Recent content by Lineside

I guess I'm just unlucky then! :) Most times though my experience of the 158s have been less than satisfactory. And don't get me started on Pacers, Pendolinos or Voyagers - the latter two are classic cases of style over substance - they've always been awful. The Pendos are claustrophobic...

Whoops, sorry - Should have put B.N.S. to distinguish New Street from the abbrev for Barnes. So many trainspotters here really !!! :lol: :lol:

Wow! :) I am surprised at just how many responses this discussion has already gathered in such a short time (fastest growing thread in the quickest time? ) Thanks everybody for your replies and opinions. It would seem that many of you are avid Class 158 lovers and I'm so sorry to have...

I kind of gathered that. But do you know what the official line is on this one, and how long ago this was when NR or whoever made the decision....?

As I am merely a rail user who doesn't profess to know all the ins and outs of everything can anybody fill me in on what the story is here? A while back - must have been 3 or 4 years now - I heard mutterings that the EMU stabling sidings along the Stour Valley route at Soho, west of...

You suggesting the 180s are fault-prone too? I thought all the initial teething problems with them had been rectified. They look nice, but I have to admit I haven't riden on any of them! Please elaborate!

These mainly two-car long-distance units have been in use since the late 1980s now, and regardless of how many refurbishments and livery changes have been applied to them (see for example the East Midlands Trains livery - which is of course Stagecoach colours) over time, they have always been...

Our limited loading gauges simply won't allow for true full-height double decker trains as in countries like the Netherlands etc.... the cost of upgrading the infrastructure could be potentially prohibitive, I think.

Coventry - Leamington Spa has been talked about for years - decades - now. I'm just flabbergasted that they singled it in the first place. Talk about a rationalisation that now appears short sighted in the extreme.

Oh right, cheers for that explanation. I feel that the Camp Hill line is the best choice for the long distance services to the north - simply because it avoids the need for reversal at BHM. Presently it's been a freight route for ages and there is very little prospect of it being reopened to...

lol We've had that whenever I travel between Birmingham and Preston - panini's chocolates, crisps, biscuits, sweets, sandwiches (aren't panini's technically sandwiches?? honestly!), bottled water, tea and coffee, etc etc.... Come on man, stop waffling and keep things short otherwise people...

They really need to seriously think about doubling the line through Kenilworth...it's been on the cards for too long now. In this day and age a route with important IC traffic such as this one (Birmingham - Coventry - Oxford - South Coast) still being single track beggars belief. Surely it...

After traveling the length and breadth of the UK with so many different TOCs and noting the vastly differing ways in which the announcements are made - automated or manual, I have come to the conclusion that some of the on-board crew make such long winded announcements because they know they...

Sorry to be a bit slow on this one (not lived in Birmingham for ten years now as I am further up north), but when did the CRoss Country services through Birmingham start getting routed via Camp Hill? It's always made more sense to me because that way they don't get stuck behind the intensive...