XC▸ 's token offering of the day, an 18:38 Weymouth to Birmingham New Street service has been provided by a 4-Car Voyager. They couldn't even be bothered rostering a 5-Car on it, let alone an 8/9/10 car. I'm not sure whether that's due to the number of people down there today, or just because XC are a pretty lethargic and shoddy TOC▸ !
1O02 0604 BMH-WEY 4 car
1O04 0511 MAN-WEY 5 car
1Z80 1135 WEY-BMH 5 car
1Z81 1235 BMH-WEY 5 car
1M74 1741 WEY-MAN 5 car
1M78 1830 WEY-BHM 4 car
Was today's offering.
The fifth
HST▸ is never really a spare but receiving scheduled maintenance at Craigentinny. Unlike a lot of TOCs where fleets have some downtime in between the peaks, XC are dealing with peaks in tens of cities across the country and the fleet are generally in use from the time they leave the depot in the morning to the time they return at night. For example at EC the last set for NES-SW working comes off shed at approximately 0600 and the first one back at night is approximately 2230. The times are slightly later for the daily EDB-
RDG‡ and SOU-EDB workings which are outside the core and partially due to capacity issues at Tyne Yard.
The Weymouth workings are obviously an important event, but not at the front of the minds of people trying to get to work or go on holiday. The reason why some of the workings are a four car is that the four car will have already been scavenged from services which would generally run in the summer as an eight car, they in turn will be running five v eight and in turn there will be diagrams running four v five.
As for running HSTs on the route, the long swing link bogies have already been covered. Add to this the fact that Bournemouth Drivers and Train Managers don't sign HSTs, Reading Train Managers don't sign HSTs, Birmingham Drivers and Train Managers that DO sign HSTs don't sign the route from Birmingham to Reading or Bournemouth, Manchester Train Managers and Longsight Drivers who sign the route as far as Reading don't sign HSTs!
The train managers working Weymouth trains from Bournemouth learned the route on a volunteer basis in consultation with the unions (as they will be off their usual booked workings for the course of the Olympics) and drivers likewise. The drivers were generally ex
SWT▸ drivers that joined in the last intake and had therefore recently signed Weymouth.
In the world of
BR▸ traincrew depots would know most traction and stock that passed through their station but in these days it just isn't feasible.
