Recent content by Jack Hay

How are the 807s being pathed? With a top speed of 110mph on WCML they cannot match Pendolino journey times. There is some misleading marketing being put out to the general public saying that with their better acceleration than older trains, the 807s can keep up - but examination of the...

I also commuted into Manchester 1971-77, on one of the diesel routes that had two trains per hour, and I can scarcely remember any cancellations in those six years. Indeed I can remember attempts to keep the service going that would never happen nowadays; running through freight loops to avoid...

Has anybody travelled on Northern's new service more than once? I was on the first train on opening day and I am tempted to return for another visit before the clocks go back. But I am a rail enthusiast. If the service is to continue to be viable, I think it will need some regular 'normal'...

I always thought the longest bridge was the viaduct in Manchester that starts south of Piccadilly station and continues north, then west, through Oxford Road and Deansgate stations as far as Dawson Street. (And it may now be even longer, if measured from south of Piccadilly, round the Ordsall...

It's ECS that Northern use that route for, but there is quite a lot of it. They've got to get stock for the south side diesel lines to/from Newton Heath at the start and end of each day.

The line is the principal route for Northern to get DMUs from Newton Heath to the south side lines - the Mid Cheshire, Buxton, Marple, and so on. So it is well used for ECS. Presumably Network Rail will have to find paths for these via the Ordsall Curve instead.

Why have ROSCOs? Because somebody has to raise the millions of pounds required upfront to buy new trains. The government could borrow on behalf of the TOCs (most of which it controls already and will fully own eventually) but that adds to public sector borrowing which is already uncomfortably...

I think we should assume that if greater use is going to be made of the Middlewich line, the line speed will have to be raised as part of the project.

I share your opinion that Avanti Voyagers ride (rode) better than XC ones and I wonder whether it is because XC turned off tilt on theirs. Voyagers were designed for tilt and the tilt mechanism provides an extra degree of freedom in the suspension. It may be that it makes them more compliant...

I thought so too, and I understand from a contact in Northern that they check the weather forecast a day or two beforehand to decide whether to send two coaches or four on these services.

There is room on railway land, I understand, to construct a flyover for the down CLC connection at Hartford LNW junction to bring it to the down (west) side of the formation, if that is a cheaper solution.

I agree with your general sentiment here, but if it's really £1M per point end that's installed or moved, then it's time that Network Rail's processes were re-engineered. That is getting absurd and feels like the cost base of a monopoly - no competition to allow a proper cost comparison, no...

Those are mostly very slow options that don't serve all the places the LNR London to Crewe service presently serves. It has been noticeable how the current service has been busier since it stopped running via the Stoke loop and the Northampton loop, which cost about 30 minutes added together...

I think the reason that the overhead option isn't being used is that means Network Rail having to do some work to install catenary and power supplies, whereas the battery option transfers most of the cost and risk to the train operator. So either DfT or NR (whoever is really making the...

Quite right, but just see the number of local passengers doing the Warrington-Wigan hop. It can be standing room only between those two stops.