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Interesting that The Telegraph article reports that some of the overhead cables were installed just after the war. A remarkable piece of forward planning as the line was not electrified until the mid 1960s. .... now who says that the British can not plan ahead !!!

Does anyone have an update as of Thursday morning. There has been nothing on the news so I assume that all 4 lines are back and operating normally.

Even if the 7 are in poor mechanical condition I would have thought that the cost of refurbishing them, even if that includes new engines, would still be much less that building equivalent new ones. From experience, they were always very pleasant to travel in. There is a lot of older stock...

With the recent deployment of 17 units to Southern for use on Gatwick Express and Brighton services, are there any plans for the remaining 7 units. I have not heard or read any news of these. I presume they are still "resting" somewhere awaiting use somewhere. Has anyone heard of any plans...

They will still be needed for Manchester-Bournemouth services as there will be no wires south of Reading. These services are often overcrowded so running Voyagers as 4+4, 4+5 or even 5+5 would be very sensible.

Thanks JsT, I understand ... but it does raise another question. Other carriages with Air Conditioning (e.g Class 377, 442, 444, 450 and others) have no windows that can be opened. So why did the Class 158s ? Were they expecting the Air Con to fail ?

Thanks for the replies but I am still rather puzzled. If they had Air Conditioning at new build, why were hopper windows fitted ? The two are incompatable. Other types of carriages with Air Conditioning do not have windows that can open. The presence of windows implies that only "air cooling"...

Various threads on this forum refer to Class 158s as having Air Conditioning. Is this true ? I thought they were were just "air cooled" (i.e air blown through them) rather than "air conditioned". All the 158s I have seen have hopper windows that can be opened. Air conditioning and open...

South West Trains have notices now up saying that Car Park Charges are to rise in most stations on Friday 2nd January. No details given.

Excellent ........................ but .......... In 'Rail' magazine (Issue 606 - Dec 3 to Dec 16 2008 - Page 16) there is the headline '"We do not have enough trains" admits ATW boss'. Now all of a sudden there are spare 158 sets. It's a strange old world.

I sent an E-Mail to South West Trains asking them what their policy was on the VAT reduction. I have received no reply. I think that says it all.

Good for Scotland. If anyone had any doubt about the benefits of devolution, the vigour in which Scotland is attemting to upgrade its transport system should put them to doubt. Wales too is being dynamic in its approach to transport (eg. Ebbw Vale re-opening). As an Englishman I can...

Has anyone any examples anywhere in the country this week of car parking charges that have been reduced ? The shops are on the ball giving the money back to the customers. Are any train companies doing the same ?

It will be interesting to see if train companies reduce their car park charges now that VAT has been reduced. Some how I think not. For example at Southampton Parkway, SWT should reduce the charge from an already extortionate £9.00 to £8.80. If they don't reduce the charges I hope they...

A car park on the upside would be good as the current one does get full. However that will mean another Entrance has to be built. The project gets bigger and bigger. The staion that really needs a new footbridge is Southampton Airport Parkway. The current one is very narrow for the volume of...

Coming back to the Fareham station bridge again. Are they planning to remove the old one or keep it ? If they keep it, I will say that the new bridge will become a white elephant as it will make the journey from platform to entrance longer. Hardly anyone will use it. If they remove it...

Err, where did this story come from. I live in Fareham and have never heard of any proposed development - either in the short trem or long term. I did see some SWT men there a month or so back trying to wotk out where to put the ticket barriers that SWT say are coming. That is all the...

... and what route is this new line going to take ? The announcement is vague (to put it mildly). How a single new line could serve both Manchester and Leeds would be quite a geographical feat. Would the line have the support of all Conservative MPs in whose constituency it would run through...

With any 'Return' ticket I believe that it quite valid to break your journey on the return leg. How to ticket barriers deal with this as you will have to both Exit and Enter at the Intermediate station. I trust the machine will not just keep the ticket.

There is also an article on barriers in the current edition of 'Rail' Magazine (Issue 599 : Aug 27 - Sep 9) by Christian Wolmar (Page 29). The article deals with the controversial plans by East Midland Trains to install barriers at Sheffield. Just to quote one paragraph "The plan for...