By Chris Stokes
Between the Lines


So much for ‘wires free’: this picture of the Windermere branch puts in context the DfT’s statement at the time of the cancellation of the electrification of the branch that ‘there is no need to construct intrusive wires and masts in this National Park’. Courtesy Lakes Line Rail User Group
The Windermere branch has the extraordinary bad luck to have been authorised for electrification twice, only for the scheme to be subsequently cancelled. Thirty years ago I was British Rail’s ‘Provincial Services Manager’ for the London Midland Region.