, that this station stands on the site of a former station closed in 19xx.

[@gobears6487]

camilla beckman good question

[@joshholmes8167]

Two stations I'd recommend stepping out at are Sheffield and Huddersfield, both quite pretty on the outside. Keep up the good work!

[@BassBusMusic]

There's an interview with Beaching somewhere on KZbin where he stated he would like to have closed the East Coast line north of Newcastle. It would only "have affected a few people in Berwick upon Tweed". Can you imagine trying to close that bit of the line now?

[@AllTheStations]

and that's why Geoff thinks he's a villain! bloody mindedness, and short sightedness.

[@DavidShepheard]

Thanks for choosing to share your Q&A with the world Chris.

[@Mortimer50145]

Geoff, you mention about alternative means of buying and paying for travel (Oyster card and similar, contactless payment). The other thin that I think would be very useful is if ticketing rules were simplified considerably so it isn't necessary to do loads of research to fined the cheapest ticket *or combination of tickets* for your journey. There needs to be just one ticket which is *defined* to be the cheapest that a combination of tickets would have got you. And tickets need to be more flexible - at present the only way to get a cheap ticket is to commit yourself to travelling by a specific train out and back. There needs to be less difference between walk-on and in-advance tickets so as not to penalise people so heavily if they want a bit of flexibility (eg +/- 1 hour). If a ticket that is valid on a specific train is used on another train (eg because you miss the first one) you should only have to pay the difference between the advance and walk-on fare, rather than the advance ticket being deemed not to exist so you have to pay the *whole* cost of the walk-on ticket. And ticket prices need to be based much more on distance travelled, without short journeys being disproportionally expensive (in £/mile) and without some routes being more expensive because they leave one county or metropolitan area. In other words, if you want to attract passengers to the railways, things need to be as simple and as cheap as humanly possible, with as few petty restrictions which may be important to the TOCs but are irrelevant to the passenger.

[@mennonis]

that system Geoff is describing, with the nationwide contactless payment for trains, is actually in use in other countries, its the same technology as the oyster card, and you just need the political will to implement it.

[@CallingAllStations]

Wow, the Beeching question, how divisive! As you both say, at the time British Rail was haemorrhaging money, so *something* needed to be done. In my opinion the villainy of the cuts was not the closures Beeching proposed themselves but the ruthless selling off of railway land and infrastructure after. If they had had the foresight to have mothballed the lines instead of building housing estates on them it would be far easier to reopen today. Though there's a good case for reopening say The Varsity Line - which I think you've mentioned before - the practicalities are sadly much harder than they should have been. It's easy to say now how narrow minded this all was at the time, but sadly in the 60's when petrol was cheap and point-to-point freight was quicker and more efficient than rail, investment into roads must have been a no brainer. And what better place to stick a road than on an old railway alignment... There was also an assumption by BR and the government that passengers would drive to their local 'hub' station and continue to use the railway for medium and long distance travel, when in fact what happened was people would just drive the whole way. There is a reversal of this trend and we're seeing the concept of 'Parkway' stations pop up where people are using personal and public transport in tandem. There needs to be much more thought given to this in the future especially in provincial towns.

[@rikardottosson1272]

Beeching did his cuts before the impossibility of the car had become evidence. Trains were slow, cars were fast. I can see why one at that point couldn't see trains as the future. Neither TGV, Shinkansen nor ICE hadn't happened yet. Essentially it was Thomas the Tank Engine versus the thunderbirds

[@marthaanderson2656]

agree about the green moquette. I think it would make a great winter vest shell, dont you think?

[@PG-nf9wx]

Germany had a NFC+GPS based fare collection system called "touch & travel". it was discontinued a while ago because it produced quite a lot of wrong fares but worked really like "Oyster card with phones". we stay now with the "old" manually bought online tickets via apps and DB Website, which account for about 60% of all sold tickets in Germany.

[@richardtalbot8769]

The Dutch have a smart card for the whole country, bus, tram, metro and trains included.

[@christopherbonham527]

I had one when I lived in the Netherlands: it's called the OV Chipkaart. Abellio, which runs Greater Anglia, Scotrail and Merseyrail, is owned by the Dutch rail company NS, so there may be ways and means of getting that technology over the North Sea.

[@killianschafer765]

I'm assuming when you are in Glasgow you will be going on the subway. maybe even a bonus video. 😀

Yeah : Geoff on the Outer, Vicki on the Inner and do a race :-D

[@andrewwilson6240]

A few random musings from your Midlands correspondent: The report recommending the closure of most UK railways was the Serpel report. It was deemed toxic to the government of the day (who weren't particularly rail positive) and buried quickly. Birmingham Moor Street is one of my favourites too. Shroosbury/Shrowsbury debate rages on. I have been told by a Shropshireite that in the city its pronunciation depends what side of the Severn you come from! Most stupid closure: great central.

[@rzholland]

Well done Vicky for asking the question about was there a different way to sort out BR's problems. So many people just moan about Beeching, but the fact was, that people were just not using the railways. If that had not been done and BR just went on loosing more and more money, who knows, there might not be any railway at all now.

[@sedwarg]

Appreciate the love for Brum :D

[@garrymoon1316]

Vicki Pipe is absolutely brilliant - she should have her own programme - she will make a fortune!

[@JeSuisRene]

I think it was Ian Hislop (Private Eye, HIGNFY) who said that Beeching is unfairly treated as he had also recommended a far more extensive bus network. One which the government hadn’t implemented...

[@jellyfish1997]

you can do the contactless thingy on most Arriva Trains Wales platforms and you can even pay with contactless when you're on the train.

[@MidtownSkyport]

The railway line in Newcastle goes right through the castle too. It comes out the East end of the station then cuts right between the keep and the gate.

[@batman51]

Beeching didn't just cut railway lines (and some of them seriously needed pruning), he also brought some financial reality to running trains, introduced the internationally known BR symbol, container trains and much more. In the 60s most people saw the car as the future and railways rather like canals, "quaint" but past their sell by date. However, in hindsight, we have ended up with some strange stations still open (as we have seen) and some serious gaps in the network which is a shame.

[@ianmcclavin]

Yes they've done a really great job in refurbishing Birmingham Moor Street. !!

[@JohnTalbot-k6xi]

Fetching (!!) Ups personal connection to the Project / Good Show

[@blackberrypickle7651]

Even your awkward silences are entertaining...

[@richardtaylor8165]

Aberdeen fact for Vicki when you get to the Granite City... we have a Castle Street, the Castlegate, Castle Terrace, Castlehill but... NO castle. Obviously there WAS a castle... burnt down by Robert The Bruce apparently in c14th C! There is a citadel at the Castlegate that resembles castle turrets (& a Mercat Cross). There are also three cathedrals - St Machar's, St Mary's, St Andrew's. Enjoying your work, Geoff & Vicki!!

[@jmprailwatcher3081]

Dr. Beeching is a villan! 🚂

[@DavidShepheard]

What All The Trains and Calling All Stations said about Beeching has me thinking. In London they protected the Thameslink line and we got that back. It's still not perfect, but once London Bridge is sorted out, it's going to be amazing. And that's something we might have lost if the land was not available. We also had Crossrail protecting the route through London for decades. That cost a million pounds a year, from what I heard. The rest of the country needs infrastructure to come back. But they should really start with these stations that are being run down with Parliamentary Services. That stuff is already there, it just needs to be brought out of hibernation and it will make money and change lives in the shortest possible time. And anyone who travelled on the North London Line, who has seen what conversion to London Overground has done, knows what an increase in the number of trains can do. There should be a push for a big campaign to select the "Most Useful Awkward Station in the UK" and get it brought back to life. Just imagine if you could get Transport Focus to fund (or support) a non-rigged survey of the people living near awkward stations and get verified hard data on how many people would like to see specific awkward stations get brought out of hibernation. Just imagine if you could take the ten most viable candidates, get someone to make a TV show (similar to Grand Designs or DIY SOS) and have one or more architects create designs to beef up Awkward Stations at low cost. If people could get some funding for one of them...even a Kickstarter*, if necessary, it could be a way to prove that these places are all worth the investment. And there could be a live TV vote off to find out which station the British public wanted to help. * = If people are willing to pay £38,654 just to watch Geoff and Vicki go through stations, I'd imagine that there are some people out there willing to pay something towards waking up a sleeping station. Recently, I've been rather fond of allowing a private organisation to take over or build on the land next to a station, in return for providing facilities (or at least looking after them). Imagine if you could take an Awkward Station, get a business with a cafe, restaurant, pub or something similar to run a building, get cash from the National Lottery or Comic Relief or anyone willing to chip in and get the Train Operating Company to agree to running a full service. That would be amazing. I'm not sure exactly *how* it could be done, but I know it *can* be done. It's just a matter of working out the hundreds or thousands of obstacles in the way and then getting the people who love trains to work out how to smash individual obstacles until there are none left. I think that railway enthusiasts need to stop talking about how bad it is that we have awkward stations with deliberately poor levels of service and start making a list of the stations that are under threat and the different things that can to be done to improve all of them.

[@Cameramankeith]

Geoff is wearing shorts and it looks as if Vicki has her pyjama bottoms on!

[@WarrenElsmore]

Do all the airports! I've been keeping a list of UK airports that I've flown through for about 10 years. Publicly accessible airports with an IATA code and a regular service were by criteria, which makes a list of 60 by my maths. Much shorter.... though probably slightly more expensive. Oh, and if you want a companion I'll be first to put my name down :-)

[@Yaaayishere]

Can you confirm, you are both visiting all the stations, - I ask as the Sudbury Hill periscope you posted was Vickyless. This would be a shame.

[@AllTheStations]

as is stated quite quite clearly at 1:50 in the Periscope, Vicki was on the train at Marylebone, and Geoff went a different way to get ON the train at Sudbury instead. we've done this several times in the videos where one of us goes ahead one stop, because it makes for a more interesting video, rather than just passing through all the time.

[@Yaaayishere]

I got caught out not paying full attention!. Just checking. Thanks! Good luck guys!

[@ianmcclavin]

Beeching publicly admitted before he died that he'd gone too far with the cuts. He recommended all the surviving Isle of Wight lines for closure, but they decided to electrify Ryde - Shanklin.

[@michaelkemp4515]

he made it harder to get to work for me in Suffolk in Hadleigh used to have a train station now I have to cycle 15 miles away from Ipswich

[@GMS12311]

Hello from Houston Texas!

[@racerdeth]

I spent a day in Conwy the other day; similarly impressed!

[@chrisward5736]

Don't forget northampton railway company bought castle and knocked it down to make station !

[@juncusbufonius]

You guy are just great on camera.

[@edbrown84]

all the airports is a great idea

[@roberthancock9779]

How do you guys feel about HS2. Seems to be a dividing issue over there.

[@gobears6487]

LM & Arriva moquettes my faves so far, but there was recently a train with moquette madness (loads of different ones) which I thought was brilliant! (Might have been Arriva?!?!) Beeching answer by Vicki is excellent (reminds me of the guy who was stuck doing the India/Pakistan border)... Improvement answer about smartphones and Oyster-like access by Geoff is a great idea!

[@gobears6487]

ps Vicki cute mussed up hair near the end. Shorts for Geoff ROFL 😃

[@stevenhill897]

Geoff and Vicki brilliantly done . do you live chats please let me know

[@louispoche4312]

I would love to watch all the castles :-)

[@techreviewer]

Let's get all the stations to 100k subs guys

[@UKProud]

I lost my villages local station due to the cuts and it's going to reopen in the coming years, I don't think the closures are necessarily forever.

[@MidtownSkyport]

Except where lines have been built upon. I think East Yorkshire has a bylaw that disallows building on former railways so lines can be reopened in the future.

[@jwb_]

Im not sure about the east riding law you mention because I think alot of the Beverley to York line has now been built on, but there is still some bits of the former line remaining and the station houses still exists on most of the line. The east riding would massivley benefit by having the Beverley to York and hull to hornsea lines again

[@Mortimer50145]

It would be interesting to see how they coped with modern levels of traffic and the various level crossings. I live near York and the line used to cross the very busy A64 near Hopgrove. They would *have* to put in a bridge there; stopping the holidaymaker traffic wouldn't be acceptable. Likewise for the Malton-Pickering road (A169) and the Helmsley-Scarborough road (A170) if the Rillington-Pickering section of the North York Moors Railway ever reopened.But both of those reopenings would be fantastic if they ever happened,

[@RoyTheMouth]

Wait til you see the ScotRail saltire moquette. Also Dr Beeching made this challenge a lot easier for you guys!

[@ChrissieCaulfield]

All the airports? no. All the bus stations, yes :)

[@SouthPaw1805]

On a Beeching related note, he used to live in East Grinstead. Following the closure of the Tunbridge Wells Central - Three Bridges line, which served a pair of High Level platforms at East Grinstead, part of the former trackbed was used for a bypass of the A22 away from the town centre. The Council named said bypass Beeching Way.

[@nasirsakam]

Smart phone payment already happened I use Apple Pay for any contactless payment for goods and transport.

[@leow_se]

OV-Chipkart system in the Netherlands is wonderful

[@sebskelly]

All the bus stops…? Reckon that'd be easy

[@Camberwell86]

Regards "All The Castles"... many are privately owned and not open to the public :(

[@ReubyD118]

So I'm definitely feeling a little bit silly for not knowing what "the peterborough incident" is. Can someone kindly explain? :) Thanks!

[@gobears6487]

Reuben Levith Don't want to throw anyone under the bus, but let's say it was about a missed train. Will edit to add link to the video, though not sure if full explanation was in that episode or a bonus one!

[@ReubyD118]

Oh okay! I wasn't sure if it had to do with the missed train there or not! If my memory serves right, it's in a regular video and not a bonus one. Although there might have been an explanation in a bonus video that I missed or something. Thanks!

[@Darren79]

Conwy Castle is a really great place to visit!:)

[@samudanque3549]

They should do All The Stations in another place like France or something.

[@nmart1n]

CoolSumo Or Italy. I loved travelling on trains there.

[@PeterMoore66]

Andorra! :-)

[@stevenhill897]

the beeching act was severe fortunately many private organisations saved many branch lines especially in the south West of England as helped tourism

[@robinevans3440]

Shrowsbury! !!!

[@SamSitar]

i am exploring all the greyhound bus stops in America.

[@lensboel]

Just a comment on the whole ticket thing. In Denmark, an (almost) nation wide card similar to the Oister card has been implemented. Since all the different transport companies are trying to get their cut (very simplified), the system is massively complicated and in general people like to not like it. www.rejsekort.dk/?sc_lang=en

[@matthew1hyndman]

What aboiut all the Motorway Service Stations?

[@qcope]

Saying Beaching was bad... is easy. In reality British Rail was loosing passengers each year, from the very 1st year of nationalisation. Losses were so bad, that there was serious consideration into getting rid of everything apart from the "inter city" routes. The initial DMU's were designed, not to be modern and comfortable... their primary purpose was to be cheaper... not to make a profit... simply not to loose so much! The BR Pacer... simply continued in that direction. Less we forget, we didn't have much money in the 60s and 70s. We had the 4 day week, not because the government thought we were worked too hard... The nurses were on strike for a living wage.... the rubbish was not collected, 'cause the bin men also wanted a decent wage. The idea that the government would have chosen to spend the money instead of on these worthy causes, but to run trains on lines that no one was using.... Err isn't realistic.

[@britishreaction54]

All the Premier Inns.

[@RoulinBrooks]

Geoff's going to have to let go of "The Peterborough Incident," otherwise it's going to fester like a poisonous tumour.

[@AllTheStations]

No, that's not the tumour ... it's the fact that we've not done the Isle of Wight that's really going to eat away at me.

[@FelloniusWizard]

Rather keep my thoughts on "All the Castles"...

[@ZachFisher2753]

I would love to see someone do All the American Stations

[@Attoparsec]

Better hurry while we still have any. :(

[@ZachFisher2753]

It would be funny to try to see the connections to commuter rail besides sparse Amtrak

[@LeafHuntress]

North, South & Middle America? Is that even possible?

[@markj48]

Suggested improvement for the rail network, make it invulnerable to exploding pigeons.

[@SpudderRail]

Merseyrail take contactless payments via smartphone and card, hopefully other TOC's follow.

[@JackJackProductions]

I have that KZbin cushion

[@BritishRailways-co4zf]

turn up and go for disabled people instead of having to book a day in advance .

[@christophersimpson-brooker840]

All The Buses (London) Please.

[@simeongreenawayrobbins2926]

yes caerphilly is the best

[@niklaspilot]

I will have my Private Pilots License next year, let's team up and charter (or buy even) a Cessna or something alike and then do All The Airports with that. Airport Hopping in a small GA plane! I imagine that as a heck of a lot of fun! :D

[@simonwrcarter2999]

Great video as always - interesting fact about Shrewsbury station - en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Severn_Bridge_Junction 😉

[@booksearch]

It's pronounced SHROWS-bury chaps!!

[@KasabianFan44]

No it's not, it's SHROOS-bury

[@CJT80]

how is the Bird pronounced? Shrew or Shrow?

[@booksearch]

I have looked into this and it seems most locals call it SHREW and most of the rest of the UK call it SHROW. Hmmm...

[@KasabianFan44]

That's bizarre, to me SHROWS-bury just doesn't make any logical sense

[@Jam-wx4lg]

All the Capital's??!!! (Capital Cities)

[@andrewwilson6240]

Interesting idea. I was sat on the Nottingham to Cardiff train at Derby (well I do that often!) But on that particular day it dawned on me that there was an Edinburgh train on platform 1 and a London train on platform 6. All the capitals indeed!

[@brian9731]

All the airports would be awful because airports are rarely interesting. Sometimes the architecture is interesting and impressive, maybe even grand - I'm thinking aboit the new Heathrow terminals but never beautiful. The only airport I've ever been to that was radically different was not in this country at all, it was M'pumalanga (Eastern Region) International Airport in South Africa and it serves the Kruger Park. It has one gate and a thatched roof, although the building is modern.

[@danielcandy2202]

In my opinion dr beeching is unwittingly the father of heritage lines as if he hadent of made the cuts then lines like the watercress or north yorkshire moors wouldent proberbly not exsist today for us to enjoy on a steam train and hold events and galas to bring money and jobs to towns

[@rbagrizzly]

6th Street

[@daily8150]

Just look at Indian railways

[@adrianpeters2413]

British rail , how can a nationalised infrastructure public transport ,paid for by taxpayer lose money , it's a service to the taxpayer ,how do you cost that ???? There is more tax on car ownership and operation ....than a train ticket ...... b.m.c /leyland was a goverment tax payers industry......so cut the trains ...buy the car , yes, the car factories paid for by your taxes, and pay tax to run the car.....train network supported by taxes will lose...its called a caring goverment ..great vids and music thanks

[@PcArxarios]

Beaching cuts were necessary. Cars and motorways was , is and will be the future in Britain. Ask Jeremy Clarkson about that.

[@daddyspooge1]

"The world needs more railways", yes, very much.

[@antonylipman4721]

Well done on reaching halfway and loving all your videos. I think it is simplistic to call Dr Beeching a villain. We would all love to think he is, but the world was a very different place in the 1960s. Many of the branch lines were closed before his time and several lines which he said should be saved were closed anyway. He was also the inspiration behind the Freightliner network which hs been a great success. I think if he had know what would happen in the future, he might have acted differently but then we now have the benefit of hindsight. To me, the villainous act was the wanton destruction of the trackbed including the demolition of stations and bridges. These have made it financially and logistically much more difficult to justify reopening closed lines. I believe that the routes of old railways should have been protected for at least 50 years. This would have made the damage more reversible. As Geoff alluded to, we now have ways of running lines much more cheaply, but these methods weren't even dreamed of in the 60s Enjoy the rest of the trip and keep sharing it...We all love it!