There has been at least one 165 laid up as spares donor for the last few years. 165025 spent a couple of years heavily robbed of parts, and was joined for several months by 165026. Both are now back in service but their place has been taken by 165003 which is the current Aylesbury xmas tree.
Leads to another question.
The Chiltern mk5 stock is to be based at Alstom Central Rivers at Burton, so not to hard to swap locos around depending where Beacon base the 68s.
That's not correct - nothing is going to Central Rivers. As described above maintenance will be done at Eastleigh.
My bad, I'd only seen a tweet saying Central Rivers when announcement was made, hadn't seen it had since been amended. (Updated tweet below).
Some had cracking issues yes. Unsure if rectification work had been carried out.
IF it was possible; what platforms would you like those hypothetical 11car sets to fit onto?
I do not think the GWR though of it as a outer-suburban service.
That's what London – Aylesbury and other services are now, regardless of what the line's builders may have thought at the time.
Maybe not, but you can say the same about Great Central, also long gone. I’m genuinely not sure what your point is. Through trains to Birmingham only started again in 1993 after a 25-year gap.
My point is that if you turned up at Snow Hill or Moor Street and asked for a ticket to London they would sell you one, they would not say you need to go to New Street for London. I think that Chiltern would say it an Inter- City service, with newish loco hauled trains
Exactly.
It may not be the most important line for the purposes of Birmingham - London, but for the many intermediate stops such as Solihull, Leamington Spa, Banbury, Bicester North towards the northern part of the line, it will remain vital in both directions. It would be good to see some further direct services towards Stourbridge. While HS2 adds extra capacity, people value convenience and ultimately if you live by the Chiltern line and the price remains reasonable, you aren’t going to be hugely incentivised to travel into Birmingham or to Interchange.
Sorry but I’ve no idea what that has to do with whether it is an intercity service or not.
Again I’m not sure it being vital for places along the line makes it any more of an intercity service. It can be relatively important and not be intercity
Likewise, the Manchester Metrolink is an Intercity service.
GWR's IET (their name for their 800s and 802s) is Intercity Express Train, likewise the IEP (GWR and LNER 80X) was Intercity Express Programme.
EMR brand their long distance services out of London under EMR Intercity, which is another close reference
Or indeed Cardiff - Portsmouth (as many cities as the whole Scotrail Inter7cities network)
68022/TP12
More than half - I once discovered that the carriage I was sitting in had no toilets, and neither of the adjacent ones had a toilet at the adjoining end. Fortunately it was a short journey so I just held on until I reached my destination!
Yikes!!!!!
If you’re in the TGS of the Castle sets the situation’s very similar. Indeed, when you get to the far end of the next coache you’re also faced with “staff only” as you’re facing away from the first passenger loo you encounter.
No idea. That's why I asked if it was technically possible.
In the days of the (original) GWR, it was part of their main line from Paddington to Birkenhead, which is rather different from Chiltern's current offering.
