(16 Dec 2024, 10:53 am)Storx wrote That would make sense, was wondering why it came on.

Mind must say I'd be a miffed if I was after one of the Sunderland or Hexham trains where supposedly they don't have any trains to double them up and there's suddenly a 4 car train appearing from nowhere...

Talking about the line today, seen it all appears to be running fine as there was loads of fears that it was going to be disaster because of tight timings etc. There doesn't appear to be any bother with the ECML merge, so far at least, since todays the first real test as yesterday all the trains had 15 minute+ layovers.

I'd say it was good planning tbh. Something we're often quick to criticise operators for not doing.

They knew it'd be busy on the first day, as not only would you have a lot of locals taking an interest, but you'd also have spotters coming from all over to be one of the first to ride the service/line and take photos/video.

It'd have left dozens of people behind if it was running as a 2 car set. Even the 4 car set I was on out of Ashington, that left with standees.