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Class 701 'Aventra' trains for South Western Railway: progress updates

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ScotGG

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Goldfish62 said:
Meanwhile, in the different world over on Southeastern, off-peak metro services are being restored to pre-Covid levels from December.

The South Western is a sorry run-down shadow of its former self.
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Pretty sure that's not true. The Victoria to Orpington will improve after being cut to every 30 mins but cuts on Dartford lines such as the Charing Cross fasts on the Sidcup and two tph on the Woolwich aren't confirmed. South eastern Metro has seen a fair few service reductions and are not anywhere near to restoring them all.

SWR is pretty much now like SE Metro has been for years after numerous extensions and being second fiddle to long distance stuck with clapped out Networkers. SWR have been a shambles with 701s but at least new trains are coming en masse. Both leave much to be desired nowadays mind - as does Southern.
 
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4

444045

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Can anyone assist with the Class 701 unit moved today on

5Q81 09+18 Wimbledon Park to Marchwood MOD please. I know it was hauled by 69008.

Thanks in advance.
 
D

DMckduck

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davews said:
I see on RTT that the second outbound one was delayed departing Waterloo by 10 minutes as well. Has the reliability of 043 now ended?
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I suppose technically it's the least reliable train of them all currently, but when the sample size is so small and it's working 90% of services then it's gonna be haha.

Maybe 043 wants a rest for a bit
 
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Goldfish62

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ScotGG said:
Pretty sure that's not true. The Victoria to Orpington will improve after being cut to every 30 mins but cuts on Dartford lines such as the Charing Cross fasts on the Sidcup and two tph on the Woolwich aren't confirmed. South eastern Metro has seen a fair few service reductions and are not anywhere near to restoring them all.

SWR is pretty much now like SE Metro has been for years after numerous extensions and being second fiddle to long distance stuck with clapped out Networkers. SWR have been a shambles with 701s but at least new trains are coming en masse. Both leave much to be desired nowadays mind - as does Southern.
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I don't want to start drifting off-topic but there's an article in the current Modern Railways where Steve White MD of Southeastern confirms the frequency uplifts for December.

Over on SWR there'll be no timetable improvements and probably further reduced capacity due to the continued non-appearance of the 701s and the withdrawal of the final 458/5s.
 
S

SWT_USER

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Ashford Middx
Goldfish62 said:
I don't want to start drifting off-topic but there's an article in the current Modern Railways where Steve White MD of Southeastern confirms the frequency uplifts for December.

Over on SWR there'll be no timetable improvements and probably further reduced capacity due to the continued non-appearance of the 701s and the withdrawal of the final 458/5s.
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Yes - two 4 coach diagrams on Weybridge via Hounslow yesterday on consecutive services, one of which was a peak time departure from Waterloo (16:22 - a 4 coach 455).

Meanwhile 5 years later than they should have been in service the one daily 701 diagram fails.

If we ever get anyone competent in charge of SWR and the DFT I'll one day be able to pay for travel on a contactless card and travel on a 701. Hopefully before I retire in 30 years.
 
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norbitonflyer

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DMckduck97 said:
I suppose technically it's the least reliable train of them all currently, but when the sample size is so small and it's working 90% of services then it's gonna be haha.

Maybe 043 wants a rest for a bit
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It's actually about 53%. And despite its - now four- failures in service it may nevertheless be the most reliable - it does at least manage to get out of the depot, which most of them haven't done at all yet.
 
D

DMckduck

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norbitonflyer said:
It's actually about 53%. And despite its - now four- failures in service it may nevertheless be the most reliable - it does at least manage to get out of the depot, which most of them haven't done at all yet.
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Surely its more than 53% at this point, since it started at 0633 I've only known 043 to work the diagram with an occasional once weekly cameo from 037.

What was the last unit not numbered 043 and 037 to run in service and when was it?
 
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norbitonflyer

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DMckduck97 said:
Surely its more than 53% at this point, since it started at 0633 I've only known 043 to work the diagram with an occasional once weekly cameo from 037.

What was the last unit not numbered 043 and 037 to run in service and when was it?
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See post #9000, which has been kept up to date.

Since moving to three round trips a day, (five days a week) 043 has operated 22 of the 34 days (65%), and since January 52/97 (53%)

The last unit other than 037 and 043 was 036, on its one and only outing on March 7th
 
4

444045

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3973EXL said:
701045
5Q84 1315 Marchwood - Wimbledon

Realtime Trains | 5Q84 1315 Marchwood M.O.D. to Wimbledon Park Depot Sdgs | 04/06/2024

Real-time train running information for 5Q84 1315 departure from Marchwood M.O.D. to Wimbledon Park Depot Sdgs on 04/06/2024. From Realtime Trains, an independent source of train running info for Great Britain.
www.realtimetrains.co.uk www.realtimetrains.co.uk
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Thanks @3973EXL for your help.

@3973EXL would you know which unit came down from Wimbledon Park on 5Q81 please ?
 
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OneTrackMinded

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norbitonflyer said:
This is only the third working day of the new timetable, and we've already had three different units. At this rate we'd have them all in service by mid-September.
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I'd say it's just a coincidence. We'll probably go back to 043 tomorrow. Mind you there have been 2 units this week sent from either store or derby to Wimbledon Park Depot so take that how you will, maybe those might be the next ones we'll see in service
 
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Peter Sarf

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OneTrackMinded said:
Remind me, has 036 run in passenger service before?
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Only once. As per below post number 9000 that is regularly updated and worth linking / quoting.
norbitonflyer said:
End of April, and no new units in sevice this month. The last one was back at the beginning of March

Until April 12th: Diagram 2U91/92/93/94
January 9-12, one round trip only
January 15th - No run (not scheduled)
January 30th/April 8th - No run (strike).
February 1st - cancelled due to incident at Wraysbury.
*March 15, 28th - First run cancelled due to train failure. Second ran as normal.
March 29th, April 1st - Bank holidays

701028 (3) February 6th, 7th, 9th
701036 (1) March 7th
701037 (21) January 9, 11, 18, Feb 15, 20, 26-29, Mar 1, 4, 5, 18, 21, 22, 26, 27, Apr 9-12
701039 (8) January 10th, 12th, 17th, 23rd, 26th, 31st, Feb (1st), 2nd, 5th
701043 (30) January 16, 19, 22, 24, 25, 29, Feb 8, 12-14, 16, 19, 21-23, Mar 6, 8, 11-15*, 19, 20, 25, 28*, Apr 2-5

from April 15th: Diagram 2U09/16/19/26/29/36 +

*May 2nd, June 4th - third round trip cancelled due to door failure
May 6th, 27th - Bank holiday
May 7th - no run (strike)
+May 8th-10th - ran 2U31/2U38 instead of 2U29/2U36

701036 (1) June 5th
701037 (12) Apr 22, May 8th-10th, 14th, 20th-24th, 29th, June 3rd
701043 (22) Apr 15th-19th, 23rd-26th, 29th, 30th, May 1st-3rd*, 13th, 15th-17th, 28th, 30th, 31st, June 4th*
Click to expand...
 
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stuving

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OneTrackMinded said:
Can already imagine a press release, "... and we're naming it Air-ero"
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I thought, based on Arterio as a model, Alveolio would be closer for that one. But maybe Avanti's choice of Evero for class 805/7 now suggests a better name for 701s - just add an N ...
 
I

infobleep

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Goldfish62 said:
I don't want to start drifting off-topic but there's an article in the current Modern Railways where Steve White MD of Southeastern confirms the frequency uplifts for December.

Over on SWR there'll be no timetable improvements and probably further reduced capacity due to the continued non-appearance of the 701s and the withdrawal of the final 458/5s.
Click to expand...
I thought it was due to a lack of people returning to the railway and not the 701s. I mean the reason for less services running.
 
OneTrackMinded

OneTrackMinded

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infobleep said:
I thought it was due to a lack of people returning to the railway and not the 701s. I mean the reason for less services running.
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It's more what you say yes. All the 701s will do is reduce journey times between stations, not increase services. Originally they were planned to, taking advantage of a system called ABDO which allowed for trains to be timetabled tighter (although I won't get into the specifics of how that worked - it wasn't a new signalling system or anything mind you), and way back in the early days of the franchise they wanted to turn it into effectively a metro service, but that never happened due to a certain world event.
 
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S

Snow1964

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infobleep said:
I thought it was due to a lack of people returning to the railway and not the 701s. I mean the reason for less services running.
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We will know if that is correct next week when ORR publish routine quarterly passenger numbers, and of course anyone opening up the 4 spreadsheets (passenger numbers, passenger Km, train km and vehicle km) can compare to pre-pandemic, or other dates, eg when 701 were ordered (around 7 years ago), or last full year of SWR etc

Even if absolute passenger numbers and average distance travelled (ratio passengers to passenger km) have changed, can also use the train km to vehicle km ratio to show average length of train, and the passenger km to vehicle km ratio to see if trains are busier..

Of course if other operators are increasing services because got busier again, then SWT failing to introduce 701s to increase its own services, will be outlier.
 
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lewisf

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6 months later and we’re still discussing which one unit will be out for half a day.

Every other Aventra operator has managed to introduce their fleets en masse. At this point it feels like malice rather than incompetence.
 
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Olivine

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lewisf said:
6 months later and we’re still discussing which one unit will be out for half a day.

Every other Aventra operator has managed to introduce their fleets en masse. At this point it feels like malice rather than incompetence.
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I think there is certainly no incentive anymore as it’ll be taken back into public ownership next May. All a foregone conclusion now.
 
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