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Can you really see anyone publicly acknowledging that £7bn was spent and it won't be used to its full potential? I feel that's the big elephant in the room now - they can't be seen to have wasted all that money regardless as to whether they scale back now then bring back once they're properly...

To be fair I suspect success or failure will mostly come down to how much he is willing to push back on the DfT and how much digging he does to ensure GTR are actually validating the assumptions they are making are true. It does rather seem most of the root causes (going from the recent London...

On BBC News this morning GTR have announced ex London Midland CEO Patrick Verwer is their new CEO. Given the issues they had during his tenure Govia haven't exactly thought outside the box to get in a real troubleshooter. Probably just rang around a few people in their phone book...

It's not just faster but can be significantly cheaper too. I'm traveling Euston to Derby via Tamworth next week as in the evening peak it can be done in ~2 hours for £28 instead of the £62 of EMT. Sure there is one train at £49 but that takes 2h 37m! This new timetable has certainly provided...

Just had my first trip on 130 with the WiFi enabled - I was impressed with how speedy it was. I was expecting it to be useless and to go back to tethering but not the case at all. I even could browse passing Kentish Town which normally is next to impossible on EE. One other thing though - this...

DOR only seemed to not fail financially though as any premiums paid would simply be any profit not reinvested. There was no predefined premiums that were due. Has SC/VT paid any less in premium so far compared to the end of DOR?

I suspect most people don't think about it - I mean who would seriously imagine trains in a country such as the UK would still dump onto the track in the 21st century?

Not sure if it was deliberate to highlight the seat back tables but every table on 125 this morning is in the down position!

NRE was (is?) Down which would explain that. Some good lateral thinking there if you ask me!

I had my first experience on GWR HSTs this week (one refurbished, one not) and have to agree with this. Compared to the EMT and VTEC HSTs I have been on in the past it was a superbly smooth journey in very well done accommodation.

I was always under the impression that they had to keep the operations separate to allow them to be easily split into two franchises again after the thameslink programme work completed and the franchise next goes to tender. In which case it was simply easier to maintain the current branding?

Not sure they were referring to the sockets buzzing but the first class area in general. I have noticed the buzzing in there and wondered what Kit was around causing it as I haven't heard it in any other part of the train and it is away from the pantographs.

This morning some had to due to the fast service being delayed 20 minutes so the next semi-fast 4 minutes later was busier than usual. Before the 700s the semi-fast was an 8 coach train. The 700 this morning swallowed up the extra passengers and I didn't see anyone left at St Albans as would...

Had similar issues on the train this morning at Farringdon - took a good 1.5-2 mins to get the doors open which was a surprise as it has been said here the override is meant to be quite quick. Nice overall though - very quick to move away and the door opening (when they do!) is super speedy...

I have been following this thread with interest and my opinions have been slowly changing on the matter. I am a daily user of Thameslink DOO services but used both Southern and Southeastern services on a daily basis in the past 5 years also (somehow govia seem to be haunting me). I was...

And they're not too bad either!

Those saying that NR staff should get free travel from the TOCs surely they are effectively funding this travel through track access charges (I know these are subsidised but you get the point)? All just cyclic money realy

Going back a few pages (and a year) if someone on my team programmed software that could only cope with up to 5 components it wouldn't get past code review. I'm sure I am missing an awful lot of nuances but that seems like rather a lapse in code quality. The fact electrostar software works in...

I suspect the primary driver behind this is simply the ability to run trains when a guard is not available due to disruption etc. Having read the various posts around the for and against arguments for the time savings, cost savings etc I don't think any stack up enough to be worth FGW/DfT...

I do like the refreshing approach of FGW to acknowledge their new trains are part of the governments IEP (AT300s aside). Makes me dislike Virgin's "we're introducing new trains" PR rubbish even more!