Recent content by andy1571

Even better, these fall under the North East fare cap, so are only £2.50!

I noted a Yutong E9 in Kinchbus base livery heading up the M1 earlier, presumably bound for Pelican.

Noted a 455 DTS on the back of a low loader on the M1 southbound near East Midlands Airport this morning.

Kinch 146 noted this morning heading up the M1 near Nottingham atop a low loader

The East Lancs Esteem, whilst never a particularly widespread body in its own right, was rarer on a handful of types: Enviro 300 - just a pair, new to Courtney MAN 12.240 - five which went to Metrobus Volvo B7RLE - six new to Kent Top Travel for Canterbury P&R

I'm not sure why, especially if the ticketing scheme is extended to other flows, LNER should continue to be allowed to hold such a dominant position on ECML medium/long distance traffic, especially out of London. It would be interesting instead if paths were opened up to greater competition...

Brighton & Hove used to put their open-toppers out on normal service on occasion. I recall having a spin on one of the TxxxRFG pair up to Woodingdean, for example.

I think the reference was regarding those that have recently been reformed; 4 of the 5-car units do now have two first class carriages, albeit one is partially declassified.

The ones that ended up with two first class carriages (IIRC 222005/006/103/104) have a section of declassified seating in the coach adjoining the rest of standard. It’s marked by labels on the tables and antimacassars, although first class signage is still present on the exterior and windows...

Not anymore…the services were split a while back to try and improve reliability

How far did the CrossCountry 158s venture? I seem to recall they cropped up on workings like Blackpool - Portsmouth on occasion…did they go further than that?

170399 in Be in Birmingham pink was a bit of an eyeball scorcher at the time, which I guess was the intention! I’m not sure if it’s their relatively unfussy design, but most liveries seem to sit quite nicely on them.

At least some of the testing was done at MIRA, near Hinckley

Miles has tipped up in Leicester this evening….is there more than one Miles?!

Pre-redevelopment, there used to be a tower block (Stephenson Tower) in the footprint of Birmingham New Street; IIRC it sat partially over platform 12.