Race Across the World (BBC 2/HD | 8:00pm to 9:00pm | Sunday 15th March 2020)
The teams head out of Copan Ruinas in Western Honduras to their next checkpoint – Panama City. The journey sees them travel across vast swathes of Central America, passing through El Salvador, Nicaragua, Costa Rica and finally Panama. Mother and son Jo and Sam are the first to set off, and having raced hard in the previous leg, they’re keen to experience more this time round. Working at a hostel in El Salvador offers some respite from the race, and gives the pair the chance to help with a turtle conservation project.
Britain’s Train Hell – Dispatches (Channel 4 | 8:30pm to 9:00pm | Monday 16th March 2020)
Despite rising fares, millions of rail commuters suffer daily from delays and overcrowding. The Government wants to spend billions on new infrastructure, particularly in the north of England with HS2, but the new high-speed supertrain won’t arrive until 2040. In the meantime, Liam Halligan asks how the rail network can be fixed.
The Station: Trouble On The Tracks (itv/HD | 9:00pm to 10:00pm | Thursday 19th March 2020)
Euston is evacuated during Friday rush hour – leaving passengers there and in Birmingham New Street station stranded, confused and angry. Driver Andy reveals just how close his train came to disaster on the tracks and train dispatcher and former bank manager David imparts his worldly wisdom to a new recruit on his first shift. A train runs a red signal at Birmingham, so engineers have to work through the night to move the stranded locomotive, investigate the cause and get things back up and running before the morning rush.
The Yorkshire Steam Railway: All Aboard (Channel 5/HD | 8:00pm to 9:00pm | Friday 20th March 2020)
One of the biggest events on the NYMR timetable is the annual War Weekend. The event, which sees the whole railway transformed into a nostalgic snapshot of wartime Britain, is hugely popular with steam enthusiasts, war re-enactors and others fascinated by days gone by. Coming towards the end of the railway’s season the event is vital to bring in much-needed funds to see it through the quiet winter months. For its 20th year, the railway has brought in a new attraction – a huge Second World War artillery gun. However, getting the monster gun into position proves a mission in itself.
Britain by Barge (Channel 5/HD | 9:00pm to 10:00pm | Friday 20th March 2020)
Bill Oddie, Jennie Bond, Anne Diamond and Pete Waterman learn how canals evolved into places of leisure. Pete revisit one of his childhood haunts, Braunston Marina, to meet the owner who turned around its fortunes, while Jennie discovers canal camping, an activity holiday popular with children since the 1960s. The foursome head off from Braunston taking the Oxford canal towards Banbury, discovering that the Oxford is a very different canal to those experienced earlier. Built by James Brindley to be as cheap as possible, it slowly carries them south through farmland and past sleepy villages.
All TV guide information taken from DigiGuide — www.getdigiguide.tv/?p=1&r=15119.
Love my narrowboat