July 2023 – RailwayWorld.net

A bargain £12.70 rail tour of Southern England

171811 passes Rye Signal Box with 2D34 from Eastbourne (12.50) to Ashford International

On a Coastway trip from Havant to Hastings earlier in the year (January 2023) I had accidentally discovered that the railcard day return fare of £12.00 (now £12.70) was actually a flat fare, that was valid all the way from Portsmouth or Southampton to Ashford International, a distance via Brighton of 111 miles from Portsmouth and 128 miles from Southampton.

To buy one of these remarkable value tickets you need to book a route via Polegate, but looking at the conditions of this ticket, the permitted routes are those passing either Polegate or Edenbridge, so allowing the intrepid bargain-seeker the chance for a full day circular tour of Southern England, with no restriction on break of journey along the way.

Day return to Edale

GBRf 66722 passes Edale with 4H73 from Washwood Heath to Tunstead Sidings

Two years after my last visit it is time to return to one of the finest spots along the busy and picturesque Hope Valley Line linking Manchester and Sheffield, and spend a few hours watching freight and passenger services passing the handful of semaphores at Edale in the heart of the Peak District.

Completion of a major £145m upgrade of the Hope Valley Line has been delayed until spring 2024, and among other changes will see closure of the signal box at Grindleford and the loss of semaphores there. But the route’s other three outposts of mechanical signalling – New Mills South Junction, Edale and Earle’s Sidings – will remain.

Parliamentary train to Heysham Port

Britain’s shortest boat train route must surely be the 4.2 miles from Morecambe to Heysham Port, on which a “Parliamentary” train provides a daily connection with a ferry sailing to and from Douglas operated by the quaintly-named Isle of Man Steam Packet Company.

The once-a-day service, to a station where the Northern Trains timetable curiously uses its original name of Heysham Harbour, used to originate at Leeds and travel over the Bentham Line to Carnforth and Lancaster, before reversing there and at Morecambe.