Yesterday, caught the 11.30 from Nottingham to London. Was a bit 
surprised not to see it in the platform when I arrived at the station 
(The HSTs generally spend 54 minutes idling there), but an ECS rake 
pulled in soon after. Weren't allowed to board until 11.25 - nothing new 
there.

Had a First Class reservation in seat 60. But there aren't anything like 
60 seats in an HST First Class carriage [1]. So I sat in an empty one 
(none had reservation stickers - and there were only two other people in 
the entire coach, the other First Class coach being completely empty).

At exactly departure time we were told that there would be no catering 
aboard, as the necessary train crew were stranded on a broken down 
Meridian in London. It was also suggested that the train we were on 
should have been a Meridian. I'm sure they'd known this for some time 
(at least three hours), so why not announce it on the platform and give 
people the opportunity to buy from the platform buffet?

The good news is that they didn't cancel the service, which I'm sure 
many other operators would have done.

Anyway, we set off a bit like the Marie Celeste and were pleasantly 
surprised to be served coffee soon after departing from Loughborough (I 
assume a couple of staff and skeleton supplies boarded there). And at 
Leicester even more crew arrived (one saying that the ill-fated, 
presumably 9-car, Meridian had "caught fire") and they even opened up 
the buffet car. But no sandwiches or hot food, just drinks and snacks.

On the way home, I checked all the information available, and there is 
no indication to the public that the 11.30 HST service has been 
substituted by a Meridian. Talking to some MML staff, they agreed with 
this, but said that I should "get used to it", because they were soon to 
be obtaining more Meridians and only keeping 6 HSTs.

A driver confided that the Meridians were worse, as far as he was 
concerned, because once the computer sulks, there's nothing you can do 
about it. He claimed the earlier "fire" was in fact an over-enthusiastic 
activation of an under-carriage fire extinguisher.

[1] Are there in a Meridian? Having twice the number of seats per coach 
might explain the feeling of claustrophobia.
-- 
Roland Perry

Roland Perry wrote:

>  that the 11.30 HST service has been
> substituted by a Meridian. Talking to some MML staff, they agreed with
> this, but said that I should "get used to it", because they were soon to
> be obtaining more Meridians and only keeping 6 HSTs.
>
> A driver confided that the Meridians were worse, as far as he was
> concerned, because once the computer sulks, there's nothing you can do
> about it. He claimed the earlier "fire" was in fact an over-enthusiastic
> activation of an under-carriage fire extinguisher.
>
> [1] Are there in a Meridian? Having twice the number of seats per coach
> might explain the feeling of claustrophobia.
> --
> Roland Perry


Regarding the Meridians replacing HST's, some complex moves afoot
regarding both the new and the old stock.
MPC on the 222s as just plummeted from near 30,000 to between 5 and
6000.

jon.porter1@lycosmax.co.uk wrote:


> MPC on the 222s as just plummeted from near 30,000 to between 5 and
> 6000.


Any reason (that you are allowed to give) ?

--
Nick