Hello, YouTube!
We need to chat, I'm worried.
Sometimes I feel like I make transport-related videos
that are very niche.
And then I get nice comments that say like,
"No, Geoff, we like niche."
"We like weird stuff that you go and do."
Well this morning it's very niche,
but I think you're gonna love it.
(aeroplane flying overhead)
Now, I dunno what I'm gonna call it,
but you'll have known by now,
'cause it'll be down there in the title.
But what I want to call it is too long,
but if I was to really name this video,
it would have to be called,
"The only place where you can catch
"an intercity HST 125 train
"by using a bank contactless card."
That's what we're doing.
(electronic beep)
So I'm at Luton Airport Parkway,
where normally you just get Thameslink trains
but once an hour, you get an EMR,
an East Midland Railway train stop.
And normally, that these type of trains,
except for a few services,
which is still running HST's.
Sometimes, sometimes, you just have to catch a proper train.
(train engine approaches)
(door latches shut)
So on a proper train,
there's a Class 43 at the front and the back.
It's an HST set.
I think it's seven, might be eight carriages long.
We're about to get into that.
It's got slam doors and slidey windows,
none of this electric nonsense.
And the reason why we're here is because of this.
The Rail Network map for London and the Southeast
is something that I noticed the other day.
And suddenly in my head, I was like,
"I should make a video about that."
Let's unfold this.
(paper map rustling)
So, bringing the GoPro for a bit of detail,
you can see here on the map,
that out of St. Pancras you've got,
as you've had for ages,
the pink line coming out through Kentish Town,
West Hampstead, Thameslink.
You've got the Thameslink line that goes up to Bedford.
But when they brought out this version of the map,
one day, I just suddenly noticed, I went,
"Hang on, they've added in
"they've added in a blue line!
"Why have they added in that, What's that?"
It's East Midlands Railway.
Now the real thing, and the reason why we're here,
is because of this teeny, teeny little blob just there,
which does indeed show the EMR stops
at Luton Airport Parkway,
and the reason why they had to include it,
because you remember, I went to Brooklands Park,
where you can now pay by contactless and not Oyster.
They've added the Airport at Luton into the contactless,
but not Oyster area as well.
So Saint Alban's City, Harpenden,
and Luton Airport Parkway, as you can see,
are outside the fare zones.
Oyster not valid,
but you can pay by bank contactless card.
Or as I did this morning,
I used my phone and used Apple Pay.
And it's suddenly, I suddenly thought,
I thought, "Hang on.
"Does this mean you can now travel on an intercity HST
"high-speed train, class 43,
"having used your phone to pay for your ticket?"
At the moment, it seems like you can.
I really want someone to come down and check my ticket,
and then I'm just going to like, show him my phone.
(Geoff laughing)
I've changed the camera angle slightly.
For the next part of the video, for my next trick,
I just want to discuss real quickly.
I love the fact that we're on a proper train,
high-back red seats.
Ages ago, in the least-used Oxfordshire Finstock video,
when I was with Ben,
Ben came out with this classic line, he's like,
The mighty InterCity 125.
What was that?
Well it's just nice to see an old-school InterCity 125.
Are they gonna take those away?
Are they take?
They're taking our InterCity 125?
From my cold, dead hands!
I'm on an HST, a proper HST,
with slidey windows and slam doors,
and it made me wonder where you can still get HSTs,
which is why the Sharpies are out.
And there's four of them, there's four colours.
If I get this wrong,
you're more than welcome to write in the comments
where I've got this wrong.
But as far as I'm aware, cross country,
I believe have what they call "two by seven" sets.
I put two by seven.
That is to say, two power cars at either end
and then seven cars in between.
And they've got five of those in total.
But the thing is,
is that they've been modified to be up to standard
that they're electric,
that the doors are powered by electric.
They're not slidey windows,
and they're not slammy doors.
For that, we've entered a tunnel.
For that, you have to go to East Midlands Railway,
as we're on now.
Correct colour of purple.
And they've got a combination of,
what we call "two by six"
and "two by eight" sets,
the two powered cars,
and then either six or eight carriages in between.
And I believe, correct me if I'm wrong,
that there are twelve of those.
And also I heard that there's rumour
that they're taking some of the old LNER sets
that used to run out of Kings Cross East Coast main line,
and they're possibly coming across to here,
East Midlands Railway.
And they're not electric.
Like I say, slidey windows.
Could do that all day,
slidey windows, slammy doors.
(Geoff laughing)
And then, should obviously give a quick nod to the fact
that obviously GWR have some.
They've got some adapted,
but they're not proper four-set HSTs.
They have "two by fours,"
two power cars, four in between,
and they call theirs car four sets.
And they're just like replacing pacers
and sprinters around the network.
And also ScotRail, using Scot rail blue.
They have some too,
and I believe that they're either four or five cars
in between and they call theirs Inter7Citys.
So those are the only places on the network in the country
where you can see Class 43 power cars,
but only here on East Midlands Railway,
do you get the true HST experience
and it will end.
Sadly, it will end.
And it was meant to be scheduled I think for this year,
but current situation and everything,
it's been delayed to next year,
when the electrification of the Midland mainline
completes up to Corby, Kettering, that kind of way.
The last proper HST will then run,
and that will be a sad day.
It's just occurred to me that this must be
an ex-LNER set,
'cause it's the high-backed red seats.
I came up last night.
I stayed the night in Luton.
Someone has to.
I came up last night on an HST out of St. Pancras
and they were the low-backed red seats.
So that's an original EMR one,
but this has clearly come over from LNER.
There's one other thing we need to address,
RE the map, and paying by Apple Pay,
which I did this morning,
is that when you would get to St. Pancras,
are they going to be Oyster pads at the gate line?
Now the answer is, yes.
I already know this because I checked last week.
EMR, you have a wonderful gentleman who works
in the ticket office at St. Pancras.
There wasn't a queue behind me.
So for 10 minutes, we chatted
about all the ticketing possibilities,
and he made aware that inside the gate line
on the train rail side at St. Pancras,
there are two Oyster pads,
but here's the thing.
They weren't installed when contactless went out to Luton.
Apparently it'd been there for a while,
because sometimes they divert Thameslink trains,
during engineering works,
or if there's a mishap on the network,
into a high level platforms, ie.,
Thameslink trains come in
to where the EMR trains normally come in
and they put those two Oyster pads in
so that anybody using Oyster or contactless from Thameslink
could tap out anyway.
But intriguingly, they're just,
they're a few metres away,inside the gate line.
So presumably what you have to do is,
I'm gonna have to tap on my phone,
and then sort of wave at the person on the gate line
and say, "I've tapped out.
"Can you now let me out?"
So we will have that moment when we get to St. Pancras.
I did warn you this was niche, didn't I?
But I'm loving it.
(beeping tone)
We are now arriving
at London St. Pancras International
where this train completes its journey.
Please make sure you gather together
all personal belongings or luggage.
Take all of these items with you.
When you do leave the train,
allow for social-distancing
when arriving and passing through the station.
Arrived at St. Pancras.
Time to do the slammy door.
(door latches shut)
So good.
Never get bored of that.
Right, should we try and go through the gate line?
Hello, I payed by contactless at Luton.
Do I need to do that one over there?
(man speaks incoherently)
Thank you, mate.
(electronic beeping)
(train engine idling)
(door latches shut)
All right, we made it to St. Pancras.
Time to debrief.
What happened is that as I approached the gate line,
I could see that there were some kind of card readers
on the gate line, yellow pads,
and I touched my phone against it and it didn't work
and it error-ed.
I then had to go up to the nice gentlemen and say,
"I've touched in using contactless on my phone,"
and he directed me towards, correctly,
what I thought were the two pads to the side.
And I touched my phone in there
and he then let me through.
That touched me out correctly.
Now, what's very interesting,
although I will check this again tomorrow,
is that I'm looking on the Oyster app
that you get from TFL,
and I'll let you into a secret.
Earlier, I did actually buy a paper ticket.
So at Luton, there was a kind of a belt and braces,
in case this didn't work.
I bought a ticket and it correctly charged me
what I thought it would,
which is £15.50 as a single,
adult single, in the peak,
no rail card discount from Luton to St. Pancras, £15.50.
I've just looked on my Oyster app.
And it's saying at the moment,
that it's charging me £13.50.
Now this may change overnight because
the TFL app contactless sometimes updates overnight.
Although it will be interesting to note,
if for some reason, it is two pounds cheaper
to use contactless than it is a paper ticket.
I will put that in the comment,
in the description tomorrow, if that's the case.
So there we go.
Super niche video, like I say.
The only place where you can ride an intercity,
125 HST train, full length set,
and use bank contactless or Apple, Android pay
to pay for it, just because you can.
(Geoff laughing)
(train engine pulling away)