Give my regards (to Broad Street)
Forty years ago in 1983 a noted pop star gave his regards to Broad Street! The iconic London railway terminus was given a few minutes of fame just a couple of years before bulldozers moved in and razed the entire station to the ground. Give My Regards to Broad Street…
Class 707’s extended SWR vacation
Thought it was all over? The Class 707’s reign on SWR had ended and the units would in future be admired by enthusiasts as South Eastern City Beam units… Not so fast! The final 707 to work on SWR (024/030) has again been making the rounds, no doubt due to…
The state of the Elizabeth Line
The Elizabeth line is just so tardy! Its trains are late, cancelled or stuck in tunnels for what seems like an infinity. Efforts have been tried by this blog to keep a tab on the numerous comments on social media (and in the mainstream news) on the huge problems that…
SWR Class 707 Finale
The British Rail Class 707 Desiro City is an electric multiple unit passenger train. Siemens Mobility built 30 five-carriage sets. Initially leased by South West Trains, its franchise successor South Western Railway began moves towards phasing them out of their network – and that even though the full compliment had…
West Ealing gets battery train infrastructure
This is an exciting time for battery train technology! And that despite the news that HS2 has been all but abandoned. Today trains began serving Headbolt Lane station from Kirby where the present Merseyrail 3rd rail system ends. It was hardly worth the effort to electrify to Headbolt Lane especially…
Ticket office closures – Newbury
This post needs an introduction – to which I’m sure many wont understand fully… There are many organisations most small ones who advocate for the silent the non verbal etc yet the conversation around ticket offices (and indeed accessibility) is driven by those who can communicate (eg speak) thus it…
Borking the Elizabeth line!
Elizabeth line isn’t it fantastic! I mean who wants to use the tube these days when the Lizzy line is invariably so much better? Given that its been suspended so many times since its opened for track work, signal upgrades and the likes, one would hope that, especially after a…
Five get to Bristol in a jiffy
London’s very own ‘famous five’ (the Crossrail central core stations that is) on the Elizabeth line are giving fantastic journey opportunities to the west. GWR has made play of this fact by launching a new advertising campaign extolling the benefits of the Elizabeth line. What that means is those five…
Thameslink overextends itself…
Who needs train pantographs especially when one is south of the River Thames? Exactly! It’s the reason for having BIG warning signs at Farringdon pleading that drivers check to see they’ve retracted their pantographs in order to enjoy the delights of the substantial 3rd rail system – the world’s largest…
Greater Anglia Class 745/315 Flirt!
This is a video of the Greater Anglia Flirt (16.30 > Norwich) on 28 March 2022, but that’s not the important bit! Rather its the Class 315 which can be seen constantly in the 745’s windows as the trains race each other to Stratford! The 315s are still doing several…