TheGreatBritishRailScene

Welcome to this long-awaited summary of rail news, covering February and March 2018.  The main news from March was of course owing to the Beast From The East. Let's not mention the weather, though. I'll just direct you to some fantastic shots... WALKING IN A WINTER WONDERLAND. AND snow ploughs.... CLICK RIGHT HERE.   Oh, here is another photo you may like, it features 37s in East Anglia.  If you're a fan of 66s instead though, this'll tickle your fancy... DAB THIS BUTTON. Leading  on from our special post about CIS displays at stations , it has recently been announced that Greater Anglia will also upgrade information screens at stations. NOTE - THESE ARE NOT PROVIDED BY INFOTECH. Simone Bailey, Greater Anglia’s Asset Management Director, said: “We have been focusing our efforts on improving information provision for our customers – especially during disruption - and these new screens demonstrate our commitment to providing up-to-date information, in ...

It's that time of year again - the results for the National Rail Passenger Survey 2018 are in. Click here for a summary of the news.  Effectively though, Virgin East Coast are the highest performers.  The GTR group though are at the bottom.  Meanwhile, at the Golden Whistle Awards, Greater Anglia was named the 'most improved' operator for punctuality on the Norwich to London Liverpool Street Mainline. This is a 5.8% increase compared to 2017!  Whilst on the topic of Greater Anglia, we've seen a first look at the Stadler FLIRTS which are now being built. These class 755 units are currently on the production line, and 3 or 4 carriages will be coupled together to form a unit. As reported previously , from Summer this year the tests and trials will commence. Then in 2019, 38 of these 3-car and 4-car units will enter service to replace Class 153/156/170 Rural Units in 2019. Below, a photo of the Stadler FLIRT power-unit. Effectively, this carriage will...

CIS stands for Customer Information System, effectively more commonly known as departure/arrival screens. Infotec is the company that manufactures most of these systems on trains and at stations around the UK - but there's so much more to these systems than meets the eye....  Expectations from customers are constantly expanding. As a result, UK TOCs must keep up with the trends to offer the latest information systems. This is vital to keep customers informed and advised with the latest real-time information.... Traditional CIS expectations: What time is my train due? Which platform? How many carriages? Where's First Class?   Modern-life CIS expectations: Where can I purchase my low-fat mocha once I'm on the train? Is my seat reservation going to be honoured (or will I need to fight for it)? I've been too busy to check posters, so can I have an Engineering Summary now as I'm travelling this weekend? Even "I intend to know where to stow my bike without sp...

Happy New Year! Best Wishes From All Of Us Here At GBRailScene, The Unbiased/Accurate Blog For UK Rail News.  Also, Sorry Once Again For The Lack Of Posts, Difficult To Keep This Page Going Considering We're All Busy. Apologies For Reduced Effort - We Aim To Keep The Page Open As Long As Possible!  Anyway, Now A Welcome To The Latest Long-Awaited Summary Regarding Automated Announcements Currently Used On The UK Rail Network......  This article will highlight which voiceover artists are used for pre-automated announcements at each of the UK Train Operating Companies.  Generally, Anne from ATOS is the main person used ( she's even heard in Ireland ), as the ATOS system becomes the most popular information provision system. 

Now, the latest Railway Related news and updates from around the UK for November 2017!  Fleet Summary:   In conjunction with the 10 year anniversary of HST sets operating for Grand Central,  the time has also come to bid farewell to them.  The power cars will go off-lease in December, returning to their leasing company Angel Trains. 

For those of you who follow us on Twitter, you'll see us sharing, liking and posting news, stories and photos.  However, for those of you who aren't apart of the social media platform, I wouldn't want you to miss out on anything exciting .  So that's why we've condensed down the year so far from our Twitter feed into this handy dosage.... It's practically a year review, so we'll call it just that....  At the start of 2017,  345002 was on tests and trials prior to entering service on the Liverpool Street to Shenfield section of the Cross-Rail route. In June, the first of the new fleet  went into passenger service. Also in February, Thameslink 387124 went on hire to Gatwick Express. Brand spanking new  EMUs were planned for Mersey Rail. Between the 8th and 23rd April, there were significant upgrades to Bath Spa station. Primarily, the platform were widened to ensure that the gap isn't so big between the train & platform edge once the ne...

Above, we see AGA 90s off to repair at Crewe. They returned separately, as seen here.

Welcome To The 1st Week Review For August. Some Of This News Also Regards The End Of June/July, Just As We Haven't Reported All Of The Significant Stories Out There Yet!  GE Focus: Following on  from older posts,  I now bring a quick update on Gatwick Express.  387s are the talk  of the town, entering service on the corridor. And they have gone elsewhere too, as  387202  has been on loan to  TLink  whilst one of their 387/1s undergo maintenance. And what happened to the class 442s and 460s? Well 442s have been  going into storage,  eventually leaving just of these at GE by Summer. The 460s have been gone a while, dismantled and the internal carriages used to add a coach to SWT 458/5s. The  driving cars are at Doncaster still. 

Kirkstall Forge station, on the Northern Rail network in Leeds, opened on Sunday 19th June - providing one train per hour in each direction. The orignal station was not too far from the current site, but this one is host to numerous aspects: 129 spaces in the carpark; Fully accessible platforms; A footbridge and ramps; Secure cycle parking; and Waiting shelters.

The Week Review Is Back, By Popular Demand! And We're Giving This Series A Whole New Lease Of Life With A New Style! So Here We Go.... Today, we tie up loose ends of news we haven't yet reported on this blog.

I'm Harry, providing today's News Roundup - Prescheduled with updates from a variety of TOCs and FOCs. Without waiting any longer.... Firstly to announce, the scheduled GBRf tour on 31st July 2016 (One Month Away Now) to raise money for charity. Named the Crystal Maze II (I'm not on about Indianna Jones) ,  hauled by a GBRf 66 throughout, this service departs  Birmingham at lunchtime running to Eastleigh, calling at Cheltenham Spa and Didcot Parkway only (non-stop via Swindon and Basingstoke). 

Hello! Welcome to our Weekly Review! The news is as follows... From around Great Britain: Firstly, 37405 . It's back in Anglia, whilst 37425 has gone for repair. Meanwhile, 68004 was on numerous stock moves last week, but has not been used following an Operating Incident. Instead, 66426 unusually went onto a Stock Move yesterday, taking 12103 and 11081 to Wolverton. Take note of this adaptation to technology for Norfolk.... As previously mentioned for The Class 125 Group, they have acquired 3 MK3 carriages. These transferred from Scotland to Ruddington last week after being recently repainted.  Next, to the South West. We can announce the refurbished GWR Class 166s are 166204, 205, 210, 212, 214 and 215. To clarify, these are in GWR green livery and have also received at internal refresh.

The first Weekly Review of 2016! Let's cut straight to the chase, the significant news stories since our last update.  ANGLIA + MIDLANDS:  156401 , from East Mids Trains, was on loan to Greater Anglia this week to cover the Short Set diagram. The short set is currently away from home for maintenance, and is due back next week (when 90034 goes for an exam). 37405 travelled by road separately from Dereham (no lorry access to Crown Point) due to having wheel flats. 90006 due back soon. Robert informs me that  360101 and 115 are now internally refurbished, as are  all 317/6s. There's just 10x 317/5 to do.

Good Morning! It's 2016 on TheGBRailScene, the independant blog which is now in its third year (under 3 different names!).  82102, the most recent repaint at Loughborough. This leaves just 82127! (C) Andy L Don't worry. I'm not going to bombard you with information as you're probably either recovering from a slightly tipsy New Years Eve, about to go off for a run to lose the mince pies and Xmas choccies, or just want me to get to the point and stop wombling on!

Harry here, covering the last Weekly Review before Christmas! And my last post this week! CHILTERN :  Following on from a fire at London Marylebone station at approximately 20:30 on Friday 11th December, it's confirmed that the fire damaged the air-conditioning unit and part of the carriage itself. Thankfully no one was harmed.  82302  was the set for the record and 12094 (Banbury set) was involved. Station Manager Paul Hobbs said: “The fire affected one of the train’s carriages but crews worked quickly to put it out. Around 500 people were evacuated from the station.”

NEWS: Just a few news stories to mention this week, as the majority was mentioned during the week.... As reported  Thursday , 90012 and set has been operating services in reversed formation in East Anglia, on the Liverpool Street to Norwich route. We question whether the auto-announcements are adapted to state this?  Usually the class 90 locomotive is at the London end but, as seen at Ipswich, Andy's captured it uniquely. We believe the set is now the right way around.  

Harry here, covering for Andy during his Vacation. My task today is to bring you the Week Review! ABELLIO GREATER ANGLIA 12024  (standard class) returned from Wolverton and DVT 82133 from Loughborough, now in Abellio Greater Anglia livery. 57306 was the loco hauling this move. 12040 (Coach D- Standard) and 10403  (Buffet) both went the other way, and are now being repainted.  Meanwhile, Carriages 10404 (Buffet) and 12108 (1st Class) are due back soon from the paint shop.

Morning! Harry here providing cover for the Week Review; Slightly early this week, I know, but my vacation begins tomorrow so haven't got any other time to post. Now, the  NEWS: Six 2-Car Class 170s are still being prepared for Southern (previously at ScotRail). They are receiving new seats, couplers and also maintenance on the engines and wheelsets. Trains will also need to be adapted in order to communicate with the rest of the current Southern fleet (for example, Driver to Train Manager equipment). The trains will operate between London and Uckfield, in up to 10-car formations. Platforms are being lengthened for this reason.

SOURCE-  https://twitter.com/WizzerTweet/status/648037370001027072 Here's this week's news; The Construction bidding process for the HS2 Phase 1 has begun. 66 757 was named "West Somerset Railway" this weekend, as seen in this picture to the right. As part of the National Railway Museum 40 years celebration, a special livery and naming of the power car 43 238 was held during the week by VTEC, photos can be found here  https://twitter.com/Virgin_TrainsEC/status/646649575781085184 The transformed Birmingham New Street has fully reopened from it's estimated £750m refurbishment which includes a new station concourse, atrium and Grand Central shopping Complex.

A very good Sunday to all the East Anglia Rail Scene readers out there! Andy here, covering! Strictly Copyrighted to Dan Warman. Here's this week's news; Today marked the start of the re-branding of First Great Western to Great Western Railway (GWR.) Many of you would have gathered I imagine by when using social media that the all green HST made it's way from Laira TMD to London this afternoon/evening for what is very likely to be the press release tomorrow morning.