Penny reaches a million and Catherine goes to storage

I read that 390022 Penny the Pendolino has become the first of Virgin's Pendo fleet to reach a million miles in service, doing so last week near Bletchley. She should have passed this milestone before Christmas but a withdrawal from service for a few days in December meant that the record was reached later than expected.

Certainly the Pendolino's seem to be settled in their role racing up and down the West Coast Main Line although it is more like an energetic walk at the weekends with the amount of engineering works taking place. At the moment all Virgin services on Saturdays and Sundays are being routed via the West Midlands as the Trent Valley line is blocked. This meant that what would be a 45-minute (at most) journey for me from Nuneaton to MK at the weekend took well over 90 minutes and involved a replacement bus between Nuneaton and Coventry. Considering that Sunday afternoons and evenings are one of the busiest periods on the railway network, I am sure I am just one of many who are inconvenienced. But is all the pain worth the gain?

Well living in Milton Keynes, if the reports are true, it would appear not. From the December 2008 timetable change Virgin are going to be upping the number of services from London Euston to Birmingham, Manchester, Liverpool and Glasgow and cutting journey times. These changes will call for a greater utilisation of the 53-strong Pendolino fleet during weekdays and will also mean some stops, notably Milton Keynes will be omitted. That's not to say that Milton Keynes will loose its Virgin services altogether but it seems that they will be less than today. And considering MK is the fastest growing urban area in the UK and with a drive by the Government for all of us to use public transport more, this does not make sense. As a compensation, more services will be provided by London Midland; the through link to Birmingham via Northampton will be restored and a new hourly service via the Trent Valley to Crewe will be provided.

The former Bletchley shunter, 08874 Catherine has been moved to Long Marston for storage. I last saw 08874 during the Silverlink Swansong I in November. The future of Bletchley depot seems uncertain, my understanding is that it will likely close following the arrival of the new fleet of Desiro's, delivery of which starts from this December.

Hull Trains started its Class 86 diagram from last weekend using 86101 to cover several diagrams between Kings Cross and Doncaster on Friday evening and during Saturday and Sunday. The use of the 86 has been much delayed; originally it was to start last November. Details of the diagrams covered here.