Rail Express Magazine 281 - October 2019 Edizione posteriore

IT has been another month of significant change across the network, as the railways prove once again that what can sometimes seem like a permanent fixture never really is.

On the franchising front, Abellio’s East Midlands Railway has taken over from Stagecoach’s East Midlands Trains, promising new and upgraded units and a possible extension of the wires north of Corby, while Stagecoach and Virgin Trains are to lose the West Coast franchise to rivals First Group and Trenitalia from December.

This means that Stagecoach and Virgin – both seemingly permanent rail brands that have achieved much in their time – will no longer be involved in running any of our passenger services for the first time since the late 1990s.

The incoming West Coast Partnership has been tasked with integrating existing inter-city services out of Euston with those of the future HS2 line, but that side of the deal now looks in doubt with the high-speed project in review and a delay seemingly unavoidable.

Trains may not now be running to Birmingham until 2029, and Leeds could be another 10 years after that! The railway engineers in France, Spain and China must be chuckling to themselves at these vast timescales.

For enthusiasts, there are changes too. The first ‘Pacer’ trains have been withdrawn as replacements enter service in the North, while in East Anglia the loco-hauled ‘short set’ – a ‘temporary’ fixture since 2015 – may well have worked its last run by the time you read this. On the plus side, however, Class 68s have finally entered service with TransPennine Express, shuttling across the country between Liverpool to Scarborough.

DRS ‘68s’ now dominate much of the remaining loco-hauled map (working for Chiltern, ScotRail and TPE), but as they look and sound so great it is no bad thing. Check them out if you haven’t already.