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Future of Class 180 Units Discussion
- Thread starter greatvoyager
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greatvoyager
Established Member
Which can only be a good thing.It would also mean all those units are concentrated in one place!
greatvoyager
Established Member
Interesting that CrossCountry is the second most popular option on here.
illustrates just how much they need more capacity. They can't be seriously considered though?
greatvoyager
Established Member
As much as I think any additional capacity would be good, on reflection the 180s probably wouldn't be the best solution. They don't have the best record in service.
greatvoyager
Established Member
That would be better use for them.
tbtc
Veteran Member
One way I could see it working would be to have a dedicated diagram from Heaton each day - e.g. the 07:35 Newcastle to Southampton (arr 13:18) - departs Southampton at 13:47 and would be back on Tyneside about eight at night.
That way, you have a depot that already operates 180s, you could run a ten coach unit each day to free up a Voyager (to double up another diagram) - you'd have to ensure that it didn't stray from this one diagram but XC seem to be able to keep the HSTs on fixed diagrams so maybe there's something to be said for using the Heaton knowledge of 180s and giving XC a daily return journey operated by a pair of them? Say three units to ensure that there are two fit for service each day, on a rotational basis?
greatvoyager
Established Member
That could work, and would also offer some relief, as long as the reliability was improved. It would probably be only short term though, as I'd imagine a standardised fleet would be preferred.
greatvoyager
Established Member
As Northern used to lease 3 for Blackpool services about 10 years ago, would there be a case for that to happen again?
_toommm_
Established Member
Not now that Blackpool is electrified and they’ve taken/taking delivery of the 331/0 and 331/1 fleet it would seem like a bit of a waste.
Manchester Victoria to Leeds semi-fast maybe if it had to go to Northern?
greatvoyager
Established Member
Ah, I forgot about the electrification to Blackpool.
greatvoyager
Established Member
In terms of being realistic, I'd say Grand Central is where they will end up.
greatvoyager
Established Member
Unsurprisingly the second most popular choice is now scrap.
To be fair they aren't exactly reliable and are currently a very small fleet, no much use to any other operators than GC compared to new trains.
greatvoyager
Established Member
That's why I am unsurprised, I'm still confused why XC is 3rd though.
Being such a small fleet it would be a big pain for XC, NR would be good apart from the unreliability although GC seem to have got them to be reliable
greatvoyager
Established Member
Exactly, I don't understand why anyone would think XC is the best idea.
greatvoyager
Established Member
Maybe if there was more investment in them things would change, but as its such a small fleet it probably wouldn't be worth it.
43096
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Because XC are chronically short of capacity, perhaps?
greatvoyager
Established Member
Why would they want a microfleet of 4 units though? Particularly seeing how unreliable they are?
43096
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It’s the Speculative Ideas thread!!!!!
greatvoyager
Established Member
I know, but that doesn't answer the question.
greatvoyager
Established Member
Exactly what I thought.
The Speculative Ideas threads where some ideas are reasonable, others are insane and unpractical. I'm waiting for an unrealistic ideas thread to seperate these 2 kinds of posts.
greatvoyager
Established Member
Same here.
Agreed. Personally I think all Speculative ideas on here should be realistic.
greatvoyager
Established Member
I have to admit, I have created a few unrealistic threads, it would be great to have a place for that.
Back onto the topic, the 180s will probably see out their useful days with GC.
greatvoyager
Established Member
I wonder if there will be any chance to work on reliability of the EMR units during the current situation.
joenffc
Member
Currently the ones they have aren't working and they haven't got them to work yet either.
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