Forum
Your feature on the East Midlands franchise under Stagecoach (p57, August issue) paid justifiable tribute to the efforts that have been made by Stagecoach to grow the market on the routes involved. But your account of how increased rolling stock was finally provided for the Liverpool – Nottingham section of the Liverpool – Norwich service let the Department for Transport off very lightly indeed. The tardy transfer-in of a parsimonious four additional Class 156 units, after a decade of overcrowding, to enable the western section to be operated with double Class 158 formations rather than a solitary unit, was far too late, and still not enough. Despite the increase in resources via the ‘158s’ that were released by the ‘156s’, the rolling stock situation at Nottingham Eastcroft remained continually on a knife-edge.
