Commuter and Metro Services: Which Rolling Stock Upgrade Had the Greatest Impact? In the last 40 years

[jp4712]

In not all that many years, the Trent Valley locals went from a single 153 to hourly ten-car 730s.

 

[david l]

769's on Southports.....but they don't work very often.

 

[Strathclyder]

The Stadler/3rd-gen stock on the Glasgow Subway replacing the Met-Camm/2nd-gen stock comes to mind with light rail/metro. It certainly seems to have gone more smoothly than both the Tyne & Wear and Merseyrail upgrades/replacement programmes, regardless of - or perhaps because of - the Subway's self-contained nature.

On the heavy rail side of things in Strathclyde, the 380s taking over from 318s & 334s on the Ayrshire Coast & Inverclyde springs to mind. Granted, the latter is a lottery these days with every current ScotRail EMU type barring the 334s appearing on at least one out/back diagram every weekday, but the former has been solid Desiro territory since 2011 and has by and large been all the better for it. Part of me still thinks more 380s should've been ordered for the E+G, but that ship sailed years ago.

Once they had eventually settled down and the laundry list of problems gradually ironed out, the 334s ousting the 303s directly or the 314s through cascades.

Going back even further in time but still sticking with Strathclyde, the 303s/311s replacing a mixture of steam-hauled stock and DMUs, which were themselves a big step-up, even if their Gresley pattern bogies made them rather lively ride-wise, especially when at speed.

Scotrail 385s on the Edinburgh-Glasgow corridor providing more coaches and an EMU service, which presumably also helped cascade 170s to strengthen DMU routes.

Certainly in terms of overall capacity increase and passenger amenities, the 385s have been the biggest upgrade that route has seen in at least 40 years, though in terms of actual comfort, opinions seem to be far more mixed. Personally, comparing the few times I did the route when it was solid 170s compared to the hundreds of miles I've racked up with 385s this year alone on the route, I can say that me and my backside would prefer a 170, regardless of the major capacity boost or the fact the journey time on this route often as not comes in at just under a hour.

Most members of a certain age/generation would more than likely cite the 47/7+Mk3+DBSO sets as the high watermark for passenger comfort on this route, though given it was long before my time, I can't really pass comment on it.

 

[adc82140]

Dangerous...? Depends on where you read or who you listen to. Anything can be dangerous if used improperly

Absolutely dangerous. Not from the ability (or otherwise) of people to use the slam doors, but their utterly woeful crash worthiness.

 

[Many2Audi]

Already said, forgot to read! Another vote for the 357s!

 

[Farigiraf]

1-car 153s and 2-car 156s on the Sheringham and Great Yarmouth routes, vs 3-car class 755s. Rare that you get both a significant comfort upgrade and eliminate nearly all overcrowding.

If we allow for a 3 year gap, then Pacers vs FLIRTs on the Valley lines. The 150s aren't great either tbh, but shifting from Britain's worst to best train in under 5 years is quite the accomplishment.

 

[Dstock7080]

Biggest shock stock improvement I remember was the introduction of D78 stock on the District line - almost like a century of innovation had happened overnight.

Over 40 years ago, was all completed by mid-1983

 

[Snex]

Once their issues are ironed out. The Class 555 on the T&W Metro and B23 Stock on the DLR. Massive upgrade from what they replaced even known some will argue about seating layouts or what not.

 

[Acathater]

Surely the biggest change was elimination of the 4-EPB fleet?

 

[Harpo]

The 745 also makes a great commuter train from the likes of Colchester.

The 745s are a great commuter train while Colchester’s other commuter trains, the 720s, are the opposite.

 

[s491]

Definitely agree with the replacement of 165/166s on the GWML with 387s, a step change in quality.
Just a shame they didn't do the job properly so they could run through to Oxford, Henley and Marlow.

Replacement of slam door EMUs on the Southern region was definitely a major step up in terms of comfort, not to mention safety, but I suspect a lot of commuters missed the freedom to jump off the moment the train hit the platform, and board until the very last minute.

I agree with the 387 replacement of the Turbos, but its a step change following a previous step change; the Turbos replacing the 117 units was a huge change in performance.

 

[xotGD]

Clasd 37s on Mark 1s replacing broken 143s in the North East was a step change in passenger comfort.

 

[CyrusWuff]

In terms of a positive customer experience: Barking - Gospel Oak being electrified and four coach Class 710s replacing two coach Class 172s (via a brief interlude of Class 378 operation.)

For a negative customer experience: Class 720s being specified with 3+2 seating, resulting in a ridiculously narrow aisle.

 

[A60stock]

The Greenford shuttle got cut back to West Ealing when the first of the GWR 387s arrived, with the path into Paddington being used by a half hourly Hayes & Harlington stopper*. When the wires extended to Maidenhead/Reading/Didcot the 387s took over from the Turbos on the stoppers before TfL arrived with the 345s.

(*bar Hanwell which IIRC was mostly served by the Heathrow Connect 360s)

So what about in the morning rush hour, going into Paddington and a 2 car train turns up at the likes of Ealing Broadway at 8am!

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: Yesterday at 09:15 ==

Some good responses here and hard to pick which one would rank as the best. I think overall, it sounds like the replacement of the slam door trains with the Desiros and Electrostars (and Networkers - although this was much earlier) seems to rank as the biggest step up - given that you still had slam doors running in 2005. Granted there are some close contenders such as the Liz line, the removal of Pacers and introduction of the FLIRTS.

I think in future, the Bakerloo line replacement stock will also end up being up there with one of the best upgrades

 

[Bletchleyite]

I think in future, the Bakerloo line replacement stock will also end up being up there with one of the best upgrades

Certainly the Victoria Line new stock was a big upgrade, but was just a new version of the same thing. Not really groundbreaking, just an update.

 

[Geezertronic]

390s on the West Coast Main Line

 

[35B]

@43096 nominates the replacement of 304s with 323s; someone else suggests the Networkers. Testing the bounds of the 40 year rule, I think they're both edged out by the replacement of the SUBs with 455s. The 304s were eased out by other classes before the 323s really got going, while the EPB -> Networker transition merely replicated what had happened a decade earlier with the introduction of the 455s. That change was genuinely transformative, and took the SR out of the 1940s into the (then) modern day.

However, if we're really going for transformation, I'd suggest the Total Route Modernisation of the Chiltern Line in the early 1990s. Replacement of the knackered old Bletchley 115s with the 165s, combined with actually treating the railway like it was valued, was a huge change - even more than the parallel replacement of Old Oak's DMU and loco/LHCS fleet out of Paddington

 

[Beemax]

Replacement of slam door EMUs on the Southern region was definitely a major step up in terms of comfort, not to mention safety, but I suspect a lot of commuters missed the freedom to jump off the moment the train hit the platform, and board until the very last minute.

The 'safety' aspect is not just the prevention of people falling out of a train, but also the improved crashworthiness of modern trains

 

[35B]

Replacement of slam door EMUs on the Southern region was definitely a major step up in terms of comfort, not to mention safety, but I suspect a lot of commuters missed the freedom to jump off the moment the train hit the platform, and board until the very last minute.

We did. But as someone who only did that very occasionally, not that much - the greater loss was and still is the wait for door release after arriving at a station. That, with defensive driving practice, has swallowed some of the capacity that should have been released by the improved ability to manage door closures on departure.

 

[meld3]

Definitely the 345's - something like 1 in 7 journeys nationwide is on a 345 now, which is mind-blowing.

 

[A60stock]

Yeah I'm inclined to agree that looking at all angles, the 345s were not just an improvement in terms of the actual train, but also part of an entire route change, effectively turning an average commuter line into London into a tube like equivalent. Although being a little pedantic in that they did not quite directly follow on from the 165/166s

Definitely the 345's - something like 1 in 7 journeys nationwide is on a 345 now, which is mind-blowing.

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: Today at 09:11 ==

Certainly the Victoria Line new stock was a big upgrade, but was just a new version of the same thing. Not really groundbreaking, just an update.

Yes, however, I think 72 stock to 24 stock will be an even bigger step change. You're essentially replacing the same train (72s are essentially a 67) with an even newer model