The survey was nothing to do with the Daily Mail, they've just printed the outcome from Uswitch

It is 13 years old however, so who knows if Solihull remains such an idyllic location these days!

Birmingham Airport announces £2bn expansion


Airport chiefs said plans would create more than 50,000 jobs, including 3,800 on site - Image © Birmingham Airport

Birmingham Airport has announced a £2bn expansion plan which bosses say could more than double passenger numbers and create thousands of jobs.

The draft plan, a spokesperson said, sets out the use of existing runway capacity alongside "significantly enhanced" passenger facilities over the next 15 years.

Unveiling an eight-week public consultation, chief executive Nick Barton said the scheme aims to ensure the airport was "ready for the future" but needed a "fair and stable taxation environment".

Transport secretary Heidi Alexander said the government was "backing our aviation sector to continue growing, right across the country".

In 2025, the airport said it had seen a record year with more than 13 million passengers travelling through it. Bosses want to see this rise by more than double, up to 30 million a year.

Airport chiefs said the proposals set out a "clear commitment" to continue serving the region and create more than 50,000 jobs, including 3,800 at the airport site.  They added that they wanted to make sure the growth was "delivered responsibly and sustainably" for the people living closes to the site.

The first stage of development could start in 2027, with significant investments in areas such as baggage and terminal facilities, additional aircraft stands and improvements in surface access.

Hundreds of passengers were affected by issues with the airport's baggage system in August, with many left without their luggage.

People can give feedback on the plans online, by post or attend any of the 20 events, which start in Hampton on Arden on 16 October.

(BBC article continues)

PIA came as a bit of a surprise to me.

Bid to run new trains on West Coast Mainline refused


The West Coast Main Line is already under significant pressure, Stephanie Tobyn, from the Office of Rail and Road said - Image © Avanti West Coast

Plans for new train services between London and Wrexham, Rochdale and Blackpool have been rejected by the Office of Rail and Road (ORR).

The proposal to add more trains on the West Coast Main Line would "likely increase delays and cancelled trains for passengers", the regulator said.

It rejected Wrexham, Shropshire and Midlands Railway's application for four daily Wrexham to London Euston return services, as well as Lumo's proposal for up to four return services between Rochdale and Euston on weekdays and Saturdays, and three on Sundays.  Avanti West Coast's plans for additional services between Blackpool and Euston were also denied by the ORR.

The regulator said: "Gaps in the current timetable need to provide important space for trains to recover when disruption occurs, minimising delays to passengers.  ORR concluded that adding more services into these windows in the timetable for recovery would reduce that resilience, increasing the risk of disruption spreading to other services and affecting more passengers."

Stephanie Tobyn, from the ORR, said: "New services, destinations and greater choice can bring real benefits for passengers and communities.  But the West Coast Main Line is already under significant pressure, with performance reflecting limited resilience on a heavily used part of the rail network.  Our detailed analysis has shown that adding more trains to the current timetable would reduce the ability to recover when disruption occurs, increasing the risk of delays spreading and making reliability of the network worse for all passengers."

The ORR said its assessment and decision came after similar applications were rejected in 2025.

  You may have heard that South Western Railway are running a survey to gauge the demand to support the development of a business case for the future introduction of a trolley service.
 
SERUG have long campaigned for the re-instatement of catering on the West of England line - so here's a chance to influence SWR's thinking by completing the survey below.
 
https://survey.alchemer.eu/s3/91179760/SWRcateringsurvey
 
Bruce and I are well aware that we've been rather quiet over the past couple of months but there's little "new" news to impart at present. We still have no date for the termination of the SMD timetable and SWR's Modernisation Plan remains at the development stage with no firm date for publication. As soon as we have news on that we'll be in touch.
 
GBR's  Rolling Stock Strategy has been published. It's very light on specific detail, but for our line, it looks like Battery/Electric will be the likely solution. The link is below:
Great British Railways: rolling stock and infrastructure strategy
 
One piece of news to impart which has not been widely communicated by SWR...the majority of West of England trains are NOT now stopping at Woking. A change at Basingstoke is required. That is not good news for those with luggage intending to use the bus link to Heathrow. Whether this is a permanent decision or simply temporary (to improve winter timekeeping) is not yet clear.

Whilst the HSTs were a big leap forward, and funding restrictions meant there was never enough of them nationally, it is also other anniversaries

45 years ago, France introduced the TGV, initially restricted to 260km/h (162mph), later increased to 270km/h (168mph), with later generations rated at 300km/h (186mph) and latest at 320km/h (199mph)

The HST was good at over 2 miles a minute, but nowadays seems slow with trains doing 3.3 miles a minute

Just to note, that's from the Daily Mail.