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Does anyone know how long the flooding between Lockerbie and Carstairs is likely to keep the WCML blocked? I seem to recall it happens at least once a year. I am due to travel to Edinburgh tomorrow p.m.

While I totally agree with all the negative comments about Euston's passenger handling procedures being wanting and dangerous, I am reminded of an epithet from the aviation industry which is to describe passengers as "self-loading cargo"!

Just to correct any impression, I did MIA - EDB, EDB - MAN this week and received good service and reasonable snacks (hot snacks were a sausage roll on one journey and a chicken balti pitta on the other) plus two services on each journey of hot and cold drinks (including one alcohol offering -...

I think Covid will completely invalidate any effective market testing of the product until at least 2022 (my virologist friends say it is likely to take up to a year to suppress Covid even with a full scale vaccination program). During this period and for some time after it is likely that any...

If the train was being reversed back to Aberdeen, it must have already passed over the line section where the derailment occurred. I am sure all our thoughts are with all those involved.

On long distance journeys without access to a toilet - has the Voyager fleet improved? I have numerous friends who will not use Cross-Country because of past bad experiences where all toilets were locked out with journey times up to say 4 hours. Even though occasionally additional stop time...

The real problem the single section causes is when the WCML is diverted via Stoke. Has happened to me quite a number of times. The capacity to cope with two way diversions on top of the 2tph each way creates backlogs stretching south of Nuneaton and north to Liverpool and Wigan. I would like...

For me the main issues considered when making a decision are journey length: For journeys under say 90 minutes - frequency of connecting trains is the over-riding criteria (if either service is less than 4tph then slower direct services preferred). For journeys over 90 minutes - the key issues...

I used Virgin to travel to London fairly frequently but irregularly. Invariably I booked an Advance First on an offpeak service, often going out the day before my appointment as the difference in price paid for a London Hotel for the night and I also return in the late evening. Although the...

While I have never personally had a problem with the gateline staff at Euston (possibly because I always use Advance tickets and know to have got my ticket / appropriate ID / card out before approaching the platform). I have however witnessed a number of events where it appears there has been...

I see 1S46 completed its journey virtually on time today (+2.5Minutes into EDB after being +5 at Piccadilly). If it was indeed a 397 per TPE's Tweet. I would like to know how heavily loaded it was - sometimes these Sunday Morning services can be crush loaded!

The discussion on the rolling stock design being adopted by Avanti appears to have focused on the DRMF and DMSO carriages - which with their dark colouring contrasting with intermediate vehicles to me tends to make the Pendolino (at least) look like an HST. My major concern however is looking...

As I understand it the CMA could halt the transfer going ahead on the 7th December if they did have serious competition concerns. This would halt the VTWC franchise transfer until the CMA had concluded a formal Stage 2 investigation and issued their conclusions (normally during the...

From my casual observations there are a reasonable number of journeys made between Penrith and Lancaster. On one occasion I was on a VTWC train that did not stop at Penrith. In my coach there were 5 passengers (in 3 independent groups) who got on at Lancaster and then got very agitated when...

Although not between Oxenholme and Carlisle, I would be surprised if there wasn't competition concern over Lancaster to Penrith

The CMA has today issued a further statement: "The CMA has considered the undertakings offered and today announced that it considers that there are reasonable grounds for believing that the undertaking offered, or a modified version of it, might be accepted by the CMA to remedy the substantial...

Looks as if the CMA has thrown a spanner in the works. The CMA Press Release is available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/news/rail-merger-raises-competition-concerns

I saw one on the WCML the other day at 100mph + - looked very impressive! I am still concerned they are 1 coach too small. Went totally off TPE because of the overcrowding on the doubled up 185s - regularly standing only Preston to Edinburgh (let alone the chaos Preston to Manchester). There...

Yes - I seem to recall the first class free food and drink came in on the franchise change. I was invited on a freebie London trip from Manchester on a Saturday when the franchise started in 1997 so that they could show us as potential customers what the First Class offering would be, and...

On my initial list, I added: XC: 220 Northern: 331, 153 (used to strengthen some services) Plus (if appropriate): Metrolink: M5000 I had also double counted TFW 158's as well as Northern's, and saw a TPE 397 (but that was not in passenger service). As noted above - the unusually large number...