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Author Topic: IETs into passenger service from 16 Oct 2017 and subsequent performance issues  (Read 543820 times)
broadgage
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« Reply #1095 on: October 16, 2018, 11:21:46 »

Today with 5 cars rather than 9 it's 'standing in the aisles an lobbies' even in first, with the restaurant coach being defended against even first class boarders who don't want breakfast.
Shouldn't be, when it was known the service was going to be short formed the restaurant service should have been cancelled to free up seats. I would imagine there would have been a few very annoyed first class ticket holders who paid a heck of a lot of money being peak time to end up standing.

Not certain that cancelling the restaurant would have helped.
The train still contains the same inadequate number of seats, cancelling the restaurant wont increase this number.
Every seat was taken and the fact that some of these seats were taken by customers eating breakfast, does not reduce total capacity.
It would be reasonable to restrict the restaurant to first class ticket holders, but I presume that this was done.
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A proper intercity train has a minimum of 8 coaches, gangwayed throughout, with first at one end, and a full sized buffet car between first and standard.
It has space for cycles, surfboards,luggage etc.
A 5 car DMU (Diesel Multiple Unit) is not a proper inter-city train. The 5+5 and 9 car DMUs are almost as bad.
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« Reply #1096 on: October 16, 2018, 12:16:59 »

Not certain that cancelling the restaurant would have helped.
The train still contains the same inadequate number of seats, cancelling the restaurant wont increase this number.
Every seat was taken and the fact that some of these seats were taken by customers eating breakfast, does not reduce total capacity.
It would be reasonable to restrict the restaurant to first class ticket holders, but I presume that this was done.
Not so much of a problem if every seat was taken.
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bobm
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« Reply #1097 on: October 16, 2018, 17:55:53 »

Of course not helped by this morning's Capitals United being five coaches rather than ten - which is why I opted to go without breakfast and get a later train from Swindon (with nine coaches).
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JayMac
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« Reply #1098 on: October 19, 2018, 02:51:46 »

All of a sudden images of Stanley Baker & Michael Caine at Rorke's Drift spring to mind......."Customers Sir.......thousands of 'em"



Oh. Hang on. The (frequently mis)quoted line is "Zulus Sir..."
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TaplowGreen
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« Reply #1099 on: October 19, 2018, 07:01:32 »

...or possibly
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rogerw
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« Reply #1100 on: October 21, 2018, 17:03:02 »

I had two trips on IETs (Intercity Express Train) this weekend. Going up on Friday (2x5) we were delayed by congestion in Swindon and lack of platform. We then lost one minute on HST (High Speed Train) timings to Didcot despite a clear run. A good run on electric from there pulled back most of the lateness by Westbourne Park but was spoiled by signal strops approaching Paddington.
Returning today on the 1027 Cheltenham to Swindon (9 car) the main lines were closed to Slough although time was kept. Switching to the mains we then had a severe check almost to a stop at Maidenhead followed by a sluggish run to Reading reaching there 6 minutes late with speed not reaching 100mph.  Traction was changed at Reading and station overtime resulted in an 8 minute late departure and very lacklustre running then followed, dropping 1 minute to the Didcot pass and a further minute to Swindon.  It took until Cholsey for speed to reach 100mph and the maximum was only 102, reached before Challow.  It is clear that the 800s cannot keep to time on diesel power.  It is interesting to compare this latter run with one made a few weeks ago on a 2x5 802.  On that run traction was also changed at Reading and the engines sounded far more chunky when started up. Didcot was passed 11 minutes from the start and Swindon reached in 24 minutes, 6 minutes faster than today's run.  Despite what some are saying, I don't think that the engines on the 800s have been fully uprated.
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I like to travel.  It lets me feel I'm getting somewhere.
bradshaw
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« Reply #1101 on: October 21, 2018, 18:21:27 »

John Heaton had an article in a recent Railway Magazine which implied the same.
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CMRail
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« Reply #1102 on: October 21, 2018, 18:24:56 »

https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/hitachi-lines-up-600m-plan-to-cash-in-on-express-train-fleet-t6lcqjbbs
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ellendune
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« Reply #1103 on: October 21, 2018, 21:00:02 »


I think they need to get them working properly first!
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IndustryInsider
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« Reply #1104 on: October 21, 2018, 21:38:56 »

Traction was changed at Reading and station overtime resulted in an 8 minute late departure and very lacklustre running then followed, dropping 1 minute to the Didcot pass and a further minute to Swindon.  It took until Cholsey for speed to reach 100mph and the maximum was only 102, reached before Challow.  It is clear that the 800s cannot keep to time on diesel power.  It is interesting to compare this latter run with one made a few weeks ago on a 2x5 802.  On that run traction was also changed at Reading and the engines sounded far more chunky when started up. Didcot was passed 11 minutes from the start and Swindon reached in 24 minutes, 6 minutes faster than today's run.

9-car 800s are slightly less powerful on diesel than their 5-car cousins.  There are 5 engines generating units per 9 carriages as opposed to 6 per 10.  That shouldn’t make that much of a difference though.  Perhaps one of the GU’s was isolated for some reason? 

The GU’s have been unmuzzled but not to 100% of their potential all of the time.  They are set up so that if one or more engines are not working, additional power is supplied by the others.  It doesn’t fully compensate for the loss of an engine though.
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To view my GWML (Great Western Main Line) Electrification cab video 'before and after' video comparison, as well as other videos of the new layout at Reading and 'before and after' comparisons of the Cotswold Line Redoubling scheme, see: http://www.dailymotion.com/user/IndustryInsider/
CMRail
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« Reply #1105 on: October 21, 2018, 23:05:41 »



They can only use the front half off the depot due to shortage of crew  Grin
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JayMac
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« Reply #1106 on: October 21, 2018, 23:27:23 »


Article is paywalled.
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CMRail
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« Reply #1107 on: October 22, 2018, 08:18:15 »

Here is the quote for those not signed up.

Quote
Japanese industrial giant Hitachi is considering cashing in its stake in a fleet of new high-speed trains for about £600m, writes John Collingridge.

Hitachi owns 70% of the intercity express fleet that serves the Great Western line between London and south Wales. It is seeking offers for part of its stake. Hitachi, which has hired investment bank Goldman Sachs to advise on the sale, is trying to cash in on booming demand for the new trains among infrastructure investors.

FTSE 250 investment company John Laing sold its remaining 15% stake in the Great Western Express fleet in March to the insurer Axa for £227.5m. At that valuation, selling a 40% stake in the fleet could net Hitachi more than £600m.

Hitachi’s disposal could also reflect nervousness about Labour’s pledge to renationalise the railways and cancel private finance initiative (PFI) deals.

Hitachi is a big investor in Britain, with projects ranging from a train assembly plant in the northeast to a £15bn nuclear power plant that is being developed on Anglesey in north Wales.

The trains were built by Hitachi under a 27-year PFI deal that includes their maintenance. Together with a sister deal to build high-speed trains for the east coast mainline, these contracts will cost taxpayers about £7.7bn over their lifetime.

The trains have been a source of repeated controversy. Infrastructure delays meant that intercity express trains that were supposed to be powered solely by electricity had to be fitted with diesel engines.

Last week, journeys were disrupted when a Hitachi train that was being tested on the Great Western line ripped down 500m of overhead power cables. Hitachi declined to comment.
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IndustryInsider
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« Reply #1108 on: October 22, 2018, 08:51:46 »

Here is the quote for those not signed up.

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The trains have been a source of repeated controversy. Infrastructure delays meant that intercity express trains that were supposed to be powered solely by electricity had to be fitted with diesel engines.

It's difficult to argue that the trains were the source of that particular controversy.  In fact you could argue quite the opposite, in that had a less flexible fleet been ordered (for example, rakes of Mk 5 carriages and a fleet of electric locomotives as some had suggested should be the way forward) then the electrification delays would have been much more of a problem.  We might have ended up with a load of useless electric locos and had to put an emergency order in for a load of Class 68 diesels which would have meant journey times getting worse not substantially better.

In the end it was relatively easy and painless to just change the order of 801s into more 800s with the potential to modify them into 801s when/if we sort out the pickle we find ourselves in.
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« Reply #1109 on: October 24, 2018, 08:33:11 »

A significant number of 5 vice 10 workings today.
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