Cineworld Group is a British cinema company based in London, England. It is the world’s second-largest cinema chain (after AMC Theatres), with 9,518 screens across 790 sites in 10 countries: Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Hungary, Ireland, Israel, Poland, Romania, Slovakia, United Kingdom and the United States.The group’s primary brands are Cineworld and Picturehouse in the United Kingdom and Ireland, Cinema City in Eastern and Central Europe, Yes Planet in Israel, and Regal Cinemas in the United States.

As of March 2018, Cineworld was the leading cinema operator in the UK by box office market share (based on revenue). It operated, at that time, 99 cinemas and over 1,017 screens, including Cineworld Dublin—Ireland’s single largest multiplex by screens and customer base.^[Cineworld Glasgow Renfrew Street is the tallest cinema in the world and the busiest, by customer base, in the UK. It is listed on the London Stock Exchange and is a constituent of the FTSE 250 Index.

On 8 October 2020, Cineworld indefinitely closed its cinemas in the UK, Ireland, and United States, citing the delay of tentpole films due to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on cinema. CEO Mooky Greidinger said the cinemas would reopen when more film releases were scheduled.

Cineworld was founded by Steve Wiener in 1995.The first Cineworld theatre opened in Stevenage, Hertfordshire in July 1996. A second theatre opened in Wakefield, West Yorkshire, in December 1996 and the third opened in Shrewsbury, Shropshire, in 1998. In 2004, Cineworld was acquired by Blackstone private equity group for £120m. The following year, Cineworld acquired the UK and Ireland operations of French cinema company UGC.

In December 2012, Cineworld acquired the Picturehouse Cinema chain, adding 21 cinemas to its portfolio, including The Little Theatre in Bath, Brighton’s Duke of York’s cinema, the Cameo, Edinburgh, the Phoenix in Oxford and the Ritzy Cinema in Brixton.

The Blackstone Group, which had invested in Cineworld when it was privately owned, sold its entire remaining 20% shareholding in November 2010.In August 2013, The Guardian revealed that Cineworld employs 80% of its 4,300 staff on zero hour contracts. In October 2013, the Chester location was closed due to the landowner wanting to develop the land into a supermarket.

In 2014, Cineworld’s Picturehouse chain was subject to industrial action owing to its refusal to pay the London living wage to its staff. The workforce attracted the support of Eric Cantona. On 27 February 2014, Cineworld completed the takeover of Cinema City International N.V.. As of March 2015, the Greidinger family (who owned a controlling 54% stake in Cinema City International) held a controlling bloc as the largest shareholders in the enlarged company.

In May 2014, Mooky Greidinger joined the board of directors as CEO, having previously been CEO of Cinema City International.

In 2015, Picturehouse unveiled their new West End flagship site, ‘Picturehouse Central’,  a 1,000 seat, seven-screen cinema on Shaftesbury Avenue near Piccadilly Circus in central London. In August 2016 Cineworld acquired six cinemas from Empire Cinemas, including the Empire Theatre in London’s West End, and 4 other locations in Basildon, Poole, Bromley and Hemel Hempstead. Empire Newcastle was also acquired by Cineworld the following year.

In November 2017, Cineworld began merger talks with the US cinema chain Regal Cinemas. On 5 December, it was officially announced that Cineworld would buy Regal for US$3.6 billion (£2.7 billion), creating the world’s second largest cinema group. It would also allow Cineworld access to the US market, the largest in the world. The acquisition was completed in 2018.

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This blog was made by Simon Schofield

History

The venue takes its name from the street on which it stands, Newgate Street. It is part of the historic Grainger Town area of Newcastle. It was opened on 28 November 2002.

The Gate has 19 venues spread across three floors, including a 16-screen Cineworld Cinema and Aspers Casino. The Gate is also next to Newcastle’s Chinatown; there is an entrance on Stowell Street. The Gate building was built to replace the 35-year-old, 7-storey Newgate House, which was home to the prolific music venue; The Mayfair club. Mood Bar opened on 28 November 2002, the same time as The Gate.

The 19,235 m², £80 million venue was built by Land Securities and the 12-metre-tall (39 ft) sculpture outside, “Ellipsis Eclipses”, was designed by Danny Lane. The 24-metre-high (79 ft) glass façade was designed by Space Decks Limited.^[4] The Odeon Cinema (later Empire, now Cineworld) was built to replace the 71-year-old Odeon/Paramount cinema on Pilgrim Street, which after the Gate’s opening remained disused until its demolition in 2017. The Gate provided 400 new jobs when opened and a further 600 during construction.

In 2004 BDP Lighting won a Lighting Design award for their work at The Gate.

The Gate won the Property Week award for Best Commercial UK Mixed-Use Leisure Scheme, and the British Toilet Association awarded The Gate a Loo of the Year Award and awarded it five stars.

In 2010 Jamie Ritblat‘s property company, Delancey, bought The Gate in a £900 million package of properties from PropInvest Group, in partnership with the Royal Bank of Scotland. In 2012 The Gate was sold to the Crown Estate for £60 million

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Tyne Tunnel goes cashless – how it works, how to pay the toll and how to top-up

The toll booths are closed as Tyne Pass launches, it means motorists now drive straight through the Tyne Tunnel without having to stop at barriers

Drivers using the Tyne Tunnels can no longer use cash to pay the toll fare.

The tunnels have switched to a cashless ‘open road tolling’ system called ‘Tyne Pass’ which means motorists drive straight through the tunnels without stopping at a toll booth to pay the £1.90 fare for cars, small vans and small buses.

Motorists must still pay a fare to use the Tyne Tunnel. An Automatic Number Plate Recognition system will log their number plate. But Tunnel users can no longer pay at the toll plaza. Instead, they have several payment options. They can use a pre-paid top-up account or pay their fare after their journey, either online, over the phone or at a PayPoint till, which are found in shops around the country.

How to pay to use the Tyne Tunnel

Motorists using the Tyne Tunnel have several payment options. They can choose to use a prepaid account, which will be deducted from automatically after passing through the tunnels, or they can pay later, either online, over the phone or at a PayPoint till in retailers across the country.

TT2 says: “Open Road Tolling means there will no longer be a need to stop at a toll plaza; we will use an advanced Automatic Number Plate Recognition (ANPR) system to detect your Vehicle Registration Number and we’ll either deduct the toll from your account or you can pay by midnight the day after your journey on our website, via our automated top-up line or at a PayPoint by cash.”

How does the Tyne Tunnel’s new system work?

Before Monday November 8, motorists using the Tyne Tunnel had to stop at a toll booth before they could re-enter the A19 after passing through the tunnels. They could either pay the toll immediately, using cash, or choose to pay later.

But as of November 8, motorists are no longer required to stop at the toll plaza when using the tunnel between Jarrow, South Tyneside and Howdon, North Tyneside. Instead, they now have drive straight through the tunnel and back onto the main road without stopping. The idea behind the Tyne Pass open road tolling system is to speed up Tyne Tunnel journeys, which owner T2 says will improve journey times and cut emissions.

But the new system doesn’t mean the tunnel is free to use for car, van, lorry and bus drivers. They will still have to pay, and their number plates will be logged by a camera system.

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This blog was made by Simon Schofield

Sing 2 is an upcoming American computer-animated musical comedy film produced by Illumination and distributed by Universal Pictures. The sequel to the 2016 film Sing, the film is written and directed by Garth Jennings and stars Matthew McConaughey, Reese Witherspoon, Scarlett Johansson, Nick Kroll, Taron Egerton, Tori Kelly, Nick Offerman, and Jennings reprising their roles from the first film. The sequel is also set to feature new characters voiced by Bobby Cannavale, Halsey, Pharrell Williams, Letitia Wright, Eric André, Chelsea Peretti, and Bono.

The film will premiere at the AFI Fest on November 14, 2021, before releasing theatrically in the United States on December 22, 2021 by Universal Pictures.

Premise

After the events of the first film, Buster Moon and his new cast now have their sights set on debuting a new show at the Crystal Tower Theater in glamorous Redshore City. But without connections, he and his singers must sneak into the offices of Crystal Entertainment, run by the ruthless mogul Jimmy Crystal, where the gang pitches the ridiculous idea of casting the lion rock legend Clay Calloway in their show. Buster must embark on a quest to find the now-reclusive Clay and persuade him to return to the stage

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This by simon schofield

The Boss Baby: Family Business (known in other territories as The Boss Baby 2) is a 2021 American computer-animated comedy film loosely based on the 2010 picture book The Boss Baby and its 2016 sequel The Bossier Baby by Marla Frazee, produced by DreamWorks Animation, and distributed by Universal Pictures. The second installment in The Boss Baby franchise and the sequel to the 2017 film, the film is directed by Tom McGrath, from a screenplay by Michael McCullers with a story by McGrath and McCullers, and stars the voices of Alec Baldwin, James Marsden, Amy Sedaris, Ariana Greenblatt, Jeff Goldblum, Eva Longoria, Jimmy Kimmel, and Lisa Kudrow. The plot follows the now-adult Templeton brothers (Baldwin and Marsden) who are brought back together after the new Boss Baby (Sedaris) requests their help to stop a professor (Goldblum) from erasing childhoods worldwide.

Plans for a Boss Baby sequel were announced in May 2017 with McGrath returning to direct. Animation began at DWA Glendale and some production assets were borrowed from Jellyfish Pictures, with voice acting being done remotely due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The film was theatrically released in the United States on July 2, 2021 in traditional and select RealD 3D and Dolby Cinema locations, by Universal Pictures; it also streamed on paid tiers of Peacock for 60 days. The film grossed $128 million worldwide, with the Rotten Tomatoes critics consensus calling it “a painless diversion for the kids”.

Plot

Set 30 years after the events of the first film, Tim Templeton is now fully grown and lives with his wife Carol and their two daughters, 8-year-old Tabitha and infant Tina. Tim’s younger brother Ted Jr. is now a successful CEO and is never around, instead sending lavish gifts to Tim and his family. Tabitha is exhibiting more grown-up behavior, and one night while a discouraged Tim wonders about the person his daughter is becoming, he hears something from Tina’s room. He discovers that Tina is a Boss Baby, just as Ted once was, and that she has been assigned to get Ted there for a special mission. Tim refuses to call, saying that he will never come, and encourages Tina to go back to sleep. However, Tina leaves a fake voicemail for Ted, luring him to the Templeton’s house.

The next morning Ted arrives and Tim tries to explain to him that Tina is a Boss Baby. Tina reveals herself as a Boss Baby to Ted and gives them both magic pacifiers to visit BabyCorp. Tina introduces the brothers to a new formula that will allow them to turn back into children for 48 hours in order to go undercover to Tabitha’s school and figure out what Dr. Erwin Armstrong, founder and principal of the school, is planning behind parents’ back.

At the school, Tim, now as his 7-year-old self, follows Tabitha to her class while baby Ted is placed with other babies. Ted rallies the babies to help him get out of the playroom so that he can go to Armstrong’s office to investigate. Tim tries to get sent to the principal’s office as well by disrupting class, but is instead put in “The Box” for timeout. Ted discovers that Armstrong is actually a baby himself, having run away from home after realizing that he was smarter than his parents and now makes money by creating popular phone apps. His ultimate plan is to get rid of every parent on B-Day, so that they cannot tell their children what to do anymore. After being unable to get ahold of BabyCorp and seeing that the brothers are once again drifting apart, Tina makes a show of quitting and says that they will complete the mission themselves.

On the night of the holiday pageant, where Tabitha is supposed to sing a solo, the brothers and Tina plan to expose Armstrong as a fraud. However, they learn that B-Day is set to happen that night through Armstrong’s new app, QT-Snap, which will hypnotize the parents into mindless zombies. Both Tim and Ted are caught by Armstrong’s ninja babies and are put in The Box, which slowly starts to fill with water. Tabitha sings her solo, but when she sees that Tim has not showed up as he promised, she runs off the stage crying. She is consoled by Tina, who reveals her identity and her mission. Tabitha agrees to help her younger sister by getting to the server and shutting down QT-Snap before it can go worldwide. Ted is able to call Precious, Tabitha’s pet pony, into the school, as she breaks them out of The Box.

Tim and Ted reach the server first, but they are stopped by Armstrong, who calls the zombie parents for backup. While the brothers hold them back as the formula starts to wear off, Tina and Tabitha get up to the server. Tabitha is able to hack in and pull up the shutdown screen, but the keyboard is destroyed by Armstrong. The sisters then set off a candy volcano using Mentos and soda, destroying the servers and turning all parents back to normal. Tina then reveals that she never quit BabyCorp and that bringing Tim and Ted back together was her true mission. The whole Templeton family gathers to celebrate Christmas, while Armstrong returns to his own family.

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The British Rail Class 375 is an electric multiple unit train that was built by Bombardier Transportation (previously Adtranz) at Derby Litchurch Lane Works, from 1999 to 2005. The class form part of the Electrostar family of units, which also includes classes 357, 376, 377, 378, 379 and 387, is the most numerous type of EMU introduced since the privatisation of British Rail.

These trains are owned by Eversholt Rail Group (formerly HSBC Rail) and leased to Southeastern for operation from London to Kent and parts of East Sussex.^[3]

The Class 375 is the principal train used by Southeastern, and replaced the slam-door Mark 1 derived stock, which was more than 40 years old and did not meet modern health and safety requirements. All units have been converted from Tightlock to Dellner couplers.^[2]

In May 2015, unit 375301 was moved from Ramsgate Depot to Derby Litchurch Lane Works for a full refurbishment. On 16 May 2015, it was returned to the Kent depot wearing a new livery, similar to, but not based on the ‘Highspeed’ livery carried by the high speed Class 395 EMU, with a more vibrant shade of blue on the saloon doors and bolder stripes to highlight First Class and Disabled areas. Internally, the unit has received new carpets and lino flooring, new table top covers and the grab poles, side panels and table legs have been re-powder coated. The existing seat covers have been retained, but were dry cleaned to provide a brighter, cleaner interior. This work will also involve combining the two separate First Class sections on four car units into one section in the end of MOSL coach. It is intended for all class 375 units to receive this refurbishment between 2015 and 2018. The original plan was for the first 50 units (375/3s, 375/6s and 375/7s) to be refurbished at Bombardier in Derby and then the remaining units would be transferred for refurbishment at Bombardier Ilford. This plan did not go ahead and the 375/8s and 375/9s were sent to Derby. On 19 September 2015 the last 375/3 unit no 375310 went to Derby for refurbishment. The following week on 26 September the first 375/6 went to Derby for refurbishment.^[4] The final 375 to receive the refurbishment and gain the new blue Southestern livery was 375 920, which was returned to Ramsgate depot on 28 April 2018.

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We are excited to announce the new release date for Rivet Games’ upcoming West Cornwall Local: Penzance – St Austell & St Ives route. On November 4th, all players will be able to tour the beautiful Cornish countryside in the Class 150/2 and BR Class 37/5! In the time taken to address issues (Update notes here), the timetable has also seen some additional work in the form of a new layer which adds over 20 playable services!

These services include:Loco-hauled passenger and mail services between St. Austell and Penzance, combined with light loco moves and BR Class 08 pilot procedures at Penzance. Various sidings and yards have been populated with static rolling stock, and the BR Class 101 is driveable on the existing BR Class 150 services, as a few heritage DMUs were still roaming the Cornish Countryside by the early 1990s.

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The British Rail Class 166 Networker Turbo is a fleet of diesel multiple-unit passenger trains (DMUs), originally specified by and built for British Rail, the then Great Britain state-owned railway operator. They were built by ABB at York Works between 1992 and 1993.^[2] The trains were designed as a faster, air-conditioned variant of the Class 165 Turbo, intended for longer-distance services, and, like the 165s, belong to the Networker family of trains. They were originally known as Networker Turbos to distinguish them from the electrically propelled members of that family. Today, the 166s alongside the 165s are normally referred to as Thames Turbos or just simply Turbos.

The Class 166s are still in service today, solely operated by Great Western Railway. Until 2017, they were operating only on express and local services in the Thames Valley area alongside the Class 165 units. In this time, they were based at Reading TMD but since July 2017, the 166 units have been gradually moved over to be based at St Philip’s Marsh depot to operate local and regional services around Bristol. Nowadays, majority of the 166 units are based in Bristol while a lot of 165 units remain in the Thames Valley to operate until they are replaced by Class 769 units.

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The British Rail Class 387 is a type of electric multiple unit passenger train built by Bombardier Transportation as part of the Electrostar family. A total of 107 units were built, with the first train entering service with Thameslink in December 2014. The trains are currently in service with Great Western Railway, Govia Thameslink Railway, c2c, and Heathrow Express. The Class 387 is a variation of the Class 379 Bombardier Electrostar, albeit with dual-voltage capability (which allows units to run on 750V third rail as well as use 25kV OLE). The class were the final rolling stock orders based on the Bombardier Electrostar family with 2,805 vehicles built over 18 years between 1999 and 2017.

This blog was made by Simon Schofield