Riding on them it's very bittersweet because they provide a wonderful commuter product all round and a massive improvement over what they're replacing but are only going to reach a small portion of passengers for a long time to come
You jinxed it. Go check what happened today lol
With the lack of a training course, this is as much as can be done unfortunately, except for maybe all day running although not sure on that
There are still peak only services, so yes. The stock of 2R53 does work other stuff at present, but the stock from the Hounslow Rounder 30 minutes earlier currently goes to depot. With the 701 working this it will finally actually be helping with the stock situation.
What has happened?
043 the casualty yet again. Even allowing for its graeter usage, it does seem to be more fragile than any of the others that have been out (I don't think 037 has failed even once). Or maybe it's wearing out?
This will be their first appearance in service on the Brentford Loop, which does appear to be getting all the nice toys at present. Meanwhile, the rest of us have now been sweltering in non-airconditioned units for five summers since the 701s were supposed to have entered service.
And then nothing will change for another 2-3 months.
Funny really, the Hounslow loop getting it next.
Quite possibly. It amazes me there are never any joint revenue/ BTP operations on Brentford FC match days - SWR must be losing hundreds of thousands of pounds over the course of the season as there are never any checks...
Interesting - thanks for sharing. I don't think they 'feel' cheap when on them but maybe the cost cutting (along with a good dose of incompetence) is part of the reason we're still waiting for a proper introduction 5 years later.
How many other Aventra rollouts changed the method of working?
I agree with you, also possible that due to the size of the order (largest Aventra order in total number of carriages, 750 in total) there was some sort of economy of scale going on considering the other new designs on the list were much, much smaller orders. Maybe some of the places costs were cut was during the initial on site testing phase, who knows.
Have they? There are still 4tph via Brentford - two to Weybridge and two to Twickenham. The cut has been on the return side of the loop south of the Thames, via Mortlake (which is now only served by the Kingston loop services)
It is only 2tph off peak, to Weybridge. 4tph in the peak, but they run via the full loop so serve stations via Mortlake.
I agree, and football fans generally get a raw deal - I'm a season ticket holder there. But I know that fare evasion is rife on match days from the unbarriered stations west of Kew Bridge.
Only for a couple of hours in the peak. It's 2tph for most of the day and all day on Saturdays (the Weybridge services). SWR probably don't have enough serviceable stock to run 4tph all day anymore anyway.
I don’t know, but SWR have had 7 years since first announcing the 701s to sort it out.
Greater Anglia. They changed the way of working on a huge part of their network and managed this quickly together with replacing their entire fleet with not one, but two completely different types of train.
Back in the day, 2V47 and the above were used as a balancing move from the Park to Clapham, both in 450 and 458/5 days, after said formations had been (on paper) on a.m. return diagrams from CYD to WPK. These diagrams having been designed to facilitate movement of units between CYD and WPK post a.m. peak (for maintenance on day shift) and thence back out again. In reality units on such diagrams would likely have been on Down Time at WPK for several days, and replaced with like for like on 5V47/2V47, but suspect I am preaching to the converted in your case my friend...I suspect in the current times, thinking is not dissimilar?
As someone involved with that I do thank you for your positive comments. The primary reason (re-tractioning) was to allow the 455's to run for more miles before needing major overhaul at their home depot (Wimbledon). As a result this freed up maintenance time/pit space at Wimbledon for the new incoming 707 fleet, which also needed a maintenance (time) slot at Wimbledon. This is all well documented. The 455 Red repaints undertaken at about the same time, albeit at Bournemouth depot, were based on a procedure from the auto motive industry, which has resulted in a very robust and long lived (red) livery, that (as I understand it) is still deemed to be in reasonably good condition, without fading to 'pink', for those who understand what was intentioned (paint wise) at the time.
044 and 017 were side by side on the "international" platforms this morning, according to facebook
...as well as toilets! And an abundance of other things like plug sockets, usb ports, better acceleration and further reduced dwell times, just to name a few.
There were two separate refurbs. The retractioning was in the early 2010s, about a decade after the replacement of 3+2 open seating by 2+2 ironing boards (not universally liked, especially by those who had been used to getting a seat and now couldn't), and red paint (to help staff distinguish the contents - cash-cow cattle to be herded- from the customers in the blue trains (to be humoured) and the clients in the white trains (to be cossetted)
First time I've heard anyone describe the Grammer E3000 seat as an ironing board. Presumably you consider all high back seats to be ironing boards?