New trains

Though I rarely travel by train, I'm actually glad to see new rolling stock coming in. My nearest line is the infamous Northern Rail line through Bradford and Leeds; for a long time now, the franchise with some of the oldest rolling stock in the country. The much-maligned "Pacers" (basically Leyland busses on rails) are (so I hear) finally being phased out, and they were a big part of the reason that I so rarely used the line. Besides always being in a disgraceful state of repair and reeking like a public lavatory, the carriages have no bogies and incredibly noisy diesel engines, so getting one around the tight curve at Bradford Interchange was a sensory nightmare of vibrations and metal grinding on metal - like fingernails down a blackboard amplified to the volume of jack-hammer during an earthquake. They will not be missed one bit by anyone, I should expect.

During my past family holidays to York in North Yorkshire, I remember travelling on a few of those somewhat infamous Northern Rail Pacer trains, and I was keen to check out how infamous they really were. I have been on them from Leeds to Bradford Interchange, and in addition to them being noisy, that upward climb towards Bradford was quite slow, and it added to the noisy travelling experience. Saying that, though, it's more convenient than getting Firstgroup's X6 bus service from Leeds to Bradford, as Leeds bus station is quite a walk away from Leeds railway station, and those roadwork/construction sites can add to the anxiety. I would have liked to suggest easier bus transport access between the railway and bus stations, such as rerouting the X6 via the railway station, or a dedicated shuttle bus service of some description.

I also travelled on them from York to Hull, which was (and still is) a nice, scenic railway line via Selby, Brough etc. They weren't that bad on the route, but with the journey lasting a bit over an hour, especially since they started stopping at Church Fenton and Sherburn-in-Elmet. They used to go direct from York to Selby, but this rerouting was disruptive to my routine, and the route doesn't interest me quite so much. I do like my train journeys to involve plenty of continuous full-speed running, such as when a 90mph train actually maintains 90 for, say, a minute or two.

Indeed, bus services in West Yorkshire are terrible these days (as they no doubt are in many other places). From what I can tell, hardly any Bradford bus services pass through the central Interchange any more, leaving people having to walk all over the City centre to change routes. Visiting friends and planning walking trips in the area gets ever more difficult as the rural bus routes gradually disappear, and the times of last busses are shockingly early in the evening.

Like you, I do like train journeys to have that sense of effortlessly gliding along so that I can lose myself in the passing scenery.

Indeed, bus services in West Yorkshire are terrible these days (as they no doubt are in many other places). From what I can tell, hardly any Bradford bus services pass through the central Interchange any more, leaving people having to walk all over the City centre to change routes. Visiting friends and planning walking trips in the area gets ever more difficult as the rural bus routes gradually disappear, and the times of last busses are shockingly early in the evening.

Like you, I do like train journeys to have that sense of effortlessly gliding along so that I can lose myself in the passing scenery.