Virgin to strengthen services tomorrow

[First ScotRail]

http://www.virgintrains.co.uk/updates/

2,000 extra seats on 16 April
Date: Friday 16 April

What is happening?
Extra capacity to carry people who are unable to use air services.

Alternative routes:
Virgin Trains will offer 2,000 extra seats on Friday 16 April to carry passengers who will be unable to use air services due to the extension of restrictions on UK airspace until 13:00.

The extra capacity will be offered through a combination of two extra trains and providing extra seats on eight trains compared to their normal operation. Priority has been given to Anglo - Scottish services.

The extra trains will be:
• 0855 London Euston to Glasgow Central calling Crewe 1035, Preston 1112, Carlisle 1216, arriving Glasgow Central 1327
• 1540 Glasgow Central to London Euston calling Carlisle 1647, Preston 1752, Crewe 1827, arriving London Euston 1927.

The eight trains that will have extra seats compared to their usual operation are:
• 0800 Glasgow Central - Birmingham New Street
• 0852 Edinburgh - Birmingham New Street
• 1043 London Euston - Birmingham New Street
• 1220 Birmingham New Street - Edinburgh
• 1230 Birmingham - London Euston
• 1443 London Euston - Birmingham New Street
• 1630 Birmingham – London Euston
• 1652 Edinburgh - Birmingham New Street.

 

[Fincra5]

Good of virgin to do I wonder where the extra seatsa are comming from, i'm guessing loco hauled.

 

[Peter Mugridge]

I'm thinking similarly; if they run the 90 + Mk 3 rake on the Birmingham diagram it frees up a 390 for the additional Glasgow; the extra seats on the Birmingham - Glasgows are probably by means of doubling up the Voyagers and maybe putting a 390 on at least one diagram.

Probably leaves them with zero cover for any failures, but it is certainly the right thing to do.

 

[craig87034]

90020 and Pretendolino out today

0703 Euston-Birmingham New Street
0850 Birmingham New Street-Euston
1043 Euston-Birmingham New Street
1230 Birmingham New Street-Euston
1443 Euston-Birmingham New Street
1630 Birmingham New Street-Euston
1846 Euston-Preston

 

[Geezertronic]

I'm thinking similarly; if they run the 90 + Mk 3 rake on the Birmingham diagram it frees up a 390 for the additional Glasgow; the extra seats on the Birmingham - Glasgows are probably by means of doubling up the Voyagers and maybe putting a 390 on at least one diagram.

Probably leaves them with zero cover for any failures, but it is certainly the right thing to do.

It is the right thing to do and I for one am happy to see the TOCs like Virgin, East Coast and Eurostar (others?) stepping up to the plate. I just hope it all works out with limited issues for the duration.

 

[turbo mick]

Nats have closed the uk airspace till 0100 tommorow except for some airports in scotland but the south of england a no go zone.

Virgin and east coast are going to be very busy for the whole weekend i would say

 

[jopsuk]

The airports in Scotland is to allow some transatlantic flights in and out, plus Western isles services- ash cloud has cleared from above there. Most transatlantic though even from the rest of Europe, especially to north east and all of the west of the US, generally routes north along Great Britain then out across Icleand, due to the combination of Great Circle routing and jetstreams.

 

[Geezertronic]

And then some maybe. Imagine how many planes and crew are out of position and how long that could take to sort out?

 

[Peter Mugridge]

It is the right thing to do and I for one am happy to see the TOCs like Virgin, East Coast and Eurostar (others?) stepping up to the plate. I just hope it all works out with limited issues for the duration.

...and it also makes a mockery of the excuse often trotted out that they can't run additionals on Friday to cope with the normal extra demand doesn't it?

If they can lay all this lot on at 24 hours notice then they should be able to boost the Friday diagrams on a planned basis without harming the maintenance schedules shouldn't they...?

 

[Geezertronic]

...and it also makes a mockery of the excuse often trotted out that they can't run additionals on Friday to cope with the normal extra demand doesn't it?

If they can lay all this lot on at 24 hours notice then they should be able to boost the Friday diagrams on a planned basis without harming the maintenance schedules shouldn't they...?

You can understand to an extent... if they are using the fleet to maximum capacity during these extraordinary times, you would hope nothing goes wrong to ruin the effort. They certainly would not want to do this in normal service

 

[Peter Mugridge]

^^^^^

True, but be possible to plan utilisation to near these levels for one day a week shouldn't it, given that they have managed it unplanned for two days in a row?

On a planned basis they could presumably arrange the maintenance schedules in such a way that we have the stock for one lot of Friday extras just coming out of maintenance a few hours earlier than otherwise, and the other lot with stock going into maintenance a few hours later than otherwise.

Thoughts?

 

[Crossforth]

Good on them for putting in the extra effort because it is going to take a while for the disruption to clear and get everybody to the right place

 

[37401]

90020 and Pretendolino out today

0703 Euston-Birmingham New Street
0850 Birmingham New Street-Euston
1043 Euston-Birmingham New Street
1230 Birmingham New Street-Euston
1443 Euston-Birmingham New Street
1630 Birmingham New Street-Euston
1846 Euston-Preston

Thank god for ash eh! lets hope it keeps smoking so I can go for again it at some point

Same diagrams as last time by the looks of it

 

[Geezertronic]

^^^^^

True, but be possible to plan utilisation to near these levels for one day a week shouldn't it, given that they have managed it unplanned for two days in a row?

On a planned basis they could presumably arrange the maintenance schedules in such a way that we have the stock for one lot of Friday extras just coming out of maintenance a few hours earlier than otherwise, and the other lot with stock going into maintenance a few hours later than otherwise.

Thoughts?

I guess that they would not want to commit the entire fleet out on a Friday for example because if they had a couple of 390 failures on a Thursday (or even during the week), they would be stuffed for a service on Friday? I guess that is why they use the 90+Mk3+DVT on the Euston-Preston run on a Friday afternoon?

 

[bluebottle]

^^^^^

True, but be possible to plan utilisation to near these levels for one day a week shouldn't it, given that they have managed it unplanned for two days in a row?

On a planned basis they could presumably arrange the maintenance schedules in such a way that we have the stock for one lot of Friday extras just coming out of maintenance a few hours earlier than otherwise, and the other lot with stock going into maintenance a few hours later than otherwise.

Thoughts?

I'd imagine that getting the extra staff in for a one off friday isn't a problem and can be done with the existing staff levels. Doing it weekly could put too many people over the working time limits and make it impossible. Quite prepared to be proved wrong on that though.

 

[87015]

I'd imagine that getting the extra staff in for a one off friday isn't a problem and can be done with the existing staff levels. Doing it weekly could put too many people over the working time limits and make it impossible. Quite prepared to be proved wrong on that though.

Getting staff to work rest days for cash is very rarely a problem unless there is official or unofficial rest day bans etc going on between company and staff. There are nearly always people willing to pick up the extra cash on offer.

But yes to do it permanently extra perm diagrams would have to be created and added to the roster (unless it can be done within existing diagrams, which is very possible for some things) which may involve overall number of staff requirements to fill the roster being increased.

 

[37401]

Can we hope to see the 90 set in action tomorrow?

 

[tbtc]

...and it also makes a mockery of the excuse often trotted out that they can't run additionals on Friday to cope with the normal extra demand doesn't it?

If they can lay all this lot on at 24 hours notice then they should be able to boost the Friday diagrams on a planned basis without harming the maintenance schedules shouldn't they...?

They know that they will fill 99% of seats on these additional services without affecting demand on other services - plus these are mainly just swapping Voyagers/ Pendos rather than finding spare paths

 

[craig87034]

Can we hope to see the 90 set in action tomorrow?

90021 today

08:03 London Euston - Birmingham New Street
09:50 Birmingham New Street - London Euston
11:43 London Euston - Birmingham New Street
13:30 Birmingham New Street - London Euston
15:43 London Euston - Birmingham New Street
17:30 Birmingham New Street - London Euston

 

[deltic]

From Virgin Trains website

"Revised timetables for 17 & 18 April

We can run an improved service following cancellation of engineering works. Find out more about this disruption"

Not sure how improved services can be called a disruption

 

[tbtc]

From Virgin Trains website

"Revised timetables for 17 & 18 April

We can run an improved service following cancellation of engineering works. Find out more about this disruption"

Not sure how improved services can be called a disruption

It maybe says a lot about the mindset of the railway that any change is a disruption that must be apologised for (even when its an overall improvement)

 

[craig87034]

90021 plus WB 64 today

1G04 0703 London Euston-Birmingham New Street
1B25 0850 Birmingham New Street-London Euston
1G45 1043 London Euston-Birmingham New Street
1B44 1230 Birmingham New Street-London Euston
1G27 1443 London Euston-Birmingham New Street
1B68 1630 Birmingham New Street-London Euston
1G40 1903 London Euston-Birmingham New Street
1B94 2050 Birmingham New Street-London Euston