Greater Anglia Class 379 Off-lease?

[CBlue]

In my opinion it does makes sense if they move to GN to replace all of the 387's, allowing them to move to Southern (Consider it has southern interior)
I believe it would be possible to upgrade the 379 to 110mph if the OLE gets upgraded to withstand upto three photographs at that speed

Passengers will benefit greatly with seats that actually has comfort and REAL first class, Dare to say that 379's will also be a ideal unit for Gatwick Express

Gatwick Express? Really?

They aren't dual voltage or currently 3rd rail compatibility, and GX already have a fleet of newer EMU's in use.

110mph running also doesn't appear to have anything to do with OLE but rather GN's safety case allows 100mph max, as said on other threads in this forum.

Seats are a tad nicer but I'm not sure the majority of passengers would notice....they're not *that* luxurious.

 

[Astro_Orbiter]

Last I heard they were staying at GA WA for another year and a half or so, I'd wager they're the last "legacy" trains to still be at GA.

 

[whoosh]

It's my understanding that the 387's pantographs for 110mph running, were not accepted by the Anglia region of Network Rail, so have been changed/modified and the maximum speed with the ones fitted now is 100mph.

387s and 379s have different software - 387s have Microsoft XP and 379s have Linux apparently. It would seem running in multiple would not work.

Gatwick Express actually would make sense. Just fit 379s with 3rd rail shoes and less drivers to do a traction training conversion course. GX387s to GN and then can run in multiple with the others if needed. Replaces 365s which have no SDO and need manual dispatch from platform staff at certain stations at certain train lengths and/or times of day. All that would be simplified.
GX one common fleet, just different to what they currently have. GN one common fleet of 387s instead of 365s and 387s - and no 379s as well which would just complicate things.

 

[59CosG95]

I believe it would be possible to upgrade the 379 to 110mph if the OLE gets upgraded to withstand up to three photographs at that speed.

That's a big 'if'.

You'd need to rewire (at a minimum) the Fasts from Oakleigh Park (where the linespeed goes from 100mph to 115mph northbound), and remove any headspans within that range if you want to have 3-pan 110mph running. You'd probably need to look at the power supply (again) - while the ECML is now de-boostered north of Wood Green (Ally Pally), the auto transformers from Welwyn to Hitchin are (I believe) still isolated. You'd probably have to ATF the route from Hitchin until at least Peterboro' if you want to add 12-car 110mph 387s up that way throughout the day - although they'd still probably only do it at the morning/evening peaks.

Besides, the time saved with that extra 10mph is fairly negligible anyway.

 

[mic505]

How about the 379's displacing the GN 387/1's to Southern and binning their 313's from 2022?

 

[JonathanH]

Why do people need to keep posting wild speculation about the future use of 379s in this thread? The question is whether they are going off lease, not whether they are going to find another role quickly.

The right thread is here.

Speculation regarding Class 379 future

I just looked on wikipedia to find the 745s are replscing these trains. They're only 8 years old, where will they end up?

www.railforums.co.uk

 

[yorkie]

Just a gentle reminder that any suggestions, ideas etc belong in the Speculative Ideas section please

We will therefore either need to delete some posts, or move them to the correct section, or move/re-title the thread. I will unlock the thread once we have established the OP's preferences