In Cornwall, every train is a local train. It just so happens most pf them turn into a slightly faster train the other side of ... Newton Abbott, I guess, where they turn into Javelin II and get on the high-speed waitaminute.
HS2 will have IIRC 20 carriage trains... HS1 is a bit less than that!
The Tonbridge to Redhill line is great for this. In most cases you can get to Gatwick in less than 2 hours
Eurostars are 400m long, which is the longest formation HS2 will run. However HS2 will also run 200m train formations, to enable operation onto the classic line, which would fit quite easily around Kent.
Agreed. Siemens Velaro family, which includes the ICE3 are normally 25m carriages (the Class 374 being an exception at 20m), as are Hitachi A-trains (the basis for the IET/Azuma/80x series, as well as the 395 Javelins). However, Alstom seem to favour 20m carriages in the TGV-derived families they've built recently. Not sure what length CAF favours, or if there are any other builders who'd be interested in the contract.
Somewhere in my head I got convinced the e320s were 18 carriages not 16. It's the old Class 373s that were 18, of course.
I don't know the spec so couldn't comment. Alstom could modify the design if they wanted to (they'd need to rework some parts anyway for classic-compatible mode) but given how recent contracts have gone it would seem to be a straight fight between Siemens and Hitachi.
Correct.
Also correct, the winning bidder was the Hitachi-Bombardier joint venture which is obviously now Hitachi-Alstom. Bodyshells and initial fitout at Hitachi Newton Aycliffe, bogies by Alstom Crewe, completion and testing at Alstom Derby, and in-service maintenance at Washwood Heath.
Not sure they really did -certainly they didn’t last long when they were (re-) introduced in the 1980s. The last survivor was presumably the Ramsgate on Saturdays - no doubt the use of interesting traction on that was in part an attempt to drum up custom!
At the time of the lines shutting, who would have made a through journey anyway? The good burghers of Leighton Buzzard would have had no reason to travel to Welwyn G.C, or vice versa, apart from in trickle numbers.
P&O now are again, although only on some sailings, and they don't seem to be making it easy:
They didn't. The only all-year round cross-country service from/to Kent historically was the Birkenhead-Margate/Hastings, which didn't serve the ports, or the car-sleepers of the 50s/60s which did.
Quite. Why would anybody travel by the filthy steam train, twice through per day (and two others by changing in Dunstable and waiting up to 30 minutes) when one could travel every half hour from early morn 'til late at night in a splendid clean Lodekka of the United Counties Omnibus Company, long before the scourge of roundabouts, road humps, parked cars, one way systems, one man buses with automatic transmissions etc that mars any such journey today. The bus even went to the centre of Leighton Buzzard, unlike the train, and to L.B. Station, (in Linslade).
Surrey has 84 stations; Hertfordshire has 50 (47 if you don't count Moor Park, Croxley and Watford Met) with a near-identical population and area. Around fifteen of Hertfordshire's serve the six towns with over 50,000 people (Welwyn and Cheshunt were over 45,000 in 2011); Woking, Guildford, Walton, Ewell and Esher have around ten. So Hertfordshire outside the largest towns has 35 stations for 650k people; rural Surrey has 74 for 800k.
Not desirable I know, but you can also get the train to Weymouth, then X51/X53 bus to Axminster, then train to Exeter.
You could probably beat that by hiring a yacht to Exmouth... that is most definitely not the direct link the OP was after that's for sure
I can see Portland from where I'm sitting now, & the convolutions I have to get there without driving are quite something. But, people here look at Exeter and people around Bridport & further don't, so it's not actually surprising.
