Originally Posted by
Aqualung
From the pub crawl 2019 thread :-
Assuming you travelled from Sheffield you would have been on the Liverpool to Norwich service run by East Midland Trains using Class 158 DMUs which are almost thirty years old. It takes five and a half hours to get from Liverpool to Norwich which is an hour more than it takes to get from London to Glasgow or Edinburgh. It's 254 miles from Norwich to Liverpool.
The London services are operated by a similar vintage electric loco with carriages and a DVT all inherited from the WCML They are supposed to be getting new EMUs so once again London is first in the queue for new stock.
In summer some of the Great Yarmouth services are run by Direct Rail Services, a train company which exists mainly to rescue broken down trains. These consist of a rake of ancient coaches with a Class 37 diesel at each end. These locos were first introduced in 1961 so you can be certain they are well over 50 years old.
However, nothing is worse than the Pacers used widely in the North , less so in the S Wales valleys and a few around Exeter. These are described as "railbuses" and were introduced by BR as a stopgap over thirty years ago and were intended to last for just twenty years. They are truly awful!