Recent content by Sparks807Evo

Moderator note: Split from https://www.railforums.co.uk/threads/pendolino-at-paddington.305302/ Would rather Avanti/DfT spent more time focusing on managing its operational performance (which is on a continued slide recently) than whatever stunt this is.

Not as if there was not a precedent for this with the Ansaldo T69 Midland Metro trams (Ansaldo being what is today's Hitachi Italy)....infamous for their wiring looms and build quality. Albeit, more comfortable than the CAF replacements! As someone has already said, the approach for design and...

The Chiltern line to Birmingham tonight was seeing how much of a contrast it could be to Greater Anglia :lol: - train faults, air con issues, signal issue, trespasser, skip stopping three times north of Banbury / terminating short at Leamington. Credit to the staff onboard and at stations for...

All will become clear in the coming days I am sure but a key factor is whether Stelios will still retain any shareholding. I would have greater faith in continuity if he does… https://www.reuters.com/business/air-france-klm-signs-12-billion-credit-line-with-banks-2026-06-17/ It is not...

Being fair to GWR, at least they are doing something about it. Obviously the improved design is yet to reach the travelling public to test it, but it seems a sensible balance between improving comfort without blowing the budget. The original design was poor - but anyone who has done some reading...

I get an increasing sense the railway is being run on numbers and not taking into account the needs nor comfort of passengers…I have noticed a recent upturn in single workings and it’s not good. I concur with the comment about the 730/2s heating / cooling systems. It seems worse than the older...

It would not surprise me to see that being the case - there is scope under the Railways Bill to have devolved business units so having a West Midlands Combined Authority one would make sense. Given this is a DFTO controlled TOC it is a good sign that may be the case.

Thanks for the update - great to hear and as expected. Interesting not in GBR livery - hopefully a sign of devolved power interests through WMCA playing a role going forward.

Experience last week air con wise was predominantly fine - couple of Pendos had the odd coach going into furnace mode, one leaking and one Evero with a stuffy coach. Otherwise did fairly well - going back to the blinds point, it is interesting to note that when getting on after being undercover...

Movement this morning on this - https://www.reuters.com/business/budget-carrier-easyjet-rejects-castlelakes-third-625p-a-share-proposal-2026-06-22/ Castlelake taking quite an aggressive stance. I am not exactly buoyed by Bellew being involved - his previous time at EasyJet as COO (before being...

I suspect they have had to be polished as the dirt is so ingrained…so quite right, if they were properly cleaned or waxed in the first case, would not be an issue. The vinyl in the toilets is long overdue. I would second the above that seat back tables and power sockets would be a good, much...

Birmingham Snow Hill platform 4 for me which was the site of the Midland Metro terminus until October 2015. Good to see initial works to reintroduce it as a mainline platform but something quite eerie and sad to see an unused escalator, lift and weeds taking hold over the site.

Prompted me to check my stats and I am not far off the 50 mark now. In that time, no issues and that’s across a mix of the UK, Swiss and Europe AOCs - I concur about the staff, I have found them great with some standout examples. Was also nice to see them reintroducing the onboard magazine back...

EasyJet for me remains a cut above Ryanair on the comfort levels, particularly on the NEOs with the e-leather and the larger overhead cabin bins on the A321 variant. Onboard staff (both cabin crew and pilots) are consistently good from my experience, and the aircraft well turned out. The...

168329 out on test today looking shiny - compressed and rushed so not the best photo, sorry!