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Skegness by EMR this Summer, 2 car 158s today, must be cozy

Dave61

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Long Eaton
Yes class 20's and coaches. Was it because shortages of dmu's?
Normally used one of the 3 coach DMU's, can't remember the class but they had gearboxes and a long drive shaft! The morning train from Matlock went onto Peartree for RR. It was a fun week commuting Matlock-Loughborough whilst staying at the GF's to free up bed space at my parents
 
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nw1

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If anything it will be worse under GBR I think, there isn't much evidence that they are focussing on revenue growth as opposed to cost cuts yet.

You've summed up all that is wrong with 2020s economic policy across the board, not just the railways!
 
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evergreenadam

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You've summed up all that is wrong with 2020s economic policy across the board, not just the railways!
Government says it wants to promote economic growth, then cuts trains services and suppresses passenger demand. Go figure.
 

Rab Smith

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Cardiff
I put off a trip to Skegness recently because of this issue. I just can't face rammed trains of people who have been to the seaside on a day out. It was bad enough trying to leave Whitby on one of the few services back to Middlesbrough.
Now, I fully understand that adding capacity is not the easiest thing in the world for train service planners with many different reasons adding to that but time and again we see the railway having that opportunity to actively chase a good income, well and truly shoot itself in the foot.
It doesn't take a genius to realise that Skeggy on a summers day during the school holidays will be bursting at the seams.
 

DDB

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11 Sep 2011
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726
I put off a trip to Skegness recently because of this issue. I just can't face rammed trains of people who have been to the seaside on a day out. It was bad enough trying to leave Whitby on one of the few services back to Middlesbrough.
Now, I fully understand that adding capacity is not the easiest thing in the world for train service planners with many different reasons adding to that but time and again we see the railway having that opportunity to actively chase a good income, well and truly shoot itself in the foot.
It doesn't take a genius to realise that Skeggy on a summers day during the school holidays will be bursting at the seams.
Is it a good income though? Would it cover the costs? That isn't necessarily a reason not to do it but would the subsidy be better spent elsewhere providing a year round improvement rather than subsiding holidays?
 

rmHawk765

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ECML South
Rather than adding 2 extra fresh air carriers an hour between London and Gatwick, the DfT/GBR/Treasury/someone in government should sit down and make an 'anti-Beeching list' of all the lines that need to upgraded to the bare minimum standard that can cope with demand. A large part of Northern and EMR both suffer from this, in addition to the obvious example of CrossCountry. Hell, there are even overcrowded, low-frequency suburban routes in London to this day.
 

LowLevel

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I put off a trip to Skegness recently because of this issue. I just can't face rammed trains of people who have been to the seaside on a day out. It was bad enough trying to leave Whitby on one of the few services back to Middlesbrough.
Now, I fully understand that adding capacity is not the easiest thing in the world for train service planners with many different reasons adding to that but time and again we see the railway having that opportunity to actively chase a good income, well and truly shoot itself in the foot.
It doesn't take a genius to realise that Skeggy on a summers day during the school holidays will be bursting at the seams.
Sadly it's not really a good income though. The numbers are an error on the spreadsheet, it's a near 5 hour round trip for the units so is resource heavy, the fares under the present system don't really make much money for the business unit providing the service. The through fares are fairly cheap.

At Grantham you have a huge bunfight to get people on and because they've travelled long distance the fares revenue mostly goes to LNER.

EMR make far more out of running an hourly train to Liverpool revenue wise and that's where the units have gone to supply extra capacity there.

With some common sense the wrecked 153s and 156s at Ely wouldn't have been allowed to deteriorate so much and could have provided some luggage capacity but we are where we are with that.

Skegness is actually broadly busy all year round on some trains Friday to Monday with Butlins new business model, but it still requires stock that doesn't exist.
 

GuyGibsonVC

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29 Nov 2019
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Up North
Sadly it's not really a good income though. The numbers are an error on the spreadsheet, it's a near 5 hour round trip for the units so is resource heavy, the fares under the present system don't really make much money for the business unit providing the service. The through fares are fairly cheap.

At Grantham you have a huge bunfight to get people on and because they've travelled long distance the fares revenue mostly goes to LNER.

EMR make far more out of running an hourly train to Liverpool revenue wise and that's where the units have gone to supply extra capacity there.

With some common sense the wrecked 153s and 156s at Ely wouldn't have been allowed to deteriorate so much and could have provided some luggage capacity but we are where we are with that.

Skegness is actually broadly busy all year round on some trains Friday to Monday with Butlins new business model, but it still requires stock that doesn't exist.

Therein lies the argument about providing a public service or prioritising income.

It is a fine balance but all the decisions seem to be geared towards the bottom line.
 

bunnahabhain

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Therein lies the argument about providing a public service or prioritising income.

It is a fine balance but all the decisions seem to be geared towards the bottom line.
Sadly unless you own the stock it'll always come down to the bottom line. Ultimately we're probably better investing in the routes that make money and cascading the older stock to routes like Skegness, as opposed to investing in Skegness itself. Generally if you can provide a clean train that'll give folk a seat and space for their luggage, they don't complain, because they're not expecting much more than that.
 

Trainman40083

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Derby
Sadly it's not really a good income though. The numbers are an error on the spreadsheet, it's a near 5 hour round trip for the units so is resource heavy, the fares under the present system don't really make much money for the business unit providing the service. The through fares are fairly cheap.

At Grantham you have a huge bunfight to get people on and because they've travelled long distance the fares revenue mostly goes to LNER.

EMR make far more out of running an hourly train to Liverpool revenue wise and that's where the units have gone to supply extra capacity there.

With some common sense the wrecked 153s and 156s at Ely wouldn't have been allowed to deteriorate so much and could have provided some luggage capacity but we are where we are with that.

Skegness is actually broadly busy all year round on some trains Friday to Monday with Butlins new business model, but it still requires stock that doesn't exist.
Ah the 156s that East Midlands nor Northern wanted, cos they were shot and only fit for parts. No chance of any 153s ever coming back .For years the DfT have short changed the East Midlands for trains

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please sign this petition regarding the dire state of the Skegness service this Summer, EMR/ DFT are pushing people into their cars, 2 car trains in high Summer :(
source 'Change.org' https://www.change.org/p/improving-the-nottingham-to-skegness-train-service
Ask the DfT where extra DMUs would come from. There certainly isn't any fit ones parked up.
 

Dave61

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Long Eaton
Ah the 156s that East Midlands nor Northern wanted, cos they were shot and only fit for parts. No chance of any 153s ever coming back .For years the DfT have short changed the East Midlands for trains

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: ==


Ask the DfT where extra DMUs would come from. There certainly isn't any fit ones parked up.
At risk of going off thread, is the country that short of DMU's ? Just curious more than anything but new trains are being introduced (Wales for example), so where do the old ones go? They used to be spruced up and cascaded to the less blessed lines unles they really are all shot and desperatly in need of replacement (I know the EMR 222's are going to Scotland to replace the rusting away HST sets).

Or is everyone waiting for GBR to come to the rescue with a BMU (if that is right for a battery MU) for everyone sometime in the next decade?
 

Trainman40083

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At risk of going off thread, is the country that short of DMU's ? Just curious more than anything but new trains are being introduced (Wales for example), so where do the old ones go? They used to be spruced up and cascaded to the less blessed lines unles they really are all shot and desperatly in need of replacement (I know the EMR 222's are going to Scotland to replace the rusting away HST sets).

Or is everyone waiting for GBR to come to the rescue with a BMU (if that is right for a battery MU) for everyone sometime in the next decade?
I'm not sure what is happening in Wales.. I did think that 197s would have replaced 158s.. That said, many DMU worked trains are said to be short formed. I think the tram trains in South Wales should replace 150s (those are likely for scrap).. Maybe 153s will go for scrap. Potentially DMUs will be released by new electrification in Scotland... On GWR, I guess that depends on how reliable the 175s are. South Western 158/159s seemingly getting more unreliable. Add in a few crash victims, shortage of spares for units over 30 years old, and well, you have a shortage of units.
 

Notabene

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22 Oct 2023
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Selby
Skegness is neglected by EMR.

Compared to Newquay, which has a new hourly service, direct London trains and others to Bristol and Plymouth, Skegness does rather badly for a station that has over three times as many passengers.

Newquay 125k
Skegness almost 400k

GWR sends IETs to Newquay daily, but EMR can't manage a single Meridian to the coast.

The locals need to kick up a fuss and maybe involve their new MP, Richard Tice.
 

LowLevel

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Skegness is neglected by EMR.

Compared to Newquay, which has a new hourly service, direct London trains and others to Bristol and Plymouth, Skegness does rather badly for a station that has over three times as many passengers.

Newquay 125k
Skegness almost 400k

GWR sends IETs to Newquay daily, but EMR can't manage a single Meridian to the coast.

The locals need to kick up a fuss and maybe involve their new MP, Richard Tice.
Newquay is a shortish branch conveniently interfacing with the mainline.

Skegness is a long way away from it's nearest mainline at Grantham and I can't imagine LNER would be remotely interesting in trundling a train at 50 and 60 mph tops all the way to Skegness whilst the regular summer passengers wreck it.

When there were spare HSTs in marginal time they used to go. Now there aren't enough 222s for the Intercity service let alone sending an inefficient train with hardly any more luggage space and seats than a 170 or 158 to Skegness.
 

Failed Unit

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Most of the services in summer are diagrammed for 4 coaches. The fact they are very frequently short formed is another issue (which I can't understand why 158889 is leaving) - It may be possible of course that if all the trains actually worked then they could run with 4 coaches as planned (which may still not be enough)

Saturdays will always be a challenge as I have said early Central trains had the 150's sat in Birmingham not doing much. West Midlands railways probably still have lots of stock doing nothing on a Saturday - but they are not likely to clear any new stock for 3 months of the year. The only other possibility I can see once GBR is fully set up is to "borrow" some of its 156 / 158 on Summer saturdays which would normally be doing commuter trains around Yorkshire.

Maybe one for a speculative thread, but I assume you couldn't have an "emergency" pool of 156s for peak events around the UK. Simply because the traincrew could never keep up traction knowledge and multiple units are harder to maintain then coaches.
 

DannyMich2018

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19 Dec 2018
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About this time last year we went to Skegness from Hinckley by train. From Nottingham it was a 3 car 170/4 unit, early afternoon on a Thursday was pretty quiet. Coming back on Sunday morning very different. Again 3 car 170 unit, got a seat but pretty full leaving Skegness. Some standing after Boston. The following service from Skegness was only 2 car so that may well have been quite cosy.
 

LowLevel

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About this time last year we went to Skegness from Hinckley by train. From Nottingham it was a 3 car 170/4 unit, early afternoon on a Thursday was pretty quiet. Coming back on Sunday morning very different. Again 3 car 170 unit, got a seat but pretty full leaving Skegness. Some standing after Boston. The following service from Skegness was only 2 car so that may well have been quite cosy.
More 3 car 170s have been deployed on Liverpool - Norwich services with the 158s swapped to Skegness.
 

Russel

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Lichfield
About 140 seats on a 2 car 158 and 180 on a 3 car 170. The 3 car 170 has far more luggage space than a 158 though.

170s Also don't have the narrow aisle, vestibule and door issue the 158s have so boarding/alighting is much quicker from my experience.
 

MCR247

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Skegness is neglected by EMR.

Compared to Newquay, which has a new hourly service, direct London trains and others to Bristol and Plymouth, Skegness does rather badly for a station that has over three times as many passengers.

Newquay 125k
Skegness almost 400k

GWR sends IETs to Newquay daily, but EMR can't manage a single Meridian to the coast.

The locals need to kick up a fuss and maybe involve their new MP, Richard Tice.
Sorry but what a load of nonsense. In what way are the two routes comparable?
 

tocguard

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16 Nov 2014
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Derbyshire
Skegness is neglected by EMR.

Compared to Newquay, which has a new hourly service, direct London trains and others to Bristol and Plymouth, Skegness does rather badly for a station that has over three times as many passengers.

Newquay 125k
Skegness almost 400k

GWR sends IETs to Newquay daily, but EMR can't manage a single Meridian to the coast.

The locals need to kick up a fuss and maybe involve their new MP, Richard Tice.
What year are your quoted figures from?

Skegness has had an hourly service for decades but Newquay had just a handful until this year. Of course the passenger figures are going to be higher on a route that sees hourly trains.
 

spyinthesky

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Bulford

worldsteam

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30 Mar 2016
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Most of the services in summer are diagrammed for 4 coaches. The fact they are very frequently short formed is another issue (which I can't understand why 158889 is leaving) - It may be possible of course that if all the trains actually worked then they could run with 4 coaches as planned (which may still not be enough)

Saturdays will always be a challenge as I have said early Central trains had the 150's sat in Birmingham not doing much. West Midlands railways probably still have lots of stock doing nothing on a Saturday - but they are not likely to clear any new stock for 3 months of the year. The only other possibility I can see once GBR is fully set up is to "borrow" some of its 156 / 158 on Summer saturdays which would normally be doing commuter trains around Yorkshire.

Maybe one for a speculative thread, but I assume you couldn't have an "emergency" pool of 156s for peak events around the UK. Simply because the traincrew could never keep up traction knowledge and multiple units are harder to maintain then coaches.
2 x 158 = 4 or 3-car 170 is only FSMO, for the rest of the week Skegness service is only 2-car. Saturday isn't the only peak, Friday and Monday is too hence the strengthening then. I think this has been said before many times above.
 

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