Bonus Blog – CrossCounty’s Refurbished Class 170s

Back at the start of March, CrossCountry launched the first of its refurbished class 170s into service and, some five months later, I finally had the opportunity to take a ride on one. At the time of my journey at the start of August, only 170101, 170112 and 170113 had been refurbished and re-entered service, so hunting one of them down was a bit of a challenge. However, with the help of Real Time Trains, I managed to find 170101 on a Birmingham New Street to Stansted Airport service and so took a ride a couple of stops east to Nuneaton to try it out.

Bonus Blog – Headbolt Lane

Back at the start of June I took a trip to the north-west of England to take a ride on some trains, do some plane spotting and generally have a couple of days exploring. One of the things I had added to my to-do list was to visit the newest station on the Merseyrail network which had in fact been open for almost nine months by the time of my visit. That station is Headbolt Lane and this blog will have gone live to coincide with the station’s first anniversary.

Bonus Blog – Top Tips for European Sleepers

Since taking my first trip onboard the Caledonian Sleeper in November 2020, I've become a firm fan of travelling by sleeper train. Not only is there the efficiency of travelling great distances whilst you sleep, there's the romance of falling asleep in one place and waking up in somewhere new and exciting! Having recently travelled from Brussels to Zagreb by sleeper trains, I thought I'd share with you some general thoughts and tips that may come in use if you're planning on travelling across Europe by sleeper train.

Bonus Blog – SBB InterCity vs InterRegio

Having spent the morning and early part of the afternoon exploring the city of Geneva, the weather had turned and my own decision paralysis led me to falling back on a safe bet, the railway! With Geneva being at the western end of the Swiss rail network, the city is served by a mix of both ‘InterCity’ and ‘InterRegio’ services and I decided a run along Lac Léman and back to compare them both was required.

Bonus Blog – Oddities of the Paris Metro

Paris’ Metro network is wide reaching across the city and its suburbs with 16 lines spanning the city along with the five lines of the RER. During our stays in the French capital I was able to take a ride on 15 of the 16 lines (annoying I know!) and took the opportunity to explore some of the Oddities of the Paris Metro.

Exploring Glasgow’s Railways

With our stay in Glasgow being bookended by trips with LNER, you’d think I’d have had my fill of trains for the weekend. However, with Beth and my in-laws attending various Folk music concerts which don’t fall within my circle of interests, I decided to spend my Saturday exploring some of the railways that fan out from Glasgow Central.