renegademaster
Established Member
I've been in many a packed Azuma standing up for hours, is their an official number of people who can stand on train , is it down the managers judgement or shouldn't happen at all?
Quite. If there were 273 people stood up on a 9 car IET the train manager (nor anyone else) wouldn’t be able to move down the train to count.The numbers are rather theoretical, I have never seen a train manager walk down with one of the thumb clickers to know how many they can let on at next station, or to say sorry you are number 274 you can get on.
Pretty standard for that service around holiday periods/ Friday etc. 1104 and 1904 can be similarly horrendous. Certainly way way more than 273 standees on numerous occasions. Simolarly with certain up trains at certain times of year.They do have passenger counting equipment. Was advised recently that the 12:03 Paddington-Penzance had 802 onboard on departure with a cosy 1034 from Reading.
But it does give a good general idea and a fair approximation. Now and then I count the passengers as I pull into a playform and then compare it to the counting equipment and it generally gets it more or less right, if anything tends to under count in my experience.Unfortunately, the counting equipment on the 80x is not accurate. Manual checks have proved it to both under read and (more often) over read.
Pretty standard for that service around holiday periods/ Friday etc. 1104 and 1904 can be similarly horrendous. Certainly way way more than 273 standees on numerous occasions. Simolarly with certain up trains at certain times of year.
There will be a theoretical number of passengers that can fit onto a unit (from a planning and design/build point of view). But on rail there is no legal capacity limit unlike road vehicles.The numbers are rather theoretical, I have never seen a train manager walk down with one of the thumb clickers to know how many they can let on at next station, or to say sorry you are number 274 you can't get on.
Can remember having the Hitachi guys on my train the one time, one in the cab and one in each coach. Asked the guy in the cab what they were up to and he said they were looking into the automatic counting. Didn't seem very positive on their chances of getting it to work any better. Can't post exactly what he said as it was a bit X rated, but it did make me chuckleUnfortunately, the counting equipment on the 80x is not accurate. Manual checks have proved it to both under read and (more often) over read.
I have travelled on several 5 car sets in Soth Wales recently where I have been unable to get into first class due to the number of people standing in it.DfT only ever published the 2018 Rail contract for LNER, which has Azuma as future fleet on page 154, doesn't specify standing capacity
However the GWR one does, max standing is 128 on 5car set, 273 on 9car set, all standing in standard class, nil in first class (see page 81)
The numbers are rather theoretical, I have never seen a train manager walk down with one of the thumb clickers to know how many they can let on at next station, or to say sorry you are number 274 you can't get on.
It depends on how you look at it - what's the actual issue with people standing on them for Wakefield Westgate to Leeds for example? Bristol Temple Meads to Bath Spa?Is it just me or is it a problem with today's view, full and standing means the train is full, doesn't matter if there is 50 or 100 or 500 standing its still full and needs more carriages but if you don't put a number on it suddenly it's not full
True,you can watch the numbers change whilst going along.Unfortunately, the counting equipment on the 80x is not accurate. Manual checks have proved it to both under read and (more often) over read.