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I`m not aware of any laws or legislation that requires toilet provision on board trains. I have, though, discovered a British Toilet Association: http://britloos.co.uk/ I`ve seen a news story, somewhere, about Crossrail trains. Apparently they won`t be built with toilets onboard. Due to...

Any thoughts on the future of Virgins class 90 "pretendolino"? I`m sure its only in service to cover the loss of the pendolino set at Grayrigg. Now that the extra carriages and the 4 additional sets are coming into service, will it still be needed? If not, where could it go?

I wonder if there was up-ROAR amongst the passengers.

Do the Class 180s have a long term future? They are only ten years old, but have a troublesome history. The shortage of 125mph capable units means that the class 180s are getting used for now. When the Hitachi IEP trains start to appear, in five years time, a number of HST sets will be...

I`d like Bombardier to offer a British gauge friendly version of the French B82500 bi mode trains. It would put an end to running diesels under wires. A long term Sprinter replacement, maybe? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SNCF_Class_B_82500

The problem: Pacers need replacing More carriages are needed for capacity and much of the current rolling stock is 25 years old or more. We have a factory in Derby that can build trains and has just produced the class 172 dmu. Whether you like bombardier or not, they have a product that...

I`ve discovered this document from 10 years ago. It`s by the Yorkshire & the Humber Transport Activists Roundtable. They give their views on the, soon to be coming, trans-pennine franchise. Most interestingly, on page seven, it refers to clapped-out "Pacers" units...

The Pacers will only be replaced when someone, Dft, TOCs, ROSCOs or whoever orders some new build trains. It`s as simple as that! The future cascade of 86 class 319`s is very unlikely to replace a single DMU, that is currently in use. This option replaced an order for 200 diesel carriages...

There`s nothing in RAIL magazine about rolling stock coming to England and Wales from Scotland. The article on page 8 is showing some points from the Scottish IIP: A proportion of the 59 strong Class 170 fleet will become surplus when transport Scotland completes its Edinburgh - Glasgow...

The original tender for the IEP included a diesel varient. I remember it was a diesel locomotive which distributed its power to traction motors on every other carriage. So Hitachi could build one if they wanted(at least on paper).

If Wikipedia is correct, then she`s a Rotherham lass, by birth. Good news for the north of England!

It doesn`t matter who builds new rolling stock for the UK network. Its the scarcity of new orders and promises of cascades that are beset with delay.

300-400 carriages a year would only maintain the size of the current fleet. To allow for growth the production rate would need to be higher, perhaps 500-600 carriages per annum.

I`d go for replacing all pacers with stretched, 2 car, articulated, bi-mode Parry people movers. Cruising around northernland at 40mph.

FCC have 13 class 321`s which may become available after Thameslink.

I`ve copied this from the Initial Industry Plan for CP5: Possible fleet numbers If average fleet age is to be maintained, assuming notional technical lives of 30-35 years, would imply that around 3 per cent of the fleet or 350 to 400 vehicles would be replaced per annum. Amongst the...

The bi-mode trains are only coming in five carriage lengths. Five lots of 26m makes 130m, with two driving cabs to be knocked off. I guess about 120 metres of usable train. HSTs are about 184 metres(8 times 23). IEP bi-modes will be running around in pairs on busier routes. 35 units does seem a...

IEP = billions of pounds for unwanted trains and 500 temporary assembly jobs

I`m not convinced that the ongoing electrification schemes will be able to replace any DMUs, when completed by 2016. The diesels units I refer to are the class 142/144 and class 150`s. These types will be, an average of 30 years old, by this point. The GWML electrification is timed to be...

Here is a link showing route clearance for class 165/166 and other sprinter classes. It shows that cascading trains to other areas isn`t as straight forward as we may think. http://www.rssb.co.uk/sitecollectiondocuments/pdf/reports/research/T787_appsB_G_final.pdf This may explain why...