Welcome to your bigger and better value TRACTION package

With the recent fuel tanker drivers’ strike and the ever-rising price of petrol and diesel at the filling station forecourts, there could never be a better time for rail to show how much more economically and environmentally efficient it can be compared to road. And yes, I realise that fuel prices for railway operations have risen dramatically too, but when it comes to carrying numbers of passengers and quantities of freight, rail could now really show its edge. What we don’t want, of course, are wedged, short passenger trains and freight services that have to go miles past their destination to reach somewhere to run-round and then come back to where they wanted to be in the first place! Short-sighted track rationalisation and inflexible train formations have done us few real favours. I was pleased to see that the move from rail to road haulage for the aluminium traffic from Holyhead was short-lived and is now back on track. Likewise I was delighted that East Midlands Trains actually ran a loco-hauled Nottingham-Skegness service on Bank Holiday Monday, May 26 - and happier still when I was waiting its arrival at Sleaford and saw that WCRC’s 47 851 Traction Magazine was hauling it to the seaside! East Midlands want to run this loco-hauled service to Skegness on summer Saturdays and were hoping this would commence during July to provide extra capacity for holiday travellers. However, at the time of going to press they were still awaiting permission from Network Rail to run this additional service. Like I said, this really is a time for initiative.