Aventra vs. Electrostar

[Mr MITRAC]

I've been thinking (dangerous!)...

Since Southern have withdrawn the 455s, there is now a lot more of the 3-car 377/3s being worked more intensively. These units were Coastway units but now being used on mainline workings and are non-standard on the 4/8/12 railway.

Could Bombardio build some additional Aventra cars to be inserted in to the 377/3s to make them 4-car units? Use the older Electrostar MITRAC computer system rather than the newer Class 345/710/720 software?

I'm thinking similar to how the South Western *spit* Class 455/7s received the aluminium Class 508 TSO cars.

The same logic could also be applied to the Southeastern 375/3 fleet.

Good idea or put the crayons away?

 

[Clansman]

Welcome to the forum.

If there was a need for additional carriages for the 3-car sets then there's nothing to stop Southern asking Alstom (who now own Bombardier) to build additional coaches to electrostar specifications as per the existing intermediate coaches. No Aventra spec neccessary.

Such insertions of new built coaches from models that are 10+ years old have been done previously, including the Pendolino fleet (which Alstom did themselves) when some were boosted from 9 to 11 coaches around 2012ish. It's a fairly common practice across the industry in the UK. Ireland also has one or two examples of this, as I'm sure there are plenty of abroad also.

 

[skyhigh]

Such insertions of new built coaches from models that are 10+ years old have been done previously, including the Pendolino fleet (which Alstom did themselves) when some were boosted from 9 to 11 coaches around 2012ish.

That was a little different though, as they also ordered 4 full 11 car sets at the same point - making a total order of 106 vehicles for units that were still available for production (with the order placed around 4 years after the last 390 was built). Lengthening all the 377/3s would be a total of 28 vehicles, a pretty tiny order in comparison to everything else Alstom are building, not to mention the units themselves are now around 20 years old. They would undoubtedly charge a premium if you asked them to build original spec vehicles.

 

[JonathanH]

Since Southern have withdrawn the 455s, there is now a lot more of the 3-car 377/3s being worked more intensively. These units were Coastway units but now being used on mainline workings and are non-standard on the 4/8/12 railway.

Southern is a combination of a 4/8/12 railway and a 5/10 railway and the 377/3s are key to the remaining 10 bit of the railway now more 5s work on their own.

Even if they wanted to run 8 car trains instead of 10s, 5 + 3 = 8.

Are the 3-car units being operated more intensively? Surely they are being operated much the same as before.

The same logic could also be applied to the Southeastern 375/3 fleet.

The Southeastern 375/3 fleet have dedicated work where 4 car trains aren't needed.

 

[mmh]

These units were Coastway units but now being used on mainline workings and are non-standard on the 4/8/12 railway.

Southern isn't a 4/8/12 railway, though. Services away from the Coastway have been 4/5/10/12 for a long time now, with other lengths occasionally popping up. It's not really something new since the 455s went - 3 car units have routinely been used on London bound services for years.