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Seems to be an incident at Birmingham New Street with all services suspended / cancelled. https://www.nationalrail.co.uk/service-disruptions/birmingham-new-street-20240424/

ideally. to gain a balance between additional capacity and operating costs, I guess the only option with existing trains would be to reform the trains into 6 or 7 cars using the centre cars from some units and scrapping the ends, that way you get a uniform fleet and remove the need for doubling...

I’m not sure that’s entirely true. Half of the problem with XC today is as a result of Operation Princess improving demand through improved service. It just didn’t have enough stock to deliver upon the growth. One of those business plans that only works if all parts are delivered and as they...

Seem to be overlooking the fact that the Cross Country franchise received new stock far earlier than many other ‘Intercity’ TOCs did during early privatisation. The Voyagers aren’t ancient.

Comfortable to a degree but completely worn out now and not enough leg room.

I’ve often thought the same. Anything to simplify the running of the TOC would have been a positive.

Good to see the attention to detail. That photo makes it look like the seat is quite badly worn but I think it’s just the fabric design.

Do train companies routinely clean / shampoo their carpets? I’m going to assume not by the fact most just seem to get worse over time.

I think the issue remains of certain platforms not being able to take 10 coach trains so a larger fleet of 5 cars means less doubling up.

If Burton was removed, who else would run services there, as it’s only XC currently.

Seats might be comfortable (though well worn in) but leg room is awful.

I can’t imagine many situations where there would be nothing the TOC can do… it’s a question of what the cost of doing that is I suspect.

I presume it’s still not too late to order more 197s, should there be funding etc?

It was really common in the Central Trains days for Cardiff to Nottingham trains which were late running to be turned around short at Newport, announcements used to be common advising to change at Newport. I recall journey planners also used to generally advise a change at Newport instead of...

Presume this is just declassification of the 1st class area, rather than installing the same style seating as standard?

Would this mean they would no longer use the MK4s?

Reading many of the comments above suggests the unions are doing themselves few favours right now. Have to wonder what it will do for membership going forward.

I suspect it’s still early days anyway for anything to be publicly announced regarding any potential replacement for the XC HSTs anyway, if the contract doesn’t end until October. Nothing to suggest a lot of ongoing negotiation isn’t going on around options.

Surely somewhere down the line it has to become more cost effective to order the additional train. Given how long manufacturing takes, they won’t be paying for it for some time anyway, and this would solve the longer term issue.

Also opportunities for a new leasing deal to see the voyagers made longer using carriages from spare ones as they become available, with end cars scrapped. Presumably would again fit the bill for being value for money as it lowers staff costs (removing the need for duplication in dual units)...