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Don't you think it's interesting that reliability of the XC sets has been improving with "age"? It's nothing to do with age and everything to do with the way they are maintained. It's no secret that First franchises have a reputation for "sweating out" their assets (granted they are not the only...

That GWR are running the castle sets on regional services in Devon, Cornwall and Cardiff-Weymouth. I'm not sure how long GWR plan to run them for, but with the castle sets you have a refurbished PRM-compliant train and power cars with relatively new engines that have plenty of life left in them...

Very interesting data, thanks for that. Out of curiosity, how does the MTIN compare between MMT, LNER, XC and GWR? Apologies if this was discussed already; the thread is rather long :)

Thanks for the light relief :)

The trains were overcrowded long before 170s went off lease, as I and many others have pointed out to you in the past. I travelled on ram packed 158s and 170s in the previous decade on Aberdeen and Inverness services which was long before we had unit availability issues and it was common to see...

Hardly surprising if the LNER reliability was declining but I hardly think 2 failures in 2 weeks constitutes a crisis; they're about to be taken out of service so they're not going to throw the kitchen sink at them at this point are they? I do agree with you in one respect- they missed a trick...

No they're not. The IET program drove their withdrawal, and the IETs haven't exactly covered themselves with glory either. And multiple examples have been cascaded onto regional services so plenty of life left in them yet. You say they want seats and reliability? Well a 170 fails on at least...

Sorry, must be worrying that an engineer like me can't count! How embarrassing :)

A 4 car unit still wouldn't give enough capacity. And you still haven't addressed the issues with the lack of power either. A unit that can barely manage 50mph on a 1 in 70 gradient and can be overtaken by an HGV up the climb to Slochd or Drummochter is hardly going to encourage people to get...

I know it's easy for me as no I longer live in the UK and no longer travel on Scotland's railways regularly like you obviously do, and the delays and frustration must be very frustrating for regular users on the HML. As has been pointed out elsewhere though, had they gone with new stock, based...

How would you refurbish them in practice? Leaving the issues with the carriage door layout and the underfloor engines aside (which I know we have disagreed on in the past) to make a continuous train of 5 cars you would either need to order more centre cars (probably not possible now as it's a...

I know I'm beating on something that has been discussed at length, but the fact that GWR and XC have hit the ground running with their refurb sets does drive a bus through the excuse that it's Wabtec's fault. As someone pointed out previously, the power car reliability issues are likely due to...

Doubtful to be honest. The set has been sitting in Wabtec's yard for several weeks and from previous pictures posted from Wabtec, more coaches were not far behind. ScotRail not accepting the set until the teething issues found in previously accepted rakes are resolved seems like a more feasible...

Agreed. It's quite interesting that these so-called "ancient trains" are still providing sterling service for XC, MML and LNER, not to mention the castle sets on GWR working OK from what has been discussed elsewhere, but with the ScotRail sets there are so many issues. Could it be down to lack...

HA20 is coming north as planned. Currently approaching Alnmouth: http://www.realtimetrains.co.uk/train/K00061/2019/08/09/advanced

Thanks for the update. I wasn't aware of ScotRail losing staff to TPE. Are ScotRail suffering from staff shortages as a result of this? With the current rate of training when do you anticipate crews being fully up to speed?

Yes agreed, from some of the posts on here it sounds like the sky is falling which seems like a major overreaction :) It sounds like some of the issues coming up are due to training and lack of familiarity with the trains, which is unfortunate. We haven't heard much from @jingsmonty recently...

Also paying for a new fleet of AT300s would be more expensive and the bimodes with their lower power to weight ratio will not perform as well on the long 1 in 60 climb southbound to Slochd, and the 15+ mile northbound climb at 1 in 70 wouldn't be a walk in the park either. Based on the funding...

The only issue I see is the first class/buffet car already has a guard's compartment, so having a TGS kind of defeats the purpose does it not? You could make the TGS compartment a dedicated compartment for bike storage instead of using the space in the power cars, but you now have 8 less seats...

According to this news article the park authority approved the application this week: https://www.darlingtonandstocktontimes.co.uk/news/17760522.hogwarts-express-railway-enthusiast-gets-approval-yorkshire-dales-station-plan/ It's good news, especially if he starts extending the rail head...