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Northern trains

Eaglescliffe tickets for GC valid on Northern trains as per the lass in the train ticket office
Need to get them validated though
 

They can board any northern train mate.

standing room only now. Just left Hartlepool
I got on at British West Hartlepool and managed to get a seat.
The GC was cancelled because a higher than usual amount of trains, are in need of repair.
A shocking state of affairs, that in the 21st century, our railways are in such decline.

Have any Seaham’ites managed to get on.
 
I was at Sheffield station last night and there was an unusual amount of spotters about for the time (23.00 ish) I asked what was going on and they reckoned the last ever 142 in service was leaving from there last night.

They’re the things that are like buses on rails for anyone that doesn’t know. Hope it’s true, awful things
 
Track infrastructure has bugger all to do with GC trains breaking down so often. That's more to do with them using clapped out trains.
That’s because GC are a ‘commercial’ operator and not a franchise. They will operate on a budget to maximise profits, and they do so between franchise services. Northern were Arriva, then Abellio, then Arriva and as of last weekend the OLR. The one thing that runs through the lack of reliability across the U.K. is lack of infrastructure investment.
 
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The reliability went downhill when the DfT didn’t invest in the track infrastructure as promised. Fuck all to do with Arriva
Network Rail maintain infrastructure, Arriva maintain GC trains, cancelled train today due to breakdown yesterday, nowt to do with DfT or Network Rail.
 
It’s still wrong because reliability went up when Arriva bought GC.
I stopped using them due to unreliability and haven’t noticed any improvement. Only reason I was coming up on GC today was Metro maintenance. Train every 15 mins or so to Ncl from York and use Gold Card on Metro.
Never use them to London as food better on LNER, get good breakfast and dinner.
 
I stopped using them due to unreliability and haven’t noticed any improvement. Only reason I was coming up on GC today was Metro maintenance. Train every 15 mins or so to Ncl and use Gold Card on Metro.
Never use them to London as food better on LNER, get good breakfast and dinner.
I use them regularly to and from London...only ever had one major delay.

They’re decent at what they do and there’s a family feel to them. The managing director often does the trolley service when he’s travelling on there.

They are a budget operator though and franchised services are what we should rely upon.
 
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I stopped using them due to unreliability and haven’t noticed any improvement. Only reason I was coming up on GC today was Metro maintenance. Train every 15 mins or so to Ncl from York and use Gold Card on Metro.
Never use them to London as food better on LNER, get good breakfast and dinner.

The train is still running direct from Newcastle to Sunderland today..
 
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