The year of the staycation
JANUARY
■ The Isle of Wight’s venerable Class 483 units bowed out of service, with the last working leaving Ryde Pier Head at 23.17 on January 3. The Island Line network then shut down for a two month upgrade – that wasn’t completed until November!
■ East West Rail – the replacement rail route that will eventually reconnect Oxford with Cambridge via Bletchley – received confirmation from the DfT on January 25 that a £760 million funding package for the western Bicester-Bletchley section was in place.
■ LNER put its remaining 10 Class 91 electric locos and Mk.4 sets into warm store as another Covid-induced lockdown decimated traveller demand. The sets were hastily scrambled back into use over the summer, due to issues with ‘Azuma’s (see May).
FEBRUARY
■ On February 19, preservation body 125 Group’s mainline registered HST power cars Nos. 43089 and 43088, together with a set of Mk.3 trailers, achieved what is believed to be a preservation speed record when the train attained 125mph south of Retford on the East Coast Main Line.
