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.

BRU-STP Eurostar – Standard Premier

My arrival into Brussels from Düsseldorf marked the start of the last leg of my brief adventure into Germany. All that was now left was the journey back across Belgium, the top corner of France and under the Channel to London, a journey that can only be made with Eurostar. As with the leg from Düsseldorf to Brussels, I’d decided to upgrade on this two-hour leg and would be travelling in Standard Premier between the Belgian and British capitals.

BRU-DUS Eurostar – Standard

Having arrived into Bruxelles-Midi onboard a Eurostar service from London, I had just over an hour to kill before I continued my trip to Düsseldorf by boarding another train bound for Dortmund. This would be another Eurostar service, although one formerly operated by Thalys before their merger with Eurostar, and I was looking forward to seeing the differences between the ‘red’ Eurostar that was new to me and the ’blue’ Eurostar that I was used to. However, before catching that train, I had some time for some dinner and so headed outside the station to find some food!

STP-BRU Eurostar – Standard

Less than four weeks after my quick trip to Ireland, I was heading back down to London ready to start another trip. This time I wasn’t heading for Ireland via Heathrow, but for Germany via St Pancras, a journey I’d be completing by just two international train services. My ultimate destination was Düsseldorf, but for the first leg of the trip was from St Pancras to Brussels, travelling with Eurostar in standard class.

300+ Miles of ScotRail Inter7City HSTs

Back in September 2024 it was announced that the process would be started to replace ScotRail’s Inter7City fleet, their short-set HSTs, marking the beginning of the final chapter of the iconic HST’s operation in the UK. In November 2024 I was in Scotland for work and with most of a day free, I found myself at Glasgow Queen Street early one morning with a plan to ride these iconic trains for more than 300 miles over some of Scotland’s railways. My plan for the day would see me travelling onboard four different Inter7City sets, as I headed to Montrose, Edinburgh, Perth and finally back to Glasgow.

Cork Kent – Dublin Hueston Iarnród Éireann – 1st Class

Whilst I’d started my trip to Ireland by flying from Heathrow to Cork, I was ending it by flying from Dublin to Birmingham and so needed to make my way from Ireland’s south coast to the capital. The easiest way of doing this was by taking an Iarnród Éireann (Irish Rail) service from Cork Kent station direct to Dublin Hueston. Whilst the vast majority of Iarnród Éireann services are now operated by Diesel or Electric Multiple Units, the Cork to Dublin route is home to one of Ireland’s only remaining loco-hauled services, giving me the chance to try something a little bit different.