Recent content by 43074

This doesn't fall into the category of a "no-brainer" though - power supply upgrades would be needed in the West Midlands, and it involves potential re-mapping of Manchester to Birmingham services either so they can solely use an electric fleet and no longer run south of Birmingham, or a new...

No - there are probably enough revenue and performance arguments for GWR to build a robust case against the scheme in their own right. GWR would not be permitted to object on Lumo's behalf, it would be a big no no from a legal point of view as they are separate commercial entities even if both...

Yes, if all 30 379s were in traffic (26 diagrams), there would be enough instances of 387s on Kings Cross to Cambridge slow and semi-fast services for Kings Lynn drivers to retain their traction knowledge on both types without 387s having booked services north of Cambridge. It has been known...

GTR have enough issues of their own without adding the Corby services to the list - the reliability of the Peterborough to Horsham services is instructive of the poor performance that, say, a Corby to Three Bridges service would experience.

There are some very optimistic running times in the EMR Intercity timetable, losing time is no indication at all of traction issues - it will exacerbate the issue sure but is seldom the only factor contributing to time loss.

EMR Intercity is a glorified regional express though - journey times and frequencies are comparable to Paddington to Bristol, or Waterloo to Southampton/Bournemouth.

No chance the uplift at the end of August will be using the 221s - they are currently using only 12 out of 21 222s which they have on lease at present, based on the linked letter to stakeholders in another thread it looks like they are introducing an extra 222 (or 810) diagram to reinstate some...

185s would be a poor fit for the XC 170 routes, there are Sprinter linespeed differentials between Birmingham and Peterborough which 185s wouldn't be able to use (because of their weight), and there are some significant speed restrictions east of Peterborough/over the Fens so they would be...

I suspect the MP will be lectured at length about the performance challenges of the current service and told by Northern that they intend to go ahead with it - if it's proposed for May 2027 then it is submitted to Network Rail by train operators on Friday.

Yes - not only are the units themselves very different but they have a different method of working for door operation which would need to be agreed with unions. Also who would maintain them as the last thing Etches Park needs is a third unit type on the Intercity side, they are a can of worms in...

Worth pointing out Steve White was at GTR for a good few years before he went to SE, so had a chance to "fix" it then. Cynically, it won't make any difference.

He isn't - heard others refer to it as "Chime Wibble Publishing" before!

They started appearing as soon as Hitachi took over the maintenance of the 222s, around 2022/2023 if I remember rightly

Worth adding to this (very good) summary that the Rainham services are just as prone to poor performance as the Sutton Loop services - on the MML section they follow the Bedford to Brighton services from Luton, which themselves are often regulated against late running EMR Sheffield services at...

You have alleged 75% of the units in traffic on a particular day were operating with an engine out, but unless you are actually sat on the unit and seeing how they are being driven you can't use the signal berth timings to conclude anything