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Progress on Avanti West Coast's 805/807s Hitachi AT300 sets

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Crepello

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Apologies if this perspective's already been discussed (a few minutes' searching turned a blank) but the Evero first class seating seems a definite downgrade vs the 390s - no individual overhead lamps, and no recline on the seats (as far as I could determine). Reduction in first capacity also unwelcome; the service I was on was about 90% occupied. However, the biggest farce was the seat reservation system train-wide, which doesn't activate until the driver sets up his/her cab at the journey's origin. Result was a game of musical chairs shortly before departure from Euston - and some understandably unamused punters. Wholly unacceptable design fail.

On a brighter note, onboard staff were superb and the beef stew currently on offer is delectable! But if Avanti's goal is to push premium travelers toward choosing road or air travel, they seem off to an effective start.
 
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800001

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Crepello said:
Apologies if this perspective's already been discussed (a few minutes' searching turned a blank) but the Evero first class seating seems a definite downgrade vs the 390s - no individual overhead lamps, and no recline on the seats (as far as I could determine). Reduction in first capacity also unwelcome; the service I was on was about 90% occupied. However, the biggest farce was the seat reservation system train-wide, which doesn't activate until the driver sets up his/her cab at the journey's origin. Result was a game of musical chairs shortly before departure from Euston - and some understandably unamused punters. Wholly unacceptable design fail.

On a brighter note, onboard staff were superb and the beef stew currently on offer is delectable! But if Avanti's goal is to push premium travelers toward choosing road or air travel, they seem off to an effective start.
Click to expand...
It’s not a design fail regards seat reservations loading, it’s an Avanti fail!

LNER station teams load the reservations before boarding, and then advertise service is ready to board once these have loaded, if Avanti decide only the driver can do that, they should allow sufficient time before boarding for the driver to do so, or change there process for the station team or train manager to load reservations.

Driver may also have been late to train for a number or reasons!
 
AJDesiro

AJDesiro

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Crepello said:
the Evero first class seating seems a definite downgrade vs the 390s - no individual overhead lamps, and no recline on the seats (as far as I could determine).
Click to expand...
There is recline on the seats, the lever is in the base itself, see the attached image for the location of the lever.
 

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TT-ONR-NRN

TT-ONR-NRN

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Bald Rick said:
Sounds perfect! Airlines aim for 90%+ seat occupation, why shouldn’t train companies?
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*Sigh*
They also charge you to pick seats, strap you in with belts, and require you to arrive two hours before. An airline is not a train company.
 
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Trainbike46

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90% occupied in first class seems like a good amount - clearly everyone who wanted first class could get it, while simultaneously not over-providing first class seats.
 
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Pendomonium

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800001 said:
It’s not a design fail regards seat reservations loading, it’s an Avanti fail!

LNER station teams load the reservations before boarding, and then advertise service is ready to board once these have loaded, if Avanti decide only the driver can do that, they should allow sufficient time before boarding for the driver to do so, or change there process for the station team or train manager to load reservations.

Driver may also have been late to train for a number or reasons!
Click to expand...
Recent "best practice" for trying to download the reservations is not to do so more than 20mins before departure. Which goes against the new earlier boarding aspirations at Euston. Setting up the "journey" is one of the last tasks a driver does when mobilising the 805/807, thus any problem that appears means there are literally minutes left before departure to try to sort it out. On a 10 car where people need to know what portion to be in to get beyond Chester, this has caused lots of conflict. Especially when its not worth the delay to try pre departure trouble shooting, and just depart with no reservation info.
 
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Wyrleybart

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800001 said:
It’s not a design fail regards seat reservations loading, it’s an Avanti fail!

LNER station teams load the reservations before boarding, and then advertise service is ready to board once these have loaded, if Avanti decide only the driver can do that, they should allow sufficient time before boarding for the driver to do so, or change there process for the station team or train manager to load reservations.

Driver may also have been late to train for a number or reasons!
Click to expand...
That is a surprise to me. AFAIK seat reservations are an On-board task for which there are On-Board staff. The driver is responsible for driving the train safely, and mitigating whatever issues involve the train. I am sure most of us have seen how punctuality of the rail system has taken a battering over the last couple of years, yet drivers diagrams are tighter than ever. This means that if "Driver A" arrives ten minutes late, the late PNB will very often result in a late departure of the next train on their diagram. Adding a seat reservation task will likely cause further delay.

In the TOC I work for seat reservations would very much be the responsibility of the "Guard".
 
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800001

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Wyrleybart said:
That is a surprise to me. AFAIK seat reservations are an On-board task for which there are On-Board staff. The driver is responsible for driving the train safely, and mitigating whatever issues involve the train. I am sure most of us have seen how punctuality of the rail system has taken a battering over the last couple of years, yet drivers diagrams are tighter than ever. This means that if "Driver A" arrives ten minutes late, the late PNB will very often result in a late departure of the next train on their diagram. Adding a seat reservation task will likely cause further delay.

In the TOC I work for seat reservations would very much be the responsibility of the "Guard".
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Different at my TOC, station team leaders loads reservation, once all cleaners are off and catering is loaded, the train is announced for boarding, 99% of time with a full 20 minutes before departure.

Our ‘best practise’ is to load reservations no earlier than 25 minutes before scheduled departure.
 
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LowLevel

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It's nonsense involved in trying to have an Intercity train set up for Driver Only Operation which they do in it's true sense on precisely one route (London to Oxford) rather badly - even Lumo always run with on board crew.

The driver is busy driving the train, messing around with passenger information when you've got a train manager to do that kind of stuff is stupid.

It's one thing I hate about class 170s, dealing with issues with the PIS involves distracting the driver or leaving it not working/wrong.
 
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Trainbike46

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LowLevel said:
It's nonsense involved in trying to have an Intercity train set up for Driver Only Operation which they do in it's true sense on precisely one route (London to Oxford) rather badly - even Lumo always run with on board crew.
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I feel this could be going off-topic as Avanti don't run to Oxford - I'm assuming this is referring to GWR?

Separately, why would loading reservations early *on avanti services* be an issue, given they have this system that updates reservations even after departure?
 
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Skie

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Trainbike46 said:
Separately, why would loading reservations early *on avanti services* be an issue, given they have this system that updates reservations even after departure?
Click to expand...


I’m not sure that new system is in place. If it was surely you’d just have the system setup asap and let it do its thing.
 
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800001

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Skie said:
I’m not sure that new system is in place. If it was surely you’d just have the system setup asap and let it do its thing.
Click to expand...
LNER having been wanting auto up date ever since they started the ‘5 minute reservations’……….still waiting!

Yet a 20+ year old XC voyager can auto update on route…….progress!
 
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poffle

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The Avanti Evero seats have people detectors in them so that they will able to detect in real time which seats are occupied. I think these are based on a mix of weight and humidity sensors.

This could be the basis of being able to display carriage occupancy at stations for incoming trains and also for real time reservations for unoccupied seats.

In Germany DB have a "Comfort Check-in" system on the ICEs where you can register the seat you sitting in and match it up to your ticket. This means the ticket checker doesn't need to check tickets for that seat. It also means that real time reservation systems won't allocate that seat for the rest of your journey.
 
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800001

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DJH1971 said:
Any word if 807005 has entered service yet as it was delivered a few weeks back?

And any news on 807009 & 807010?
Click to expand...
807009 outside at Aycliffe on static testing.

807010 remains inside the test shed at Aycliffe, all staff have received email that no pictures of unit in its Diversity livery are to be shared.
 
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800001

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Zakaria Fadel said:
Has 807010 been fully wrapped in its Diversity/Race & Ethnicity livery? And when will it enter service
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Only Avanti know when it will enter service.
And only sources on here quote it as fully wrapped.
Until it’s publicised by Avanti no one officially knows.
 
Zakaria Fadel

Zakaria Fadel

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800001 said:
Only Avanti know when it will enter service.
And only sources on here quote it as fully wrapped.
Until it’s publicised by Avanti no one officially knows.
Click to expand...
All I know is that further info will be coming soon and that it is a surprise. The train will be unveiled to the public around May I believe…

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: ==

Also, I’m wondering if 807009 will enter service alongside 807010.
 
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