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Perhaps some of the COVID-related changes in work habits (e.g. remote working, less commuting) will become more or less permanent and mean the line will be able to cope with the existing 95 Stock for a few more decades until it's time for the whole fleet to be replaced.
The traction systems are less consistent as well. For example, apparently these 720s have an unpowered driving car at one end (a bit bizarre in my opinion) whilst the 345 and 710 have a powered car at each end.
As far as I know the Electrostar is very consistent in terms of traction, except...
Agree, the 701 is by far the best. It’s also the shame that the Aventra doesn’t really have any consistency when it comes to cab design, unlike the Electrostar.
That’s why I think the best solution would be to get ScotRail and TfW (actually the respective governments) to agree to adopt some common branding elements with England, for a unified look across GB (with some elements specific to each country e.g. bilingual elements in Welsh, operator branding).
Sounds good, but wouldn’t this really be more like “English Rail” unless you find a way of forcing ScotRail and TfW to drop their current liberties and adopt the BR livery?
Looks like all the later Aventras (701 and 730 etc.) are using the sliding, Electrostar-like cab door instead of the weird hinged doors of the earlier ones. Looks much better in my opinion.
Yesterday I noticed that the brightness on one of the internal displays kept going up and down on the way from Liverpool Street to Stratford. Not sure if this was some sort of short circuit or some sort of auto-brightness feature linked to the outside light but it was very stupid, as it kept...
No need to use bleach, normal household disinfectant like Dettol should be fine, as long as its done properly i.e. not using the same slightly damp rag to wipe an entire train, which will probably end up transferring bacterial/viral material from one surface to another.
I suppose disposable...
Overall I would say that the announcements on the 345s and 710s are a disaster. The voice sounds robotic and like it's been sliced and diced together, and doesn't speak in proper sentences.
By contrast the announcements on the 315s are some of the best.
I don't understand the "See opposite for other routes served by this train" instruction. All the routes that could possibly be served by that train (a 710/1) are on that diagram.
It can't be used on the Watford DC or the West London Line so what other routes are there? Am I missing something?
For some reason the passenger USB ports on these units seem to be delivering extremely low power. I plugged my iPhone into one the other day for around 20 minutes and it delivered about 2% charge, even without use.
On the Class 345s I would get rid of all the angled nonsense and use a narrower purple band that doesn't extend all the way to the window, to match the usual TfL style. The current livery seems overengineered and doesn't match with the Underground, Overground, Trams etc.
A bit like this early...
The new screens look a bit tacky in my opinion, especially the one in the last picture, which seems to be located very badly and almost touching the overhead racks. Looks like it was just bolted on randomly.
How long before a 5th car is ordered to extend the DC units due to overcrowding? There's precedent for it with the 378s after all.
Not sure if the Goblin platforms can handle 5 cars, so maybe the need for a common fleet with the Goblin is what kept the DC units at 4 cars?
Presumably the front set of doors will be vinyled grey or something similar to meet contrast requirements compared to the blue car body. Which begs the question why they didn't just paint them grey in the first place?
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