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The Man in Seat 61 @seatsixtyone.bsky.social · 18h

Early days, but so far so good: “Eurostar reports ‘encouraging’ speeds for new EU border checks at St Pancras” www.therailwayhub.co.uk/72017/eurost...

Eurostar reports ‘encouraging’ speeds for new EU border checks at St Pancras | The Railway Hub

The implementation of a new EU border system at London’s St Pancras railway station has been “quite encouraging”, a Eurostar executive said.

www.therailwayhub.co.uk

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The Man in Seat 61 @seatsixtyone.bsky.social · 1d

Press launch of Chiltern Railways new trains today, I’m riding this one to Brum: 13 of these excellent Mk5 trains are replacing 5 current Mk3 sets = 12,000 more seats per week (I should even see some from my local station, Haddenham, where a Mk3 set is a very rare treat!)

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The Man in Seat 61 @seatsixtyone.bsky.social · 1d

No it doesn’t, that’s a given. It comes down to approval of the access to depot facilities.

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The Man in Seat 61 @seatsixtyone.bsky.social · 2d

The Stockholm-Hamburg/Berlin sleeper has been saved. RDC will take over when SJ pulls out. May not run on some winter nights in future though: www.berliner-zeitung.de/mensch-metro...

The Man in Seat 61 @seatsixtyone.bsky.social · 5d

Breaking: SJ to discontinue successful Stockholm-Hamburg/Berlin sleeper train after 31 August 2026, a month after Swedish government subsidy ends.

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The Man in Seat 61 @seatsixtyone.bsky.social · 2d

If Trenitalia gets approval for its proposed London-Paris service, it has pledged to call at Ashford International. www.railtech.com/new-routes/2...

Italy’s FS vows to reopen Ashford and revive Kent’s Channel Tunnel link

  Ferrovie dello Stato Italiane (FS) has become the first would-be Eurostar rival to make a concrete pledge to reopen Ashford International, the Kent station shuttered since 2020.…

www.railtech.com

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The Man in Seat 61 @seatsixtyone.bsky.social · 2d

Homeward bound, on the 14:34 GLC-MKC, Avanti Standard Premium. 13 late start, but I’m coping…

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The Man in Seat 61 @seatsixtyone.bsky.social · 2d

Just time for a leisurely margarita in Glasgow Central station’s VIP waiting lounge before the 14:34 Avanti pendolino south to MKC.

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The Man in Seat 61 @seatsixtyone.bsky.social · 2d

Y’know, the more I see of Glasgow, the more I like it…

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The Man in Seat 61 @seatsixtyone.bsky.social · 3d

At Alstom’s Polmadie depot open day. The Caledonian Sleeper fleet is maintained here, and London-Glasgow pendolinos maintained.

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The Man in Seat 61 @seatsixtyone.bsky.social · 3d

Heading for Polmadie depot by vintage bus. That rail advert on the side looks strangely familiar…

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The Man in Seat 61 @seatsixtyone.bsky.social · 3d

A chance to visit the exhibition train ‘Inspiration’ celebrating 200 years of rail, 1825-2025. It’s at Glasgow today, touring Scotland then heading south, it’s free to visit but you need to book, see railway200.co.uk/inspiration/

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The Man in Seat 61 @seatsixtyone.bsky.social · 3d

200 years of rail, and Polmadie depot has been maintaining trains for 150 of those. And it’s where I’m off to in a minute.

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The Man in Seat 61 @seatsixtyone.bsky.social · 3d

And at Glasgow Central just now, 92 023 is named:

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The Man in Seat 61 @seatsixtyone.bsky.social · 3d

Dinner at the Lasg restaurant on Blythewood Square, in a genteel Georgian part of Glasgow I didn’t know existed - but only 10 minutes walk from Central. Big fan of mussels, these were superb. I reckon Edinburgh gets all the attention, Glasgow is hiding its light under a bushel…

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The Man in Seat 61 @seatsixtyone.bsky.social · 3d

Little chance of that tonight (I hope). And the choir has stopped now…

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The Man in Seat 61 @seatsixtyone.bsky.social · 3d

If that’s not enough, the world's first long-distance television pictures were transmitted to a room on the 4th floor of the hotel in May 1927 by John Logie Baird.
I’ve used the bar as a VIP waiting room for trains south, but been looking for an excuse to stay here for ages…

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The Man in Seat 61 @seatsixtyone.bsky.social · 3d

Gene Kelly (left)
Not Gene Kelly (right)

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The Man in Seat 61 @seatsixtyone.bsky.social · 3d

Everyone who’s anyone has stayed here: Winston Churchill, the Beatles (multiple times), JFK, Fred Astaire, Mick Jagger, Frank Sinatra, Nat King Cole, Gene Kelly, all feature on the hotel’s ‘wall of fame’. And this was briefly Britain’s longest chandelier (now merely 2nd longest)

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The Man in Seat 61 @seatsixtyone.bsky.social · 3d

Tonight I’m staying in one of Britain’s great railway hotels, Glasgow’s voco Grand Central, opened in 1883 by the Caledonian Railway.

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The Man in Seat 61 @seatsixtyone.bsky.social · 4d

This is true!

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The Man in Seat 61 @seatsixtyone.bsky.social · 4d

I really can’t believe there isn’t a heritage trail, visitor centre and so on. There’s absolutely nothing. Even the Titan crane, theoretically a tourist attraction, has been closed for some years.

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The Man in Seat 61 @seatsixtyone.bsky.social · 4d

The fitting out basin. That ‘notch’ was cut for the Queen Mary’s bow, to stop her stern blocking the Clyde whilst she was fitting out. More about visiting here, written after coming here a few years ago: www.seat61.com/places-of-in...

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The Man in Seat 61 @seatsixtyone.bsky.social · 4d

I’m standing just under where Hood’s stern section would have been. Queen Mary & QE2 were built on the main slipway.

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The Man in Seat 61 @seatsixtyone.bsky.social · 4d

You might wonder why I’m lurking next to a leisure centre just outside Glasgow…

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The Man in Seat 61 @seatsixtyone.bsky.social · 4d

Now having a coffee in what’s left of it - the former Glasgow St Enoch subway station is now a Cafe Nero…

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