Great Western Coffee Shop

I've put this in the lighter side, but I don't know whether to laugh or cry.

I happened to be in Kings Cross arouns 11:30 this am, time to spare before a meeting.

This was the sequence of trains:

11:27 Grand Central to Sunderland HST
11:30 Nex to Newcastle HST!
11:35 Nex to Leeds HST!
11:48 Hull Trains to Hull Adelante still in FGW livery
12:00 Nex Inverness HST

Now I thought I read somewhere that the ECML is electrified as far as Edinburgh.

The Newcastle and Leeds wires all the way! The others loco changes especialy for Inverness.

I think we've lost the plot somewhere along the line.

Yep, this country is absurd.  :D

Yes, it is sad. There were only 31 Mk 4 sets built, and two of them are long gone. So the expansion of services that has happened since 1991 has required, in the main, operators to beg steal or borrow diesel stock rather than new build.

On the bright side, how many of those services would have been operating in 1991 when the ECML electrification was completed? Only 2 by my reckoning. Even Grand Central seem to be managing to up their performance, and if they could get the later evening departure slot they aspire then it would be a much more meaningful service.    

When IEP comes in there will be less HSTs under the wires.

When being the word. There's still plenty of time to ride the ECML on an HST!

I caught the 11:35 from KGX to Newark a week or so ago and I was also surprised with the pleathora of HST's lined up at Kings Cross - it almost brought tears of nostalgia when I heard a Valenta engine roar into life I'm sad enough to admit!

As an aside, I was sat in coach B and there were only two other people in my carriage - I know it's a quieter time of day, but the loading is well below what I would expect on the FGW equivalent of say the 11:15 Paddington-Cardiff. Mind you, it didn't stop the trolley from passing by three times on the 1hr 20m trip to Newark!