Turbo refresh started.

[whole diary]

[lordgoata]

The contractors who installed the original system will have no shortage of faults to fix, but it remains the case that a few carriages in the fleet are still cooling very nicely - for some reason it seems to often be the middle carriage

Interestingly last night I was on a service with all the windows bolted shut. By the time we got to Twyford I thought I was going to faint it was so bloody bad, so I dragged myself to the middle carriage, where low and behold it was a lovely temperature. Something is seriously wrong with these units!

As an aside, while they are "fixing" them over winter, how about adding some temp sensors to either alert the driver when the temperatures are getting dangerously high, or to automatically open the windows when the system fails (or clearly isn't working)...

[lordgoata]

Oh, and the irony (advert seen on one of the non-working systems last week) ....

[IndustryInsider]

Interestingly last night I was on a service with all the windows bolted shut. By the time we got to Twyford I thought I was going to faint it was so bloody bad, so I dragged myself to the middle carriage, where low and behold it was a lovely temperature. Something is seriously wrong with these units!

I travelled on a unit that was the same yesterday.  Could have been the same unit I suppose, but the middle carriage seems to be your best bet for some reason!

[ChrisB]

Auto opening of windows isn't possible.

[Southern Stag]

The cap and collar regime doesn't incentivise FGW^▸ (First Great Western) to collect more revenue anyway. The DfT^» (Department for Transport - about) covers 80% of revenue below the crazily optimistic targets FGW set when they won the franchise but the DfT won't cover 80% of the cost of employing more RPIs^▸ (Revenue Protection Inspector (or Retail Price Index, depending on the context)).

In other words, if it costs 200 pounds per day in salary and other costs of employment and provision of what's needed to do the job for each, then each RPI would have to collect 1000 pounds just to break even.

It goes wider too.  If it costs 400 pounds to enhance a particular train, then the farebox has to take an extra 2000 pounds more for that enhancement to break even, unless there's another non-revenue funding source available.

Exactly, and therein lies one of the reasons cap and collar has been scrapped for future franchises.

[broadgage]

Auto opening of windows isn't possible.

Actually opening the windows automaticly in case of air conditioning failure whilst not actualy impossible, would be hugely expensive and unrealistic. It would probably be cheaper to fix the AC.

However locking the windows electricly and unlocking them when the AC fails is relatively easy and I have previously suggested just that.

Electromagnets to hold doors or windows either open or shut have been available for years. Holding the windows shut if the AC works would give it more of a chance, and a simple electrical circuit would release the windows in order that passengers may open them when the AC does not work.

The control could be either automatic, or under the control of the driver.

When the AC was mended, then someone would have to close the windows. The electromagnet can not pull the window shut, it can only lock an already shut window.

[Network SouthEast]

Drivers bare the brunt of passengers frustrations when it comes to air conditioning (and heating), but whilst they receive a bit of flack there isn't a lot they can do to change things (other than unlock windows). Drivers have no control over what the temperature of the air conditioning is, and they have no way of knowing what the temperature is inside the carriages either.

If conditions inside the train are that dangerous, then the solution to a dangerous train is to simply take it out of use and cancel it.

[Electric train]

As for LVT profitability if FGW^▸ (First Great Western) were to actually carry out travelling ticket inspections and more gate line checks they might actually get some revenue;

The reason that there are no ticket checks is because the trains are DOO^▸ (Driver-Only Operation (that is, trains which operate without carrying a guard)). When DOO is introduced it is largely as a cost saving exercise, so NSE^▸ (Network South East) must have believed at the time it was introduced that it would cost them less in loss revenue that it would to employ guards. The unprofitably of FGW is at the level whereby collecting extra revenue would make little difference anyway. The cap and collar regime doesn't incentivise FGW to collect more revenue anyway. The DfT^» (Department for Transport - about) covers 80% of revenue below the crazily optimistic targets FGW set when they won the franchise but the DfT won't cover 80% of the cost of employing more RPIs^▸ (Revenue Protection Inspector (or Retail Price Index, depending on the context)).

All this area is penalty fare, would not take much of a blitz to sort it and then maintain it.  You are possibly right that there is no incentive for FGW yet another shoddy Df(a)T contract

[anthony215]

Been annouced over on UK^▸ (United Kingdom) railforums that Railcare have gone into administration.
Dont know what this will now mean for the FGW^▸ (First Great Western) class 165/166 refurbishments to meet new acessibility regulations

[TonyK]

Hopefully, the administrators will keep the company working on the contract, whilst they look for a way of sorting things out more permanently.

[Chris from Nailsea]

More details, from the BBC^» (British Broadcasting Corporation - home page):

Hundreds of Railcare jobs at risk in Glasgow and Milton Keynes

About 500 skilled engineering jobs in Glasgow and Milton Keynes have been put in jeopardy after rail fleet repair firm Railcare went into administration.

Rail union RMT^▸ (National Union of Rail, Maritime & Transport Workers) said earlier this week it was made aware that Railcare was in trouble after it failed to pay staff wages. This followed the collapse of a planned takeover by a German company.

Accountancy firm BDO was appointed as the administrator at noon and said it was liaising with customers. Bryan Jackson, BDO business restructuring partner, said: "Unfortunately the economic climate and difficult trading conditions significantly affected the business, together with reduced demand. However, we are hopeful of securing a sale and, depending on customer requirements, the company may continue to trade whilst this is explored."

The RMT has called on the government to provide assistance to Railcare. General secretary Bob Crow said: "The government cannot sit on their hands and watch this situation play out for the want of what we believe is not much more than a million pounds of cash flow finance."

Business Secretary Vince Cable said: "This is an important company in the supply chain and it is vital that key engineering skills and jobs are not lost. My department has been working with the company to try and find a solution. I hope a resolution can be reached soon."

The company has sites in Wolverton and Springburn.

[TonyK]

Business is far from easy, they tell me, but one would have thought that most firms fold for lack of contracts, rather than because of them. Getting a contract like this one singed is usually enough to see the MD sigh with relief, mop his brow, and phone the shipyard to say the yacht is still on. It looks as if they may have been holding out for a deal, and blinked first. If a German company was at one time interested, another German (or French or Italian or Spanish or..) may be interested again. Hopefully, the administrators will keep this job alive.

As for Brother Crow's comment, the Government can just sit on its hands. It has sat on them, and other peoples' hands, time and again. Sometimes, the Conservative half of the political marriage made in Heaven may sit on the hands of the other half. Whitehall has, however, realised that it has been had over by the multinational computer companies, something FT, N! first told them in 1984. Now, we read in our papers of how the Government has a completely new strategy for digital Britain where we directly employ some kidz in hoodies to do, well, stuff. Apparently, the private sector quoted ^30K to amend a logo, but our man(?) with the non-Whitehall haircut, and the unseasonably pale skin did it in 15 minutes.

I was a civil servant at the time the government decided to "outsource", and I know the progression. I have also been involved, in a non-programming way, with software development in certain crucial areas of public service. Now, the emphasis seems to be on in-house IT. Maybe that will transfer to hardware, especially after that Radio 4 programme about the perils of "Casualisation". BroCro may find that his opinion is justified, after all.

[stuving]

I didn't get any hits on "CIRAS^▸ (Confidential Incident Reporting and Analysis System)" in this thread, so maybe it is worth putting in a link to this from February 2012: http://www.ciras.org.uk/media/92699/50255_heating_and_air_conditioning_on_class_165_and_166_units.pdf. It's not news, but does contain an official FGW^▸ (First Great Western) statement.

I had a close look at a 166, to try and work out how its system might be configured. What I think is...

If it really is an integrated HVAC system, and it visibly has four cabin air units in the roof per carriage, then presumably they are fed by a common cold fluid circuit from an underfloor package. That would presumably use a direct engine-driven chiller, and engine heat (at floor level and possibly to heat the fluid too).

The four roof-mounted units should be able to take either external or mostly internal air to heat or cool, and ought to make the choice based in the relative temperature of those. I suspect they may not make this choice well, if at all. They also need to choose between a low and high fan speed, but observation suggests they have only one speed.

A high fan speed and external air could help with initial cooling on start-up when stationary, and even replace the hoppers when moving if the interior has not cooled yet. You might think the fan power must be more than the drag of the open hoppers; I'm not at all sure it is.

The end carriages have three compartments to manage, which may explain why this passenger cabin cools worse than in the central carriage. There are some specific requirements on the driver's cab ventilation, and isn't the cooling in first class a lot better than in standard? Finally, while the central carriages are better, the cooling output is inadequate even here.

Looking back at what FGW say in the CIRAS report, it is unclear whether the roof units have been changed; I suspect not. Also, this

A system developed by Wabtech Engineering has been chosen and its relative simplicity should improve reliability.

does suggest that it's not even minimally clever. Basically, they were fixing a reliability problem, not the lack of cooling power of the system.

[BBM]

RailUKForums is reporting today that 166202 has been sitting at Worcester Shrub Hill for nearly a week with a seized final drive and "it's not going anywhere in a hurry".

[IndustryInsider]

Yes, it's in a bit of trouble and will need rail skates to move it or extensive repairs on site I believe.  It's blocking the 'Long Siding' at Worcester which is a bit awkward as despite being a long siding it can't accommodate a Turbo and a HST^▸ (High Speed Train) and two HSTs sets are booked in it every weekday evening for a short while to await their next duties.