AGA Class 360 maintenance

[Alfie1014]

I see that there are some short forms on weekday AGA services due to essential (additional) maintenance on the class 360 fleet. The headline says until 31st Dec, but the text says end of Feb and an earlier on-line version stated end of March 2015!

Anyone have any idea what the issue is? Doesn't help that in the last week many of the Norwich IC sets have been short formed too.

http://www.abelliogreateranglia.co....anning/service-alterations/details?ew_id=1333

Train Service Alterations - Class 360 Train Fleet Essential Maintenance
Dates Affected: Monday 27 October 2014 to Wednesday 31 December 2014

Locations Affected: Liverpool Street to Clacton / Harwich

Description
Due to essential maintenance being undertaken on some of our Class 360 train fleet, the following weekday services will run with less seating capacity than usual:

0716 Clacton to Colchester

0754 Colchester to Liverpool Street

1418 Liverpool Street to Clacton

1505 Clacton to Liverpool Street

1644 Liverpool Street to Clacton/Harwich

These train service alterations will take affect from the end of October 2014 until late February 2015. We apologise for the inconvenience caused by these temporary changes to our train formations.

Please be assured that our engineers are working hard to restore our fleet to its full capacity as quickly as possible.

 

[306024]

Good detective work to find this hidden away on the AGA website. These alterations don't seem to appear on the daily list of short formations, of which there are far too many yet again. AGA being a bit economical with the truth?

Some units need significant repairs, mainly following fatalities unfortunately. The original cosmetic repairs to keep them in service now need to be done properly. The timing couldn't be worse as very few commuters take leave in November and December, so the peak trains are packed. The end date is indeed confused, February is best guess.

Still if we are lucky we may get some new cushions to replace the threadbare ones, or may not.

 

[Class 170101]

Should have been done in the summer when commuters go on their holidays but there you are. :roll:

 

[tsr]

If this issue is indeed due to fatalities, then I regret to advise these do not all occur in summer... however, I think I do recall a number of fatalities quite a while ago on the GEML, so perhaps you are both right about timing issues!

 

[NLC1072]

If this issue is indeed due to fatalities, then I regret to advise these do not all occur in summer... however, I think I do recall a number of fatalities quite a while ago on the GEML, so perhaps you are both right about timing issues!

There was a lot of suicides only a few weeks ago on this stretch of line.

 

[306024]

If this issue is indeed due to fatalities, then I regret to advise these do not all occur in summer... however, I think I do recall a number of fatalities quite a while ago on the GEML, so perhaps you are both right about timing issues!

Thank you for that advice, invaluable
Yes there have been fatalities involving 360s that date a fair way back. That is precisely why the sudden timing of these repairs is perhaps being questioned.

 

[Alfie1014]

Thanks for this, just unfortunate timing it appears, probably not going to be helped by the number of 321s with wheel flats at the moment either.

 

[Class 170101]

Thanks for this, just unfortunate timing it appears, probably not going to be helped by the number of 321s with wheel flats at the moment either.

And based on what happened last year thats only going to get worse, not better, between now and the New Year.

 

[badassunicorn]

109 I think it is has been running around without a wiper and light cluster on the drivers side one end which means it can only be in a non splitting diagram with that cab buried. That was caused by a fatality I think.