Recent content by matthewmacleod

It would be better to refrain from personal attacks and again read this statement:

Every time a serious incident affects the railway—definitely when there is a death or serious injury involved—we perform a pretty extensive review to understand the causes and appropriate mitigations that can be put in place. I'm sure you're not suggesting, for example, that every time a track...

Good lord, I can’t imagine how exhausting it must be to feel so irritated by biscuits.

This is a really silly complaint dude. Engineering works are organised miles in advance and are essential to safe and reliable functioning of the railway. Postponing work of that kind is complex and merely shifts the inconvenience a little bit. As someone who is on the Shenfield branch myself...

No it's not beyond you at all – it's incredibly, self-evidently obvious why people might want connectivity, even if you yourself don't want or need it. But this is off-topic anyway. I have heard a mix of things over the years, but I guess there's minimal chance of seeing any Shenfield services...

The door button placement and operating sequence on 345s is consistently pretty frustrating on the eastern branch. The 710s are better for having an additional door button on the actual door – I'm not sure if the operating sequence has been improved though.

Airdrie to Bathgate, I think?

Honestly, this is just a genuinely embarrassing level of chat. I clicked on this thread hoping to read something interesting about ideas for the future of rail in Scotland and instead had to pick my way through a bunch of tedious political bickering. Can you please take it somewhere else?

From the perspective of most users, a 345 and a 710 are mostly the same aside from the different interior and exterior colour schemes, and maybe the extra doors. I imagine most people using this service are also much more likely to be users of the Shenfield branch than the GOBLIN, so they’ll be...

I took it from Wanstead Park last week in the morning peak, and it was entirely pleasant. By Blackhorse Road it was pretty busy, but nothing uncomfortable – this was on a 378, so a little less passenger space than the 710 I guess. I've obviously just completely avoided it for the past couple of...

This actually seems much more sane to me than the national franchising model – providing a defined service (running x number of train services) in exchange for a defined amount of money, with contractural agreements on the obligations of both parties. Companies are free to run those contracted...

Ah, that makes sense. I saw that CBTC ends just east of Stratford, so if the transition is being tested they’d probably then continue on and reverse there.

Just received an email from TfL: I wonder why testing means skipping those particular stations?

I'd say the worry isn't so much "there won't be enough 315s", but that it's now almost physically impossible to board 315s at stations like Ilford, Forest Gate, Maryland etc. during the morning peak. The 345s are so much better at swallowing a crowd. That said, as someone who lives near Forest...

I have to say I really do prefer the look of the darker floors – the 345s overall are probably the smartest-looking metro trains in the UK. But yeah… they're already starting to look kinda scruffy, which is alarming.