Recent content by thefab444

Wareham, Dorchester South and Weymouth.

Personally, I prefer the south (NOT the south east, but the south) but then that's where I've grown up. The south east tends to have more slightly grotty but just about livable areas whereas up north you seem to congregate all the grottyness into certain towns and cities. I've attached...

Interesting read. Alight here for ZSL, London Zoo. ZSL stands for Zoological Society of London I think. Platform 8 is not used for normal service as the gap between the train and the platform is somewhat excessive! All up SWML fast services stopping at Clapham Junction are booked to use...

FC passengers may like that, but a pre-conversion 8 460 seats nearly 200 fewer standard class passengers than an 8 458.

458s, but that's going to require some fairly major modification beyond just changing the couplings surely?

I'm struggling to get optimistic about stock changes that will probably degenerate into an utter farce (and won't affect SWT services I use), unless sense is seen and the 450 extension option is taken up!

No pets anymore, we used to have two cats but they both passed away in the last year. :(

One train is overtaken by the other, so there is effectively only one train per hour to/from stations north of Southampton. For example, Branksome and Parkstone have two trains an hour to Waterloo, though they do leave 10 minutes apart, but only one train an hour from Waterloo - the xx39 stopper...

Well, the service level at all the intermediate stations between Totton and Parkstone except Brockenhurst and Bournemouth isn't really good enough. In many cases the trains are either 10 minutes apart, or get overtaken, or are only hourly anyway. If you look at the summer 2003 timetable: Totton...

A lot of those services are booked for 465s I believe.

Locally I am not feeling particularly optimistic. The current SWT franchise lasts until 2017 and I don't believe we are due any timetable changes or to get any more stock.

I've not seen anything like it elsewhere. It can only be swung into use when there is not a train in platform 1, even if the train is parked well clear of the traverser. Nowadays, it generally only gets used for occasional disabled passengers and to deliver supplies to the shop on platform 2. I...

From my experience over the last two years blocks were still fairly common on platform 1 and 2 in the mornings. They were far less common on the other side though, although as was mentioned the majority of traffic comes from New Milton and Bournemouth rather than the New Forest and Southampton...

Quite possibly, although I'm not sure how far/pleasant the walk is from CSS to the said theme park. And it's not as though Shepperton or especially Hounslow Loop trains are empty on Sundays.

The station CIS system works only off of the number of coaches, rather than the class of stock i.e. it will have a rule "If train stopping at Isleworth and length = 8 then pax must be in = 4". This is particularly noticeable when you get a 444 + 450 service calling at Clapham Junction...