Jon Searles' photos with the keyword: Arriva

This is the National Rail (ex-British Rail) Blaenau Ffestiniog Station, which is shared with the Ffestiniog Railway. It's at the south end of the Conwy Valley Line from Llandudno Junction, which was originally built in 1879 by the London & North Western Railway. I was visiting the Ffestiniog for at least the third time that I can remember (I'll have to check my records to know for sure, as I don't remember), and this time I was a bit confused about what to photograph. When I first visited, it was one of the last places to be served by ex-BR Class 101 DMU's, which were at that time the oldest DMU's that I had ridden on outside of heritage units, as they had been built as far back as 1956. I would later ride the very last run of any Class 101 on December 22nd, 2003, from Manchester Piccadilly to Rose Hill and back. Today the Conwy Valley Line is served by Class 150 DMU's, which are also quite old at this point, having been introduced in 1984 (I've read some sources that say 1976, so if I'm wrong please correct me). These are commonly called "Sprinter" DMU's, with the last Class 153 Class being called "SuperSprinters."

Here's another Coradia shot, but from the trip back. I got this one with my cameraphone.

This is an Alstom (BR) Class 175 Coradia DMU. They were intended as a new generation of DMU that could operate at 125 m.p.h., although this was quickly downgraded to 110 and then to 100. 125 m.p.h. DMU's were eventually produced (in the form of the Virgin Voyager and BR Class 180), but the 175 Coradia never ended up filling such a role. Originally introduced in 2000 on First North Western, they have since been transferred to Arriva Trains Wales. Given the absurdity of the BR privatisation scheme, they have never been owned by a railway or Train Operating Company (TOC), but are instead owned by Angel Trains and leased to the TOC's, at much greater expense to the taxpayer. On this trip, I was on my way to Abergavenny for some hiking.

This Class 183 is the standard electric locomotive used by ALEX, as well as the Vogtlandbahn before they switched over to EMU's (This is from WIkipedia, I don't know if it's accurate since in 2005 I noticed they were already all-EMU). This is #183001, although I don't know if it's genuinely the first of the class. The Class 183 is a variant of the ES 64 U "Eurosprinter" electric used by the OBB and DB, designated internally in Seimens as the ES 64 U4. On the OBB, the ES 64 U is classified as Rh 1016, and on the DB as Class 182. SZ, the Slovenian railway, although has a few, classifying them as Class 541. In spite of looking quite brutal and heavy, these locomotives, while indeed powerful with 8,600 horsepower, can operate at 230Km/h (143 m.p.h.), and reach a top speed of 357Km/h (222 m.p.h.), making them one of the fastest electric locomotive classes in history. Actually, given that most German and Austrian coaching stock is only rated for 200Km/h (124 m.p.h.) this is overengineering in the extreme.

Eurocity services between Prague and Munich are at least partly contracted out to Arriva at the moment. Given Arriva's history in Britain, this surprises me, although we weren't too horribly late into Munich in the end, just late. Some of this was Ceske Drahy's fault (or rather the fault of the Czech track authority), though, as most of the delays happened in Plzensky Kraj. The ALEX coaches include many ex-CD coaches like this one, mildly rebuilt with new seats.