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Wouldn't help if it was the leading unit that broke down. The driver would probably spend more time troubleshooting than would be hypothetically saved.
I agree it isn’t a perfect solution but when combined with the side benefit of saving paths, and creating Doncaster-NE links I think there could be a case for it.
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The North East Grand Central's don't call at Doncaster and I don't think they'd be able to unless a special stop order was put on four of them to allow the West Yorkshire Grand Central's to join/divide at Doncaster as part of a short term contingency plan until Grand Central can obtain either a handful of class 222 Meridian's or as someone has mentioned upthread an add on of the class 802 order.
No, but they could do. Clearly some redrawing of the GC services would be required but you'd think a solution that saves paths, a driver, creates more resilience and improves self-recovery ability should anything go wrong, would be accommodated by NR.
Without withdrawing the fleet, couldn't they split them and join them with the GC North East services at Doncaster to give more resilience- ie if one unit fails at least the other is already attached to drag it out of the way on the South ECML.
I'm surprised this wasn't considered previously, perhaps as part of the long-promised ECML re-cast.
Even if the splitting/joining is judged to be a performance risk and/or use up too much capacity at Doncaster, it would surely make sense to have all of the GC services using a consistent path?
Post re-cast, maybe both GC services and also LNER's planned Middlesborough service could share the same path and calling pattern south of DON/YRK?
Does more 180's solve the problem of unreliable 180's though? Can GC afford to expand their fleet without gaining any additional revenue from that expansion? Would redundant HST's be cheaper than 180's?
I'm not saying you're wrong though, the tide does seem to be turning against them and quickly.
Grand Central urgently need additional units as up to half of their diagrams are lost each day (based on this week), but I don't think the costs of leasing and maintenance for four HSTs will be easily covered, nor the cost of traincrew training (even if GC have a big enough establishment to release traincrew, which is not a given). More 180s are at least more of the same, with fewer costs involved. However, this would be dependent on Arriva being willing to put money into it, which has also been questionable.
At any rate, new units will most likely be needed in four years time if a requirement for electric traction under the wires forms part of their new access agreement from Dec 26, so GC may not be too keen to put money into additional units.
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If you weren't willing to radically shift timings off the ECML, you could probably get around 4 down and 2 up 125mph paths freed up. More if you were happy to do a total recast. Most of them are already near Lumo paths so unlikely to interest them, but perhaps an earlier (0523) departure off Edinburgh to rival the Flying Scotsman, and a 1700 off the Cross? Otherwise, it would be additional LNER services, but I doubt anyone wants to cough up for yet more obscure extensions when money is as tight as it is. Or, it may provide just about enough breathing room to squeeze a couple of extra freights through.
But these benefits are probably outweighed by the performance risk from the process (chances of the 180's infrequently-used couplings failing, anyone?) and the late arrival of one of the portions.
No catering on the Bradford - London service at all I was just on this morning due to staff shortages and sickness apparently (the actual rail part of the service was spot on though with no delays or issues en route!)
I’ve always wondered how many staff Grand Central actually have, as I always seem to end up with the exact same pleasant guard every time I travel with them!
Currently sat on a GC 180 from Bradford to London which, because it’s been diverted via New Pudsey due to engineering works, has had the automated announcements turned off so far.
Although twice on the last five minutes, the PIS have announced that “First Great Western apologise for the delay” to our journey
Currently sat on a GC 180 from Bradford to London which, because it’s been diverted via New Pudsey due to engineering works, has had the automated announcements turned off so far.
Although twice on the last five minutes, the PIS have announced that “First Great Western apologise for the delay” to our journey
I’ve been thinking of booking a Bradford to London return with Grand Central but I am being put off due to the deteriorating reliability of services on this route this year.
Since Christmas it’s had been normal for one of the 4 returns to be a planned cancellation. So despite advertising 4 returns services only 3 have been running.
But today (8/3/23) has been a new low with not one service managing it all the way end to end in either we direction seemingly due to unit issues or planned cancellations.
From Bradford Int to Kings cross -
0655 cancelled unit issue
0758 planned cancel
1022 ran as far as Doncaster only
1450 started short from Wakefield.
Coming the other way
1057 Kx to Bradford cancelled
1456 planned cancel
1627 cancelled
1948 terminated short at Wakefield.
It feels like GC do not care about running their West Riding services. I can’t imagine such a high level of cancellations so regularly is good for their passengers numbers.
The Sunderland circuit also had a couple of cancellations today but the West riding services seem to have been completely given up on.
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