BBC 1993. British Rail: Old, Dirty and Late

[Kevo00]

I'm sure you weren't but its your home territory so I probably should be careful

Instead of 222s you want 185s, nice and airy inside. There's probably not much scope for running over 100mph on the Norwich-Liverpool route anyway.

[Ameecher]

Well no, aside from between Peterborough and Grantham. Currently the trains can only reach 90 anyway.

[JamieLei]

Indeed - the enthusiasts tend to lament Virgin's Operation Princess as one of the worst failures of privatisation (partly because HSTs were replaced with Voyagers). I tend to look at it as one of the biggest successes. By doubling the frequency of core route [Manchester, Newcastle, Reading, Bristol] to every 30 minutes, Virgin effectively turned an Intercity service into a mixed Intercity and Commuter service, thus drastically increasing passenger numbers. And in some places such as Leamington Spa - Coventry, it is the only service. The fact that ORCATS has this year redesignated Leamington to Birmingham as a XC-set fare shows the increased importance of XC on local and medium-distance routes.

[Kevo00]

Surely you can't say Princess was a success though, most of the new services introduced were scrapped pretty quickly? But the intentions were good, shame the infrastructure wasn't there for it.

[JamieLei]

As far as I know, it was only the Blackpool and Poole service that was scrapped by the SRA - the rest remained for quite some time. But the main point about Princess doubling the frequency on the core route to every 30 mins was a success.

[Ameecher]

Actually no, Princess was quite heavily cut back with a number of destinations ditched or received reduced service. South Coast suffered the most, IIRC.

[Kevo00]

Ah, autumn 2002. Anyone remember the 14 trains a day to Dundee promise? Wales lost a lot of trains too. Within about two years we were in effect back to the previous service of summer 2002, or worse, except without the 47s and HSTs that enthusiasts spent the summer chasing.

[Ameecher]

Don't forget the Deltic to Ramsgate that really got the flailers going!

[Kevo00]

I still have nightmares about the man who emerged from some bushes at Relley Junction, just south of Durham, to ask me what 47 had just gone past.

[Ameecher]

I still have nightmares about the man who emerged from some bushes at Relley Junction, just south of Durham, to ask me what 47 had just gone past.

He was too busy having, as clarkson would say, a "crisis" over the sound of the Sulzer engine to note down the number!

[Dave]

A half hourly service to Glasgow via the West Coast was also promised and never materialised. That's not changed even now in terms of old XC routes.

[jabbew]

there was a privatised version called first edition based on south west trains mainly