FrontSideBus
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Being away from the sidewall would still leave them too close together.
It's not too bad when you are travelling with somebody but I don't like getting squashed up against a total stranger!
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Merseyrail Class 777 travel experiences
- Thread starter John Luxton
- Start date
It's not too bad when you are travelling with somebody but I don't like getting squashed up against a total stranger!
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Took a trip to from Sandhiils to Chester and back today. While at Sandhills all the 777/1s I saw still had the 'No MU' X placards in the cabs - presumably the BEMU firmware still hasn't been updated for mutiple working?
Apart from 014, all the units I saw operating on the Wirral Line were odd-numbered. I presume that's a deliberate decision - have the odd-numbered (Polish) units operating from Birkenhead North? I would remove any potential MU working issues between them and the Swiss units, at least.
The seats are very uncomforatble for long distance trips. Not being able to have the PIS skip all the announcements for Capenhurst when on a service that doesn't stop there seems very poor.
I sat in the last seat before the ramp on the inner end of the trailing end car. I therefore had the 'extended' headrest support of the first set of elevated seats right in front of me. I am now 100% convinced they are there to stop passengers' heads hitting the top rail of the frame of the elevated seats in the event of a frontal impact. The extended headrest supports feel fairly substantial, but they sound like fairly thin pressed sheet metal and I'd rather hit my head on that than the sharp corner of a U-channel.
Things fell apart on the return journey. The 1345 Chester-Liverpool service was cancelled - the train arrived at Chester then returned ECS (presumably to Birkenhead North) . Everybody then got on the 1401. As we passed the CAF depot on the way out of Chester the TM made an annoucement that the train was not calling at Capenhurst. It was twice as loud as the PIS announcements, and sounded like he was transmitting from a HF radio on the other side of the Atlantic, being received via tropospheric propagation.
Got off at Moorfields and changed onto the 1450 Southport service (an 8-car, 777006 & 777016). The external dot matrix destination displays on both units were showing 'Not In Service' which led to a lot of confused passengers on the platform. Inside, there were no automated announcements, the dot matrix displays were blank and the LCD displays were just showing the Merseyrail logo. When I got off at Sandhills there was another busy platform full of confused passengers due to the 'Not In Service' destination displays.
I'd not seen a complete PIS failure on an 8-car before, and it seems it's contagious between the units when working in multiple. I wonder if it's the lead vehicle that drives the PIS for both units, so if it's PIS fails the trailing unit's PIS can't work independently.
Apart from 014, all the units I saw operating on the Wirral Line were odd-numbered. I presume that's a deliberate decision - have the odd-numbered (Polish) units operating from Birkenhead North? I would remove any potential MU working issues between them and the Swiss units, at least.
The seats are very uncomforatble for long distance trips. Not being able to have the PIS skip all the announcements for Capenhurst when on a service that doesn't stop there seems very poor.
I sat in the last seat before the ramp on the inner end of the trailing end car. I therefore had the 'extended' headrest support of the first set of elevated seats right in front of me. I am now 100% convinced they are there to stop passengers' heads hitting the top rail of the frame of the elevated seats in the event of a frontal impact. The extended headrest supports feel fairly substantial, but they sound like fairly thin pressed sheet metal and I'd rather hit my head on that than the sharp corner of a U-channel.
Things fell apart on the return journey. The 1345 Chester-Liverpool service was cancelled - the train arrived at Chester then returned ECS (presumably to Birkenhead North) . Everybody then got on the 1401. As we passed the CAF depot on the way out of Chester the TM made an annoucement that the train was not calling at Capenhurst. It was twice as loud as the PIS announcements, and sounded like he was transmitting from a HF radio on the other side of the Atlantic, being received via tropospheric propagation.
Got off at Moorfields and changed onto the 1450 Southport service (an 8-car, 777006 & 777016). The external dot matrix destination displays on both units were showing 'Not In Service' which led to a lot of confused passengers on the platform. Inside, there were no automated announcements, the dot matrix displays were blank and the LCD displays were just showing the Merseyrail logo. When I got off at Sandhills there was another busy platform full of confused passengers due to the 'Not In Service' destination displays.
I'd not seen a complete PIS failure on an 8-car before, and it seems it's contagious between the units when working in multiple. I wonder if it's the lead vehicle that drives the PIS for both units, so if it's PIS fails the trailing unit's PIS can't work independently.
Last edited:
Sam 76
Member
Not sure if the odd and even numbers is an issue now?
027 and 028 have been together all day on Southports so I assume that’s been solved
Polarbear
Established Member
Other than the battery equipped sets, all other units inter-work between both lines. The turnover is quite regular too.
Partly related, Chester services struggled on Bank Holiday Monday due to the number of people travelling! Although a normal weekday service was operated, Merseyrail really could have done with some 8 car diagrams on the Chester service.
As a consequence of the passenger numbers, 4 car sets lost time with loading/unloading. There were also several gaps in the 15 min frequency (unsure if this was genuine shortage of staff/rolling stock or Merseyrail’s “skip-stop” game), which all added up to some significant issues.
Partly related, Chester services struggled on Bank Holiday Monday due to the number of people travelling! Although a normal weekday service was operated, Merseyrail really could have done with some 8 car diagrams on the Chester service.
As a consequence of the passenger numbers, 4 car sets lost time with loading/unloading. There were also several gaps in the 15 min frequency (unsure if this was genuine shortage of staff/rolling stock or Merseyrail’s “skip-stop” game), which all added up to some significant issues.
stuart100100
Member
Polarbear
Established Member
Interesting! I assume it’s not referring to the 133 bus to Kirkby station then?
stuart100100
Member
It is potentially walkable but wouldn't recommend it in this heatInteresting! I assume it’s not referring to the 133 bus to Kirkby station then?
I’d have thought there would have been quite a few punters for the Zoo on Sunday and Monday, which won’t have helped.
Chester to Liverpool and vv struggles on a normal weekend.
Took my first ride on a 777 today in a few weeks. Travelling Ellesmere Port to Liverpool. Lovely and cool onboard. Also the delay from stopping to doors released was really quick. Sometimes pretty much straight away. Waiting for time at stations en route but then delayed by a minute or so before Hamilton square due to a train in front.
Kind of got used to the seats. Don’t feel much different now to the 507/508s. Always go for a bay of 4 seats too.
Kind of got used to the seats. Don’t feel much different now to the 507/508s. Always go for a bay of 4 seats too.