Bletchleyite
Veteran Member
Also causes a lot of lost time when they can't get over the bank to Plymouth at more than about 25mph.
-
Our new ticketing site is now live! Using either this or the original site (both powered by TrainSplit) helps support the running of the forum with every ticket purchase! Find out more and ask any questions/give us feedback in this thread!
What (if anything) was wrong with the IEP procurement?
- Thread starter Dan G
- Start date
- Status
Also causes a lot of lost time when they can't get over the bank to Plymouth at more than about 25mph.
Sponsor Post - registered members do not see these adverts; click here to register, or click here to log in
R
RailUK Forums
irish_rail
On Moderation
Not just the summer, it seems to go in fits and starts, you'll get a couple of months of almost every set having an engine out then a couple of months where things improve. Definitely a year round problem. The issue with the GUs overheating on hot days does seem to have improved and I don't remember the last time I had an engine go to "idle" due to overheating.
== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: ==
With one engine out, a 9 car will generally top hemerdon at 40 or just under ( a good set will manage just under 60). Its when you have 2 engines out that time really gets lost, generally one engine out and the set will keep to time more or less.
Whoever specified the TMS didn't really have a clue what they were doing.
You can't add extra stops to the system.
Arrival at station announcements are always the same. So if you are coming into Reading for example it will tell you to change for Gatwick. A pointless announcement if you have come from Paddington.
If on a ten car one of the sets has first class at the country end the system can not figure our which coaches are A-E and which are G-L. A major problem when the train spilts at Plymouth and A-E is showing at the rear.
You can't add extra stops to the system.
Arrival at station announcements are always the same. So if you are coming into Reading for example it will tell you to change for Gatwick. A pointless announcement if you have come from Paddington.
If on a ten car one of the sets has first class at the country end the system can not figure our which coaches are A-E and which are G-L. A major problem when the train spilts at Plymouth and A-E is showing at the rear.
I presume this also applies to time of day as I have noticed that for example coming into Newcastle on the 2000 off King's Cross it will say change here for Carlisle... except the last train of the day will have gone by then so you are looking at a 6hrs+ overnight wait, and on the streets too as the station is locked up at night !
YorksLad12
Established Member
I did once catch a 2x5 to Leeds from Kings Cross. I wanted to be in Coach B, so I waited on the overbridge and went to the platform. The first coach I came to was... M. Then L, C, B and A. Not the way LNER do things!
irish_rail
On Moderation
Indeed , I observed this very thing happening at Plymouth today on a 10 car with the coach letters all over the place causing much confusion amongst the public! And I don't blame them! Confuses me too!
didcotdean
Member
- Joined
- 25 Jun 2013
- Messages
- 169
Even more confusing is at Didcot when the announcement to change here for Oxford is heard on trains that are actually going to Oxford. I remember reassuring one confused Japanese couple that they could stay seated.
It does make you wonder which way the finances are going regarding the sets requiring work at Eastleigh. Of which, it's still been a long while without any news from there!
Speaking of the IETs and their issues briefly, I was travelling in 802106 on electric mode last night between Reading and Paddington, and there were some bl**dy awful knocking noises coming up from underneath the vehicle - and no, I wasn't sat over the bogies either. I did mention it to the guard, but I got the feeling they're so fed up with the issues these things seem to be presenting.
cactustwirly
Established Member
That's been going on for a while, depends on the unit whether you hear it or not
Oh I know, but I'm surprised to hear it so noisily and so far into the coach too. A lot of the knocking noise was on fairly straight track as well, whereas I've previously heard the knocking noises predominately on curves.
gabrielhj07
Established Member
Both 803002 & 803004 made an awful resonating noise at speeds >~110.
I heard that knocking sound on 801111 the other day as well.
I heard that knocking sound on 801111 the other day as well.
You might want to check again, in the May timetable chance the majority of London - Oxford services will now call at Didcot all week round, with North Cotswold services continuing not to.
Hemerdon bank is a real killer. Had we still got slam door I`m always tempted to get out and push, even at my age....
No, but it certainly is with GWR.
Indeed but when looking at the whole IET procurement process this is hardly surprising.
If you`ve come from Cornwall I sometimes see even pensioners at Plymouth breaking into a sprint when the units are back to front or having a unit attached thus. Trying to Sprint the whole 10 cars of a 2x5 formation would be no small task for Usain Bolt at other stations with less dwell time.
irish_rail
On Moderation
And yet on here so many (who I'm convinced never use the wofe route) will tell you pairs of 5 cars are a good thing and not a problem at all. When reservations and occasional travellers are involved, they are a bad thing, especially when not the correct way round.
That's an information problem though, and one that should be far easier to solve. The mismatch between train formation and what is displayed on the platform does happen fairly frequently in my experience, which in a time where information has never been so easy to exchange is disgracefully poor
Fine, but either way, none of those trains will have Slough passengers on board from May.
And at Oxford and Didcot, GWR has clearly run the numbers and decided that this arrangement is a better use of available capacity - which was why the Sunday trains already call at Didcot. The changes also free up some space on longer-distance trains that will no longer stop in Didcot.
The IETs have passenger counting systems fitted, so the powers that be have a clear picture of numbers of passengers and travel patterns to work from.
== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: ==
But of course it is all quite different with 230+ metres of nine-car IET or Azuma (or an HST) arriving at a station formed the wrong way round from standard practice (or what is shown on the screens). Whatever the station or dwell time involved.
Why anyone would need to sprint along the platform at Plymouth/'down here' beats me, given the dwell time in the platform for Penzance-Paddington trains - which, as we know full well, since December are almost all formed of 9-car sets, with 2x5 confined to services starting/ending at Plymouth
If passengers all cluster in one area on the platform, then a bit of human intervention can help. At Oxford, if a crowd has formed under the platform canopies on 3 and 4, as it often does, the platform staff will get on the PA when a long GWR or XC formation is due and tell people to spread out along the platform and where first and standard class will be - and they have done this for as long as I can remember.
As stuu says, a lot of this comes down to people getting information systems right - whether that's someone at Hitachi entering correct details when a set leaves the depot, someone at GWR running information systems, or train crew or platform dispatchers carrying out a basic check matching the formation against what is on platform screens at the start of a journey and reporting any issues/reverse formations to control, so they can reset screens along the rest of the route. Trains should not get halfway though a three-hour journey, or be in the middle of a day's diagram, with the wrong details on platform screens, but it happens.
Last edited:
Is this still the case? A few weeks ago an IET made an extra stop at Oldfield Park, and I remember being surprised that although it didn't show a time it was calling, Oldfield was shown on the outside of the train.
The TMS is usually set up by entering the train headcode (1A23 etc.) into the TMS, which then takes the stopping pattern, departure times, seat reservations etc. from the train service database (TSDB) which each unit downloads remotely. You can't add stops when using the headcode.
Sometimes the headcode won't load, or is incorrect, or the TSDB hasn't downloaded, or special stops have been added to the journey, so the alternative on GWR is to enter a generic headcode (GW01, GW02, GW03 etc.) instead of the 'true' headcode. The generic headcode will include most/all stops along a line of route - you can then edit the stopping pattern to remove the stations at which the train isn't calling. Generic headcodes are just that though, and not linked to the TSDB so you don't get departure times, seat reservations etc. when using one. So I imagine what you saw was a train running with a generic headcode
Said it elsewhere, but train IT feels like something out of the 80s with some poor 90s IT team trying to add a layer on top to make it usable & interconnectable. We have done this dance - even restricting the area to transport - several times already, and this is an atrocious procurement failure. If it's a case of "well guv, best we can offer" then competition has not driven progress, more like money for old rope...
- Status