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And if it had been general, not targeting our current xenophobic leaders, they’d have said nowt. Instead, they took it personally that people called them out and got their helpfully-placed shysters such as the Chairman (who lied about helping Johnson get money) and the Director of News who are...

If it’s half-hourly, from East Croydon to Watford, and using the 377/2 fleet alone (15 of them, so 7 x 8 car and a spare) worked between Croydon and Watford, branded up as Thameslink, I actually would go for that. Southern operating to Watford doesn’t seem right, but calling it “Thameslink” and...

If I go on a charter these days, I avoid most promoters because they use sodding Air Con Mk2s - so you can’t hear anything. Yet go to Vintage Trains, and with the opening window and lucky seat you will at least get to enjoy some serious noise on the Load 10+ on a Llandudno or a Yarmouth. I...

But if they had been running diesel trips with it, and nobody was booking on it, what’s the point? If you’re barely breaking even or losing money, but can sell out behind a 37 with the hire fee still leaving room for a clear profit, that’s what a business decision is. Amazingly, almost nobody...

Because people don’t want to sit on a Duff.

And even if so, that would be fine. The service could hardly have been described as causing "bedlam" when the 4tph via Headcorn proposed for May 2023 didn't come off, nor did the Hastings line improvements. If we assume things stay as they are, which they will for a while, there is no acceptable...

The same conflicting movements that didn't apparently exist / cause issues for many years, including during the Covid era.

For a civilised system to work, you need an almost perfectly evenly-spread 4tph on all the routes, and then anything that fills in those gaps (eg Thameslink) is a bonus, not the reason for a certain timetabling principle. And that would probably mean someone (either Sidcup, Hayes or Grove Park...

I believe it was determined that if you ruined / flattened Diggerland, you could build a single track chord from under the M2 / HS1 up to the Chatham Main, to allow direct trains between Tonbridge / Maidstone and Chatham / Gillingham. In the modern era, there would be little lost by people...

Line Blocked, Signalling Problem would be my guess...

I assume, based on the services they plan to run, 47773 will sit on the back of them all as a combination of insurance and heater.

I think you misunderstand. At present, XC is spread ever-thinner by having to do Aberdeen and Glasgow, extending on from Edinburgh. If the jam is spread so thin, getting rid of Glasgow, Aberdeen, Newquay and Penzance, and possibly extensions to Paignton on the Manchester to Bristol route, may be...

Well, if we assume LNER has too many units, and XC doesn’t have enough, you could make the case for Newquay, Penzance, Aberdeen and Glasgow being chopped from the network. Ask for LNER to make up a small amount of the shortfall, perhaps. That’s about all I can think at this stage.

Not entirely. They aren’t likely to be defending anything in that respect - whereas the seats on the way into London like Wellingborough are the only ones they can probably consider safe.

An ideal world would mean you had a half-hourly Exeter to Birmingham, with the hourly Plymouth. I suppose resourcing and the government's marvellous work on "Trains have nobody using them" puts paid to that.

I'm going to come out with a theory that won't be popular: politics. Look at the EMR route, it runs into London, acts as commuter a lot, and runs through stacks of Conservative seats. A loss of services, which was required if 180s went without any form of contingency, and a loss of capacity...

Yes. Two of them are now allocated to EMR to try to stave off any issues associated with 180s going in May. Not sure how many more are going to be freed up, have their tilt taken off / decommissioned and made ready for XC. If they have a Shop, and XC don't use them, one assumes they would even...

Now confirmed that Cross Country HSTs are gone in October, and that from May there will be more Manchester - Bristol and Newcastle - Reading services brought in. No units are being leased to allow capacity to remain high.

Cross Country HSTs are on the way out, probably December 2023. This is quite dependent on decisions based on 221s, not least because one of the ones that might have been allocated to them is a mess. GWR HSTs as discussed will be gone for December 2023. ScotRail are unlikely to go beyond 2027...

The hourly service is useless. A mere political gesture, and complete nonsense.