Refurbished HST to lead ‘Staycation Express’
THIS year’s ‘Staycation Express’ will use a refurbished High Speed Train and run the full length of the Settle-Carlisle Line.
Rail Charter Services will hire the HST from Locomotive Services Limited. It will be formed of three Trailer Firsts (TF), a Trailer Guard’s First (TGF) and a Trailer Kitchen Buffet First (TFKB). These are currently being refurbished by Arlington Fleet Services at Eastleigh Works.
The power cars will be former East Midlands Railway 43058/059, which are currently being used for driver training ahead of this year’s operations.
Both will be repainted into the new Rail Charter Services livery, as will the five Mk 3s.
A spare power car (43083) will be available for either the RCS train or the Midland Pullman (also part of the LSL fleet).
Part of the Mk 3 refurbishment involves removing the row of single airline seats fitted to the former Great Western Railway Mk 3 TFs and replacing them with tables for two passengers
(as per last year’s Mk 3 Open Firsts).
This requires significant re-engineering in order to both build the new tables and then to fit them, as well as adding new seats to the interior.
They will retain leather reclining seats and will have power points. COVID-secure Perspex screens will be installed.
Locomotive Services Limited will crew the train, while on-board staff will be recruited from local agencies.
RCS Director Adrian Quine explained that tickets will be made available in the coming weeks and that they will be competitively priced. There is likely to be a small increase on last year’s price to cover the extension to Carlisle.
Quine also told RAIL that the catering plan is likely to mimic that which used to be available on the Norwich-London route until the late 2000s, when full cooked meals were served to passengers.
Final timetable plans are being confirmed by RCS, which last year used locomotive-hauled trains between Skipton and Appleby.
This year, the plan is for the HST to operate the 0930 Appleby-Skipton, 1130 SkiptonCarlisle, 1500 Carlisle-Skipton and 1730 Skipton-Appleby.
These times could change slightly depending on final approvals from Network Rail.
The trains will run daily except for Fridays between mid-July and early September (dates still to be determined).
“A lot of work has been going on behind the scenes to build on the success of the ‘Staycation Express’ last year,” said Quine.
He told RAIL that although this year’s programme was less ambitious, it catered for passengers who wanted to travel