The Stockton examples are currently awaiting route branding before entering service, so they'll be a little bit interesting on the eye than being in plain swoops at least! Been a lot of toing and froing with the new livery in recent weeks, the Manchester half-baked E400MMCs with different interiors evident of that.

One to note is that Cambridge's new E400XLBs are in production and painted in the new 'green' livery, so hopefully the new brand roll out isn't too far away. Paint shops are still swooping away (22413 returned last week done), and suppose painters still need to be paid at the end of the day. But agreed, think the uncertainty has slowed the NE down - surprising it didn't have the opposite effect, get them all through asap in swoops.