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

[whole diary]

[martyjon]

Shortform Monday...............5 instead of 9/10


04:47 Hereford to London Paddington due 07:52

05:07 London Paddington to Swansea due 08:58

05:53 Plymouth to London Paddington due 09:02

06:47 Penzance to London Paddington due 12:21

07:06 Newton Abbot to Paignton due 07:27

07:30 Carmarthen to London Paddington due 11:37

07:48 Paignton to London Paddington due 11:39

08:06 London Paddington to Newbury due 09:08

09:23 Newbury to London Paddington due 10:21

09:29 Swansea to London Paddington due 12:30

09:50 London Paddington to Oxford due 10:49

10:32 Didcot Parkway to London Paddington due 12:01

12:15 London Paddington to Cardiff Central due 14:21

12:33 London Paddington to Taunton due 14:34

13:00 London Paddington to Bristol Temple Meads due 14:43

13:03 London Paddington to Plymouth due 16:18

14:56 Cardiff Central to London Paddington due 17:02

15:22 Worcester Shrub Hill to London Paddington due 17:28

15:30 Bristol Temple Meads to London Paddington due 17:12

15:33 Taunton to London Paddington due 17:53

16:33 London Paddington to Taunton due 18:44

16:57 Plymouth to London Paddington due 20:37

17:22 London Paddington to Hereford due 20:29

17:30 London Paddington to Taunton due 20:31

17:45 London Paddington to Swansea due 20:46

18:33 London Paddington to Exeter St Davids due 21:12

19:56 Exeter St Davids to London Paddington due 22:37

21:03 London Paddington to Plymouth due 00:40

21:28 Taunton to London Paddington due 00:31

21:51 Hereford to Worcester Shrub Hill due 22:39

Gosh, all these cos one broke a nose at Penzance

[grahame]

Advocates of IETs^▸ (Intercity Express Train) will no doubt say;

"this shows the splendid flexibility of the new trains, half a train is better than no train"
"less important at this time of year as the holiday season is over"
"it will get better"

Whereas I would say, as predicted. Advocates of IETs stating that I have said this "many times in the past and that repeating it brings nothing new to the party" Does not help relieve the overcrowding on the new shorter trains.

Action is needed.

Action is, indeed needed ... GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) are currently running timetables designed for indivisible 10 vehicle trains with a different performance envelope to the new 5 / 9 / 5+5=10 train.  Action on that comes on and from 15th December with a complete timetable recast.   Will that make it better?   It should, as from that date proper advantage will be able to be taken of the new flexibility.  Lots of work done to make it "better" but no guarantee, and the definition of "better" will vary between passengers who like to see zero trains loaded over, say, 80% and operators with a financial case to get loading factors consistently high.

When we took a vote on what you (members) would like to ask Mark Hopwood at "Meet the Manager" tomorrow evening on this forum, top votes were.
91% - Will you have enough trains and staff? 
74% - How are you following up - right length trains, tuning, changes in May 2020, DA3, etc
You may also recall that we promised to ensure that top issues were addressed, even if no specific individual questions  were submitted ("surely SOMEONE will have asked" syndrome).  So you can be kinda sure that something will come up tomorrow at 5 p.m. to address this - do come back to http://gwr.passenger.chat/b48 in good time!

I hope December brings an end to "overfull and standing" 5 car operation in all but the most exceptional of circumstances.  I also hope it may reduce scenes like the following - taken on a 5+5 last month having just got off a crowded connecting service.    Single 5 car unit would have been plenty hereabout!

[IndustryInsider]

Six units short, which is very poor, and the worst I can remember this year.  Negative comments understandable and justified in the case, and If I find out the reason why I'll let you all know. 

Here's a breakdown of the six diagrams concerned which covers all of those trains on the list TG copied and pasted (excluding one rogue Didcot to Paddington 387 which slipped through his net).  I'll also keep an eye out as to if and when any of those get strengthened throughout the day.

IW906
1P07   Herefrd   04:47   Padton    07:52         
1K04   Padton    08:06   Newbury   09:08         
1K11   Newbury   09:23   Padton    10:21         
1C89   Padton    16:33   Taunton   18:44         
1A98   ExetrSD   19:56   Padton    22:37   

NP128
1C01   Padton    05:07   Swansea   08:58         
1L48   Swansea   09:29   Padton    12:30         
1C15   Padton    13:00   BrstlTM   14:43         
1A23   BrstlTM   15:30   Padton    17:12         
1B69   Padton    17:45   Swansea   20:46

IW910
1A72   Plymth    05:53   Padton    09:02         
1D20   Padton    09:50   Oxfd    10:49         
1P26   Oxfd    12:00   Padton    12:59         
1W02   Padton    17:22   Herefrd   20:29               
1P51   Herefrd   21:51   WorcsSH   22:39

IW913
2T04   NAbt    07:06   Paigntn   07:27         
1A12   Paigntn   07:48   Padton    11:39         
1C81       Padton     12:33       Taunton    14:34
1A89       Taunton    15:33       Padton     17:53
1C93       Padton     18:33       ExeterSD  21:12

NP129
1L42   Cmthn    07:30   Padton    11:37         
1B31   Padton    12:15   CrdfCen   14:21         
1L68   CrdfCen   14:56   Padton    17:02         
1C24   Padton    17:30   Taunton   20:31         
1A37   Taunton   21:28   Padton    00:31

IW963
1A79   Penznce   06:47   Padton    12:21         
1C82   Padton    13:03   Plymth    16:18         
1A96   Plymth    16:57   Padton    20:37         
1C98   Padton    21:03   Plymth    00:40

[Celestial]

Advocates of IETs^▸ (Intercity Express Train) will no doubt say;

"this shows the splendid flexibility of the new trains, half a train is better than no train"
"less important at this time of year as the holiday season is over"
"it will get better"

Whereas I would say, as predicted. Advocates of IETs stating that I have said this "many times in the past and that repeating it brings nothing new to the party" Does not help relieve the overcrowding on the new shorter trains.

Action is needed.

So what do you think happens when one of your beloved full length 9 car sets is unavailable?  I'm guessing that a 5 car set is robbed from another service to enable the service still to run.  So we then get two short formed services, which you're blaming on the half length units, yet it was the unavailability of the full length set that caused the issue.  But at least this way, both services run.

[SandTEngineer]

Its possible todays problems were triggered by a 9-Car set being pinched to work the Up Sleeper from Plymouth due to failure of the sleeper loco (again).

[nickswift99]

That might account for one diagram (at worst). But there’s several that have been broken.

[broadgage]

If GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) routinely have insufficient IETs^▸ (Intercity Express Train) to run the full service at present, then I fail to see how a new timetable will help unless of course 5 car operation is to be re-branded as normal in the new time table.

And whilst two half length trains are arguably better than one cancellation, we never had this problem with HSTs^▸ (High Speed Train). And yes I know that a failed HST was often dealt with by use of a Turbo on a secondary service so as to free a working HST for a longer distance service.
That however is of no help to the Bristol, Cardiff, or Plymouth passenger, who used to ALLWAYS get a full length HST but now has a lottery as to train length.
And of course Turbos are still being used regularly on services intended to be worked by IETs, this being IN ADDITION to the half length trains on the longer routes.

[Celestial]

That however is of no help to the Bristol, Cardiff, or Plymouth passenger, who used to ALLWAYS get a full length HST^▸ (High Speed Train)

unless it was cancelled of course.

[IndustryInsider]

If GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) routinely have insufficient IETs^▸ (Intercity Express Train) to run the full service at present, then I fail to see how a new timetable will help unless of course 5 car operation is to be re-branded as normal in the new time table.

As I previously posted, a GWR manager was quoted as saying:

“GWR has a contract for 79 sets a day (80 in high summer) this includes two spare sets at North Pole and Stoke Gifford.  The requirement today is for 80 sets and this does not change in December (a change of contract from 79 to 80 is being worked on).  The increase in services comes from faster journey times and shorter turnarounds at terminus locations enabling more mileage from the same number of sets.

Hitachi are working hard on a number of modifications in advance of Dec 19 which - if they are delivered - will see greater reliability.  This modification programme is not so intense post the TT change and so there should be greater availability and resilience of units required to form the 80 sets required for the daily service.”

One 802 unit out of action due to collision damage, and also 800305 has barely turned a wheel since delivery and is due back shortly.  Neither help, though neither are guaranteed not to happen after December. 

We will see what difference those things make come December, when availability and shortforms can be truly judged - and presumably any reduction in payments from Hitachi for non-availability come fully into force?

[didcotdean]

It will be interesting to compare the IET^▸ (Intercity Express Train) and Azuma^▸ (Brand name for Class 80x trains on LNER) availability figures and performance issues once both are fully deployed, or even a bit before then. HST^▸ (High Speed Train) figures were significantly worse on the Western for most of their lifespan than on the East Coast (or for that matter Midland) lines. Reasons were put forward for this such as ATP^▸ (Automatic Train Protection) and different stopping patterns; will these translate onto their replacements.

[IndustryInsider]

A couple of set swaps/set-ups have been made.  802002 off on IW910 below has coupled to IW963 (802008), so the rest of that diagram should now be 10-cars.  9-car 802107 looks like it's been allocated to the rest of IW910, so that's five now gone from the initial list - still too many remain of course.  JourneyCheck yet to be updated as usual.

Six units short, which is very poor, and the worst I can remember this year.  Negative comments understandable and justified in the case, and If I find out the reason why I'll let you all know. 

Here's a breakdown of the six diagrams concerned which covers all of those trains on the list TG copied and pasted (excluding one rogue Didcot to Paddington 387 which slipped through his net).  I'll also keep an eye out as to if and when any of those get strengthened throughout the day.

IW906
1P07   Herefrd   04:47   Padton    07:52         
1K04   Padton    08:06   Newbury   09:08         
1K11   Newbury   09:23   Padton    10:21         
1C89   Padton    16:33   Taunton   18:44         
1A98   ExetrSD   19:56   Padton    22:37   

NP128
1C01   Padton    05:07   Swansea   08:58         
1L48   Swansea   09:29   Padton    12:30         
1C15   Padton    13:00   BrstlTM   14:43         
1A23   BrstlTM   15:30   Padton    17:12         
1B69   Padton    17:45   Swansea   20:46

IW910
1A72   Plymth    05:53   Padton    09:02         
1D20   Padton    09:50   Oxfd    10:49         
1P26   Oxfd    12:00   Padton    12:59         
1W02   Padton    17:22   Herefrd   20:29         Now 9-car as booked      
1P51   Herefrd   21:51   WorcsSH   22:39                 Now 9-car as booked

IW913
2T04   NAbt    07:06   Paigntn   07:27         
1A12   Paigntn   07:48   Padton    11:39         
1C81       Padton     12:33       Taunton    14:34
1A89       Taunton    15:33       Padton     17:53
1C93       Padton     18:33       ExeterSD  21:12

NP129
1L42   Cmthn    07:30   Padton    11:37         
1B31   Padton    12:15   CrdfCen   14:21         
1L68   CrdfCen   14:56   Padton    17:02         
1C24   Padton    17:30   Taunton   20:31         
1A37   Taunton   21:28   Padton    00:31

IW963
1A79   Penznce   06:47   Padton    12:21         
1C82   Padton    13:03   Plymth    16:18         Now 10-car as booked
1A96   Plymth    16:57   Padton    20:37         Now 10-car as booked
1C98   Padton    21:03   Plymth    00:40                 Now 10-car as booked

[TaplowGreen]

Not so fast!...…………..

13:03 London Paddington to Plymouth due 16:18 has been delayed at London Paddington and is now 12 minutes late.
This is due to a fault on this train.
Will be formed of 5 coaches instead of 10.

[broadgage]

So what do you think happens when one of your beloved full length 9 car sets is unavailable?  I'm guessing that a 5 car set is robbed from another service to enable the service still to run.  So we then get two short formed services, which you're blaming on the half length units, yet it was the unavailability of the full length set that caused the issue.  But at least this way, both services run.

"beloved full length 9 car sets" Surely not ! I have never expressed any liking for the 9 car sets, let alone love.
They have more seats, but are still a nasty outer suburban DMU^▸ (Diesel Multiple Unit). Not a proper inter city train.

[Celestial]

So what do you think happens when one of your beloved full length 9 car sets is unavailable?  I'm guessing that a 5 car set is robbed from another service to enable the service still to run.  So we then get two short formed services, which you're blaming on the half length units, yet it was the unavailability of the full length set that caused the issue.  But at least this way, both services run.

"beloved full length 9 car sets" Surely not ! I have never expressed any liking for the 9 car sets, let alone love.
They have more seats, but are still a nasty outer suburban DMU^▸ (Diesel Multiple Unit). Not a proper inter city train.

You haven't answered the question though. 

I have to say I was genuinely pleased that you seemed to have taken on board the feedback and over the last few weeks had managed to suppress your hatred for the units, thus relieving the monotony of having to read the same things over and over again.  There seems to have been a bit of a relapse though.

I think we all know your view by now, and I don't think it adds anything to the forum to keep repeating it ad nauseum like a broken record for the next 20+ years or however long the Hitachi contract is.

[IndustryInsider]

Not so fast!...…………..

13:03 London Paddington to Plymouth due 16:18 has been delayed at London Paddington and is now 12 minutes late.
This is due to a fault on this train.
Will be formed of 5 coaches instead of 10.

It was 12 minutes late due to coupling up to make it a 10-car, as the second set arrived at 12:58, off of the 12:01 from Oxford.  For some reason that change in length wasn't updated on JourneyCheck, but it did become a 10-car.