Putting the "Express" in Transpennine Express.

Way back in the early days of privatisation, Cross Country (Virgin Cross Country as it then was) described itself as the "Cinderella" franchise. Equipped with old, unreliable, yet comfortable and spacious loco-hauled trains, it made the decision to scrap its old fleet of Class 47s and loco-hauled coaches in favour of "Voyager" Class 220 and 221 DMUs. However, its Cinderella transformation is nothing compared to that currently taking place to Transpennine Express.
Tasked with running Inter-City trains within the North of England (and more recently into Scotland), TPX, in its earliest incarnation, inherited a small fleet of Class 158 Express Sprinters from BR. These were, simply put, not man enough for the job. From 2005, the 2-car Class 158s were replaced with 3-car Class 170s and 185s. Then when the Liverpool-Manchester electrification was completed these were supplemented by 4-car Class 350 EMUs. These are quite decent units for cross-country services, but they are still effectively upgraded suburban commuter units rather than full-fat Inter-City trains.
So now, the fleet is to be totally be replaced with longer, faster, better equipped trains than ever before. This new fleet will be known as Nova.
The nova fleet will come in 3 varieties, for diesel, electric and bi-mode services:

Nova 1. This is the bi-mode train, for routes with partial electrification between Liverpool-Manchester, Newcastle and Edinburgh. It is based on the Hitachi AT 300 design and consists of a 5-car multiple unit.
Nova 2.  This is the Electric train, operating on the Manchester Airport to Glasgow/Edinburgh and Liverpool to Glasgow routes, which follow the electrified West Coast mainline. These are 5-car units based on the CAF Civity design.
Nova 3. This is the diesel train, for unelectrified routes between Liverpool and Scarborough Unusually, this train consists of push-pull Mk 5 coaches hauled by a class 68 locomotive, which should please enthusiasts. When lines are electrified it will be possible to convert this train to bi-mode or full electric simply by swapping the locomotive, to a class 88 for instance, and if trains require to be lengthened it will be a simple matter to insert more carriages into the train.

All these trains will have first class carriages, space for 4 bikes and a catering trolley service.
With this new fleet, Transpennine Express trains will be transformed from an overcrowded second tier commuter TOC to a legitimate competitor to Cross-Country Trains.

Parking mad

Car parking has been in the news this month on two fronts.
Firstly the workplace parking levy. This proposal by the Scottish government follows a similar successful scheme in Nottingham where a tax on car parking has helped fund public transport, particularly the Nottingham tram system. The proposal would allow local councils to introduce a workplace parking levy if they chose. It is not a mandatory national scheme. The theory is that the scheme will encourage commuters to take public transport instead of the car, reducing both congestion and air pollution. Critics have hit out at the scheme as a "tax on workers", especially those for whom public transport is inconvenient. Of course if the tax is used to improve public transport, as is the case in Nottingham, then it should work as planned.
Secondly comes the ban on pavement parking. This has been called for by disability advocates and campaigners for years. The idea is to stop cars parking on footpaths, where they block wheelchair and pram users. The problem here is the limited availability of parking in certain residential streets, particularly those in suburban housing estates with narrow streets and limited on-street parking. Again, public transport needs to be improved, but for residents of older council houses that don't have a driveway, the pavement is often the only place to keep their car. provision of adequate parking needs to be built into any housing development.