Closing Remarks

When it came to 2025 on the blog, the main phrase is "completion".  I completed the Amsterdam metro map, two years after almost doing it.  I completed the Stockholm metro map, one year after actually visiting every station but forgetting to take a picture at one, so that was more a way of satisfying my particular brand of OCD.  And finally, after six whole years, I finished the West Midlands Railway map. 

That last one is pretty bittersweet.  A lot of the enthusiasm for it was wrecked by Covid.  A period of not being able to travel anywhere, at all, meant that I got out of the habit of going round the rails.  I got out of the habit of leaving the house, to be frank, and I've still not properly recovered.  It became hard work.  It wasn't helped by the West Midlands not being Britain's most scenic area; it's difficult to motivate yourself to travel two hours to pootle around the back of industrial estates overlooked by gasholders and motorway flyovers.  There were undoubtably highlights - I will go on at length about Coventry to anyone who asks me - but I'm glad it's over.  

I will still have to go back.  The Severn Valley Railway reopened its line, following the landslip that cut off the end, so Bridgnorth is once again collectable.  What I'm really waiting for is the two new lines to open - the Camp Hill and Wolverhampton-Walsall routes - but they seem to be existing in a strange limbo state where they're sort of finished, but also not finished.

The highlight of the year was obviously my trip to Helsinki, which was great fun, and makes me wish I could travel all over Europe visiting stations.  I can't, of course, but I can dream, and I do have a spreadsheet all ready with how to do it.  If funds are available in 2026, I have two potential cities in mind, but really, if an eccentric billionaire wants to send me to Istanbul or Beijing or Sydney I'll happily do it.

The question is: what happens next?  I have a couple of ideas going forward.  One is hyper-local: a revisit of Merseyrail's stations and their surroundings in a bit more depth.  I started this blog in 2007 and some of those early entries are really basic, not exploring the local area, not really doing much in fact.  I thought that maybe it'd be interesting to have another look and see what's changed.  Not least my decrepit old face.  Unfortunately I did run this idea past one person and he responded very much in the negative, so that's sat in the back of my head.

My other thought was the Tyne and Wear Metro.  This is one of the few Metros in the UK and, apart from a little pootle about it when I stayed in Newcastle, I've not really touched it.  It's sixty stations, it's a lot of big city but also great scenery, and it would enable me to visit both Horden, which opened during lockdown and still remains unvisited, and the newly opened Ashington line.

What puts me off is that four hour trip across the north every time.  It'd be tiring and, as I discovered heading to Birmingham every time, it can get boring taking the same train over and over.  I'm in two minds.

I'd love to continue with this blog.  It's kept me going in many ways over the years and I love having a project on the go; the last six months without one have felt a little bit empty.  Obviously I'd love to go all over the UK, visit every station, go to every nook and cranny, but that's both impractical and expensive.  That'd involve hotels and passes and a level of commitment that'd be a struggle.  A boy can dream, eh?

As usual, I thank you for reading.  It's an increasingly dwindling readership in the 21st century, with most people doing videos or going over to other projects, but I am at heart a writer, and I can't sit there in front of a camera and push my ugly mug at you.  Thanks again.