you are correct there if door not shut brakes dont realease

Interesting thread chaps, but I dont understand all this modern franchise stuff,it starts to do "me ead in" after a while, why cant we just have a railway like we used to do, one railway, same locos and stock throughout, everyone working for the one head office.

Much easier and in some respect more interesting.

48111

I can see the advantages of that 48111, but at least we get a variety of liveries now. Really I think the big four was a great idea, and that only failed in the first place because the Government did not pay them back for their efforts in the war. nationalisation was just a way to get around it.`

On the point of others, I don't actually think that some people know just how bad a condition these pacers are in. You can't expect all safety features to work perfectly if they are not looked after.

But, now we know the terms of Northerns franchise agreement should we be surprised ?

I'll tell you what, where's Adonis when you need him?

Standing in Downing Street spouting on about the no-fly zone last time I saw him ...

On thinking long and hard I have pretty much lost all faith in the privatised system. Lord Adonis has not just got the railways to contend with, but roads rail and water travel. This is too much for one man to regulate. I could never quite believe that the privatised railway had failed, but now I think it has. I also saw the article about the face the Dft will be bankrupt by 2020. BR did not really work as we can never really trust the government to run a railway. Last time we got Beeching, the end of steam and bad sarnies. Bring on the big four. I want my local train (on the cheshire lines) to have either LMS or LNER stamped on it.