Not so Greater Anglia

[iphone76]

Also out yesterday clearing the bushes & trees growing out of the brickwork Forest Gate to Maryland.

I thought I saw new graffiti today when passing. Must be visable now the bushes have been cut back. Hopefully that will also get wiped out.

 

[jon0844]

The key is keeping on top of it. Remove quickly and eventually people will stop.

If you just paint over, all you're doing is giving a blank canvas to people and they'll quickly come back to add their new creations.

I really do think it would be a great idea to work with the local communities and invite officially commissioned art on the walls, working with Network Rail to have a time (during planned engineering) to allow people to have a section of wall to do something creative. Teach the people who come about railway safety etc, and you might actually do some good and stop people just wasting their time tagging (at the very least, you remove the space for people to do pointless tagging).

 

[lauraGeeGee]

Excellent! If you are looking after the 7.32 from SOV to LST tomorrow, I hope we get in on time, and ahead of those pesky mainline trains at Shenfield.
Cheers.

I was the 7.42.

Was ok this morning, apart from the pesky 20mph and a mainliner holding up at Stratford.

4 mins late into Liv st. Better than my 20 mins late yesterday!

 

[lord rathmore]

Greater Anglia hasn't made any noticeable difference one way or the other to our rural backwater branch line - trains still dirty inside and out. Has anyone any news on the Beccles passing loop? There might be an opportunity to improve things once that's completed - who knows, maybe some stock to replace the much-missed 170's on the direct Lowestoft's.

 

[MidnightFlyer]

Greater Anglia hasn't made any noticeable difference one way or the other to our rural backwater branch line - trains still dirty inside and out. Has anyone any news on the Beccles passing loop? There might be an opportunity to improve things once that's completed - who knows, maybe some stock to replace the much-missed 170's on the direct Lowestoft's.

Indeed, it has gone quiet of late. The latest observations I have seen indicate that after a period of being untouched, work is back under way at Beccles, and it should be ready for hourly services to commence this December. As far as I know, trains will run Ipswich-Lowestoft only, and use a mix of 156s and 170s.

 

[Xenophon PCDGS]

The key is keeping on top of it. Remove quickly and eventually people will stop.

If you just paint over, all you're doing is giving a blank canvas to people and they'll quickly come back to add their new creations.

I really do think it would be a great idea to work with the local communities and invite officially commissioned art on the walls, working with Network Rail to have a time (during planned engineering) to allow people to have a section of wall to do something creative. Teach the people who come about railway safety etc, and you might actually do some good and stop people just wasting their time tagging (at the very least, you remove the space for people to do pointless tagging).

It does seem somewhat unusual for someone with such an avatar such as yours, which shows the infamous "Tox", who now has been incarcerated for his misdemeanours, should be criticising those people involved with "tagging"......but I am certainly pleased that you disagree with "tagging".

Do I take it that you also have views on "Banksy" ?

 

[EM2]

Saw my first re-liveried unit out yesterday, the front four cars (315 804) 05:44 from FOG was in white with red doors, and Greater Anglia logos.

 

[jon0844]

Do I take it that you also have views on "Banksy" ?

Not really - but I suppose I can give an answer.

As for my avatar, I saw the image and nicked it for my avatar. It's nothing to do with Banksy per se, but because TOX(IC) is a tag I saw for many, many years on my commute.

To be honest, the whole Banksy thing really confuses me. It's graffiti yet it's considered art and therefore acceptable. If he sought permission to put his art in certain places, I'd have no problem but I do think it is a case of double standards.

 

[dk1]

Greater Anglia hasn't made any noticeable difference one way or the other to our rural backwater branch line - trains still dirty inside and out.

Inside i will give you as deep cleaning not in full swing. As for outside, the majority of the local fleet has had attention & you are very much mistaken.

 

[iphone76]

I was the 7.42.

Was ok this morning, apart from the pesky 20mph and a mainliner holding up at Stratford.

4 mins late into Liv st. Better than my 20 mins late yesterday!

In the end I was on the 7.23 from SOV which made it in early. We didn't get held up at Shenfield for once.

Here's to a good week ahead on the mainline. (Will be back to the normal 7.42 - 8.03 from Wickford tomorrow all being well).

 

[A60K]

Plenty of stations retain their BR totem, it's almost become a commonplace sign to signal NR, never mind BR!

Not so much 'almost become commonplace' - it was and still is the official way to sign a station! As part of the privatisation process the Department for Transport became the owner, and it is the prescribed sign for a National Rail station, both on the premises and on the highway.

 

[CC 72100]

Not so much 'almost become commonplace' - it was and still is the official way to sign a station! As part of the privatisation process the Department for Transport became the owner, and it is the prescribed sign for a National Rail station, both on the premises and on the highway.

Exactly, because this is the way the public identify a railway station. If you stuck the station operator on the signs, such as FGW or London Midland, people would be confused, especially with franchising and the changovers of TOCs.

 

[ginger]

Inside i will give you as deep cleaning not in full swing. As for outside, the majority of the local fleet has had attention & you are very much mistaken.

Externally the 315s are a disgrace.....but repainting underway.....will take 2 yrs and they will be fit for scrapheap by then

the 321s are filthy but thats mainly due to fact that someone decided to paint them white! They stay clean on their way back from Doncaster and then within a week they are filthy......

even the 360s are covered in grime!

not sure what work you are referring to, but if any has been carried out it is not enough, and we certainly are not mistaken! They are all pretty much disgusting!

 

[Wolfie]

Used Greater Anglia at the weekend for the first time in ages, between London and Norwich.

Class 321 Liverpool Street to Billericay (not ex-LM by the interior colours) looked slightly grubby but not too bad inside or out....

Coach Billericay to Witham - well, it was a coach...

LHCS Witham to Norwich - worst Mk3s I've been in - airline seating, zero leg-room, zero padding, toilets - well.......

Return journey much of a muchness until the seat cushion came adrift on the Class 321 (again not ex-LM by the interior colours). Attempted to replace it and patted it down - cue an absolute sandstorm of dust/dirt and the seatcover actually changing colour.....at the bare minimum it needed a really deep vacuuming and a minor miracle there were not dust-mites or fleas present!! As an experiment tried patting other nearby seats with exactly the same result - cleaning, what cleaning????? As for the Class 321 toilets - well, lets just say that someone had obviously had a dodgy curry and it was some time since the water tanks had been refilled.......

 

[ginger]

Used Greater Anglia at the weekend for the first time in ages, between London and Norwich.

Class 321 Liverpool Street to Billericay (not ex-LM by the interior colours) looked slightly grubby but not too bad inside or out....

Coach Witham to Witham - well, it was a coach...

LHCS Billericay to Norwich - worst Mk3s I've been in - airline seating, zero leg-room, zero padding, toilets - well.......

Return journey much of a muchness until the seat cushion came adrift on the Class 321 (again not ex-LM by the interior colours). Attempted to replace it and patted it down - cue an absolute sandstorm of dust/dirt and the seatcover actually changing colour.....at the bare minimum it needed a really deep vacuuming and a minor miracle there were not fleas present!! As an experiment tried patting other nearby seats with exactly the same result - cleaning, what cleaning????? As for the Class 321 toilets - well, lets just say that someone had obviously had a dodgy curry and it was some time since the water tanks had been refilled.......

here here! the legacy from National Disgrace lives with us.........

 

[jon0844]

I am so glad I use FCC. Irrespective of complaints about their service (mostly, if not all, confined to the Thameslink side), their trains are at least clean inside (and usually outside) despite loads of abuse from uncaring and arrogant passengers.

Seems like NXEA and GA have given up even trying to keep one step (or is that dirty shoe?) ahead of their passengers.

 

[dk1]

Externally the 315s are a disgrace.....but repainting underway.....will take 2 yrs and they will be fit for scrapheap by then

the 321s are filthy but thats mainly due to fact that someone decided to paint them white! They stay clean on their way back from Doncaster and then within a week they are filthy......

even the 360s are covered in grime!

not sure what work you are referring to, but if any has been carried out it is not enough, and we certainly are not mistaken! They are all pretty much disgusting!

You certainly are mistaken. I have done another double trip to Liverpool Street today & the exterior condition of the majority of trains i have passed, sat beside & viewed on Crown Point & Ilford car sheds are very clean in stark contrast to the last 7 years. This fact is being commented on by my colleagues every day.

 

[Norwich317]

I think that when dk1 refers to the local fleet, it is the dmu units based at Crown Point.

 

[dk1]

I think that when dk1 refers to the local fleet, it is the dmu units based at Crown Point.

They have nearly all had a good exterior clean & the 170s look like they've been re-painted. Many 315s have patchy paintwork due to the many graffiti hits over the last few years, but nearly all 317s, 321s, 360 s & 379s i have witnessed today have been gleaming in the sunshine. Nice to see a 317 also now has the GA red door treatment.

 

[387star]

I have seen 315804 but any pics of 317660? Reminds me of London Underground livery.

I read somewhere National Express never wanted as many franchises as they had in the noughties which was partly through the purchase of PRISM (Wales and West, Valley Lines, WAGN and LTS later C2C)

However at the time of relaunching 'One' and launching National Express East Coast in harmonisation with their coach identity Richard Bowker said something along the lines of it being a new beginning and that for the first time the group could be bold enough to plaster their trains in corporate colours because the railway's image had improved so much. I'm guessing the combination of financial trouble and overbidding led to both franchises decline.

I am pretty sure from the start they never intended to paint many trains in National Express livery on the 'One' side although they were due to refurbish the 321s and 317s. A shame because the 321 work was going to be to a high specification (leather seats?)

May seem like waffle but I am trying to work out how a company which ran the award winning Midland Mainline and C2C could have run such shabby trains on the Anglian network. Unless it boils down to differences in management or merely the franchising itself. I do admit Silverlink was also a shoddy operation and in the main they seemed to stray away from full blown refurbishments to older stock

 

[dk1]

I have seen 315804 but any pics of 317660? Reminds me of London Underground livery.

Ah, it's 660. Tried to catch it up earlier to get the number but the darn thing escaped me

 

[miikey]

Well this is a stupid thread.
How is it Network Rails fault that the snow caused signalling failures and are you saying that we have points failures at liverpool street on purpose?

 

[YorkshireBear]

You can look at it in the way that, if the points and signalling were perfect then they would never fail.
Please do not take this as an insult in any way that is not the point i am making. I know its not their fault and that things do happen especially with ageing heavily used infrastructure.
The point im making is that GA have nothing what so ever to do with signalling OHLE or track, whereas network rail do, even if it isnt your fault it is their responsibility.

 

[VTPreston_Tez]

I don't know why GA are getting the blame still. NXEA left the stock in ruins so GA are doing a good catchup job IMO. And surely with all this line maintenance and disruptions in this case Network Rail could do with a bit of blaming for repairing slowly (although I understand it takes time but it's all piling on)

 

[87015]

I don't know why GA are getting the blame still. NXEA left the stock in ruins so GA are doing a good catchup job IMO. And surely with all this line maintenance and disruptions in this case Network Rail could do with a bit of blaming for repairing slowly (although I understand it takes time but it's all piling on)

So having seen the state of the fleet Abellio still made the decision to ditch nine units and sweat the 321s even harder, but no blame should be attached for this choice? There is no real catch up being done, the EMUs are getting a single "deep clean" and then its back to business as usual.
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Well this is a stupid thread.
How is it Network Rails fault that the snow caused signalling failures and are you saying that we have points failures at liverpool street on purpose?

What about the points problems that were caused by the point heaters being turned off when the snow arrived, with about a fortnights warning from the met office?

 

[Pugwash]

So having seen the state of the fleet Abellio still made the decision to ditch nine units and sweat the 321s even harder, but no blame should be attached for this choice? There is no real catch up being done, the EMUs are getting a single "deep clean" and then its back to business as usual.
--- old post above --- --- new post below ---

From what I understand the EMU's are now not even getting the deep clean.

What about the points problems that were caused by the point heaters being turned off when the snow arrived, with about a fortnights warning from the met office?

Also compounded with a fleet of EMU's that cannot run at full speed in the snow, they had to run at a reduced speed of 60mph, if they are not capable of this, why is the ROSCO not instructed to fix them.

 

[captainbigun]

Also compounded with a fleet of EMU's that cannot run at full speed in the snow, they had to run at a reduced speed of 60mph, if they are not capable of this, why is the ROSCO not instructed to fix them.

This is a complex issue. There is an inherent issue with DC motors and their construction. The insulation used hardens and cracks in extreme cold weather, this leads to moisture ingress and ultimately flashover. It is exacerbated where the motors are force cooled and not blown. With the latter warm air (assuming the vehicle is working reasonably hard) is blown through the motor. With the force cooling (fan on the end of the armature shaft) the air flow is less predictable with air able to get in and out of the bottom and top of the motor. This leads to ingestion of snow with the inevitable consequences.

So, there is no specific issue from the ROSCO's perspective. However, alternative insulation arrangements are available which aren't susceptible to the same failure in cold weather. A number of the 325s were so treated during their operation under GBRf and these motors stood up much better. It is down to the operator to agree a plan or work with the ROSCO to have such work undertaken, the cost is large, probably £80k per vehicle plus the downtime. The operator would bear cost, either directly, or through increased leasing costs.

 

[jon0844]

Would GA be able to spare any trains to go off and have any modification work? Seems like the idea of running a smaller number of trains more frequently is a recipe for all sorts of disasters, with even small issues quickly snowballing.

 

[captainbigun]

Abellio doesn't have a prevervbial pot to ****** in. It will muddle along until the end of the 29 month franchise by which time, hopefully, a sensible bid will have been accepted from someone other than Abellio or NatEx.

 

[jopsuk]

Would GA be able to spare any trains to go off and have any modification work? Seems like the idea of running a smaller number of trains more frequently is a recipe for all sorts of disasters, with even small issues quickly snowballing.

They would have, if they ran their current timetable but with all the 317/7s on lease- that would effectively give a pool of 9 EMUs able to be away being modified at any given time. Instead, they're sitting around getting tagged at the ROSCO's expense- the ROSCO have no motivation to carry out the modications themselves (I'd suggest that were they getting traction modifcations, it would be an ideal point to fit the entire 317 and 321 fleets with a RVAR compliant loo and door controls and more suitable outer suburban seating layout, plus wifi and such mod cons)