Recent content by Energy

It'll be the aspirational date for GWRs new fleet. May 2028 is just after the end of that financial year. First Group's management contract goes on a bit longer till June 2028.

Unlikely. Gunnislake and Looe can be problematic with longer stock so 150s will still be kept around for them. 175s on Barnstable and Okehampton should allow the worst of the 150s to be scrapped, that should give some spare parts to keep the rest of the fleet going. Corrosion on the GWR 150s...

More to do with increased DfT control. Procurement rules mean that anything of significant value needs to go out to public tender. Tenders are often written with something in mind, see Great Northern's recent procurement. During franchising the operators were private (except Thameslink with had...

Agreed. While they were on lease they struggled to get the 2 in service per day needed. I presume the thinking of keeping them around was that they could pay Angel as little as possible as nobody else wants them. Though they'd obviously still need to pay for maintanence. Agreed, I hope they...

All the 175s and the 3 car Chiltern 165s (assuming other stock turns up there) would be 103 cars, so would fit. And all under 1 ROSCO. Looks to be a gradual introduction, so Dec 27 would be the last unit to be accepted by GWR. I reckon we'll see the bulk (probably 175s) sooner rather than...

Abellio didn't quote order enough 810s. A couple years ago there was talk of EMR trying to keep the 180s as a top up so a few extra 810s for free would be good. EMR is fortunate that its existing fleet isn't that old so it isn't too desperate for the 810s.

BT charges an additional £5pm for PAYG, £6pm for unlimited uk. Prices are flat, with no reduction in bundling it VM charge £5pm for Weekend & Evening, £10pm for Anytime, £15pm for International Anytime. Sometimes with VM you unfortunately have to phone up and got to retentions and you should...

Not on here but I have noticed some pushback from rollercoaster-enthusiast forums. For some people, rail doesn't work for them, and they don't see that there are plenty for whom rail would work excellently. I'd disregard this viewpoint and leave transport share to the professionals from...

Universal has mentioned that they know that all eyes will be on them. If traffic is a nightmare they will struggle to get repeat visitors. The park is planning a later closing time of 8+pm to avoid rush hour. By contrast, Thorpe Park closes at 5 pm and dumps all the traffic right in the middle...

Indeed, new ideas are welcome here though they should have an issue they are trying to solve. An interesting outcome of this is that South West - North East connectivity is currently quite difficult.

Expired - The option was 5 extra 10-car units if ordered before October 2020. Alstom would probably still do it but would likely price higher. Nowhere near enough spare to see off the BREL/ABB 465s (97 of them), though there should be enough within the fleet to take over 376 operations.

Good to hear, I'll look around for a recorded version of this. Universal so far has been very impressive, getting the locals on their side can make the project a lot easier for them. Sweet-talking the locals with a new station and whatnot is comparatively cheap compared to the rest of the...

Exactly. I'd have hoped GBR would have progressed somewhat by then. Why? ORR statistics don't indicate high passenger numbers and both these journeys can be easily done with a single change at Birmingham New St. Destination Journeys Bristol Temple Meads 4,209 Bath Spa 1,245 Bristol...

I'd expect a decent amount of the European traffic to come via Luton on-budget airlines. If the park is as substantial as Universal's others I wouldn't be shocked if we see flight-to-Gatwick + Thameslink ticket + park ticket holiday.

Service level to Wixams hasn't been said and the current indicated level of only Thameslink was from the pre-Universal plans. A limited EMR service from Sheffield or Nottingham (e.g 1tp2h) could be a good idea and I'd suggest filling in the feedback form on Universal's website. The UK government...