Recent content by Grecian 1998

As said above, Southampton FC are playing in the play-off final at Wembley on Sunday 26 May at 15:00. Almost 37,000 tickets sold. Morning trains to Waterloo arriving before 12:00 are likely to be very busy, along with evening trains departing Waterloo after 18:00 (slightly later if it goes to...

Also worth pointing out the ICC chief prosecutor, Karim Ahmad Khan, is an Ahmadiyya Muslim. That community faces accusations of heresy from many other Muslim communities and aren't recognised as Muslims under the Pakistani constitution. An Ahmadiyya shopkeeper, Asad Shah, was murdered in 2016 in...

XC have suffered overcrowding issues 363 days a year (excepting strike days and the COVID era) since 2002. It seems somewhat unlikely anyone at the DfT and the Treasury would decide to do something about it now because of cruise ship passengers. XC are due to get 12 additional Voyagers, but it...

There's certainly a big difference between nice places and nice stations. Weymouth, Exmouth, Looe and St Ives are all very nice places in my view, but the stations aren't going to win any awards. Weymouth station in particular is thoroughly underwhelming, with its permanently closed toilets due...

Exeter - Plymouth was built with the intention of using atmospheric power for propulsion. The kindest way to describe this was 'fine when working, utterly useless the moment anything went wrong'. The consequence was that Newton Abbot - Plymouth in particular was built with sharper curves and...

It's common on trains formed of double Voyagers running north from Plymouth to Bristol for the rear unit to be rammed and the front unit to be fairly quiet. The platform entrances at the two busiest stations, Plymouth platform 7/8 (usually) and Exeter St Davids platform 5, are adjacent to the...

Living in Bristol, the vast majority of my use of 150s is with GWR or TfW, all of which bar 3 GWR units are 2+2 seating. As said upthread, they're pretty useful down here - reliable and effective. 2 X 150s act as very effective people movers on Exmouth - Paignton services, which has a high churn...

I think the general consensus is that XC need to get to a position where they can deliver effectively the services they currently run plus an hourly Newcastle - Reading before worrying about extensions to anywhere else. I suspect XC's main interest in altering their services is hoping that one...

On a journey between Salisbury and Gillingham a few days ago, the train as usual stopped at Tisbury loop to allow an eastbound train to pass. For those who don't know, Gillingham - Wilton was singled in the 1960s and by the time it was decided to reinstate a loop at Tisbury in 1986, the old down...

I wouldn't advise travelling via Castle Cary if time is tight - the Exeter stoppers and Weymouth trains are both 2 hourly and connections are often sub-optimal. If you do miss a connection, the town's some way off and there's not much around the station. Weymouth has plenty of nice spots even...

A problem with ticket office staff offering splits on journeys they know about is that it probably wouldn't be long before people start coming in demanding to know all the possible options for journeys to Quintrell Downs / Georgemas Junction / Acle / Rhosneigr and getting quite aggressive if the...

XC still run a few double Voyagers on the SW - NE axis which seem to be spread out through the day. This is very useful if you're a leisure traveller like me - you can look at the formation on RTT (not guaranteed but pretty accurate) and plan your day accordingly. However I have noticed that it...

I've always found Derby - Sheffield to be very scenic - hilly country, some fine stone architecture in the surrounding towns and villages, the Chesterfield crooked spire and the ornate northern portals to the tunnels (just the northern portals for some reason). Further south I concede there...

Having travelled from Bristol to Exeter yesterday around 1400 and back today around the same time, the difference made by the overnight rain was very apparent. I travel regularly between the two and the amount of floodwater on the ground north of Exeter today was quite something - reminded me of...

I have a Video 125 'HST West' production from 1990 showing Paddington - Bristol - Exeter. There are two crew in the cab between Paddington and Bristol where the speed limit was 125mph, but only one between Bristol - Exeter where the maximum speed is 110mph (a short stretch between Highbridge and...