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I think this is possibly the best place for this thread, although it maybe doesn't always come under 'history'. I am very intrigued by the concept of trains that were designed but never built. Several, such as the slightly more well-known class 471, recieved actual mock-ups, others like the...

Reading a few threads on this forum lately have got me thinking about this. The success of the Elizabeth line has created millions of new journeys and that is well-reflected in the station usage figures. The recent thread regarding the ORR's O-D matrix for passenger journeys has also been an...

Has anyone else noticed in the past year or so, the numbers of beggars on trains seem to have increased, at least in the London area? I have encountered someone at least the last 2 or 3 times travelling on London Overground, and notably a few times recently on Southern and Thameslink services...

A lot of TOCs have been suffering from stock shortages, but Southern in particular seem to be quite stuck on this issue. The SWR fleet, for example, is currently quite stretched, but they have new trains on the way (eventually)... meanwhile Southern have apparently declined taking back some of...

The main headlines about overcrowding on railways are always with regards to commuter services into city centres (or TPE trains to Manchester Airport!). Traditionally a far less important issue is services on more rural lines with not very many commuters that find themselves being overcrowded...

Obviously there is not a huge list of railways that could fit this criteria, but I think it's a potentially interesting topic to discuss nonetheless. Certain heritage railways, in particular the longer ones that connect up to (or almost connect to) the mainline network, or those which serve...

Not sure whether to put it here or in 'Other Transport', but that sub-forum seems to be mainly to do with roads, and this is sort of a railway technically speaking, and a very light one :D So, there's this thing on Greenwich Pier. Its function seems to be to provide disabled/wheelchair access...

Currently there are engineering works in Croydon town centre means that trams are running only as far as East Croydon from the east, and Wimbledon - Wandle Park from the west. Assuming the (presumably numerous) trams needed to operate the east service cannot get to the west side, where are...

When will the next workings up north be? I'm down Hampshire way for a while and I'd like to see if I can get one of the scrap moves.

Won't the 458 cascade effectively offset the 442 loss? Could it be possible that SWR gain some extra units in the short-term? For example, the Southern 455s as I mentioned are due a replacement soon, assuming that is done through an electrostar cascade or similar, could SWR gain those 455s so...

Moderator note: split from https://www.railforums.co.uk/threads/class-442s-now-at-the-end-of-the-road-and-to-be-withdrawn-permanently.127422/page-207#post-5072843 I've never seen a good reason why these vestibule doors cannot exist in a 1/3 2/3 unit. They work quite well with the 745s.

There's been a thread on here lately, with much debate, about how most of the Beeching closures were justified, at least at the time. One of the more interesting propositions raised on that thread is that rather than focusing entirely on reopening old railway lines, it might be more sensible to...

Here I am talking specifically about what one might consider a 'main line' i.e. a key route, with several tributaries, with a definitive start and end. This is very subjective so various different interpretations of this are welcome. Several of these main routes have quite pleasant, or at...

I believe they only exist on classes 455 and 317, and the (delightfully funky) class 210 units had them too. No other sliding door stock built around that time, including the PEPs, have them. I call them doorstops because they look like doorstops but they don't seem to serve any actual purpose...

What are the service changes during the Gatwick Airport station upgrade period? Is there any re-jigging of mainline service patterns or will it just be that a few services are cut and everything else is left as is?

I'm aware they have been peak-only for a long time now, but my question is do they still exist at this time? Once non-essential travel is allowed I am planning on trying out a few services I have never tried before, this being one of them, but I was wondering if they have been suspended during...

My only concern capacity-wise was using 5-car rather than 9-car units, I know that might be hard to justify with regards to revenue extraction but when it comes to busy routes such as the ECML principles like these seem to work against capacity efficiency.

Moderator note: split from https://www.railforums.co.uk/threads/class-345-progress.120221 Are these counted as separate stations then? I suppose it does make sense sort of.

It used to be not uncommon to see 455's working more mainline/express outer suburban diagrams, such as London Bridge to Tattenham Corner and London Victoria to Horsham. Now these services are 377 operated. There was at one point some fast 455 workings into Victoria during the peak hours, my...

I remember reading about additional 1995 stock trains being ordered for the Northern Line extension, but I cannot find any recent discussion of this, now that the time of opening is (hopefully) drawing nearer. Are these still yet to be built? Have they already been built and are in service but...