I am a frequent tripper across the Irish Sea to Ulster and often use what is left of a once impressive rail system. Not much of it left but what is there has seen a new lease of life. N>I>R> has done a great job of modernising and getting new faster trains and doing up stations. Seems that after years of stagnation and decline passenger numbers are well up in some places by 30%. It is the only State railway left in Gt Britain and it is good to se them catching up with the rest of us. Just goes to show that more and better traisn, improved timetables pulls the people in.
Ulster lost nearly threequarters of it's trackage back when the rail was nationalised under the old UTA in 1948 and many of the new people put in charge of the combined bus and rail authority were bus people and for example closed all the lines in County Down except one. This became typical. It was probably one of the most draconian cutbacks in the UK. For so long the poor cousin it is now doing an excellent job even if the subsidies are far less than companies on the mainland are getting and that can't be right? I hope to be over in July with an NIR Runabout on their fleet of new trains.
Ulster lost nearly threequarters of it's trackage back when the rail was nationalised under the old UTA in 1948 and many of the new people put in charge of the combined bus and rail authority were bus people and for example closed all the lines in County Down except one. This became typical. It was probably one of the most draconian cutbacks in the UK. For so long the poor cousin it is now doing an excellent job even if the subsidies are far less than companies on the mainland are getting and that can't be right? I hope to be over in July with an NIR Runabout on their fleet of new trains.