The methods deployed by DfT are too simplistic to minimise the gap. If an EasyJet or Ryanair used similar methods, they’d have failed years ago.
Pretty much any sub-120mph EMU would have a larger capacity per coach than a 125mph unit like a Pendolino, class 180 or Voyager. However, on a 350 a larger proportion of that capacity will probably be standing room (due to the wide doors) and a 350, because it only has 2 toilets, fails to meet the Rail Delivery Group best practice for "intercity or inter-urban services" of "85 seats per toilet" - the Voyagers do meet that. Also, due to the lack of internal doors seperating the vestibles from the passenger saloons, the 350s might not be conidered pleasanter than a Voyager (particularly coach D on the Avanti ones with their window-aligned seating).
Operation of multiple units tends to be much-more straightforward* than old-style loco operation with run-round at termini I grant you, but I'm not aware of anywhere that still happens on normal National Rail services, other than the sleepers. The only passenger operations I can think of still using locomotives and coaching stock are:
There's Penkridge as well, so the stopper wouldn't just be between Crewe and Liverpool. Why not add a few more stops to the current Birmingham-Liverpool 350-operated service to make it even more of a stopper and extend one of the three Avanti Euston-Birminghams each hour to Liverpool as a fast?
Yes, but not by means of ordering new 80x; do that and you've killed off what little hope there is of electrifying much more of the network in England beyond the current MML and TPE schemes (assuming they aren't scrapped). Any new 80x ordered should be straight electric like the 803s (and possibly 807s - not sure whether they have a diesel genset like the 801s or not) and, if not an add-on to an existing fleet (in which case no driving vehicles will be needed for some time, only intermediate cars, due to the insane number of 5-car sets that have been built/ordered), should have plug doors. They should also have cushioned seats (which should also be retrofitted to all current 80x ASAP) instead of the concrete ones on all recent new trains (and refurbs which have replaced the seats, like the Avanti Pendolinos - the new Avanti Pendo seats might have some good points but they are still far too hard).
No, just no. Those cavity abominations (including the 195s) should never have existed in the first place. Building units without a pantograph (or at least passage provision for one) has been a bad idea since at least 2015. Cardiff-Nottingham I think could do with being moved into the XC InterCity fold (with any odd local stops shifted onto additonal TfW/WMT services), with all XC's 170s going to EMR, WMR or Northern. The Birmingham-Leicester/Nottingham locals would go to EMR (who would use the 170s coming from XC) or WMR (although since they are getting rid of their 170s this is probably only a good idea if there was some electrification done to either allow them to use EMUs or cascade some 196s internally). Not sure what to do with Birmingham-Stansted though, due to the need to utilise SP differentials and reports of a short platform at Stansted.
Unfortunately I only see a chance of this happening when the IETs are mid-life in 15-20 years time. Those refurb Pendolino seats are very hard, the FISA lean in the FLIRTs and the 196s are the only good new seat post 2014 revised PRM-TSI era.
Easier to keep it with XC, moving to EMR won't benefit the service if the rolling stock stays the same.
Easy with hindsight, but in 2015 there was far less environmental pressure than today, plus short termism rules decision making, even decisions that will last 35-40 years.
But my suggestion is that XC should become a pure InterCity operator, so 170s go to some other TOC (and some get released by making Cardiff-Nottingham an InterCity route, so while the Leicester/Nottingham-Birmingham locals would still be 170s there would be more of them perhaps allowing some train lengthening).
The Paris COP was in December 2015, we already had the Climate Change Act 2008 with a target to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 80 per cent by 2050 (compared to 1990 levels) and the rail industry has been recommending widespread electrification since at least 1981 (I think I even read somewhere that there was a push for electrification soon after nationalisation instead of the BR standard steam locos). Short-termism it is...
I've not been on a 196 or the GA FLIRTs; do they have the same seats as the TfW class 231s? If so, I found both the new Pendolino seat and the FISA LEAN (assuming that is what is in the 231s) to be very hard although I wasn't on the latter all that long (the Pendo I think was Preston to Crewe, so about an hour).
Yes, but environmental reasons were rarely/never cited for electrification, it was more for intensively used lines to be more efficient and reliable. The north ECML was almost going to be de-electrified owing to it's sparse use at the time and high maintenance costs.
Yes, but they soften significantly with years. The 196s, 231s and 756s are too new but the GA 755s entered service August 2019 and 745s Feb 2020 and the seats took about 18 months to soften.
Agreed; that almost certainly would have been the case for the 1981 BR report I mentioned; the failure of successive Government to implement the electrification recommendations is still short-termism though regardless of the reasons behind those recommendations.
Maybe I should try to get over to Anglia and try out the 755s sharpish then, before TfW in mid and south Wales comes over all Sophia (as it already has in the north) and makes getting out of Wales intolerable - or do the Sophias soften too?
The longest journey I've done on a Sophia was when I did Carmarthen to Cardiff on GWR (probably a Saturday in September 2019) and decided that was a little further than I'd like to travel on one in future.
I can't remember if I've actually tried the Thameslink ones - the Northern ones may be better but they are still awful in my view - after the Newcastle to York Azuma my mother and I then went to Leeds on a 195 before taking an IC225 to Kings Cross. My mother later singled out the 'ironing board' as the worst seat of the trip and I'm inclined to agree. I can understand the pain of a lump of metal if the pathetic excuse for a cushion on the Sophias is pushed out of the way - some of the class 175 seats have got a bit tired and the cushioning in the seat back has come away leaving a nasty pain in my back if I lean back too far - this never used to be there but I noticed it a bit before the TfW refresh (I don't think the refresh actually addressed it though).
It's roughly £400k per vehicle per year, so sounds about right.
The document linked also says 950M Euro, not GBP.
The document linked also says 950M Euro, not GBP.
Obviously that brings the cost down to a very reasonable £826 Million…
Bargain!
287 once the extra 7 units come to XC.
www.railforums.co.uk
Every day for every coach for 8 years, in use or not? Surely that must include full refurbishment.
Wonder how long the tender process will take, the seat I had today on my Voyager was knackered so it can’t come quickly enough
