Last year, I told you about the nine-day closure of the Esk Valley line, during which time Network Rail undertook major engineering work on one of the many river bridges and replaced track dating from before the Second World War. The work went well, the information to potential passengers was good and the only concern to mar an exemplary operation was that one of the rail replacement buses ended up on its side in a ditch – something which I suspect would have attracted rather more attention had it been a train.
Over the February week which would ordinarily have been half-term, the Orange Army was back, relaying track which this time was comparatively new, merely dating from the 1940s! Again, all went well, and there is no doubting that much of the line is now in better shape than for many years past.
But – it’s that word again – the operation was let down once more by the replacement bus service. This time there were complaints about buses departing up to 10 minutes before the advertised time, leaving passengers stranded for literally hours, and not bothering to call at some stations while calling at others at which the trains they were supposedly replacing do not call!
Rail replacement bus services h…
