parliamentary trains in the uk were passenger services required by an act of parliament passed in 1844 to allow inexpensive and basic railway travel for less affluent passengers .

the legislation required that at least one such service per day be run on every railway route in the united kingdom .

such services are no longer a legal requirement , and the term has come to be used instead to describe train services that continue to be run to avoid the cost of formal closure of a route or station , but with services reduced sometimes to one train per week , and without specially low prices .

such services are also often called " ghost trains " .

parliamentary train

so i depart . noting the railway map that shows this line of this mysterious parliamentary train , and headed off to catch a bubble train .
old abandoned rusty trains in uk . abandoned train cars on the barry scrapyard . ghost train
trees and bushes bursting forth with spring growth lean over the tracks and the parliamentary train passes through the narrowing leafy corridor . clattering and bashing as nature is unwillingly pushed back by the passing of parliamentary power .
what made you want to look up parliamentary train ? please tell us where you read or heard it ( including the quote , if possible ) .
a parliamentary train or parly ( also referred to as a ghost train ) is , nowadays , a british english term for a train that operates a parliamentary service - that is to say a token service to a given station , thus maintaining a legal fiction that either the station in question or , in some cases , the whole line is in fact open , whereas in reality the train operating company in question has almost completely abandoned the station or line .
but the government , 20 years on admitted they botched the basis of rail privatisation , but they inadvertently protected the network by making closures so complicated and expensive that it is cheaper to run one train a week , the so - called parliamentary train .
parliamentary
trains are strange services which often run just once a week and in one direction .
, as well as utilising possibilities such as facebook live to train new canvassers .
the crewe to derby line is franchised to go to nottingham . however the only train to nottingham is the last train on sundays . trains usually terminate at derby .
here , the line out of paddington diverts from its path to wales and turns to the north . the parliamentary train has begun its run along the lost tracks of the new north main line .
known as a ' parliamentary train ' this service runs along the new north mainline , that connects the great western mainline to the chiltern railways network . normally to get out this way you ' d take a train from marylebone , but once a day there is a train that runs from london paddington and back , to maintain drivers ' knowledge and prevent the section of track from closing .
i ' m a signalman , and i actually signal this train through the greenford area .
if a few remain they’ll be sitting as far apart as possible on the ghostly train .
train travel in the uk should be a pleasure , not a headache . so if you’re taking a train on the uk railway , start your journey here . we’ve lots of hints , tips and advice to help you find your way around , travel smoothly and arrive in style by train .
the stockport to stalybridge line where just one train per week runs in one direction . [ 1 ]
151 . making up train sets is one of the hazards of the railway industry , mr crawley .
is ' parliamentary ' the reason for the once a day ( morning ) train from barking to willesden , by passing gospel oak ? ( although the service is rammed full of folk ) . no similar service in the opposite direction however .
a typical parliamentary train will serve its stations or line as little as once per week , and never when the service would actually be useful to any passengers . parliamentary services will typically be either very early in the morning or very late at night or in the middle of the day at the weekend . [ 1 ] quite often the service will run in one direction only .
the idiot who , in railway carriages scribbles on window - panes we only suffer to ride on a buffer on parliamentary trains .
this ' parliamentary ' train is a little - known service kept open only to stop the lengthy process of shutting the line down completely due to lack of use . this means that if you ever have a need to get between paddington and ruislip at somepoint mid - morning , there is a train service that just might be suited to you .
delightful tale of a lost time jouney…thank you . i will seek out this train when next in london .
parliamentary
trains - also known as
ghost
trains - are strange services which often run just once a week and in one direction .
for the price of an occasional train service with a clapped - out diesel , or in some cases even a bus , the train operators are able to duck the long and costly consultation , accompanied by inevitable howls of public protest , that the law stipulates when a railway line is to be closed . for these reasons the ghost trains are sometimes known as
parliamentary trains
.
dates with dots provide a link to available publications . to access debates and journals from 1867 to 1993 , please visit the canadian parliamentary historical resources portal .
mr . milliken ( parliamentary secretary to the leader of the government in the house of commons ) presented the answer to a question on the order paper .
parliamentary train
originally meant a cheap service affordable by the working man that railway companies were obliged to provide . the type of housing in a particular suburban area often correlates wuth the extent of the
parliamentary
service . for instance , to the east of london , cheap fares originally extended to leytonstone , were later extended to ilford and goodmayes . the mass housing stock of these areas clearly reflects the respective dates .
figure 2 : the first train into grimsby – a romantic view of the coming of the railway . ( from perkins )
) it is indeed , and we are now facing the hazard of making up those train services and getting things working .
these services run at all only because rail transport is heavily regulated in the united kingdom and it is therefore considerably cheaper for a train operating company to run a parliamentary service than it is to go through the full legal process of applying for a station or line to be permanently closed .
the parliamentary trains are fleeting echoes in the timetables , often slipping into stations unnoticed , running along odd railway tracks at strange times to fulfill often century old laws .
more broadly , this historical analysis could help shed light on the broader impact of women in parliamentary rhetorical culture . was there a discernible ‘feminized language of politics’ , and if so , where did it appear , and when ? similarly , was there any difference in parliamentary behaviour between the sexes , with women contributing disproportionately more to debates on certain topics , and less to others ? finally , can we associate the introduction of new parliamentary topics or forms of argument to the appearance of women speakers ?
there is no single definition of what constitutes a ghost train , although the general consensus is that it’s when a service is so infrequent , the train becomes effectively useless . slippery or not , though , the term “ghost train” seems apt . it implies a service that is not exactly whole – something that whispers through towns and countryside , leaving barely a dent in its wake .
when i get off at gerrards cross , i find i am no longer alone . the ethereal figure at the end of the deserted platform , pointing a camera at the front of the train , is not the ghost of railways past but dave , an off - duty train driver , who is one of the
ghosties
– rail enthusiasts who travel the land
copping
[ spotting ] the
parliamentary
trains .
little known and rarely used , but those in the know who wait at paddington station at just the right time can take a trip one of the uk’s mysterious parliamentary trains .
because we waste our time on parliamentary trains . make it easier to eliminate routes no one travels by ( literally no one ) , make it easier to eliminate unnecessary lines .
but inevitably , the train pulls into south ruislip station . here it joins the normal tracks , the tracks followed by hundreds of other chiltern trains every day . the parlimentary train is no more , merely a simple service completing a journey along tracks all too familiar .
it’s a passion that takes commitment . since the trains are run on extremely inconvenient schedules , sometimes without a return trip , sometimes before sunrise , the journey means a lot of legwork . if there is anyone else on the train , it’s probably another ghost train enthusiast .
can you ride the train back into paddington on the return journey ? as i live near to west ruislip this direction suits me better .
i once took this train when it went from paddington to wycombe . before we left paddington , a ticket inspector approached me to ask if i was sure i was on the correct train , as i was the only passenger . we had a nice long conversation about the operation of it .
but tracking these trains down - and taking a journey on them - is the particular passion of a select group of ghost train
hunters
.
sadly this train now goes to high wycombe only . i’ve been wanting to take thi la train for months and when i finally had the chance today , they’ve cancelled it . not sure since when it’s no longer going to the ruislip area , but i’m gutted… this would have been so cool !
so to avoid the lengthy expensive closure process , what is known as a ‘parliamentary service’ is run to satisfy the legal requirements . these trains were introduced by the 1844 railway regulation act which was designed to protect passengers from train companies exploiting passengers , who were travelling longer and longer distances to work and to find work , often travelling in primitive wagons . the act’s intentions were to make train travel available and safe even for 3rd class passengers and included minimum passenger travel standards pertaining to comfort and safety .
bristol & gloucester railway broad gauge third class parliamentary carriage , 1844 . this provided only minimal compliance with the railway act by covering the passenger accommodation by means of a tarpaulin , similar to a tilt wagon
that is the crux of why the ghost trains still exist . a more official term is “parliamentary trains” , a name that stems from past years when an act of parliament was needed to shut down a line . many train operators kept running empty trains to avoid the costs and political fallout – and while this law has since changed , the same pressures remain .
interesting – and intriguing : i wonder whether the term “parliamentary train” is now an anachronism , superseded by more rational office of rail and road regulations ( you suggest that route training is one reason for maintaining the ruislip–paddington skeleton service ) . but perhaps the numerous old local acts of parliament which enabled today’s railways are still in force for the purpose of requiring certain minimum services .
running one train a week is sometimes avoided by running a substitute bus service such as between watford junction and croxley green for the last 20 years or so .
) that is not exactly as i intended it to be . when a train is split apart to have work done on it , even though that work may not be directly related to a fault that subsequently occurs , the mere act of splitting a train apart and putting it back together can cause faults to emerge .
the reaction of train operating companies , fearing the loss of revenue of increasing or improving third class facilities ( i . e . that those who could afford second class would choose the cheaper option if it became bearable ) was to follow the absolute letter of the law and no more – thus running just one train with decent third class facilities per day , at a useless time , such as very early in the morning or very late at night , and ( because only one train like this was run ) that one train really would stop at every station and halt on its line , thus making the journey extremely slow . [ 3 ]
awesome ! as well as the parliamentary requirement . . . i think chiltern also run this to keep drivers familiar with the route , so that they can divert trains to paddington if ever there are issues with marylebone .
on our ride to snaith , the two tell me about the trouble moralee had procuring her ticket . the snaith train was listed on the board of departures , but the person at the ticket desk still hadn’t heard of it . “you must be mistaken , ” he’d told her . “there is no train to snaith . ”
they exist in order to keep certain lines open , because without them the train operators would often have to close the route - something which costs time and money .
to catch one of these odd trains , head to paddington station just after 11 : 30 in the morning and watch the indicator for a train that shouldn’t be there . and in a moment , a company that never runs a train from paddington will appear on the display , offering the 11 : 36am service to west ruislip .
so the end point on the outward journey has changed again . the first time i read about this train , in railway magazine the outbound destination was gerrard’s cross .
a variant of the parliamentary train service is the ' permanent ' replacement bus service , as employed on the watford and rickmansworth railway . this railway line in hertfordshire was ' closed ' in 1996 , but to avoid the legal complications and costs of actual closure train services were ' suspended ' and a bus service now runs between the stations , thus maintaining the legal fiction of an open railway . [ 9 ] the track and station structures are still intact , but are now heavily overgrown and damaged by lack of maintenance . the ' rail ' service still appears on the national rail ticket scheme and on the national rail online timetables , with an accompanying note informing passengers of the replacement bus . the croxley rail link plan would see this parliamentary service replaced with a full rail service .
alternatively , an individual station may get a parliamentary service because the operating company wishes it closed , but the line itself is still in regular use ( most trains speed straight through ) . example of such stations are the following :
the outbound train will now run non - stop at 11 : 36 from paddington to high wycombe and as such will no longer be available using the oyster card sadly .
train running • @ gwr twitter • acronyms / abbreviations • station comparator • rail news • gwr co . site • site style 1 2 3 4 • chat on off
mr . portillo : my right hon . friend the secretary of state travelled on the washington metro in january . i have travelled on the french train a grande vitesse .
given the overcrowding on britain’s trains , it may seem odd for these empty carriages to ride the rails – or for empty stations to stand sentry over them . from 1995 - 96 to 2011 - 12 , the total number of miles ridden by train passengers leapt by 91 % , while the entire uk train fleet grew by only 12 % .
with tynwald in recess for the summer , paul speller reflects on the first parliamentary year of the quayle administration . here he takes a look at how members have handled an issue that could end up dominating for a long time yet .
platform 12 is where you want to be , where no one else will be . a single short train awaits with livery that is unfamiliar in this station . a driver and guard are on board , and so may you be . a single passenger is busy , sometimes a few is this service’s rush hour . often no one rides the train .
the weymouth quay branch is another such line which while technically open , has not seen a train this century so is really closed despite still being fully signalled for passenger trains .
the fact that routes are being reopened and other rail relaunches being planned raises a key question . why has rail become so popular ? what factors have changed to make people want to return to the train ? the answer , it transpires , has more to do with the uk ' s fading romance with the car than a refound love of the train .
bordesley , one train a week ( on saturday ) , except when birmingham city football club are playing at home , in which case certain trains stop to coincide with the matches .
democratization fundamentally changed the form and function of parliamentary representation . from an assembly dominated by a class of notables , parliament evolved to an arena where socio - economic antagonisms became more and more explicitly articulated by parties and their leaders . in “the principles of representative government” bernard manin described how deliberation in these representative institutions changed from an open discussion between independent mps to a confrontation between more or less disciplined party formations . put differently , the deictic center of parliamentary discourse shifted from an independent “i” to an exclusive “we” .
mr . hind : to ask the secretary of state for employment how many people were employed in the lancashire , west parliamentary constituency in march 1986 , march 1987 , march 1988 , march 1989 and march 1990 ; and if he will make a statement .
mr . hind : to ask the secretary of state for employment how many people were unemployed in the parliamentary constituency of lancashire , west in march 1986 , march 1987 , march 1988 , march 1989 and march 1990 ; and if he will make a statement .
you are our only customer today
, announces the conductor , mohammed , inspecting my ticket as though i were being awarded some kind of honour .
most days we have no passengers at all . but we run this train every day so that network rail won ' t shut down the line . if we stop running this train , then that ' s it . kaput .
at 3 : 00 pm , we headed to the train station in malderd’s car . i wanted to go and buy a ticket but the generous man said ‘the ticket is here in my pocket’ and handed it to me . ‘thank you , ’ i said . ‘how much is it ? ’ ‘it has already been paid for . i do not pay for train tickets , ’ . . .
it’s all the more disappointing when many seem happy enough to dance many , merry circles about several aspects of parliamentary reform , or the procedural niceties of where the queen’s representative puts on his or her hat , yet they fall shy of talking about the steam packet .
michael williams ' book ,
on the slow train again : more great british railway journeys
is published in a new , updated paperback edition by arrow books on 12 february , price £6 . 19 .
but it is a different matter in summer , the train is filled with tourists who shun the frequently jammed road into the town . thanks to castle , the line has not passed out of our lives .
there are several stations on the uk rail network that are served by one train a week or just one daily service in one direction . urltoken looks at why these meagre useless services operate in todays commercially based railway .
there ' s a ' ghost train ' service running in and out of london paddington . it is rarely advertised and attracts few riders . it runs to and from west ruislip , once a day , on weekdays only .
i rode the train this morning from platform 11 with six others of your readers , ian , in the rain and with an a to z in my hand . most enjoyable . thanks for drawing it to our attention .
teeside airport must be the only dedicated airport station with no trains on weekdays or saturdays . it is served by one train each way on sundays thus keeping the station technically open thus avoiding the need for formal closure proceedings .
for many
ghosties
, the north of england offers ghost train paradise – or hell if you are one of the few passengers dependent on them . there are only four services a day between helsby and ellesmere port in cheshire . and at styal , between crewe and manchester , just three services a day stop . ( this appears to be true lunacy , since local campaigners have proved that a stop would not add to overall train times . )
polesworth is fortunate in that london midland introduced the award winning trent valley hourly service and that enables the daily service to run as part of a well - used train which is used by just one daily commuter jason . he returns home to tamworth and uses polesworth to make sure the station remains open . the denton example is also completely useless to anybody and the train is really an empty stock movement advertised to the public to keep the station and line open .
with tynwald in recess for the summer , paul speller reflects on the first parliamentary year of the quayle administration . here he takes a look at how members have handled an issue that could end up dominating for a long time yet . are tynwald members sailinginto trouble with the packet ? | news | isle of man
our rail network would be nothing without them . from stephenson ' s rocket to british rail class 92 and beyond , explore the facts , information and anecdotes behind the steam , diesel and electric locomotives that built the age of the train .
the railways that had helped britain become an industrial power , but which were now haemorrhaging money , were to be cut back brutally . the car would replace the train , beeching decreed . in doing so , he ushered in an era of vast motorway expansion and cheap motorised transport . the train , deemed dirty and smoky , was earmarked for extinction . if beeching and other transport planners of the day had had their way , only a rump of inter - city lines would have been left .
the train that cuts across the west yorkshire countryside from leeds to the small town of snaith departs just once at precisely 17 : 16 , monday to saturday . return trains depart twice : one at 07 : 16 , one at 19 : 01 .
further east , kirton lindsay is served on saturdays only a sheffield to lincoln and cleethorpes train and this keeps the line at passenger status and the stations open . this line will not close though because of the huge volumes of freight that use it .
roman polyanovsky and tim alberdingk thijm , two computer science undergraduates who were working as summer interns on the dilipad project , have created a video to showcase the project to a general audience . the video gives a good insight into how our digital parliamentary corpora are constructed ( without getting into technical details ) and shows some exciting preliminary research results .
mr . robichaud ( secretary of state ( parliamentary affairs ) ) , for mr . gray ( leader of the government in the house of commons ) , seconded by mr . massé ( president of the queen ' s privy council for canada ) , moved , - - that the bill be now read a third time and do pass .
yet , waiting for me on platform 14 , in one of the darkest , dankest , greasiest and most inaccessible corners of the station , is one of the spookiest trains in britain : the 11 . 36
ghost train
to gerrards cross in buckinghamshire .
we pass hanger lane , famous for its road congestion , but on the train there are no delays . on our side of the tracks , long lost stations are invisible in the undergrowth . twford abbey halt and brentham halt , romantic names now long gone .
all these trains run serving places that have no passengers because it is cheaper to operate a train than to initiate the formal closure process . when the 1993 railways act became law in 1994 , many observers thought that the rail network would slowly shrink and wither .
mr . portillo : my right hon . friend is meeting the central transport consultative committee on 26 march . it was a pity that the report on network southeast did not highlight that british rail ' s plans are for an increase in train miles to be operated .
commercial sensitivity is a handy cop - out to call on to avoid discussing the matter in public , but one cannot help but feel that members of the public are either being cheated or taken for granted to not be considered deserving of being privy to what is going on in the minds of our parliamentary representatives , both inside the government and in the wings .
the recent closure of the folkestone harbour line after seeing just one train a year for five years illustrates this well . a locomotive was run on this line to keep the legal side of the railway construction contract compliant preventing the land from returning to the original owner’s ancestors .
ten new zealand soldiers were killed when they were hit by a train at bere ferrers in southern england . the accident occurred as troops from the 28th reinforcements for the nz expeditionary force were being transported from plymouth to sling camp on salisbury plain . read more . . .
the curve was taken out as late at 1990 , but i have not suggested it for the listing as passenger services had ceased long before that , and it ' s a pretty short stretch of line with equivalent passenger journeys possible with a change of train at trowbridge .
recorded on 16th july 2016 . parliamentary train from chester to liverpool south parkway . the usual chester to runcorn service was extended by northern via the request from the north cheshire rail user group . this is the final service ( to liverpool south parkway ) that will ever exist . the halton curve is now closed for engineering work to add another line enabling services between wales and chester and liverpool . route times chester - 0 : 753 helsby - 08 : 01 frodsham - 08 : 05 runcorn - 08 : 14 liverpool s . parkway - 08 : 23 more information can be found here urltoken north rail user group ( official website ) urltoken
3 . 1 the railway has moved on from its role as common carrier and the requirement to provide the daily
parliamentary train
; a service for all comers at one penny per mile ! nevertheless the lack of even basic services on several routes and at certain lightly used stations is very unsatisfactory . services should enable potential passengers to fulfil basic travel needs , such as getting to and from work ; on some lines this simply is not possible . the role of rail in social inclusion was overlooked in the service specifications set out by the franchising director and is still lacking in some aspects of the sra ' s and tocs ' agenda .
the gerrards cross ghost train is one of several ethereal services that wend their eerie way around britain ' s rail network , almost unknown to the public and running mostly empty , since they operate at deliberately inconvenient times – often offering their passengers no prospect of getting home again .
the railway regulation act 1844 bound the various train operators to provide third class passengers with a minimum standard of service : specifically , that at least one train per day must have adequate facilities in third class including a covered carriage with seats . [ 2 ] furthermore trains so equipped needed , on any given day , to serve every route and station in the railway company ' s area ( across the whole day ' s service ) each day . finally all this had to cost no more than a penny per mile in third class . [ 2 ]
all aboard ! the north island main trunk railway was 100 years old in 2008 . take a trip back in time to explore the epic story of its construction , the heyday of the steam passenger train and the place of the iconic railway refreshment room in new zealand life .
chris austin is a board member of the association of community rail partnerships , secretary of the all - party parliamentary group on heritage railways and a co - opted member of the railway heritage committee . he joined br in 1967 , working in local management and project planning . for 10 years he was the board ' s parliamentary affairs manager covering the period of privatisation . he set up and ran a political consultancy for the rail industry before moving the strategic rail authority , where his responsibilities included producing the community rail development strategy . he retired in 2009 as head of public affairs for atoc . he is a graduate of cambridge university , a fellow of the chartered institute of transport and logistics and was awarded an obe in 2006 for services to the railway industry . richard faulkner ( lord faulkner of worcester ) is a deputy speaker in the house of lords , which he joined as a working peer in 1999 . from 2009 - 2010 he was a minister in the government whips office , where he had spokesman responsibilities for transport . he is treasurer of the all - party parliamentary railway group , vice - chair of the heritage rail group , and vice - president of the campaign for better transport . prior to entering the house of lords he worked as a parliamentary affairs and pr consultant . for over 20 years he worked as an adviser to the british railways board . he is a graduate of oxford university , an honorary fellow of worcester college , oxford and a fellow of the university of worcester .
the leeds - snaith line is what rail enthusiasts call a ghost train ; snaith station , a ghost station . the webpage about snaith on ticket sales site urltoken warns that ticket machines are not available at the station . nor is there a ticket office , taxi rank or cab office .
mr . milliken ( parliamentary secretary to the leader of the government in the house of commons ) , for mr . tobin ( minister of fisheries and oceans ) , laid upon the table , - - government response , pursuant to standing order 36 ( 8 ) , to petition no . 351 - 0080 concerning wharfs and harbours . - - sessional paper no . 8545 - 351 - 22 .
but polesworth is positively well - off for trains compared with denton and reddish south in greater manchester . both stations have just one train a week , the 0922 fridays only stockport to stalybridge service ! this route used to have a regular well used service until a new curve was installed in manchester about 25 years ago meaning that the demand for the stockport to stalybridge line ceased as better connections were possible in manchester piccadilly . but running this one train a week avoids the need for formal passenger line closure proceedings . the line is regularly used for charter trains , stock movements and freight services .
it’s one of many train services around britain that run with empty carriages – sometimes once or twice a day , sometimes as rarely as once a week . sometimes even ticket sellers don’t know they exist , and it takes dedicated amateurs to seek them out . so why do these trains run at all ?
mr . milliken ( parliamentary secretary to the leader of the government in the house of commons ) , for mr . eggleton ( minister responsible for infrastructure ) , laid upon the table , - - government response , pursuant to standing order 36 ( 8 ) , to petition no . 351 - 0103 concerning the chilliwack river valley hazard management plan . - - sessional paper no . 8545 - 351 - 23 .
perhaps most important of all , the term ghost train implies something that only a special few know exists . the press contact of the national rail museum of york , for example , was baffled by my request for an interview about ghost trains , thinking i wanted to discuss “haunted items” in the museum’s collection .
mr . nicholls : the information is available from the library . march 1990 figures are not available until april . between march 1986 and february 1990 the number of unemployed claimants fell by 2 , 932 , or 40 . 6 per cent . , in lancashire , west parliamentary constituency . the table gives the remaining information requested . the figures are affected by seasonal influences as well as by changes to the count over the period .
mr . nicholls : information about employment in parliamentary constituencies is available only from the census of employment . the most recent figures are for september 1987 . there were then 31 , 000 employees in employment in the lancashire , west constituency . this compares with a figure of 30 , 400 in september 1984 when the previous census of employment was taken . these figures exclude the self - employed and members of her majesty ' s forces .
mr . milliken ( parliamentary secretary to the leader of the government in the house of commons ) , for mr . dingwall ( minister of public works and government services ) , laid upon the table , - - government responses , pursuant to standing order 36 ( 8 ) , to petitions nos . 351 - 0102 and 351 - 0112 concerning the canada post corporation . - - sessional paper no . 8545 - 351 - 7d .
the tourist ticket from new york to hamburg , north of germany cost usd 100 and that of the new york - bound train usd 24 . the ship was fancy and the trip pleasant . most of the passengers were both male and female american students heading for germany and austria to spend the summer holiday there . . .
this once - a - week parliamentary service is probably the most famous on britain ' s railways . decided i need to go and do it on video , and took my friend karl with me . it currently runs once a week on a friday only , 09 : 22 from stockport . karl is on twitter at @ karlinski73 he ' s a local manchester boy ! klf / jamms
it ' s grim up north
- urltoken
more doubtful cases . . . sorry , john r . . . wolverhampton to walsall direct service . absent , re - introduced , now parliamentary ? motherwell via coatbridge and cumbernauld up to stirling . any absences of service to record as closures / openings ? waterloo international to brixton . selby to york - what ' s happened there ? also wondered about new holland pier and new holland town , but they were lost just before serpell . . .
one thing i know for certain , having pored over the small print of the timetable , is that there is no train back . i also know that the real diabolical forces emanate not from the supernatural , but more prosaically from mandarins at the department for transport who keep the ghost trains permanently suspended in purgatory for their own dastardly purposes .
mr . milliken ( parliamentary secretary to the leader of the government in the house of commons ) , for mr . gray ( leader of the government in the house of commons ) , laid upon the table , - - government responses , pursuant to standing order 36 ( 8 ) , to petitions nos . 351 - 0086 to 351 - 0090 concerning the member for markham - - whitchurch - - stouffville . - - sessional paper no . 8545 - 351 - 21 .
polesworth station , just north of tamworth on the west coast main line ( wcml ) has one train a day , the 635am from northampton to crewe which calls there at 723am . if any passenger wants to get there from the north , they have to travel to rugby or northampton to catch the daily early morning service because no southbound trains call there .
in 1989 lul reported the one incident referred to in my previous answer because it involved malicious damage . lul did not consider that any other incident was covered by the requirement to notify the department but i now understand that there were 32 other other instances when the doors of underground trains opened either on the wrong side or when the train was in motion .
this consultation was made in compliance with the statutory requirements of the railways act 2005 and relates to the withdrawal of railway passenger services over sections of the network in south and west london . these passenger services are currently provided by a daily southern train between wandsworth road and kensington ( olympia ) ; also by a weekly rail replacement bus service between ealing broadway and wandsworth road .
notwithstanding the recent optimization of optical character recognition ( ocr ) techniques , the conversion from image to machine - readable text remains , more often than not , a problematic endeavor . the results are rarely perfect . the reasons for the defects are multiple and range from errors in the original prints , to more systemic issues such as the quality of the scan , the selected font or typographic variation within the same document . when we converted the scans of the historical canadian parliamentary proceedings , especially the latter cause turned out to be problematic . typographically speaking , the parliamentary proceedings are richly adorned with transitions between different font types and styles . these switches are not simply due to the esthetic preferences of the editors , but are intended facilitate reading by indicating the structure of the text . structural elements of the proceedings such as topic titles , the names of the mps taking the floor , audience reactions and other crucial items , are distinguished from common speech by the use of bold or cursive type , small capital or even a combination .
its not due to a lack of a platform as the station has two 138 metre long platforms and it is platform 2 which is served by a train . platform 1 , which ironically has a waiting shelter , is bereft of trains . this is because as part of the wcml upgrade , the station footbridge was taken down and not replaced and trains stopped nearly a decade ago .
it would be nice to think that , if they are contemplating something as far - reaching as taking ownership of ferries and franchising out their operation , for instance , that , somewhere down the line they would consider letting the public in on that train of thought before the process hurtles down the track and the spending of £150 million is announced and approved before the public can say ’shipping forecast’ .
besides being successful in solving analogy tasks , word2vec turns out to be useful for many other tasks , such as clustering . creating a vector space model based on all speeches of female mps enables us to construct a nearest neighbor network of all words which are indicative of women’s parliamentary language . each word w1 thus becomes a node and is connected to another word / node w2 if the latter appears in the set of n - closest vectors to word w1 . the result is a network that at first sight might not seem very illuminating .
but it’s harsh to define beeching’s legacy in terms of the closures . he cared about the railway and contributed much to it , championing its role in moving bulk minerals and developing the liner train concept for containerised freight . there will always be the photographs though - melancholy scenes of dilapidated stations and overgrown trackbeds , redundant engines quietly rusting , tunnels bricked up , villagers huddling under brollies to await the daily bus .
in an interesting example , british rail was forced to serve smethwick west in the west midlands for an extra 12 months in the mid - 1990s after a legal blunder meant that the station had not been closed properly . this meant that one train per week each way still called at smethwick west , even though it was only a few hundred yards down the line from its replacement smethwick galton bridge . [ 8 ]
given these infrequent departures , you’d expect packed carriages . but on a recent friday rush hour – when leeds train station , the second - busiest in the uk outside london , is swirling with commuters – no one , aside from me and my companions , remains on the line for more than a few stops . soon , one carriage after another becomes completely , eerily empty . you could cartwheel down the aisles .
the halton curve is one example . a half - mile connection between two lines that are frequently serviced , it operated for years as a ghost train . after years of advocates defending its potential , if run more regularly , to provide service from north wales into liverpool , plans were finally announced last year to give it a £10 . 4 million upgrade and re - establish the link , returning it to full service .
nor can i bring myself to decry the changes to the main character , rachel . on the page , she is a dishevelled , overweight drunk whose only escape from the memory of her failed marriage is to stare out of the window of a creeping commuter train and speculate about the lives of the people she passes . if you hear the words “dishevelled , overweight drunk” and think immediately of emily blunt , it’s your lucky day .
mr . laurin ( joliette ) , seconded by mr . guimond ( beauport - - montmorency - - orléans ) , moved , - - that , in the opinion of this house , the government should immediately take the required measures to authorize the construction of a high - speed train ( hst ) linking the cities of windsor and quebec city , as well as the necessary infrastructure . ( private members ' business m - 112 )
i rode this route yesterday . just about made it , as running late i ran to platform 12 , only to hear the announcement that it was departing from platform 11 ! possibly due to those timetable changes mentioned above i estimated that there were at least 20 people on the train . took the best part of the day to reach princes risborough to ride the ‘bubble car’ which was standing room only . last service runs this saturday .
the regulator is quite right , provided that competent management and expedient planning ensures the railway network is used effectively and efficiently . a well run railway system is essential to the national economy , and is expected and taken for granted by large sections of the british public , including those who may not be regular rail users . even
mondeo man
and
worcester woman
want a convenient and affordable train when their cars are not available .
at the moment , we are trying to improve and expand the method . so far , the model uses only the frequency of n - grams , and not their location in a token . by taking location into account , we expect that we could improve the results , but that would also increase dimensionality . besides adding new features , we should also experiment with other algorithms , such as support - vector machines , which perform better in a high - dimensional space . we will also test whether we can expand the method to correct other structural elements of the parliamentary proceedings , such as topical titles .
we aim to publish outputs which will appeal to a mainstream audience of historians who will have little familiarity with our methodologies , rather than to prioritise a narrower digital humanities audience . we will aim to make telling interventions in existing historical debates which could not be made using traditional research methods . with this in mind , we are pursuing a number of exciting topics using our roughly two centuries - worth of parliamentary data , including the language of gender , imperialism , and democracy . while future blog posts will expand upon all three areas in more detail , i offer a few thoughts below on the first .
inspired by manin and others , i investigated to what extent parliamentary deliberation in the belgian lower house ( “ kamer van volksvertegenwoordigers ” ) changed in times of democratization by looking at the linguistic behavior of mps through the prism of pronominal selection . instead of analyzing ( theoretical ) reflections on the changing character of political representation , i chose to study how , from a longitudinal perspective , shifts in the daily discursive practice of mps relate to the transformation of representative government . in addition to scrutinizing chronological evolution , i analyzed how pronominal selection correlates with certain attributes of the speaker ( ideology , power status , age ) .
most fundamentally for government to secure an investment strategy that maintains and improves the existing network while developing and delivering entirely new infrastructure , such as crossrail or new high - speed lines . the restructuring of timetables to provide regular interval services over the national network , following continental models , and bravely attempted by virgin cross country ' s operation princess plan , is an objective the strategic rail authority ( sra ) and train operating companies ( tocs ) must work towards .
to summarize : what are the strong points of this system ? first of all , it is fairly simple , reasonably time - efficient and works even when the quality of the original data is very bad . manual filtering can be done quickly : for each year of data , it takes an hour or two to correct the rules generated by each of the two processes and replace the names . secondly : once a classifier is trained , it can also predict corrections for the other years of the same parliamentary session . lastly , as mentioned before , the classifier can correctly predict replacements just on the basis of a few shared characters .
a ghost train might be a bureaucratic hangover . it might be a fiscal headache . it might be a waste of resources and potential . but in the world of transport and infrastructure , where efficiency and budgets rule , it’s also a quirky aberration – one that might not be around forever , but that , for now , provides an acute sense of joy to a small , passionate group of people who love it for its alice - in - wonderland - style absurdity .
certainly , this once mighty main line to birmingham and birkenhead , pride of the great western railway until it was downgraded during the beeching cuts of the 1960s , seems on its last legs . the train crunches along a rusted single track past the back end of the industrial estates off the great west road . here are the bulldozed remains of the old oak common engine sheds that housed the kings and castles , among the greatest steam locomotives built in britain ' s industrial heyday .
going back to the 1980s , i made several trips on this line behind class 47 and 50 locos on the evening commuter service to banbury ( at one point extended to birmingham new st ) . the line was / is dead straight , back then mostly 1950s era jointed track with a low 70mph speed limit . it seemed very weird running alongside the central line tracks in a fast mainline train . i suspect most of those old rails are still there thirty years later , gently rusting away !


the windorah solar farm is ergon energy 's first solar farm trial near the town of windorah in queensland .

the plant uses five concentrated solar dishes or reflectors which were manufactured and installed by solar systems .

this is expected to save up to 100,000 litres of diesel fuel per year .

the integration of solar farm and diesel power is a first for ergon energy .

the dishes contain 112 square mirrors each measuring 1.1 m across .

the five solar reflectors sit atop 13 m masts and can rotate 360 ° .

the array will produce about 180 kilowatts of electricity for up to 10 months of the year .

the total cost of the project was a$ 4.5 million with $ 1 million being provided by the federal government .

the solar farm was opened in december 2008 , and on sunny days will supply the total daytime electricity requirements for the town of windorah , with a population of 100 .

when the solar power runs low the existing diesel power station provides electricity .

not all of the dishes are used all the time .

some dishes are parked depending on the town 's energy requirements .

in 2013 , ergon energy reported that the plant was operating effectively , with environmental conditions such as dust and wildlife having some impact on the reliability of the solar farm .

windorah solar farm

tags : gift , high quality , print , queensland , solar farm , windorah .
ergon energy says its pilot solar farm at windorah , in western queensland , has worked effectively , despite some teething problems .
an innovative solar farm is nearing completion in the channel country in western queensland .
only one of the five 14 . 5 - metre high solar collection dishes at windorah ' s solar farm has been working and now it has broken down again .
windorah ' s solar farm was supposed to track with the moving sun and generate 300 , 000 kilowatt hours of electricity each year .
windorah ' s solar farm broken down again . only one of five collector dishes is now working . dishes are pointing in every direction .
australia’s newest solar farm , which is making the outback queensland town of windorah one of the state’s cleanest and greenest , has been officially opened .
while the solar farm is producing power , the town’s diesel generators operate at reduced output .
windorah ' s solar farm was opened in 2009 by a queensland prime minister , a queensland premier and a queensland energy minister as a flagship project leading queensland to a solar dawn .
windorah may be setting , but solar energy may have a new dawn in outback queensland .
mr robertson said the solar farm uses five 14 - metre diameter mirrored dishes to capture sunlight .
he said the windorah solar plant had
potential
, but said ergon ' s solar technology was now , not particularly sophisticated .
in ideal conditions , the windorah solar farm will generate enough electricity to supply the entire daytime needs of the town . power will switch to the existing diesel power station when solar energy runs low .
queensland mines and energy minister geoff wilson today told parliament that windorah , with a population 100 , would be home to the state ' s first solar farm .
“the windorah solar farm will produce around 300 , 000 kilowatt hours of electricity annually and reduce diesel consumption in the town by more than 100 , 000 litres a year .
“the windorah solar farm is the first of its kind in queensland , it is generating power that would otherwise have come from a diesel - powered generator , ” he said .
however mr o ' brien said the windorah ' s solar plant now does not feature in windorah ' s future planning and they did not contribute any money towards its maintenance .
he says there have been issues with dust and birds affecting the mirrored dishes and solar cells at the farm .
windorah will soon be the first town in queensland to use solar power for all of its daytime electricity .
“the bligh government , through ergon energy , has invested more than $ 3 . 5 million to build the solar farm at windorah , supported by a $ 1 million investment from the commonwealth .
the farm on the outskirts of windorah is being built by ergon energy and once completed will be capable of powering the entire town during sunshine hours .
councillor scott says the solar farm will also trial new technology and locals hope it will begin generating electricity for the town soon .
windorah is part of barcoo shire council and chief executive officer bob o ' brien said the solar energy had plenty of potential in outback queensland , where many rooftops have solar panels .
the windorah solar farm will produce around 300 , 000 kilowatt hours of electricity annually and reduce diesel consumption in the town by 100 , 000 litres a year ,
then - energy minister stephen robertson said .
solar eyes are now looking towards barcaldine , where the private company , elecnor , last month started construction of queensland ' s largest solar farm , a $ 70 million , 25 - megawatt solar plant built on 90 hectares just outside barcaldine .
stage one of the solar farm was completed in july 2013 , when 40 dishes on a carwarp sheep farm 30 minutes outside mildura began feeding 1 . 5 megawatts of electricity into the grid - enough power for 500 homes .
prime minister kevin rudd and queensland premier anna bligh are in western queensland to watch the official start of a new solar plant operation in windorah .
it ' s an exciting day for windorah as their town becomes the first queensland town to be fully solar powered ,
she said .
they wouldn ' t re - start , a computer glitch ,
a windorah person familiar with the solar plant ' s operation said .
the barcaldine regional community solar farm is built close to a transmission substation and gas power station on the capricorn highway , five kilometres east of barcaldine .
he says the five massive mirrored dishes that make up the farm are creating lots of interest .
the pilot farm south - west of longreach opened in 2009 and was ergon ' s first use of technology to integrate solar power with a diesel power station .
he said five solar dishes had been installed at windorah and would act like giant sunflowers , facing and following the sun to capture as much sunlight as possible .
first launched in the mid - 2000s , the solar farm project has weathered numerous setbacks including the proponent company solar systems going into voluntary administration during the global financial crisis . silex systems then bought the project , which was originally due to be completed last year .
to give you a sense , this is a 20 megawatt solar farm which is by far the biggest in queensland to date ,
arena ' s chief executive , ivor frischknecht said .
customers are still taking advantage of the old 44 - cents per kilowatt , solar feed - in tariff introduced by labor in 2008 to encourage solar energy .
silex systems announced on monday that it would suspend its proposed 2000 - dish solar farm near mildura , which had been billed as being capable of producing enough electricity to run 30 , 000 homes .
the windorah solar farm is made up of 5 mirrored dishes that reflect and concentrate sunlight on to a high - capacity solar cell in a central point at the front of the dish . each cell generates approximately 26kw of electricity , depending upon season , time of day and cloud cover . ergon energy ' s road - side sign says that the solar farm , commissioned in 2009 , “has the capacity to generate up to 360 , 000 kilowatt hours ( kwh ) of electricty each year – electricity that would otherwise have required 100 , 000 litres of diesel to be used by the town ' s generators” .
“the bligh government is developing a clean energy future for queensland and projects such as windorah demonstrate we are delivering on this goal .
there was even a new ' airport ' opened at windorah for kevin rudd , anna bligh and stephen robertson for the opening in october 2009 .
“the project is a trial of australian - developed technology and the windorah site is the first time it has been integrated with a diesel power station in this way .
ms bligh says the community of 100 residents will be the first queensland town to be totally reliant on solar power .
they ' ll produce 180 - odd kilowatts of energy which will virtually drive windorah ' s energy requirements in the daylight hours for about nine or 10 months of the year .
we ' re very proud of it and we ' re very proud of the fact that windorah and the barcoo shire were chosen as a site in queensland for this to happen .
a south - west queensland town will be the first in the state to rely on solar power for all its daytime electricity .
we don ' t have any plans to do any further solar farms of this nature in the future ,
he said .
ergon energy spokesman bob pleash says it cost nearly $ 5 million and there are no plans at this stage to construct more solar farms .
“solar energy could revolutionise the way power is produced for remote communities that are not on the national electricity grid and rely on diesel power stations feeding into small local grids .
it ' s an exciting day for queensland , as premier i want us to move from being the sunshine state of australia to being the solar state of australia .
the company planning to build one of the country’s largest solar farms has walked away from the project amid uncertainty over federal government support for a long - term renewable energy target .
i think from memory the solar power station was due for commissioning around about the end of august 2008 , so i suspect the next couple of months it will be up and running ,
he said .
we saw a fortnight ago the lifting of the solar reflectors on top of the 13 metre masts , that will support them , that are going to rotate 360 degrees to follow the sun around ,
he said .
so it doesn ' t assist us at all . it just keeps the cost of the diesel down . we don ' t get any direct power off the solar at all . it ' s been like that since it was built .
barcoo mayor bruce scott says it is hoped the plant will be commissioned within months .
a new dinosaur has been discovered . but did it walk on two legs or four ?
if you have inside knowledge of a topic in the news , contact the abc .
abc teams share the story behind the story and insights into the making of digital , tv and radio content .
it ' s no surprise the plight of the soccer team has received global media attention . but it does raise some interesting questions about how we extend empathy and concern to people we don ' t know .
hobart ' s old zoo is famous as being where the last thylacine in captivity died , but in its heyday people could view elephants , zebras , monkeys and even see a girl walking her pet leopard . what happened to the beaumaris zoo ?
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welcome to the brisbane times . skip directly to : search box , section navigation , content . text version .
it is a great place , and it is living up to its aboriginal name as a big fish in the climate change stakes ,
mr wilson said .
she says it marks the end of the town ' s reliance on diesel .
that ' s been one of the problems we have found and it ' s not only been dust but certainly birds have caused a little bit of an issue from time to time for us ,
he said .
you do have to keep the collectors clean so that you are getting the maximum amount of efficiency to generate power .
we have had a few teething problems with a few pieces of equipment , that has been sorted out and it is operating very effectively .
it is a substantial cost - this project represents an outlay of around $ 5 million .
in the current climate , whilst it is all well and good from an environmental point of view , ergon ' s focus is very much about driving a focus on affordability .
could you bring yourself to support england ? are the french or belgians more your cup of tea ? we want to know who your pick is to take out the 2018 world cup title .
the beautiful game has shown an ugly side in russia , with the treatment of the referees coming into sharp focus .
each dish can generate about 26 kilowatts of electricity , depending on the season , time of day and cloud cover , in theory .
however , according to ergon , it has generated just 942 , 000 kilowatts of power since 2009 , a little over one - third its expectations . it has however offset
almost 250 , 000 litres of diesel since it was commissioned ,
ergon says .
one collector dish at the plant , now run by ergon , broke down
last friday
, two others broke down
the friday before
and another
a bit before that .
another local source said it once sat idle for 12 months between 2012 and 2014 without ever operating .
it was a monument to tourists really ,
that source said , with a laugh .
one local said the collection dishes have not worked effectively since it opened in 2009 .
when the government built it – and it was taken over by ergon obviously - it was built as a test model basically ,
the person said .
all it does is ramp the ( diesel ) generators down . but we still don ' t generate any power . we can ' t feed back into the grid .
it is of no benefit to the consumer , put it that way ,
the person said .
the facility continues to generate electricity at the moment but not at full capacity ,
a spokesperson said .
a technician flew from cairns yesterday and is undertaking repairs ,
he said .
it is expected most dishes will be operational by the end of the week ,
he said .
from time to time some of the dishes are out of service due to regular servicing requirements and the need to source parts .
mr o ' brien said he was unaware only one of the five collector dishes was operating and said on his two visits to the plant
two or three
of the five collector dishes were operating .
but it ' s really got nothing to do with us , it ' s an ergon plant ,
he said .
it is supported by a $ 22 . 8 million grant from the australian renewable energy agency ( arena ) and could provide electricity for 5300 homes around central queensland .
and australia - wide there ' s a total of about 240 megawatts either under construction or installed , so that gives you a sense of scale ,
he told the abc in december 2015 .
chief executive michael goldsworthy said the combination of uncertainty about the target , which requires 41 , 000 gigawatt hours of electricity from renewable sources by 2020 , and low wholesale power prices , meant the $ 420 million project would not go ahead .
he said a government - commissioned review of the target being conducted by businessman dick warburton had affected the market’s enthusiasm for sourcing renewable energy .
in a statement to the stock exchange on monday , the company said it would consider a smaller project at the mildura site .
more than $ 110 million in state and federal government funding for the project will be forfeited .
however , the company said it would continue discussions with state and federal governments over its plans for a smaller project , including potential funding arrangements .
acting chief executive of the clean energy council kane thornton said the warburton review had affected confidence .
' ' the industry is basically on hold because of the uncertainty of the review . . . it’s also affecting mature businesses like pacific hydro and hydro tasmania and there’s no question it makes it harder for the newer companies as well , ' ' he said .
mr thornton said 21 , 000 people were employed in the renewable energy sector . if the target was slashed many businesses would close and thousands of people would lose their jobs , he said .
' ' you ' d have to be pretty reckless to make a decision that ultimately doesn’t save anyone any money on their power bills , is at distinct odds with what 99 per cent of people have asked for and will seriously damage investments and put people out of jobs , ' ' he said .
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minister for natural resources , mines and energy stephen robertson said the bligh government project has saved more than 100 tonnes of carbon being pumped into the atmosphere .
“significantly , this will reduce the town’s carbon footprint by an estimated 300 tonnes of greenhouse gas per year . ”
”it has generated more than 100 , 000 kilowatt hours of clean emissions - free energy to date to help power local homes and businesses , ” he said .
“the giant dishes follow the sun as it tracks across the sky from sunrise to sunset .
“different combinations of dishes are used at different times , with some being parked and not used while others are generating power , depending on the needs of the town . ”
at night , or when there is too much cloud for the dishes to generate power , the generators are seamlessly brought back up to sufficient capacity to supply the town’s needs .
the system also includes batteries to cope with brief cloud cover without having to increase the diesel generators’ output .
modern controls and communications equipment allow for remote monitoring and control of the entire facility .
federal funding support for major projects under the renewable remote power generation program totals more than $ 50 million and has stimulated a total investment of more than $ 107 million in renewable generation projects around australia .
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