The RMT has announced that Northern Rail conductors will strike on every Saturday in January.  This is likely to mean no Saturday trains at all on the Settle-Carlisle Line and very few replacement buses.  

According to the Northern Rail web site, https://www.northernrailway.co.uk/strike , Northern has called on RMT to suspend its damaging strike action and accept an independent ACAS inquiry.

The latest figures from the ORR (Office for Road and Rail) for station footfall, that's the number of people getting on and off trains at a particular station, show that the Settle-Carlisle Line passenger numbers have recovered very well after the line was closed at the northern end for over a year by the Eden Brows landslide.  The chart shows a time series from 2005-06 to 2017-18 for Armathwaite which as the nearest station to the landslide was particularly badly affected.  

All change!  We've been swapped.  Leeds trains now depart from Platform 5 at Carlisle and Newcastle trains from Platform 6.  Why?  According to Virgin station staff it's because passengers from Newcastle had a habit of piling off the train and getting perilously close to the WCML tracks at Platform 4.  So, are Yorkshire folk better behaved than Geordies?  More likely that with the advent of a half-hourly Carlisle-Newcastle service (yes, half-hourly, what would we give for a regular two-hourly service?!), they'll regularly have two trains at the same platfor

Thomas Edmondson, the inventor of the old style cardboard rail ticket that many people will still remember, is commemorated by this short video https://youtu.be/U8nQZZGblj4 . Thanks to LuneTube for this, http://lunetube.co.uk/ .

The Jellicoe Express which ran between Euston and Thurso is being commemorated with a plaque.  Hawick on the old Waverley Line was a station where the Express called in one direction for coal and water and now is the only location that no longer has trains. The Express was the longest rail journey in Britain which ran during both world wars transporting mail and navy personnel.

Today the site of the station is occupied by the Treviotdale Leisure Centre.

Northern has written to the RMT inviting it to recommence ACAS talks.

Northern spokesperson said: “Northern has invited RMT to talks at ACAS in order to resolve its dispute. We are pleased that RMT has agreed to recommence talks at ACAS with no pre-conditions and we look forward to resolving this long-running dispute. Those talks can build on recent public statements made by Transport for the North and Department for Transport on the customer service and other benefits that will come about with a second person retained on Northern services in the future.