Recent content by WestCountry

Lynx (in Norfolk) are consistently very good. Detailed real-time information about disruption, any staff I've spoken to are informed and helpful. No surprise that it's run by the same people who set up Konectbus mentioned above. MD Julian Patterson even showed up once, in his Porsche, to...

When Cambridge North first opened, the Ely/Lynn fasts didn't call but the GN semi-fast 2Cxx was extended to terminate in the bay at North. That lasted for a year or two before it was cut back and a Liverpool Street service extended in its place. Commuters from Foxton etc. to the Science Park...

These have of course been operating in the UK for decades. ;) A Class 59 is an SD40-2 squashed into a tube with a few compromises for loading gauge, some shared with the metre-gauge BB40-2 variant.

All journeys within Kings Lynn are £1.50 thanks to a council initiative, applying to all five local bus operators.

nor with Whippet of Cambridgeshire (their coaches are all Flixbus branded, but they operate bus services in their own name).

There's a 1974 N gauge model, commissioned by British Rail, in the NRM. The 'tunnel' train is depicted as SNCF stock led by what I think is a CC7100, unlikely being 1.5kV DC! Running parallel to a 3rd-rail Mk1 EMU on the classic network. not my photo...

I don't think that's correct. The requirement for an L plate is under The Motor Vehicles (Driving Licences) Regulations 1999, 16 (2) (b): https://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/1999/2864/regulation/16/made It only applies to holders of a provisional license for the vehicle class. There's no...

The original Cambridgeshire Guided Busway fleet (Enviro 400s and Eclipse B7RLEs) all had air-con. It was quite effective, and normally in use when I was using the service regularly. I don't know if that's still the case now.

Stagecoach's service B between Cambridge and Peterborough had a running time just over two hours. It's currently suspended due to COVID but will probably return. The journey is flat and mostly boring, but includes the northern section of the Cambridgeshire Guided Busway. Operated by Scania...

Would rear-axle steering work at all with the Busway guide-wheels? It's true that watching tri-axle buses negotiate the Jesus Lane corner will be interesting.

North-west London has Underground lines all over the place - none of Chiltern's suburban stations is more than 10 minutes' walk from a tube station, and there's no competing with that service frequency. Combined with Marylebone's poor connectivity, there's simply no point running services into...

Because they have an order for 19x 5-car AT300 sets, as an add-on to First's West of England order, which will be 26m vehicles.

Mid-Norfolk have about a dozen in two rakes, used on almost every non-DMU service.

The BFK is locked out-of-use. :( It's substituting for the usual BSO while that's away for repairs, so might be gone in 'the coming weeks' anyway.

I read that as referring to its actual introduction, and subsequent withdrawal, several years ago. Running short, sluggish DMU sets into Liverpool Street didn't work then, and it's hard to see why it should now. Unless the DfT are hoping for yet more 5-car AT300 bi-modes as part of the mainline...