Northern Rail have a flash sale.Tickets from 10p Now.
Is for advance tickets during September - selected journeys and on their own trains only, but a great opportunity. website
On leaving the bar, I felt a strong blow to the back of my head. Turning round, I discovered it was the pavement
In case you didn't know the Stagecoach run East Midland Trains has been replaced by EMR (East Midland Rail). Before anyone gets excited the new company is run by Abellio, a company proven to be pretty useless at running trains and buses. While they have pledged to increase levels of service they have no plans to replace the ancient HST units in time for the new disability legislation that comes in on 01st Jan 2020. If the Department for Transport weren't just apologists for the failings of the rail industry they would slap a hefty fine on them. On the plus side they have pledged to quickly remove the pathetic 153 class which consist of a single carriage. No doubt their first ptiority will be the fairly pointless application of a new livery. Why these companies are so obsessed with that is beyond me.
On the ticket side, Stagecoach used to charge slightly extra for tickets bought from other TOCs but that seems to be gone now. They have a complete monopoly on services running North of Bedford from St Pancreatitis so the advance fares remain expensive compared to other lines. The cheapest I could see for Oct 26th between Loughborough and London was twelve pound or so with a railcard.
Abellio is of course a subsidiary of Dutch State Railways and, whilst not being an apologist for them, the lack of any decision to replace HSTs is squarely the responsibility of the D(a)fT who cancelled electrification of the route without coming up with an alternative plan.
On leaving the bar, I felt a strong blow to the back of my head. Turning round, I discovered it was the pavement
All I say is that the 40 year old Mk 3 coaches ride as well as ever and if you bag a Chiltern loco-hauled train you get much the same layout with the same comfy seats that match the windows, good mix of tables and face to back, and lots of legroom, as you remember from all those years ago.
I'm a regular passenger and it's very common for people to get on at MYB and ask where the second class is.
Last edited by NickDavies; 24-08-2019 at 19:08.
The main problems with the HSTs is the lack of a disabled toilet and the slam doors where you have to open the window to get out. Scotrail have effectively reconstructed some HSTs to address this. the trouble is they've made them too short. The old ones are comfy enough, possibly more comfortable than the newer units.
I was on one of those Chiltern diesel trains a month or two ago and was surprised how effective it was.
I was on a Pacer today!@?! Doors didn’t open on all (2 !) cars at two stops, ah life in a northern town.