Search results

Lea Green offers a really important service to the town of St Helens. St Helens is increasingly becoming a commuter suburb for Liverpool and Manchester. It is part of the Liverpool City Region which helps to give the town more influence in lobbying for where trains in the Liverpool/Merseyside...

The trains ordered will be primarily used London to Liverpool (EMU) and London to Chester/Holyhead (Bi-mode). They are unlikely to operate London - Preston - Glasgow services (the bi-modes could be potentially used if a diversionary route requires Diesel operation) A recent article in Rail...

Hugely impressed by my experiences of the 802’s this week. Took my second journey on one from Newton-le-Willows to Leeds. The switchover at Manchester Victoria was so seamless. Ride quality really is excellent and it coped beautifully in my experience with all the track from Liverpool to Leeds...

Diagram 1: 802207 - No Passenger information system only 1 pantograph working. From Lime Street to Victoria was using rear pantograph Diagram 2 : 802218 - When I was on it the other day Passenger Information system worked, although thought it was going all the way to Edinburgh and uses the...

I had a look on the York ROC railcam on YouTube earlier to see if the diagram I’m booked onto was an 802. The camera is at the South of the station and I saw the 9M08 (1st diagram), depart on time for Liverpool at 11:09 at that was an 802. I’m hoping it stays on that diagram for my trip from...

I just don’t see how LMS and LNWR and can coexist as the two of the major operators at London Euston. Brands want to create a strong individual identity. I still often refer to London North Western as London Midland, which doesn’t really matter as I know I’m talking about the operator of Class...

That’s a really fair point I hadn’t realised the 397’s are delivered with their vinyls, whilst the 802’s are delivered without. You are so right to point out that the 802’s are a mature platform and the 397’s a small sub-fleet. It’s easy to get carried away when you see shiny trains in a nice...

Thank you for that, it makes a lot of sense. I’m just impatient for another new train after my great experiences of the 802 and Mk5 today. After decades of “cast offs” I think I can be patient enough to complete the set :) ;) Big respect to everyone introducing the new fleet, as on my train...

I was surprised to see that both units out today didn’t have any vinyls applied. I expected at least one would, if TPE were ready to deploy units in passenger service; when you add in the fact 802207 has a pantograph issue (yet is still in operations), are there only currently two or three...

Some great pictures

It is incredible I had to pinch myself when I was travelling from Newton-Le-Willows on a derivative of a class of train the press branded a “bullet train”. I was the first to take to Twitter when a Class 319 was branded Northern Powerhouse to ridicule our cast offs but I genuinely can’t believe...

Here are my thoughts on how the two compare. I have posted images/video of the Class 68 and Mk 5 in this post and I will make a separate post on the Class 802’s What does the Class 68 hauled CAF Mk5 do better? - The First Class on the Class 802, is basically standard class, with...

I got the chance to take a ride on a TPE Hitachi Class 802 (802218) followed by a return trip on CAF Mk5 stock hailed by Class 68 68027 (Lord President). Here are my thoughts on how the two compare. I have posted images/video of the 802 in this post and I will make a separate post on the...

They talk about “Natural tilt” which I believe is the same thing as “passive tilt” rather than the “active tilt” systems on the Pendolino/super voyager. The West Coast operates a system called TASS, Tilt Authorisation and Speed Supervision, which communicates to the train if it is allowed to use...

My big issue with the London-Brum-Scotland services is that it has become quicker to change train at Wolverhampton if travelling from Glasgow, Preston, Wigan and Warrington to Birmingham. The southbound Pendolino/Super Voyager is timetabled to spend 13 minutes in Wolverhampton. It wouldn’t be so...

It would definitely be a sub-optimal solution I agree. If HS2 doesn’t come about then I think the need to try and improve speeds on the existing infrastructure would become more apparent. I can’t see 140 mph running being an option on much of the West Coast mainline without tilt. The Pendolino...

It will definitely be a sub-optimal solution I agree. If HS2 doesn’t come about then I think the need to try and improve speeds on the existing infrastructure would become more apparent. I can’t see 140 mph running being an option on much of the West Coast mainline without tilt.

I agree but where else in the UK is there an obvious market for a Bi-mode 397? I can’t see too many other orders, with the exception of replacing the “New” Scotrail HST’s, which it has been suggested have run into a number of problems. The CAF Civity regional trains programme seems likely to the...

I agree. The other major change to the new EMR 80x’s is that they have an increased number of Diesel engines, although as diesel will only be used from Crewe to Chester and North Wales I wouldn’t think they are concerned about high level performance when on diesel, as there is no 125mph sections...

A recent article in Rail magazine discussed the fact that the Pendolino may be the last of the tilting trains. I’ve tried to extract the most relevant bits from the article. “SINCE 2002, tilting trains have enabled 125mph running on the sinuous West Coast Main Line. By leaning further into...