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I have received an email from Avanti West Coast. It asked me to complete a short survey with a number of questions as to my views on the availability and value of advance fares. The last section is about a new idea they are considering call Fare Lock. It says: ”Fare lock allows you to lock a...

LNER journey alerts is reporting today’s 1536 Harrogate to King’s Cross as being formed of four coaches only. Specifically it states “This service is minus coach L due to maintenance”. I’m assuming this is a coach locked out of service rather than an actual short form but does anybody know for...

Some new bicycle storage racks have appeared at Manningtree station. They are the two level type where the upper level lifts up and down. Most notably there are lots of them, far more than I would expect. Manningtree isn’t surrounded by the urban sprawl that would generate lots of cycling to...

Earlier this afternoon I noticed a Freightliner train travelling from Ipswich to Felixstowe with a loco at both ends. I can’t say I have ever seen this before locally. Does anybody know why this might have occurred? It certainly can’t be down to the load, there were very few containers on the...

Warning, quite a long trip report! It has been on my mind lately that I haven’t been on a proper outing for over six months now. I’m not counting two trips made to London for laser torture at Moorfields Eye Hospital as my mind was certainly not only the journey for those! With the growing risk...

Having recently moved into the area, I am curious about the short length of busway in Kesgrave, on the outskirts of Ipswich. It is only around 200m long and there are no other sections on its route. Why was such a short length of busway built? Was it part of a bigger scheme that was cut back...

Any insider information on this? ITV Anglia news showed a picture of wires hanging down over a mark 3 set but that may have been a library image. According to RTT the 1400 Norwich to Liverpool Street has made it through, albeit ten minutes late at Manningtree, but nothing else has. Is it...

I’ve just noticed that the regulations for these seem slightly different in terms of the trains you can use. The Sparpreis says you must use the IC/ICE trains specified but can use any other locals involved in the journey. For Supersparpreis it now just says you may only use the trains specified...

I have just passed Ilford depot on the 1330 Liv St to Norwich. At the back of the depot there was a class 90 in a dark blue livery with no logos. The closest match I can think of is the class 360 original blue colour. Any ideas which loco and what the story is?

I’m currently watching an episode of The Professionals on ITV4. The episode is called „Rogue“ and the opening ten minutes are mostly set at Paddington station. There are scenes showing an unrefurbished class 50, Mark 1 sleepers and new HST coaches. You also see a lot of general station activity...

I’ve just purchased a NS/RET Combi ticket on board Stena Britannica and was advised that these tickets will no longer be available from 1st January. The guy said they would not be sold on board from then and through bookings were “going electronic”, although he had no more details. The ticket I...

Yesterday morning I noticed the platform information screens at Charlton were showing “Train type: Class 376” among all the other information. Is this a recent development? I can’t say I’ve noticed it before. I’m not sure if it’s just a Southeastern thing, I’ll try to see if it happens with...

Prompted by the idiot reading (on the shelf at arm‘s length) a copy of RAIL from cover to cover in WH Smith at London Waterloo this afternoon. What do others think of this behaviour? As you can probably tell, I disapprove of it. A brief glance through to ascertain the contents is fair enough...

Possibly a question for @BR111 I’ve been in Germany recently and I’ve noticed the remaining class 120s used by DB Fernverkehr are all marked as 140kph on the bodysides. Whilst they don’t have much scheduled work they are still Fernverkehr allocated rather than hired in. As such it would seem...

What do we think is the BR era stock, still in mainline service, that is closest to its original state? I’ll nominate my inspiration for starting this thread, the Greater Anglia class 317/5 units. The various class 317 subclasses have been subject to varying degrees of internal refurbishment...

I arrived at St Pancras by Eurostar on Friday and noticed there is work going on in the arrivals hall. Screens showing departures and signs directing passengers to different boarding areas have appeared. There were also some partitions being built. Do we know what is going on?