A look forward in the South West?

[whole diary]

[Adelante_CCT]

  I think that the reason that splitting is out of fashion is that there is potential for delay when worked in the opposite direction when you might be delayed waiting for the other portion to arrive. 

An advantage of this though is assuming the correct driver is in the right location there's nothing to stop the on-time portion from continuing without the need for a lengthy wait.

Slightly different example but I saw a good piece of planning by XC^▸ (Cross Country Trains (franchise)) last week. The service from Newcastle to Guildford was delayed at Doncaster for an hour due to an unwell passenger. This unit was then terminated at Sheffield. As it happened a double voyager was heading from the south-west to Edinburgh, they decided to split this at Derby with one portion heading south to Guildford on-time about 10 minutes later, the remaining portion continued Northbound and by the time it had reached Sheffield the original Guildford service had arrived, so joined them up and continued to Edinburgh with minimal delay and the correct number of units going to where they were suppose to.

[eightf48544]

Interesting observation. I suppose it worked because Sheffield and Derby are roughly around halfway between Edinburgh and Guildford so the units should be OK for fuel being switched.

The problem with Plymouth is that it is 2/3 of the way between London and Penzance so you could run into fuel poblems if units had to be switched.

It's a problem with DMUs^▸ (Diesel Multiple Unit).

[IndustryInsider]

I recall full length trains on the Waterloo to Exeter line being downgraded to 3 car DMUs^▸ (Diesel Multiple Unit), it was stated that "flexible train length" was a great merit of the shorter trains and that "6 car or even 9 car trains could run at busy times" in fact single unit operation and severe overcrowding was the norm for at least 10 years. Whilst it is true that the 3 car and now some 2 car units do regularly run in multiple this has taken at least 10 years and perhaps 20 years and has barely kept up with passenger growth.

I know you regularly cite this example as to why we should expect the new trains ordered for the Great Western route to be a disaster in every regard, but there are several reasons why a direct comparison might not be helpful, and indeed misleading:

• It was over 20 years ago and before privatisation.
• The country was in recession from 1990 to 1993 so NSE^▸ (Network South East) found it very hard to find the money to deliver the number or type of trains that it wanted, indeed the 159s that turned up were basically those not wanted, but already ordered (as 158s), for Regional Railways routes.
• As a result, after a rise in the late 80s, the early 90s (when the trains were delivered) saw several successive years of reduced train travel - much less than half today's total.
• The route itself is different, more a regional route serving smaller populations closer together than the bulk of the Great Western network on which these trains new will run - though I guess you could compare Basingstoke to Exeter with Exeter to Penzance in some respects.

I remember travelling down to Templecombe and Andover on a couple of occasions in the latter days of loco-hauled trains and the timings were slower than now, the carriages comfortable but dated and often half empty, and the reliability of the engines (Class 47s, 50s, or, heaven forbid the odd Class 33!) absolutely terrible causing massive problems if they failed on one of the single track sections.  Oh, and the frequency was about half of that the route now enjoys.  But they were the apparently the good old days?

[didcotdean]

The 165/166 order was also in the early 1990s and goes somewhere to explain what was thought to be sufficient at the time are now bursting at the seams.

[Kernowman]

To be honest, I can^t see bi-modes being used on Services to the Southwest for the foreseeable future, not until more of the route is electrified.
In short I can see HSTs^▸ (High Speed Train) being retained for Southwest Services ^ and, in this context, by Southwest services I mean Pad ^ Westbury/Frome/Taunton/Exeter/Paignton/Plymouth/Newquay/Penzance services. (For the current summer timetable this would require about 20 HST sets)

Plus with the current political backtracking I doubt that there will barely be enough bi-modes to work Pad ^ Worc/Great Malvern/Hereford/Cheltenham/Weston^super-Mare/Carmarthen/Pembroke Dock Services.

Another problem is that bi-modes, if they^re limited to 100mph, they cannot reach the 110mph line speed on the Newbury ^ Westbury route and the Uphill Junction ^ Taunton route, therefore I cannot see them being introduced until a time when more of the route is electrified.

In any case, with some exceptions, total fleet replacement is not as good an idea as partial fleet replacement. Partial fleet replacement means that you have plenty of spares for the remaining fleet. Therefore I don^t think that leaving HSTs on West Country services is such a bad thing (plus all the other advantages an HST has).

I remember the last years of loco-hauled on the Exeter ^ Waterloo line where everything was seemingly deliberately run down, partly to make the new units look better. Good locos were withdrawn and sold and locos in poorer condition were left to carry on with not enough maintenance. Also more modern Air con stock was deliberately kept off the line, despite being available, (with the exception of first class vehicles mind you, it was ok to upgrade first class vehicles to air con stock!). I also seem to remember the micro-buffets disappearing from this route around the same time.

One final note about buffets is that they^re useful normally and a god-send when a train is delayed. If you get stuck on a train somewhere, knowing that you can walk down to the buffet for refreshments makes a lot of difference. 

[Chris from Nailsea]

One final note about buffets is that they^re useful normally and a god-send when a train is delayed. If you get stuck on a train somewhere, knowing that you can walk down to the buffet for refreshments makes a lot of difference. 

Now that, Kernowman, is a very good point, and well made. 

[ChrisB]

Don't forget that you'll still able to walk to a trolley. Who knows, you might not even have to walk...it might come to you....

[Chris from Nailsea]

Fair enough - but only a trolley the size of ... well, a buffet ... would be able to offer the same range of refreshments to such stranded passengers.