Do you mean Market Harborough, Chris?

Yes, it was a useful link but the key to patronage is the two new stations as that should generate enough passengers to make the difference. If all of the rail and tram improvements planned come to fruition, Birmingham will have a transformed infrastructure from the situation just twenty years ago.

The government have 'guaranteed' their use for 27.5 years as part of the contract with Hitachi.  That's different to their design life though, and a new contract could and probably will be drawn up as the current one expires.  Modern trains have a rough minimum of 30 years for diesel and 40 years for electric, but can be made to provide good service long after that if market conditions and safety regulations are favourable.  HSTs, Class 150s, Class 313s are all good examples from various fleet types that will be running for a few years yet.

I can certainly see some 80x trains having engines removed at some point in their lives.

The latest graphs are attached covering the period up to 2nd March.  The upward spike in punctuality, and to a lesser extent, reliability, continued.

HSS posted the best set of punctuality figures for three years at 91.9%, well above the target levels.  LTV posted the best results since September '17.  Wales to the South Coast and Bristol's were the best since April '17.  Many of the MAA's rose quite considerably as a result, though all penalties still apply from the previous period and the Devon figure slipped back to 89.1%, only 0.1% above the 5% season ticket trigger.

Sadly, the emergency services were dealing with a body which was found lineside near Uffington.

Good to see Stephen Barker so involved in this part of the project, as he was for the Bicester to Oxford section.

Yes, Honeybourne used to be quite a 'railway town' for a village! The station was a junction with no less than four signalboxes.

Certainly there is a plan to utilise 12-car Class 387 trains as capacity busters for the big weekend events at the Millennium Stadium when they are not all needed in the Thames Valley - though of course that needs Cardiff to be wired up which won't be until the end of the year.  There will always be crowding when you are dealing with such a sudden influx of people at a station which is poorly designed to deal with such numbers.

Today is the first time I’ve seen the list of 80x units on a ‘diesel only’ restriction read ‘Nil’.  Further evidence that they are settling down into service.

I would suggest it’s the armpit of Lancashire, but there’s no shortage of competition!

They won’t go beyond Oxford, and might not even go beyond Didcot or even Reading regularly.  As you say, the diagrams, and times of trains, will alter significantly come the end of the year.

I don’t believe there will be any Cotswold Line services formed by Turbos from then, except the morning ‘Halts’ train.  That was the original plan anyway.

It could possibly be a candidate for an 8-car Class 769 when they arrive, along with the 17:18 equivalent Turbo return working from Paddington.

If reserved for part of the journey, the IET system lists the current (or available until ‘x’) and next reservations alongside the three colour status.

Indeed, and if they aren't (generally only the 9-car services due to various issues which will hopefully be resolved shortly) then there is no excuse for not using the paper back-up method that's been used for decades.

Neither of which are generally allowed under the terms of the SLC.