First Capital Connect

[RJ]

There was a stampede formed of lesbians, seaside-goers with their baskets and women pushing prams at London Bridge today when a single 319 stopped way down at the 12 car marker as it was already wedged. Apparently its beyond FCC to run longer trains to Brighton on hot summer Saturdays when there's a national festival going on down there as well. What gives?

 

[Lewisham2221]

Running longer trains would be a result of using common sense. Common sense isn't something that First are capable of.

 

[W14Fishbourne]

There was a stampede formed of lesbians, seaside-goers with their baskets and women pushing prams at London Bridge today when a single 319 stopped way down at the 12 car marker as it was already wedged. Apparently its beyond FCC to run longer trains to Brighton on hot summer Saturdays when there's a national festival going on down there as well. What gives?

I quite agree, much more sensible to run long trains today when they should be in for servicing and then shortform trains on Monday morning. After all, the people on Monday are only paying full fares!

 

[richa2002]

To be honest that's quite unfair, all the Brighton services I saw today were formed of 8 cars especially for the event, maybe the service you saw was the only diagram with 4 cars? All the Suttons were definitely 4.

Richard

 

[devon_metro]

Perhaps beacuse the railway network is old, falling apart and underinvested?

 

[RJ]

I quite agree, much more sensible to run long trains today when they should be in for servicing and then shortform trains on Monday morning. After all, the people on Monday are only paying full fares!

What have the fares got to do with anything? You can't have a rush like that at London Bridge every 15 minutes for trains which are wedged anyway. At least Southern are doing something;

http://www.southernrailway.com/live_running.php

 

[Gizmogle]

Hahaha, we got two 319s, and most of the doors wouldn't work, so everyone was stuffed into the first couple of coaches.
Brighton pride was great though

 

[Tom C]

To be honest that's quite unfair, all the Brighton services I saw today were formed of 8 cars especially for the event, maybe the service you saw was the only diagram with 4 cars? All the Suttons were definitely 4.

This is the standard Saturday service.

Nearly all the Brightons are 8 and all the Sutton loops are 4.

Agree with W14Fishbourne to a degree but surely it isn't beyond the realms to make sure all the Brightons were 8 seeing as most loops during the week are 8 so there must be a fair few heaps sitting around.

 

[Coxster]

I boarded the delayed 1T20 (10:16 Brighton to Bedford) at East Croydon today en route to Farringdon. I was very lucky to even get on this train which was formed of just four coaches. I had a bit of time to spare so I burst out the doorway )) at Blackfriars and got the following service from the loop (2O34 - could see it being held outside Blackfriars so we could cross it's path) which was also four coaches but lots of spare seats. Well, I say spare seats - some had no seat cushions whatsoever. To get to East Croydon from Clapham before this, I boarded one of Southern's Brighton extras which was totally different. Formed of 12 coaches, lovely air conditioning, seats available and no need to squash up with passengers with awful BO.

And yes - I know I went the long way round. Trains from Farnborough meant I either left myself 20mins or 1hr 20mins to get from Clapham/Waterloo to Farringdon. I opted for the latter...

 

[RJ]

There were engineers trains in the Kentish Town area last weekend, so services were turning around at West Hampstead Thameslink. Now, on Saturdays, there are normally 4 fast 8 coach trains per hour between London and Bedford, and 4 stoppers an hour between London and St Albans, 2 of which go to Luton.

Last weekend, FCC only run four all-shacks services between London and Bedford per hour, all formed of a single 319 unit. The posters at West Hampstead warned that services would be extremely busy, but there were "operational limits" which meant only short trains could be run.

What operational limits were these?

 

[Tom]

I believe it's the point positions at West Hampstead which come into play with those operational limits.

 

[me123]

Maybe they were short of units for some reason? If they weren't, longer diagrams should have been used, but if this was the only 4 car, it is almost forgivable.

 

[class 313]

There was a stampede formed of lesbians, seaside-goers with their baskets and women pushing prams at London Bridge today when a single 319 stopped way down at the 12 car marker as it was already wedged. Apparently its beyond FCC to run longer trains to Brighton on hot summer Saturdays when there's a national festival going on down there as well. What gives?

What gives? FCC don't have the stock to run longer trains! Simple.

Hahaha, we got two 319s, and most of the doors wouldn't work, so everyone was stuffed into the first couple of coaches.
Brighton pride was great though

You would find that 319 would be pulled out of service if that was true!

 

[raildog]

Hahaha, we got two 319s, and most of the doors wouldn't work, so everyone was stuffed into the first couple of coaches.
Brighton pride was great though

Doors and again doors.. Doors seem to be the major point of failure..especially in UK trains. Have been hearing a lot about doors failing. I mean, does it get stuck or something? I tried searching about door failure on other European trains.. nothing like the UK though..

Has it got something to do with the electric power supply?

RD

 

[westcoaster]

most door failures are down to the doors coming of there runners( or debris in the running tracks), or being forced open.

 

[raildog]

most door failures are down to the doors coming of there runners( or debris in the running tracks), or being forced open.

Ok.. But why is that peculiar to the UK?

I read somewhere that trains in UK take more power causing a number of problems. Since doors are electrically operated I thought that this could be the culprit.

Now with people asking for 3 doors in trains..(the new Electrostars for East London have 3 doors it seems. Anyone seen them?) more points of failure. More delays...

- RD

 

[westcoaster]

Ok.. But why is that peculiar to the UK?

I read somewhere that trains in UK take more power causing a number of problems. Since doors are electrically operated I thought that this could be the culprit.

- RD

older stock the doors are air operated iirc, and that is what gives the doors the preasure to close, but this maybe true with new stock.

 

[raildog]

older stock the doors are air operated iirc, and that is what gives the doors the preasure to close, but this maybe true with new stock.

@ Westcoaster - thanks for that explanation.

This has got me interested. If electric trains have this door problems then the issue could well be the power supply.. Any ideas if anything has been done for doors specifically in the new stock..

-RD

 

[RJ]

What gives? FCC don't have the stock to run longer trains! Simple.

What's simple is you. I guess you missed the bit where I said that they were running four 4 coach trains per hour between London and Bedford as opposed to the normal four 8 coach tph, as well as the 4tph between London and St Albans.

 

[class 313]

What's simple is you. I guess you missed the bit where I said that they were running four 4 coach trains per hour between London and Bedford as opposed to the normal four 8 coach tph, as well as the 4tph between London and St Albans.

You said nothing about TPH you just said a SINGLE 319 so I reply with FCC don't have enough stock. This is a known problem of FCC

 

[FusionRail]

Hahaha, we got two 319s, and most of the doors wouldn't work, so everyone was stuffed into the first couple of coaches.
Brighton pride was great though

typical britian:-P
let me guess it rained too?

 

[class 313]

typical britian:-P
let me guess it rained too?

I think you find Gizmogle's situation is rare on trains, specially with the reliable 319s...

 

[RJ]

Its far from rare to have doors out of service on a train. Its not uncommon for the 508 trailers to be locked out of use on 455s.

 

[class 313]

Its far from rare to have doors out of service on a train. Its not uncommon for the 508 trailers to be locked out of use on 455s.

I mean to have many doors OOS on one train.... hence I said Gizmogle's situation...

 

[Tom]

I'd say it's not too rare for doors to be out of service on the older units, certainly the Mk3 derived units. As said before - it's all down to the door rollers, although a lack of mainline air can cause it ....

 

[class 313]

I'd say it's not too rare for doors to be out of service on the older units, certainly the Mk3 derived units. As said before - it's all down to the door rollers, although a lack of mainline air can cause it ....

Well its not too common either...

 

[RJ]

Well its not too common either...

It wouldn't be for those who don't get out much.

 

[class 313]

It wouldn't be for those who don't get out much.

You're right. Dunno why you said that to me though :???: