If you drive the new ECML route, you'll probably notice most of the time there is a 5 car Class 801 LNER Azuma sat in a siding just outside Newark Northgate station to the south. Today i decided to walk on foot down to this train, just out of curiousity. You cannot sit down in the seat to drive it (i assume because it's AI service) but the screen to the right of where the driver sits is active in both cabs, and displays this screen: Showing a service at Chippenham, with the next stop Swindon, on a service to London Paddington. Any thoughts on this? Possible hint towards one of the next UK route releases? Or just a very strange and weird occurence? it's interesting if nothing else so thought i'd share what i've found!
Swindon has been mentioned before and I believe dismissed as just a thing. Its the same as the 377 having off map destinations available and the 385 having the same.
I see no reason why the list of destinations on the system wouldn't be completely identical between the two classes though. However, bear in mind that GWR were supposed to get 801s. They ordered them along with LNER, but not enough of the GWML was electrified in time to justify having an all electric fleet, so they changed the order and we got the 800/3 subclass instead. Either way, I seriously doubt this means anything. I can't see us getting any modern GWR route for the foreseeable future owing to DTG'S issues with reacquiring the licence. This is likely just a weird quirk.
The 801s were converted to 800/1s and 800/3s, and anyways the LNER 801s started on the ECML in 2019, so it wouldn’t make sense.
