Recent content by Ricardo

This is as far as I'm aware correct. Southern initially had a single Southampton-Brighton service (leaving at antisocial o'clock in the morning) planned for a 313 in the December timetable, on the basis that this train essentially had no through passengers along the entire route. Apparently...

The Soton-Brighton sunday services are definitely happening! It was a franchise commitment! The sunday diagram (or at least a recent draft of it) crossed my desk a couple of weeks ago and it looks pretty good. I dont have it to hand at the moment, but from memory the first departure from...

The key issue on the Portsmouth-Waterloo line is that the 450s are used to boost capacity on the services with the heaviest passenger loads. Although between half and two thirds of the Portsmouth Direct services are 444 operated, many of the 444 services are off peak trains- peak demand...

Dont wish to go OT here, just want to clarify my point: Although a 60s type 737 and a current 737 look pretty much the same, their engines, internals, pretty much everything about them apart from the basic airframe is different and in the modern case, is up to date and competetive with modern...

-Dont you mean class 313s? -Class 172s entering services on London Overground and London Midland and resultant class 150 displacement and rolling stock shuffles -Class 380 Desiros being introduced to Scotrail (believe delivery is for late this summer, so first passenger services come the...

455Driver, agreed! The vast majority of the normal travelling public simply wont notice that they are travelling on a 30+ year old HST if it has an interior which is up to 21st century standards and mod cons that they'd expect (air con, wi-fi, decent seats, etc). Certainly FGW & East Coast's Mk3...

I believe you are correct, thats the reason I am aware of too. Interestingly the structure on the remaining tracks is strong enough to cope with locomotives (well, HST power cars) and I believe class 66s as well. The question is, does PMH really need an additional platform? Yes, it...

"I spent a lot of money on booze, birds and fast cars. The rest I just squandered." - George Best Probably a risk that some of us would end up doing the same thing! Realistically, if I controlled NR spending, the first thing I'd be doing is tackling why or rail maintenance and project costs...

I'm surprised that none of the southern contingent have mentioned The New Forest pub, right next doors to Ashurst New Forest station.

Network Rail isnt the only corner of the engineering world where such "special" people can hide out, although one does get the impression they are particularly welcoming of such types. Certainly on the rare occasions where I and colleagues have had direct dealings with NR, we have not come away...

You'd also have other problems with the reverse at Brighton. Entering from the Hove direction and exiting to the Lewes direction (and vice versa) is only possible from a single platform (P3). Further, the track layout means that the maximum length of train that can do this is (I think)...

Does anyone know how the transfer of Eurostar services from Waterloo to St Pancras International affected loadings on the Waterloo-Bristol services?

I seem to recall that the DfT estimated (in an IEP tender document or study document) that a non-tilt electric IEP unit would/ should only lose two minutes compared to a tilting train on the WCML between London and (perhaps) Birmingham, which would suggest that running non-tilt trains on the...

If anything, SWT have expanded the Salisbury-Bristol service. Wasnt it initially 2 or 3 per day? Its 4 daily now. So either the demand is there, or the extra ORCATS revenue is proving handy for SWT revenues! I am neutral to whether or not the service is a good idea, as it provides...

Some have complained that the 4-daily SWT Waterloo-Bristol trains are unnecessary. :D *ducks to avoid incoming fire from enraged Bath commuters* I never said I agreed with them! To answer the OP's original question, I dont think there are that many truly "unnecessary" routes around...