Well alight

The Matlock Mercury carried a report and photos of a Trent Barton coach ablaze following a freak fire. It's the first time I've ever seen one of their vehicles in a particularly stricken pose!


The coach is understood to be P56 ETO, a Volvo B10M/Plaxton Premiere Interurban, that was purchased in January 1997 for a joint service between Doncaster-Leicester numbered 757. It originally wore the old-style Stagecoach Express livery. Today, the coach - whose fleet number is 56 - is adorned in Best Impressions' Transpeak livery, which it designed for the company.


It was working the Transpeak (Nottingham-Manchester) service when the fire took hold on Friday at 1630hrs. The most ironic thing is the locality of the blaze: a small village north of Bakewell called Ashford-in-the-Water. If only there was plenty of it around!

A decade of Midland Metro

It's one of the least talked-about light rail networks in the UK, but the Midland Metro (more recently referred to as just "the Metro" reaches a significant milestone this weekend - its 10th anniversary.

Tram 15 'Agenoria' is seen here in its original Midland Metro livery. Very colourful but not too painful on the eyes.

Construction took four years from 1995, with the grand opening on 31 May 1999. The route runs between Wolverhampton town centre (St. George's) to Snow Hill in central Birmingham. There are 23 tram stops along the relatively linear route. 2km of street running occurs from St. George's to Priestfield. The system cost £145 million to build and its end-to-end route length is 20km.

Designed, built and operated by Altram, a total of sixteen 56-seater trams produced by Italian tram builder Fiream operate along the route. Typical with trams of today, each three-sectioned tram had standing room for 102 passengers. The frequency has remained constant throughout the first decade with around 8 trams per hour during the peaks (every 6-8 minutes) and four an hour in off peak periods.

A few years ago, my quest was to travel every inch of light rail network on mainland Britain. This I managed to do within a year. What made the Midland Metro stand out for me was its comfort. The seats were of a decent height and width, and spaced so that passengers could happily sit next to one another without being too tightly compacted. In stark contrast, Nottingham's trams are places you don't want to be for too long: 2+1 seating in the main, with the window seats on either sides having restricted leg room due to the floor meeting the sides on a diagonal. What little 2+2 seating there is has further leg room issues as your feet are by the front/rear doors.

In terms of aesthetics and welcoming interior, the Midland Metro is in my opinion by far and away the best of all Britain's trams. The route, on the occasions m'colleague and I have travelled, has seen punctuality at 100%, the interiors clean and welcoming and the tram stops well-maintained and modern-looking.

Brand-spanking new: this shot is taken at Snow Hill only a couple of months after the network opened 10 years ago.

Being the West Midlands' sole tram service, it's a shadow of the area's former network, where once upon a time it was possible to travel from Wolverhampton to Birmingham via West Bromwich, traversing tracks owned and operated by four different organisations. At its peak, the West Midlands boasted one of the most extensive tram networks in the UK, stretching from Rednal in the south to Walsall Wood in the north, and from Yardley in the east to Kinver in the west.

The modern-day trams run on the former route linking Wolverhampton and central Birmingham that was built by the Great Western Railway.

Birmingham was reportedly the first place in the country to replace trams with trolleybuses. This year sees the centenary of the trolleybus - an article by prominent transport journalist (and former Mayor of Louth) David Kaye will appear in a forthcoming LEYTR). It was in 1928 that trolleys came to Brum in favour of trams. The last tram to operate in the West Midlands was in Birmingham in 1953 and it was over 35 years before the idea of operating a second generation of tram was considered in the area.

The current network, as mentioned above, is operated by Altram. This company is a conglomerate formed of three partners: Ansaldo, John Laing and National Express West Midlands.

There have been problems with passenger numbers failing to meet long-term forecasts. Rejuvenation attempts took place a couple of years ago with a new livery designed and applied to the trams, though this hasn't been completed yet! The slower-than-projected growth has been the main reason why any attempts to extend or to add spurs to the network have been unsuccessful. That said, Centro, the West Midlands' Integrated Transport Authority, has recently revealed two possible extension plans:

The first would see a link built between Birmingham's Snow Hill station, where the service starts and terminates, to New Street station. The second would be a loop-line built linking the St George's area of Wolverhampton to link with a new transport interchange. Long term plans are more ambitious and include the proposed extensions to serve regeneration areas in the Wolverhampton, Walsall, Sandwell, Birmingham and Dudley local authority areas.

This is the new livery being slowly introduced to the fleet. Notice the adverts it is carrying promoting all types of public transport in the area.

Despite this, the Midland Metro continues to attract new patronage and sees admirable growth each year. It is directly responsible for millions of fewer car journeys and is here to stay! (GL)

Midland Metro's website can be accessed by clicking here.

Photos: Tails Prower 2040, Paul Edwards and John Law.

Passengers' Rights legislation

Proposed Legislation

The European Parliament last month voted by a clear majority to accept proposed legislation in relation to improved minimum compensation requirements for bus and coach passengers. With a majority of 557 for, 30 against and 23 abstentions, the motion was unanimously carried.

Prepare to hiss and boo: The EC has accepted proposed legislation that will see some small operators' businesses close; see drivers made redundant; and increases in fares.

What does it mean for UK bus and coach companies?

The proposed legislation aims to provide a universal response to four key issues:

1. the liability of operators in case of an accident
2. the liability of operators in case of loss or damage to a passenger’s luggage
3. the assistance to be provided to persons with disabilities and reduced mobility
4. the liability of operators in the case of cancellation or delay.

Why?

Effectively, the European Parliament wants to bring the type of compensation bus and coach passengers are entitled to in line with that offered by the aviation industry. This includes overnight hotel accommodation should an operator’s last journey fail to operate and the passenger has no means to return home.

The Amounts

The proposed legislation will see operators liable for loss or damage resulting in the death or personal injury of passengers to the value of 220,000 Euros. This pertains to accidents arising from operators’ services/hires and covers passengers either on, boarding or alighting an operator’s vehicle. Operators will no longer be able to offer a limited liability or to exclude themselves from offering one at all. Should the accident be proven to result from the passenger’s own negligence or directly his or her fault, operators will continue to be required to offer nothing.

Prepare to cheer: only if the British government has the will to push hard for our own amendments to the legislation, which would see local bus services excluded.

An advance payment of not less than 21,000 Euros should be made to the family of a passenger who dies as the result of an accident on board an operator’s vehicle where the passenger has not taken out travel insurance. This will not represent an admission of guilt on the part of the operator, though is non-refundable unless the subsequent Police investigation should find the operator innocent of all charges. A similar advance payment must also be paid to a claimant suffering injury within 15 days after the claimant’s identity has been established. The amount is to reflect the claimant’s immediate economic needs based on the damage suffered.

Bus and coach operators will be expected to produce their timetables and holiday brochures in different formats: text, braille, audio, video +/or electronic, such as pictograms, automated stop announcements and subtitling.

What are the direct effects operators will face?

The damaging effect these new powers will have on small and medium-sized bus and coach operators in the UK is going to be significant. One operator and member of the LEYTR told us that he simply would cease trading if forced to offer accommodation to passengers if his last bus of the day failed to operate due to a mechanical problem. Contemplation for an increase in his company’s insurance premium was likely to be so high that up to one-third of his workforce would have to be “let go” to pay for an estimated 85% dividend upsurge. This being “not an option” would lead to only one thing: an increase in fares, which in turn “would almost certainly result in fewer passengers willing to travel.”

Exclusions?

There had been hope that the proposed legislation would exclude urban, suburban and regional services, though this did not happen. Services will escape the legislation however if they are operated under contract to a local authority and that comparable rights to those being implemented were assured within this local authority contract. This of course moves the emphasis from operator to local authority – many of whom will be equally unwilling to have to pick up the tab for unnecessary passenger claims.

Arguments Against

One of the main arguments against the legislation’s introduction is that this will now give bus and coach passengers better rights than car and motorcycle passengers. Is this fair? The European Community has failed to produce evidence that states unequivocally that currently bus and coach passengers are not receiving adequate remuneration for loss, damage and non-operation of services. By introducing legislation that favours the passenger while at the same time significantly burdens the operator the prospect of increased fraudulent claims is likely.

Is it right that Mrs Higgins from Chipping Norton is entitled to the same recompense when her number 52 bus doesn't run compared to when she's stranded in Athens due to EasyJet messing up her booking?

Who’s fighting our corner?

The Association of British Insurers believes that bus/coach passengers already have suitable existing legislation to appropriately cover loss, damage and excessive inconvenience. The Confederation of Passenger Transport would like to see the exclusion of all local registered bus services from the proposed legislation; so too should short-distance international coach services.

The Next Step

The Department for Transport launched a UK consultation on the proposals, which closed last month. Those who provided responses will help make the government’s decision whether or not to adopt their suggestions. At the same time, all other member states will do the same and will all report back to the European Parliament to discuss possible amendments to the proposals.

Any agreed amendments will be reported back to each member state where further debate is likely. A projected implementation date is also likely to be announced, though it is likely to be a further two years before the UK has to adopt the legislation in full. (GL)

South Central

"The last thing you want to do if you have a chance of winning is piss off the client by launching legal action against it."

That's the opinion of a rail industry executive on the likelihood of Stagecoach being awarded the forthcoming South Central rail franchise.

South Central covers the existing Govia-run Southern franchise (London, Kent, Surrey, Sussex and Hampshire); the Gatwick Express (formerly National Express-operated but taken on by Southern last June) and also the Tonbridge-Redhill line, which was operated by Govia's Southeastern franchise before being brought into the Southern business last December.

The four shortlisted operators are:

• Stagecoach's South West Trains (SWT)
  
• National Express' NX South Central (NXSC)
• NedRailways South Central (NedR)
• Govia's existing Southern operation.

"Well placed industry sources", commented Transit last week, "say the DfT has been speaking to only one of the four bidders for the past week and a half".

Southern operates a large number of electric traction. Seen here is one such example, a Class 377

We're willing to believe the anonymous industry exec when he said Stagecoach's chances are virtually nil and we reckon National Express appears very unlikely to be awarded another rail franchise at a time when there's talk of its East Coast franchise being the sole cause of the group being "within a hair's breadth of breaching its banking covenants".

This leaves NedR & Southern to battle it out. The incumbent has much experience in the south of England, operating rail services in the Garden of England; its record in the London commuter market speaks for itself. The joint venture has limitations in terms of further growth and so it may well represent a safe pair of hands at a time when the government has stipulated that no financial assistance will be offered to those train operating companies who aren't cutting the mustard. NedR has been in the news recently, relieving NX of its London bus network. It is being seen as the wildcard bidder now.

Seen here near Wandsworth is a Southern Class 456.

Could the Dutch state-owned NedRailways really win the South Central franchise from that being ostensibly operated right now by Govia? We understand that it has the financial backing to outbid the competition and by virtue has no stakeholders to justify its actions. South Central could be a neat fit.

The franchise will commence this September and run until July 2015, with a possibility of a two-year extension at the DfT's discretion, dependant upon performance. (CW)

Photos: Digital Anorak & Chris Sansome.

The train now approaching platform 1 is... on time!

Some excellent news from Network Rail released yesterday is that for the first time since records began, average train punctuality is the highest it's ever been, standing at 93.5% for the month of April. Prior to that, in the year ending March 2008, punctuality was the better side of 90% for the first time ever, being recorded as 90.6%.

It could be argued that these results are incredibly encouraging: best-ever annual punctuality since records began in the midst of engineering overruns at Rugby and London Liverpool Street.

However records began being recorded as late as 1992 and while this means that today's best-ever punctuality is technically better than towards the end of the nationalised British Rail (BR) era (it is widely acknowledged that BR operated best immediately before it was broken up by the Tories in 1997 - a kind of swansong, really) there are so many glaring safeguards to ensure a train that runs physically late is technically classed as punctual, that it makes a mockery of, well everything.

The instance we're all accustom to on the East Coast Main Line (ECML) is National Express East Coast's (NXEC) journey time between Peterborough and London King's Cross. Southbound it can be as much as 58 minutes non-stop. Northbound, it can be as little as 44 minutes, again non-stop. How can this be? Are different tracks used? No. Is a permanent speed restriction imposed southbound? No.

It's done so that a train that can have operated consistently late, by say 14 minutes from Edinburgh southwards, can still be classed as on time when it arrives at its terminus in King's Cross. We're very conscious that there are many situations like this up and down mainland Britain and that NXEC's predecessor GNER happily ran with the same timings for just over a decade.

On 4 February we noted the the following at the foot of that day's entry:

"It's worth pointing out that a long-distance passenger rail service is not considered late unless it arrives in excess of 9 minutes and 59 seconds; short-distance ones have a lesser window, being a 'mere' 4 minutes and 59 seconds."

We acknowledge that the bus industry has its VOSA-imposed "window of tolerance", but unlike the railways, every single timing point a bus operator publishes in its timetable needs to conform to this. On the railways it's the arrival time at the terminus only.

I promise you the following can and DOES regularly happen along the ECML:

Timetabled NXEC journey
2017 dep Peterborough
2115 arr King's Cross

Actual NXEC journey
2039 dep Peterborough
2124 arr King's Cross

This journey, despite leaving Peterborough 22 minutes LATE, and arriving at King's Cross 9 minutes late, is classed as PUNCTUAL in the rather clouded eyes of the Train Operating Companies, Network Rail and therefore the DfT and the government.

Approaching King's Cross, as this NXEC Class 91 is, the train could've realistically have been running up to 22 minutes late throughout its journey south from Edinburgh and yet so long as it arrives less than 9 mins & 59 seconds late at its terminus, is classed as a punctual journey.

In an exactly opposite vein from yesterday's rail report that was "blindingly obvious" these statistics are anything but.

Robin Gisby, a Network Rail director said: "Passengers are today experiencing the most punctual train service ever provided on Britain's railways." Not strictly true, Robin - "ever" really only extends back to 1992. What about the century and a half before that? And how would your data fair if you made a train that arrived 1 minute late be classed as late? (GWB)

We've received three emails now, tipping us off that council-owned Reading Buses is possibly looking for a buyer. It could simply be hype in the midst of the current recession and that with a mere 13 municipals remaining, it's only a matter of time before another one bites the dust. Plymouth seems to be another strong contender, though we've only had 1 anonymous email to that effect.

Blindingly obvious

The Mirror was scathing yesterday when reporting the findings of a study into what passengers want out of their train service. The report concluded that travellers like somewhere to sit and for their trains to run on time. The Mirror described this outcome as "blindingly obvious" and was far less than impressed at the cost of the report, too - half a million pounds.

The government gave funding to psychologists working for the Rail Safety and Standards Board to undertake this research through a full study. Other 'astounding' outcomes include data finding that passengers like to "maintain space around them to minimise discomfort" and that they "hate being pushed or shoved". Fancy that!

The report was conducted over a two year period, which included the secret filming and interviewing of passengers in what was described as a "a practical appraisal in real-life situations". Admittedly, the study commenced before the current economic downturn, but nevertheless it does make us concerned that the likelihood of the report finding anything other than what it did was simply never going to happen.

Tony Ambrose of the pressure group More Train Less Strain said: "It beggars belief. It's bad enough having the highest fares and worst overcrowding in Europe without the added unpleasantness you have been filmed without your permission." At a time when the world seems to have gone mad, accusing rail hobbyists as being terrorists, the surreptitious filming of passengers has been sanctioned as perfectly acceptable for the study.

Getting back to the study's findings, we've mused today on what the other possible outcomes could possibly be! The travelling public are completely satisfied with their "train travel experiences" and wouldn't change a thing? They're happy being charged £150 for a one-way, standard-class, anytime single fare between London and Leeds? They enjoy having to be moved onto a bus on a Sunday when employees of certain train companies choose to all meet up for a big barbecue and ground their depot's fleet of trains?

In the bus industry right now, a similar investigation is likely to be met in the same way when its findings are made known. This is the Office of Fair Trading's (OFT) investigation into the bus industry to ensure that recent years' big acquisitions have not had a detrimental effect on the industry. While this is being welcomed by some corners of the bus industry (local councils/integrated transport authorities), it is seen by operators and industry insiders as a pointless exercise that is being done solely to justify the jobs of those within the OFT.

However, the outcome is not guaranteed to be as "blindingly obvious" as that published yesterday by the Rail Safety & Standards Board. In his forthcoming 'Chairtorial', LEYTR Chairman - and former MD of Lincolnshire RoadCar - Paul Hill gives a very frank account of the OFT and how it interacts with the bus industry and that its findings are not always what is expected.

The next LEYTR should be delivered in just under a fortnight. (GL)

New Service

Stagecoach in Lincolnshire commenced a new service today, the 6A between Skegness and Burgh-le-Marsh, which calls en-route at the South View Park. Below is our exclusive photo of 16942 on the very first run at the South View Park. The full story will be published in the May/June LEYTR. (PW)

Skegness HST

To provide additional capacity for customers travelling to Skegness this summer, East Midland Trains are to utilise one of their HST sets on Saturdays (July 18th - September 5th), providing two return trips from Nottingham to Skegness. A trial run which was to have taken place on 17th May was postponed and instead took place on 23 May. The same HST worked additional relief trains from Nottingham to Skegness today - and we were there to record its arrival at Skegness. Full details will be included in the May/June LEYTR. (PW)

Your Bus launches 29 May

Nottingham's newest bus company comes to town on 29 May when it will be operating its new timetable but charging no fares. As Stagecoach found out a few months ago in Perth, this is perfectly acceptable: service registration is not required if you're running buses for free. However, Your Bus' first full day proper is Monday 1 June (when you'll have to pay to travel).


The design chosen for their vehicles seems very stylish and dissimilar to the colour schemes used by its main competitor, Nottingham City Transport (NCT). While Trent Barton's traditional livery is red, so few vehicles wear this colour, I think it's safe to assume no one will confuse the two! The company is understood to have connections to the AIM-listed Rotala Group, through Robert Dunn, formerly of Dunn-Line Holdings.

But perhaps the main competitor Your Bus has in its sights is Nottingham's tram network: Nottingham Express Transit (NET). The two new services run by Your Bus mirror the tram's route north of the city centre to Hyson Green, Basford, Bulwell and Phoenix Park. NET has a higher frequency (every 6-8 mins) to Your Bus' combined bus service (every 10 mins) though is more expensive. Your Bus is offering a weekly ticket for £8, compared to NET's £12.00. A £2.00 day ticket is also offered, compared to NET's £2.70. In both cases, NET offers tickets that cost a little more but offer unlimited travel on NCT's network within the city limits: £13 weekly and £3.00 daily.


Perhaps to combat this, Your Bus is accepting tickets issued by both NCT and NET, though charging a flat 50p fare for travel with these. It's a clever initiative and one that could give the company real benefit. As with Trent Barton, Your Bus is offering its passengers change, unlike NCT's exact-fare only scheme.

Ridership in Nottingham is expected to increase more than in other cities, thanks to it being the first city in the UK to introduce a workplace parking levy.


It will be interesting to see how it pans out. If you live right by a tram stop I can't think that Your Bus will be of any real benefit to you, though there are considerably more bus stops between Bulwell and the city centre than there are tram stops, but then NCT uses these with around five times as many buses into the city centre.


Meanwhile, the company's website can be accessed by clicking here. (GL)

The LEYTR Railrover: Part 5

Part 1 can be viewed by clicking here.
Part 2 can be viewed by clicking here.
Part 3 can be viewed by clicking here.
Part 4 can be viewed by clicking here.

This fifth and final part of the LEYTR Railrover, that took place at the very end of a very hot June in 2005, started on 1 July in the Highlands of Scotland.

This was our traction from Euston to Edinburgh: an electric Class 90 loco. North of Edinburgh the lines are not electrified, so diesel power is required thereafter.

Day 7: M'colleague and I had spent our third overnight journey aboard a First ScotRail sleeper train from Euston to Fort William. Initially hauled by an electric Class 90, the train's 13 carriages were split in the wee small hours at Edinburgh Waverley to form three onward services: to Aberdeen, Inverness and Fort William, hauled by either Class 37 or 67.

My slightly unusual perspective of the West Highland Line. Class 37s are no longer used to haul the sleeper services in Scotland.

My private birth was the first in the leading carriage as we departed Euston - a sublime position for photos out of the carriage window, of both the loco and the seemingly endless carriages behind - but not very comfortable for sleeping since the proximity to the coupling meant I was in for a very jerky ride.

This was one of the reasons why I didn't feel like getting up too early as we progressed northbound along the West Highland Line in what can only be described as amazing scenery. I did get up and join m'colleage in "fotting" the scenery about half an hour before our arrival at Fort William. The complimentary breakfast was up to the same standard as that we'd enjoyed at the start of Day 3, though there were no complimentary news papers I seem to recall. Undertaking this type of week-long jaunt, where you aren't basing yourself to a specific location for anymore than 9 hours, means you do miss out on both local and national news stories. Admittedly, I just forked out 35p for a paper at the Tesco opposite Fort William station but the advertised complimentary copy would have been nicer touch though.

We started with 13, now we're down to 3 - carriages that is. I'm stood at the very back of our Class 37-hauled Caledonian Sleeper train as we approach the terminus, Fort William, in the rain.

This was my first visit to Fort William and it was raining. We didn't have long before we had to catch a Scottish Citylink coach service to Inverness in order to catch a ScotRail service to Aberdeen and then onto another for Edinburgh. In 2005 Citylink was a wholly-owned subsidiary of ComfortDelGro, with no input from Stagecoach and so - unlike my most recent experiences on their services - the advertised Citylink coach service was operated by just that: a Scottish Citylink-liveried vehicle with reclining seats and on board toilet. Quite a contrast to a bog-standard, toiletless, rigid-seated, Stagecoach-liveried Volvo B10M that conveyed us betwixt the two localities last February.

This was the scene in 2005; in 2009 this service (now numbered 919), despite continuing to be promoted as a Citylink service, is operated by a generic Stagecoach Volvo B10M that has fewer internal features than this ageing ex National Express Expressliner!

The coach service got very busy I seem to remember with ad hoc patronage very high. The views of Loch Ness were excellent and we'd positioned ourselves on the correct side of the coach so we could take this in. The rain had stopped by Inverness, which had been our most-used station throughout this Railrover jaunt, making three departures from here.

No sign of Nessie: we did keep a watchful eye out though!

Having travelled up to Inverness via the Highland Line, we chose to travel to Aberdeen via Elgin and the north-east coast. It was a nice enough journey though nothing like that via Kingussie and Blair Atholl! We had very little time in Aberdeen before out next service to Edinburgh departed. M'colleage, having learned that the first Volvo B7Rs purchased by Stagecoach were being deployed on Service 10 linking Inverness with Aberdeen, shot out of the station to try and catch one of these vehicles. He managed it and with a good minute to spare before our Class 170 left for Scotland's capital city. It was also at this point that I realised my memory card on my digital camera had been filled!

We were delayed upon arrival into Edinburgh and it looked as though we'd miss out connecting GNER high-speed service to Newcastle and onward connection to Sunderland. We arrived at precisely the same time the GNER service was due to leave though were happy to be informed via the public address system that those wishing to catch the GNER service to London et al had a few minutes to get to platform 1 where it would be waiting.

It wasn't waiting, it had gone. We were one of the first to leave the train and one of the first to get to platform 1 where we were greeted with just empty tracks. Of course I could now start a rant about how in good old BR days the train would have waited and we'd not have to wait 90 minutes for the next one. But, having travelled all over the country during the past week, all our connections had been met and we were still in possession of first-class Railrovers, so availed ourselves of the facilities located in the first-class lounge. We had the entire place to ourselves. After 7 days I'd become rather tired of chocolate chip cookies, complimentary tea and fruit, but nonetheless forced myself to consume even more.

When we did eventually board what was the last southbound GNER departure from Edinburgh to Newcastle, we deliberately sat in coach A. The reasoning for this was so that m'colleage could smoke. Signs had been placed throughout the train telling passengers that from the end of July that year, GNER would operate a strict no-smoking policy on all its trains. Two years later, though not known to any of us at that time, it would be extended nationally to cover any structure with two or more sides!

The last train we used our Railrovers on was a Pacer for travel from Newcastle to Sunderland. We waited an eternity for a taxi to take us from Sunderland station to the b+b we'd booked along the seafront in Roker.

To summarise our Railrover experience, it is something that anyone interested in public transport should undertake. Obviously it helps if at least one of those travelling has more than just a vague understanding of Britain's railway network, but it is not a fundamental requirement. Throughout our travels we'd been to many places in England and Scotland and honed our itinerary to take-in special workings (Class 37-hauled services to Rhymney) as well as journeys that either one or both of us had yet to made (Thurso by train, a trip on a Pendolino), not to mention sleeper services where, for the price of a reasonable b+b, travellers can get from A to B very efficiently and ensure very little time is wasted, should you be on a tight schedule.

The parallel between Lord Adonis' recent Railrover experience and ours is that we both did them to further our knowledge of the network. Be you a novice, a hard-core rail enthusiast or the Minister of State for Transport, it's something that cannot be anything other than beneficial.

The End.

The LEYTR Railrover experience has been uploaded to the LEYTRavels blog, devoid of individual parts; it can be accessed there in its entirety in one entry. (GL)

N.B. For those interested in how we returned to Lincolnshire from Roker, we spent 2 July travelling the Tyne & Wear Metro system and on 3 July I caught one of those new-fangled Megabus services from Newcastle to Meadowhall and then Transpennine Express train, while m'colleague caught a National Express Butlins special coach service direct from Sunderland to Skegness. Some photos of the T&W Metro can be seen below.

It may not look like a light rail train but the Shields Ferry plays an integral part of the Metro system, permitting travellers to travel between North and South Shields quicker than travelling around the river by Metro.

NX sells its London buses

The biggest bus-related news story this week was announced on Thursday lunchtime, when the National Express Group announced that it had sold its Travel London bus business to NedRailways - the Netherlands' state-owned rail company - for a cash sum of £32 million.

Industry people know the problems National Express face, specifically in its rail franchise portfolio - their East Coast operation in particular - and the sale has been widely made in order to reduce some of its debt.


While its exit from London is for a totally different reason to Stagecoach's departure a couple of years ago, Transport for London (TfL) is expected to make significant savings across its entire remit and should the number of regulated bus service miles it awards to operators be reduced, the amount operators receive in payments will go the same way. By selling now, before TfL signals how exactly it is to make the savings the Greater London Assembly has imposed upon it, the business' net worth is likely to be at a relative peak in the short-term.

NX is wrestling with a 'debt mountain' of £1.4 billion and needs to refinance £484 million of this by 2010. Add to this the negotiated £1.4 billion NX is required to pay the government for its East Coast franchise, with this year's payment of £395 million dwarfing that of last year's - £85 million - something(s) had(has) to give.


Travel London, while being considered a smaller operator in London, has a total of 6 depots and operates around 360 buses on a total of 56 TfL and non-TfL bus services.

Beddington - 70 vehicles - Routes 3 152 157 434 917 931 G1 N3 P13

Battersea - 108 vehicles - Routes 35 156 211 344 452 C3 N3 N35 344

Walworth - 115 vehicles - Routes 40 100 129 188 343 381 C1 N343 N381 (+ 1 non-TfL service)

Fulwell - 72 vehicles - Routes 235 481 490 941 969 H20 H25 H26 R68 R70 (+ 3 non-TfL services)

Hayes - 27 vehicles - Routes 112 350 H28 U7

Byfleet - no TfL routes operated, though 11 non-TfL bus services do run out of this depot under the Travel Surrey name.(CW)

Calling time on SWT's 'slam-doors'

As mentioned in Part 4 of the LEYTR Railrover two days ago, Stagecoach-owned South West Trains (SWT) has said that it plans to remove its MkI Class 421 electric multiple unit trains (emus) from service at some point this year, which we believe to be prior to the December timetable change.

Introduced in the late 1950s, the MkI Class 421 emus featured doors that slammed shut (hence their name) and were the backbone of services in the Southern Region. SWT was the first to withdraw all its examples from routes into/out of London in 2005, with Govia-owned Southern and Southeastern following on soon after. In 2004 two MkI slam-doors were overhauled for dedicated service on the Lymington Branch, operating along the 7 mile route between Brockenhurst-Lymington Town-Lymington Pier.

One of the pair of slam-doors operating in regular services is seen here: 421497 Freshawater.

The main reason operators removed their entire fleet of slam-doors in such a short time frame was the way in which the emus faired in collisions: very poorly. Rail safety regulations had slowly been tightened in the aftermath of the Clapham Junction crash and specifically as a result of the Ladbroke Grove disaster and the comparatively weak body shells in the slam-doors no longer conformed to the minimum safety standard. All operators had to remove their slam-doors from regular service by 30 November 2005.

However, the two slam-doors retained by SWT for operation on the Lymington Branch did so as SWT was happy that the short line posed no collision hazards and overhauled the two sets during the winter of 2003/4 so that they conformed to the rail safety regulations for services operating on self-contained lines. Specifically, the main modification that needed doing was the installation of a new central door locking system and the provision of disabled access. A decision was made to remove the trains' toilets, too.

Since May 2004 SWT has operated two Class 421 slam-door emus on the Lymington Branch: 421497 'Freshwater' and 421498 'Farringford'. 421497 wears the traditional British Rail blue and grey livery, while 421498 wears the traditional green livery of Southern.

The other Class 421 slam-door operating regular passenger services is depicted here, 421498 Farringford, wearing Southern's traditional green livery.

Each slam-door comprises two Driving Trailer Composites (DTCs) and a Motor Brake Standard Open (MBSO). For 421497 the two DTCs are 76764 & 76835 and the MBSO is numbered 62402; for 421498 the two DTCs are 76773 & 76844 and the MBSO is numbered 62411. Obviously, in each case the two DTCs are coupled either side of the MBSO.

SWT's reasoning for the removal of its last-remaining slam-doors is that they both require another overhaul and we understand that the cost of doing so cannot be justified in the current financial climate. Their removal will bring to an end half a century of slam-door operation in the Southern Region. Their replacement is likely to be a two-car Class 158; currently a Class 450 'Desiro' has operated when both slam-doors are unavailable.

It is a passing of historic proportions and we plan on attending their last-ever day in service later this year - as will thousands of other well-wishers, we're sure! (GL)

The LEYTR Railrover: Part 4

Part 1 can be viewed by clicking here.
Part 2 can be viewed by clicking here.
Part 3 can be viewed by clicking here.

Part 4 starts on Platform 1 in Paddington Station, where our Cornish Riviera train had arrived 90 minutes before we were required to disembark. It's a strange and slightly uneasy feeling, asleep in a carriage on Platform 1 as the morning peak is starting to ensue. Today was 30 June 2005 and our Day 5. We had today and two more days to go, using our All-lines first-class Railrover ticket. Today was also the day both editors parted company.

Going it alone: m'colleague disappears to Warwick while I travel by Class 450 to Portsmouth.

I chose to stick to the schedule and made my way by Tube to Victoria Station, where I caught a South West Trains (SWT) service to Portsmouth and then onto the Isle of Wight. M'colleague - having spent much of yesterday with me on buses - was in dire need of substantial yet complimentary food - so planned an impromptu trip up the West Coast Main Line (WCML) to the West Midlands and back c/o Virgin West Coast, where he sampled the opulent free food to which those travelling first class are entitled.

I'd never been to the Isle of Wight before and at Portsmouth Harbour paid my return trip on the Wightlink FastCat to Ryde - receiving a 34% discount thanks to my Railrover!

The Wightlink FastCat - fast but expensive!

I had plenty of time to take photos of the unique Island Line train service operation on the island, using 1938 London Underground stock. Many are very critical of SWT, choosing not to retire trains that are 72 years old, and to make the required investment in newer vehicles; personally, I think they fit in well on the island - they look just the ticket for the tourists, while also offering suitable journeys for the island's commuters in that area. Although they are outdated Tube trains, they are operated in full accordance with the National Rail guidelines and offer everything you'd expect any other train service in Great Britain to do.

Ryde Esplanade Station

This train was built in 1938 and spent much of its first life working Bakerloo Line Tube trains until retirmement came in the form of the Island Line.

Having subsequently caught one of the trains from Ryde Esplanade to the terminus at Shanklin, I had an hour before catching my first-ever Southern Vectis bus to Yarmouth. My bus was Service 7A destined for Ventnor and was a service we'd planned to catch as it skirted virtually all the south and south-west of the island before I alighted at the stop nearest Yarmouth's ferry terminal.


Today was nice - the temperature was a few degrees shy of 30C and the cool breeze felt on the crossing from Yarmouth to Lymington was very welcome indeed. A return from anywhere on the mainland to anywhere on the Isle of Wight is possible on any service crossing the Solent. So Portsmouth-Ryde and Yarmouth-Lymington is possible. This was something we'd not been able to get confirmed prior to the trip I seem to remember, though I had it confirmed verbally on the day.

Taken at Yarmouth, this Wightlink Ferry gets ready to sail to Lymington.

M'colleague had planned to meet me at Lymington Pier, where he arrived on one of the historic slam-door Class 421 electric trains used on the service. It was one month before we visited that SWT had chosen to keep the Class 421s on the Lymmington Branch due to its self-contained nature and had set about renewing them so that they were able to continue operating post-November of that year when all slam-door emus had to be removed from service. A few months ago we learned that SWT plan to remove the Class 421s altogether by the end of the year, which would bring to an end over half a century of slam-door operation on this route.

The historic Class 421 electric multiple unit named Freshwater. This and its sister train are now the only remaining slam-door trains operating on the National Rail network.

We caught 1497 Freshwater to Brockenhurst Station where the service terminates. We then had a short hop aboard an SWT Class 450 to Pokesdown, where we stayed overnight at a b+b.

Day 6 started with what Top Gear were to copy from us: we left Bournemouth aboard a Virgin Cross Country Voyager and parted company at Basingstoke to have a race to the first-class lounge at Euston Station. I formed the Clarkson opinion that remaining on the Voyager to Reading and then onto a Class 180 Adelante into Paddington then a Service 205 bus to Euston would be the quickest way. M'colleage (Hammond/May combined) said this was quite frankly ridiculous and the quickest was was to alight at Basingstoke onto a SWT service to Victoria and to catch the Underground to Euston.

Thanks to problems entering Reading, I now had plenty of time to take photos thanks to a missed connection.

I would have won had it not been for the 5 minute wait to be allocated a platform at Reading. Everything else went like clockwork. In typical Top Gear fashion, m'colleague had not managed to take a sip from his first buckshee gin & tonic when I burst through the door, a little flustered.

They are now regular performers in the LEYTR area, running for Hull Trains along the ECML. In 2005 I took my first trip on one - a Class 180 Adelante, between Reading-Paddington.

Service 205 at Euston Station (just before the spring to the first-class lounge)

We had an hour to kill here before catching a Virgin Pendolino Class 390 to Manchester Piccadilly and back. I'd never been on a Pendolino before and in 2005 they were relatively new. Very little remodelling of the WCML had taken place by then and yet the journey seemed very smooth and efficient. While in Manchester, we spent our hour looking down at the melee from the confines of the first-class lounge, equipped with its mini bar and fridge.

Today was my first-ever trip on a Pendolino. Very impressive!

Our return trip to Euston took place soon after 1700hrs and we were treated to wine and Belgian chocolates in addition to the three-course feast. It is outrageous that Virgin can offer everything edible for free and yet GNER that was offered only free juice/water, fruit/cookies. NXEC have actually got worse!

Back in Euston and very impressed with the journey, the surreptitious tilting on bends, the food and the on-board hospitality, it was back to the first-class lounge to await our third sleeper service: this time Euston-Fort William. (GL)

To be continued.....

Part 1 can be viewed by clicking here.
Part 2 can be viewed by clicking here.
Part 3 can be viewed by clicking here.

The entire LEYTR Railrover will be uploaded in its entirety to the LEYTRavels blog when the final part has been published on this site.