IETs into passenger service from 16 Oct 2017 and subsequent performance issues

[whole diary]

[a-driver]

Are there any 9-cars out today. I’ve heard they’ve discovered issues with the electrical overhead equipment which may be specific to the 9-car sets only.

We had a 9-car 802 on the 0629 from Swansea this morning, which is usually 5+5. Sounds like whatever's going on, the sets are just in unusual places.

There are 6 units stopped for incidents beyond Hitachi control.  1x fatality checks.  1x animal strike repairs. 2x sidelight replacement (don’t you love school holidays) and 2x windscreen replacement.  I’m afraid no matter how good the engineering and reliability, you cannot eliminate these incidents.

But it does highlight why you shouldn’t demand 98% fleet availability to run your advertised timetable, come December and the new timetable this will be even more of an issue.

Obviously what I was told about electrical equipment issues on the 9-cars is incorrect!!

[bobm]

9 car (802 112) on the 06:35 London Paddington to Penzance.

It was a 25 minute late start though after the set was late from the depot. Not sure if there was a problem with the original train and they stepped up another unit or fixed the original one.

[Oxonhutch]

There are 6 units stopped for incidents beyond Hitachi control.  1x fatality checks.  1x animal strike repairs. 2x sidelight replacement (don’t you love school holidays) and 2x windscreen replacement.  I’m afraid no matter how good the engineering and reliability, you cannot eliminate these incidents.

With the HSTs^▸ (High Speed Train), almost all of those sets could have been kept in service with a replacement Class 43 loco. If there were no spare locos, you could keep three sets in service!

[broadgage]

Are there any 9-cars out today. I’ve heard they’ve discovered issues with the electrical overhead equipment which may be specific to the 9-car sets only.

We had a 9-car 802 on the 0629 from Swansea this morning, which is usually 5+5. Sounds like whatever's going on, the sets are just in unusual places.

There are 6 units stopped for incidents beyond Hitachi control.  1x fatality checks.  1x animal strike repairs. 2x sidelight replacement (don’t you love school holidays) and 2x windscreen replacement.  I’m afraid no matter how good the engineering and reliability, you cannot eliminate these incidents.

Whilst I agree that these incidents can not be eliminated, they are unfortunately entirely foreseeable hazards of running a train service. The fleet size should have been sufficient for a reasonable level of such mishaps.
I don't recall HSTs^▸ (High Speed Train) to Plymouth or to Penzance EVER being half length.
And yes I AM AWARE that HST shortages were covered by substituting turbos on the shorter routes so as to free up HSTs for the longer distance West country routes.

That however is no consolation for the longer distance customer who formerly ALLWAYS got a full length train, but now has a lottery as to train length.

[a-driver]

Correct me if I’m wrong though, I usually am!  GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) have 93 IET^▸ (Intercity Express Train) sets (minus 2 that haven’t entered service yet) with a daily requirement for 78 diagrams, obviously that increases in December
There still seems to be a lot out of traffic given the number of cancellations and short forms.

[IndustryInsider]

A lot of shortforms today too;

19:03 London Paddington to Plymouth due 22:22

Could be fun! Good job it is mid-week.

Looks like that one is now a 10-car (802001/6), along with the other workings on that diagram.  You can't trust JourneyCheck.

[a-driver]

A lot of shortforms today too;

19:03 London Paddington to Plymouth due 22:22

Could be fun! Good job it is mid-week.

Looks like that one is now a 10-car (802001/6), along with the other workings on that diagram.  You can't trust JourneyCheck.

Again, I suppose JourneyCheck doesn’t allow for sets coming good during the day or for the planners to juggle things around.  It’s initially sent through at the beginning of service or when the diagram commences, it’ll then assume the whole diagram will be short formed.

[stuving]

Correct me if I’m wrong though, I usually am!  GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) have 93 IET^▸ (Intercity Express Train) sets (minus 2 that haven’t entered service yet) with a daily requirement for 78 diagrams, obviously that increases in December
There still seems to be a lot out of traffic given the number of cancellations and short forms.

That's close to the level the fleets were sized on. To break the numbers down as full fleet/minimum in service:

class	800/0	802/0	total
5-car	36/32*	22/19	58/51
class	800/3	802/1
9-car	21/18*	14/16	35/30

For class 800 (owned by Angel/Hitachi) the contracted in-service number (*) is known
For class 802 (leased from Eversholt) I have assumed a similar fraction (which could be wrong).

With those two units still awaited, there should be 79 available as a minimum.

[Incider]

There are 6 units stopped for incidents beyond Hitachi control.  1x fatality checks.  1x animal strike repairs. 2x sidelight replacement (don’t you love school holidays) and 2x windscreen replacement.  I’m afraid no matter how good the engineering and reliability, you cannot eliminate these incidents.

With the HSTs^▸ (High Speed Train), almost all of those sets could have been kept in service with a replacement Class 43 loco. If there were no spare locos, you could keep three sets in service!

The sidelights would stop any DMU^▸ (Diesel Multiple Unit). A fatality set (including HST) must be kept together until testing completed. If the animal strike was just the leading vehicle, then a power car change would sort it, but I guarantee that GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) would not have had enough spare power cars to make up that many sets.

[IndustryInsider]

I wonder if GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) have taken this up this with Hitachi?

I heard a couple of weeks ago that Hitachi had hired a specialist contractor to work on each unit at a time to bring the external elements back to an ‘as new’ condition following wash plant problems.  They are doing one unit a day and started at the end of May, so a third of the fleet should have been done by now and all finished by the end of August.

Certainly lots more shiny ‘as new’ looking IETs^▸ (Intercity Express Train) around at the moment, so they’re clearly getting through them.

[bobm]

For some reason I missed the original posts on this subject.  I was told there had been problems with all of Hitachi's wash plants - so presumably some sort of design issue. 

As has been noted the external appearance of the IETs^▸ (Intercity Express Train) has certainly improved in recent weeks.  Been on a few over the last few days which looked they were just out of the showroom.

[martyjon]

Is the gramophone needle stuck ?

A few minutes ago I checked JourneyCheck and all excuses for Formation Updates were singularly ;-

This is due to more trains than usual needing repairs at the same time.


be it an IET^▸ (Intercity Express Train) service or a sprinter service, I can understand the sprinter because of their age but the IET's ? being soooo new !!!!

[SandTEngineer]

Oh dear, here we go again.......

From the WNXX^▸ (Stored Unserviceable, Mainline Locos HQ All Classes) Forum:

The Hitachi mobile technician was busy at Exeter this morning. 1A72 and 1A73 both had issues after being struck by waves and spray at Dawlish. 1A73 (05:29 Plymouth to Paddington) with 802106 left Exeter 51 minutes late after multiple GUs had shut down. Next along was 1A72 (05:53 Plymouth to Paddington) with 802104. This also had multiple GUs shut down whilst traversing the Dawlish sea wall. This departed Exeter 25 minutes late after the technician managed to get 3 of the GUs working. 1A72 overtook 1A73 at Exeter (instead of at Westbury) as restarting the GUs on 1A73 took longer.

[broadgage]

So much for the essential requirement that these units be "Dawlish proof"

[IndustryInsider]

I’m sure they will be, even if there are a few headaches to overcome on the way to ensuring they are.  Just like there have been with the CCTV^▸ (Closed Circuit Tele Vision) cameras.  Wasn’t sea wall resilience part of the contract with Hitachi?

Unlike the occasional forays of a particular Voyager set, each 802 will be making almost daily passes by the sea wall working a much more politically sensitive service.