The Good Ship William Wilberforce

On the way back to Sheffield from Rotherham I travelled on the Good Ship William Wilberforce. This is not really a ship but a train, in fact a Class 158, and I do like the cut of its jib. The point I wish to make about this fair vessel is the excellent cycle storage facilities, a cut above many of its marque.

Here you see the main storage area:
















Whilst opposite is a flexible space area, where you could fit another couple of bikes:-
















The reason I blog this is that Northern, our excellent local rail operator, has taken delivery of a quantity of these class 158 units. They are certainly a cut above the Pacer trains, up with us poor Northerners have had to put for many years, but some of them have inadequate facilities for cycles. prams large suitcases etc. On this train the problem looked to have been solved, partly by cutting out the cycle cubby-hole that these trains used to have, where even with one bike you had to remove all bags before you could get it in the space, and partly by getting rid of the second toilet, not really needed on the local services these trains will now operate.

Well done Northern! For further ID here is the carriage number of that train:-















(The cycle sticker could be a little bit bigger, but at least there is one)