Seeing mentions of shovels in for HS2! Love that.
Also tried out the new Metrolink Trafford Park line the other day.
A trip post lockdown to Newcastle was entirely on a brand new TPE 802. Super fast north of York, really enjoyable!
It's been entirely double 185 sets on TPE services between Sheffield and Manchester as well, so that's fantastic.
Not related to rail, but I think it will have a positive impact on it - cycling. It's definitely fallen from lockdown heights, but I think it has given authorities more of a push to roll out some decent cycling infrastructure. It's a fantastic last mile (or five) solution, and parking a bike at a station takes much less space! Hopefully the industry increases provision to match (not just on trains, but parking in stations). Still a lot of work to be done to make it safe and viable enough for many, but the moderate increase for now will hopefully keep cycling trending upwards.
Single class 153s are now a thing of the past in the East Midlands. They have one remaining Lincoln Joint line diagram as a pair between Peterborough and Doncaster, another pair between Barton and Cleethorpes and strengthen Worksop/Skegness/Liverpool services as required with limited running to Derby/Matlock to get them to Etches Park for maintenance. With class 170 entering service, hopefully, sometime between now and December they should be gone altogether before too long. I'll miss them but they're well past their sell by date.
Oh thank the lord. The amount of single 153's I travelled on living down there was unbelievable. I think 170's will be a definite upgrade.