LeylandLen
Member
For the past few weeks publishers of my local weekly paper (Leyland Guardian) have run a scheme where you could collect 2 different tokens and for £10 (no concessions for us senior Railcard holders !) purchase a Day Ranger ticket. The offer ended today (24/10) and I used my ticket yesterday. I was hoping they would extend it after the school half term hols into November when there is not that much demand for 'turn up and go' travel prior to the Xmas shopping from mid November onwards.
My first train was a 158 Sprinter, the 0856 Leyland to Huddersfield arr 1040 ish. I had about 25 mins to have a quick look around Huddersfield ( hadn't been for many years) before catching the 1108 142 Pacer to Barnsley where I had never been so a first for me ! Very impressed with the obviously newish Barnsley Interchange Rail and Bus station.! I arrived about midday. After another quick around the town centre before catching the 1242 ex Nottingham, to Leeds, another 158 Sprinter arriving on time 1317 in Leeds, a city I do know well , more to do with footy and 'nights out' in my past (no , I do not support Leeds Utd ) but that's another story !
I was able to spend a good hour or so walking around the city centre including the magnificent indoor market where I purchased some pasties and a drink before sitting on a seat in Briggate outside M&S watching a busker in the pleasant weak October sunshine . Then after a walk around the station , observing routine trains such as East Coast HSTs , more Sprinters plus TPE 165and a Class 66 slowly meandering westwards with a train of hoppers, it was time to catch my penultimate train . the 1505 Sprinter (1427 ex York I think) to Blackpool N via Copy pit as far as Preston , then a 142 to Leyland arriving about 1700.
My main observation of the day , and the real point of this post, is to say how upset I was with some of the Pacers I saw and used. Slow, uncomfortable , def not designed for use in 2014 for people with luggage, or mums with Buggies and children , or older people (there is an aging population in Yorkshire ) who HAVE to use these rubbish trains every day for whatever reason. Here WE are talking about spending BILLIONS of ££ on HS2 .(I am all for HS2) I can well understand the dislike of these awful Pacers. For me ,it was a day out, for others its every day use. I know its impossible to replace them all for many years. Imagine a business man flying into Bradford/Leeds airport on a modern jet and having to take a PACER to , say , Barnsley .
Yes I enjoyed my day out. True, not as exciting or interesting of some of the excellent posts in this thread. I occasionally use day Ranger/ Rover tickets and want to use an All Line Rover in 2015 ..hope to return to Yorkshire with day returns this side of Xmas .
My first train was a 158 Sprinter, the 0856 Leyland to Huddersfield arr 1040 ish. I had about 25 mins to have a quick look around Huddersfield ( hadn't been for many years) before catching the 1108 142 Pacer to Barnsley where I had never been so a first for me ! Very impressed with the obviously newish Barnsley Interchange Rail and Bus station.! I arrived about midday. After another quick around the town centre before catching the 1242 ex Nottingham, to Leeds, another 158 Sprinter arriving on time 1317 in Leeds, a city I do know well , more to do with footy and 'nights out' in my past (no , I do not support Leeds Utd ) but that's another story !
I was able to spend a good hour or so walking around the city centre including the magnificent indoor market where I purchased some pasties and a drink before sitting on a seat in Briggate outside M&S watching a busker in the pleasant weak October sunshine . Then after a walk around the station , observing routine trains such as East Coast HSTs , more Sprinters plus TPE 165and a Class 66 slowly meandering westwards with a train of hoppers, it was time to catch my penultimate train . the 1505 Sprinter (1427 ex York I think) to Blackpool N via Copy pit as far as Preston , then a 142 to Leyland arriving about 1700.
My main observation of the day , and the real point of this post, is to say how upset I was with some of the Pacers I saw and used. Slow, uncomfortable , def not designed for use in 2014 for people with luggage, or mums with Buggies and children , or older people (there is an aging population in Yorkshire ) who HAVE to use these rubbish trains every day for whatever reason. Here WE are talking about spending BILLIONS of ££ on HS2 .(I am all for HS2) I can well understand the dislike of these awful Pacers. For me ,it was a day out, for others its every day use. I know its impossible to replace them all for many years. Imagine a business man flying into Bradford/Leeds airport on a modern jet and having to take a PACER to , say , Barnsley .
Yes I enjoyed my day out. True, not as exciting or interesting of some of the excellent posts in this thread. I occasionally use day Ranger/ Rover tickets and want to use an All Line Rover in 2015 ..hope to return to Yorkshire with day returns this side of Xmas .
