Re: Connex set to lose UK rail franchise

["Kym Columbine" <KymColumbine@bigpond.com>]

David,

I agree on the state of the Rollingstock of some of the operators over there
I was waiting at Horley for  a train back to Victoria when a "Gatwick
Express" went through heading to Gatwick A/p - it was a mix match of
carriages.  My trip back to London was on an "old" looking swing door
electric set.  This was Connex South East from memory.

Conversley there were some really good rollingstock too.  Scotrail were
operating really nice DMUs on the Edinburgh - Glasgow run, and Chiltern
Railways were operating similar DMUs on their runs to between London and
Birmingham.

I'll scan a photo and post the link for it when I get a chance.

Kym

Chris Bell wrote in message <39F538C0.FE966712@latrobe.edu.au>...
>
>
>David Bromage wrote:
>
>> Connex is expected to lose its south central franchise after criticism of
>> its management and performance.
>>
>> http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/uk/newsid_987000/987683.stm
>
>Somehow that doesn't surprise me.  When I was there last month I noticed
that
>the rolling stock on the line from Bognor was the same swing-door stock as
>when we originally moved to the area in 1979, and even then it wasn't
>anything like new.  My wife caught the train to London from Arundel on a
>Sunday, and it was late only 10 minutes from the start of the run.  The
>locals didn't seem very impressed with Connex either. This is a worry,
>because they are my local railway here in Melbourne, and they have improved
>things here.
>
>Having said that, my impression from travelling around the UK was that
almost
>all the infrastructure was getting rather decrepit.  Even Virgin is using
>quite old rollingstock, with some peculiar hybrid HST sets with a diesel
loco
>one end and a class 86 electric on the other!  I've no idea how that works.
>
>Compared with the new ICE, Eurostar and Thalys sets in Europe, the UK is
not
>really going anywhere, privatised or not.
>
>Chris Bell
>
>