News

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Ride 2 stride 2018

Now a regular annual event, ride2stride is a festival of walks, talks and music along the fabulous Settle-Carlisle railway line.

It's a week long celebration of the wonderful landscape and culture of the western Dales and Eden Valley.

The festival is made up of lots of events and activities and things will be happening along the length of the line. Walks will be led from stations by experienced walk leaders. Speakers will share their local knowledge and love of the area, and the pubs will be buzzing with music and song.

Death of Sir William McAlpine, FoSCL President

We were saddened to hear of the death of Sir William, FoSCL's President for many years.  He regularly visited the Settle-Carlisle, not just as FoSCL President but also as Chairman of the Railway Heritage Trust.  It was he who saved the Flying Scotsman.

His local newspaper, the Henley Standard, wrote: 

"Sir William McAlpine, who lived at the Fawley Hill estate with his widow Lady Judith McAlpine, passed away yesterday (Sunday, March 4) following a period of illness.

Weather records broken at Ribblehead

Records being broken at Ribblehead station where the FoSCL / MyLocalWeather weather station recorded a gust of 61mph at 2205 last evening, 1st March.   The wind direction was 90 degrees - due east.

Also on 1st March was the lowest windchill at -17C

See http://www.mylocalweather.org.uk/ribblehead/ for the latest data.

The present weather station was set up in January 2009.  It's been recording data ever since then. 

Settle-Carlisle Line was closed by snow, now open again

SETTLE -.CARLISLE BULLETIN

Thursday 1st March 2018.

The quite dreadful weather conditions ruling over the past few days have finally resulted in services on the Settle- Carlisle Line being suspended until further notice.

With a strong wind now resulting in drifting in the cuttings, the extreme cold creating ( presumably) large icicles in the tunnels and the difficulty experienced by key staff in reaching their place of work, there was no option but to close the railway meantime.

WCML diversions update

The Transport Secretary delegated the task of replying to Travel Watch North West to one of his Rail ministers.  The response was unsatisfactory, showing little understanding of the needs of WCML passengers and repeating what we'd heard ages ago from Virgin Trains.  

New Connections for the S&C?

Steve Broadbent, highly experienced transport writer, has written a superb article in RAIL magazine's issue no 846 on the S&C organisations' aspirations for the future of the Settle-Carlisle Line's services.  In it he concentrates on through services from Leeds to Glasgow via Settle and Carlisle, and direct services to Manchester via Hellifield and Clitheroe.  Our thanks are due to Rail magazine, https://www.railmagazine.com/ for this.

FoSCL & TWNW lobby for diversions over the S&C

In conjunction with Travel Watch North West, FoSCL has been running a campaign for Virgin Trains to divert trains along the Settle-Carlisle Line from Carlisle to Preston via Hellifield and Clitheroe, when the West Coast Main Line suffers scheduled or unscheduled closures.  High level meetings have been held with Virgin Trains and politicians, but to date there has been little progress.  This is a great pity, as Virgin used regularly to divert over the S&C when scheduled engineering work closed the WCML between Preston and Carlisle.  Trans Pennine Express have always been

Kirkby Stephen station path to be improved

Rory Stewart MP has tweeted:

"Terrible path to Kirkby Stephen station - particularly for wheel-chairs - looking forward to working with @networkrail @NorthenrailF and @yorkshire_dales to sort it out"

Good news! This is the short path up to the down platform from the main road. People have been complaining about this for years and it's great that it looks as though something will finally be done about it.

Letter to The Times praises S&C volunteers

The Times has published a letter from Bryan Gray, Chairman of the Settle and Carlisle Railway Trust, praising the work of FoSCL and other volunteers in caring for England's most scenic railway.

"Sir, I agree with Christian Wolmar (“Green light for reopening derelict rail lines”, letter, Nov 30, and news, Nov 29) that the government’s rail strategy fails to recognise the efforts of voluntary groups. The best returns will come from supporting existing railways and those who support them.

Special train Carlisle-York, Saturday 25th November

Santa’s polishing his boots and the elves are getting excited – it’s nearly time for the Christmas Comet excursion to York.

If you haven’t bought your tickets yet, there are still a few places left in standard class.  For passengers travelling from Settle or Skipton, there are cheeky deals to be had, with a group ticket for four people at £100 or a ticket for 2 at £50.00.

Opening of Ribblehead Visitor Centre

The new Managing Director of Northern, David Brown, opened the refurbished Visitor Centre at Ribblehead Station on Monday 2nd October. David Brown was until recently Chief Executive of Transport for the North, and this was his first official engagement in his new role. He arrived in the driver’s cab of the 12.02 train from Leeds and was accompanied by Paul Barnfield, Chris Jackson and John Kitching of Northern.

New Midland Railway Company "timetable finding aid"

The National Railway Museum and the Midland Railway Study Centre have recently launched a timetable finding aid for the Midland Railway and its constituent companies. This takes the form of a comprehensive listing of the printed timetables currently available for public viewing by visiting the Midland Railway Study Centre in Derby, the National Railway Museum in York, and the National Archives in Kew. The timetable finding aid covers the period 1848 to 1922 and takes the form of a 36-page (2.1Mb) pdf document. For further information - and to download the document - see: