Recent content by RailWonderer

This whole national rolling stock strategy plan will only be significant if it means a calendar is published for the rolling replacement of every type of train that needs new rolling stock or cascades, along with a realistic timeline of when a tender will be put out etc, so nothing stays well...

Stadler doesn't need as much Swiss business as it used to because it's fairly popular around Europe. Plus they're so successful in the regional segment I'm not sure they'd want to enter what is a very small market - there isn't enough 300km+ track around Europe for it.

Most airlines offer free business class seat selection if the ticket is flexible or only charge for some seats not all seats but it depends on the route. Only BA charges it on all routes on all tickets for all seats to my knowledge.

Up in Liverpool today it’s been 22c but 35c in London and the counties. A lot of the time the South East is 5-10c warmer than the North West just not yesterday. I don’t want to speculate but I wouldn’t be surprised if buckling rails is a far bigger problem down there.

The 16/17 kw per tonne number is for the 755/4 on diesel, which has 4 engines for 4 cars, the /3s have 2 engines for 3 cars. On full electric, they are even faster, but drivers don't apply full power anymore like when they were new. According to Wikipedia on full electric, 755/3s are quicker as...

Their power to weight ratio is 16/17 kw per tonne which is far above the 185's 10kw per tonne so I'm sure they would be fine. Even the lack of gangways I doubt would be a problem, it's all about fuel tank range which I'm sure Stadler could increase with a revised design. Besides Switzerland...

But the first 20 mins is painful crawling in traffic before you get to the motorway. The driver had to keep promising me and the guy I shared with last year that we would be going a lot faster once we reached the motorway.

New cars are normally delivered with <100miles on them but they could easily make the first 500-1k miles tax free. One thing to consider is the government has never taken odometer clocking seriously even though it is a form of fraud. If pay per mile goes ahead they will need to criminalise this...

It will need some work but it's great to see you're committed to it! I'm not sure where you're finding your information but if you translate from other languages you will find more info especially for Eastern Europe and Russia. It's very ambitious and if you look at a railway map of Germany...

They can always put more 720s on Stansted.

With declining 165 reliability I thought the mk5s were replacing some 168s that might need to pick up 165 diagrams but Chiltern must be feeling confident.

The 18:43 at Bath to Paddington was cancelled on Monday because of 'more trains than expected needing repairs', presumably because of the heat leading to higher failure rates, making the following service very overcrowded. Then a lot of Turbos were running with all windows open and no a/c while...

Even if there was capacity isn't the whole area too built up to have a chord? Joining into Staines/Egham you'd surely have to dig underground.

Nothing wrong with a 180 as long as it doesn't combust and disintegrate.

Unless I'm wrong, I'm quite sure it was only freight as passenger services haven't crossed those borders since pre 2022 and in some services pre 2014 and everyone uses coaches which are very busy and the tickets pricey. Notice Lithuania still keeps their crossing open which passenger and freight...