Greater Anglia Good and Bad Discussion

[Alfie1014]

Small steps today, the MkIII refurbishment starts;

http://www.eveningnews24.co.uk/news...norwich_to_london_intercity_service_1_3895420

Chloe Smith MP (and co-Chair of the Great Eastern Main Line Taskforce), Mark Pendlington Chair of the New Anglia LEP (and co-Chair of the Great Eastern Main Line Taskforce), Simon Wright MP and Jamie Burles, Managing Director, Abellio Greater Anglia with the first table to be taken out.

The region’s main train operator has started a major refurbishment programme on all its intercity MkIII carriages that run between Norwich, Ipswich, Colchester and London.

Improvements to Abellio Greater Anglia’s fleet will be made in both first class and standard carriages, and will include new carpets, tables and seat covers, upgraded toilets with new floors and taps, and re-painting of the carriage interior saloon and vestibule panels, walls and ceilings.

Exterior painting of all carriages is also being undertaken as part of a separate programme.

The first refurbished carriages are due to enter service in February next year, with the full programme completed by the end of the train operator’s current short franchise in October 2016.

Abellio Greater Anglia’s managing director Jamie Burles said: “We are delighted to begin this major refresh for our MkIII carriages, which will deliver a significant improvement in the travelling environment for passengers on our key intercity services between Norwich, Ipswich, Colchester and London.

“We look forward to unveiling the first completed carriage, which is due to be in service in February 2015.”

The refurbishment programme began today at the company’s Crown Point Depot in Norwich.

The work will be carried out at a specially prepared facility at the Crown Point Depot by the company’s partner for the project Vossloh Kiepe.

As announced earlier this week, as part of the wider MkIII upgrade programme, a number of carriages will be modified to enable more standard seats to be provided - over 2,500 a day or over 600,000 a year.

 

[Wayneh]

On the day so called mk3 improvement starts, 2000 Lst Nrw caped, no crew

 

[387star]

Ahh well I did not know that I take back that previous statement as a fault of AGA. The deep clean is definitely good news!

They need Less white that's the problem especially a diesel

The short franchise should never have happened

 

[samuelmorris]

At least initially, I don't see Crossrail being positive for punctuality on the 'all stations' part of the Great Eastern because any improvements made in new rolling stock (I would argue 315s despite their age are not that unreliable and new stock always has teething issues, never mind the fact that the 345s are a brand new 'untested' product platform from a manufacturer that some might argue rarely get things right first time!) would in any case be offset by the fact the line would become susceptible to troubles on the Great Western, whether or not any signalling traumas came about in the central section.
Eventually, the all-new tech is likely to see the route be pretty punctual I think as the overground does fairly well with MTR behind it, and that's not the simplest setup out there, especially the East London line. It'll take time though, I'd argue 2019-2021, assuming the tunnels open on time, would probably be worse for punctuality than now, but maybe 2025 onwards would hopefully be better. Either way, the service will be transformed, somewhat less crowded and far nicer to travel on with much higher capacity stock and air conditioning. Objectively the 315s are actually still fairly good units, but crossrail-aside they're borderline inadequate now for overcrowding reasons as there just aren't enough of them, so something would have had to be done anyway.

Good to see the Norwich set overhaul is now starting to take place - as others have commented it is only a stopgap before new stock is delivered, but it's a necessary stopgap as the current state of them really is dreadful - far eclipsing the state of the 315s, 321s and 360s from what I've seen. 317s I'm not able to judge as I seldom use them, and 379s, well you'd hope not!
Rolled in 5 minutes late this evening, to match the morning. Nothing dreadful, but still, you almost wonder why they don't just slacken the timetable a bit sometimes!

 

[Wayneh]

Someone should perhaps tell Jamie even if he does a half hearted refurb on 70s stock, he needs crew to run them.

They are still a joke.

 

[387star]

Are new DDA toilets being fitted to the mk3s or just retention tanks

 

[samuelmorris]

"new floors and taps" doesn't sound like entirely new toilets to me.

 

[Wayneh]

And 2025 Stanex in service with TWO smashed windows

 

[387star]

Answered my question...

The significant refresh will see all of the train operator's MkIII fleet enhanced, with improvements throughout for both First Class and Standard carriages including, plug points; new LED lighting; new carpets; new tables; new seat covers; upgraded environmentally-friendly controlled emission toilets with new floors and new taps; re-painting of the carriage interior saloon and vestibule panels, walls and ceilings.

Surprised newspaper didn't pick up on plug points
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And 2025 Stanex in service with TWO smashed windows

Hopefully hazard taped?
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Yet more improvements confirmed...

From website of AGA:

Abellio Greater Anglia is to invest a further £1.5m in a new programme of performance and service delivery initiatives, designed to give customers a better service by improving punctuality and service consistency across its network.


Fully recognising customers want better performance after a challenging few weeks, the train operator will implement a series of actions to improve train reliability including modifications to trains, recruitment of additional staff and further upgrades to train presentation standards. The key actions are:

Reliability modifications to the doors on Class 315, 317 and 321 electric trains used on Great Eastern and West Anglia services to and from London;
More overnight door maintenance and repair resources at key locations such as Colchester, Southend, Orient Way (London), Chingford and Cambridge to tackle and prevent disruptive door faults - helping improve punctuality on services to and from London;
Modifications and upgrades to the electrical and mechanical systems on the Class 315, 317 and 321 electric trains used on Great Eastern and West Anglia services to and from London;
Further enhancements to the Class 90 locomotive maintenance regime (these locomotives are used on the Norwich - Ipswich - Colchester - London intercity services);
Improving the maintenance depot systems for changing train wheels and motors;
Additional resources to further strengthen the round the clock technical support for the train fleet;
Four additional engineers and technical support staff to help deliver the performance improvement schemes as quickly as possible (in addition to the 6 announced last month);
Fourteen additional cleaning staff (in addition to the 40 extra staff announced last month) to continue the focus and investment on cleaner trains.

The programme of initiatives will start immediately and be delivered progressively over the next six months to help improve punctuality and wider service delivery across the company's network, after the difficult recent period. Although Abellio Greater Anglia's annual punctuality results place it 10th out of the 22 UK train operators (with an annual average of 90.7% against a national average of 89.3%), the last few weeks have not been good enough. The autumn is traditionally a more difficult period for UK train performance, but this year has been especially problematic - primarily due to infrastructure faults such as track, signalling and overhead line problems, plus an increase in problems due to weather-related disruption and an increase of over 50% in the number of fatality incidents (suicides) compared to 2013. In addition, there have been Abellio Greater Anglia’s own train faults, plus freight companies’ train faults.

Abellio Greater Anglia is working very closely with Network Rail, who is actively targeting a more reliable infrastructure performance in the New Year.

In the meantime, the train operator is playing its full part in improving performance by implementing this programme of performance and service delivery initiatives. The investment follows on from £20 million worth of service upgrades announced in April 2014 and a further £10 million of upgrades announced in November 2014.

Abellio Greater Anglia Managing Director Jamie Burles said: "We are sorry that recent performance has not been reliable enough. We are listening to our customers' feedback every day and we are anxious to address their concerns. This extensive programme of performance and service delivery initiatives is deliberately designed to address issues regarding recent performance head on. By investing further in the reliability and condition of our fleet of trains, we expect to see improvements in train punctuality over the coming months. Some actions will have a quicker impact than others, but in tandem with all the work Network Rail is doing to address infrastructure problems, we are determined they will make a positive difference in 2015.

“In addition, the recently announced service quality investments to the on-train environment for a number of our carriages, plus other improvements to Sunday timetables and station facilities, mean that customers should see a real, positive difference to service standards over the next year, building on the train, station and timetable upgrades we have introduced over the last 12 months. We are fully committed to delivering a better service in the short term, as well as continuing to work effectively with regional stakeholders to secure longer term investment and upgrades for our region's railways."

 

[Wayneh]

Abellio will do the minimum refurb they can get away with. 99p or less establishment
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Hazard untaped

Train running with two smashed windows

 

[387star]

Talk about spitting out news bit by bit...
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Abellio will do the minimum refurb they can get away with. 99p or less establishment
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Hazard untaped

Train running with two smashed windows

Assume you reported this

 

[SPADTrap]

Abellio will do the minimum refurb they can get away with. 99p or less establishment
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Hazard untaped

Train running with two smashed windows

Outer or inner pane smashed or both? Where abouts on the unit, any ideas?

 

[387star]

Deleted

 

[91104]

And 2025 Stanex in service with TWO smashed windows

Assuming it's the outer pane of a double glazed window it's perfectly safe to run. I've run many times with a smashed outer pane and it's fine up to 100mph ( I drive 125mph trains) It's not always an easy job to change a broken window and usually the seats round it are taped off. Much rather that than cancel the train which no doubt would annoy people even more.

 

[nesw]

AGA have been running 8 car Southend trains in the evenings all weekdays pre-Christmas. (Usually Thursday's and Fridays).

Most Saturday Southend trains have also been strenghened to 8 or 12 car, with more 8 car on Southend and mainline on Sunday's pre Christmas.

I believe that there's a financial penalty for operating short formed trains as there's an agreed number of seats in the train plan. The ratio of spares is around the industry average.

 

[samuelmorris]

In my humble opinion, most rail services on the GEML have the usage to justify running 8-car by default, only changing for 12-car peak services. There aren't many routes that would be wasted on other than the branch services (e.g. Harwich, Walton, Colchester-Colchester Town etc.). The service frequencies being lower should surely allow for a fairly modest proportion of the fleet to be out under such an arrangement.
Totting up punctuality overall from today as proof of concept for next year, it really doesn't seem to have been a bad day - a few 5 minuters here and there, but nothing major.

 

[nesw]

The longer the train, the bigger the electric bill and it would also mean fewer trains available for routine exams between the peaks. In a lot of cases there's little need for longer trains off peak and as the train plan and finances are agreed with the DfT, the figures might not add up.

 

[dk1]

On the day so called mk3 improvement starts, 2000 Lst Nrw caped, no crew

Caused by signal problems on the Sheringham branch. Crew for 17.30 ex-Nrw & 20.00 return trapped. Later transpired to be staff/roster error too.
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Abellio will do the minimum refurb they can get away with. 99p or less establishment

Abellio aren't even paying that. Its 100% paid for by DfT as the franchise issues are 100% their fault.

 

[samuelmorris]

The longer the train, the bigger the electric bill and it would also mean fewer trains available for routine exams between the peaks. In a lot of cases there's little need for longer trains off peak and as the train plan and finances are agreed with the DfT, the figures might not add up.

Indeed, but as stated, the differential between peak services both in train length and tph I'd have thought would leave ample units to run through exams.

Heh, me and my big mouth:
http://www.realtimetrains.co.uk/train/Y11480/2014/12/22/advanced

 

[LAX54]

Indeed, but as stated, the differential between peak services both in train length and tph I'd have thought would leave ample units to run through exams.

Heh, me and my big mouth:http://www.realtimetrains.co.uk/train/Y11480/2014/12/22/advanced

Vandalism near Manningtree was the cause of delays. the little darlings !

 

[samuelmorris]

Another problem AGA will get lumbered with abuse for that's outside their control. On the flip-side though, judging from tweets it doesn't look as if staff were particularly well-informed about it...

 

[Wayneh]

Last thing GEML needs is more outside influenced hassle

 

[LAX54]

Another problem AGA will get lumbered with abuse for that's outside their control. On the flip-side though, judging from tweets it doesn't look as if staff were particularly well-informed about it...

In fact once they found the location of the 'fault' it WAS fixed very quickly, in about 30 mins, maybe a bit more, but with a cut cable somewhere between Manningtree and Ipswich locating the problem is the hard part,
Fortunately there was some cable handy, once it was run out, and then connected up, the service was up and running, but by then the damage (excuse the pun) had been done, the railway then had to play catch up adn get services back on track.

 

[Sleepy]

I see C2C are have a difficult Xmas Eve, even "perfect" TOC have bad days out of their control.

 

[samuelmorris]

Major issue between Southend Central and Shoeburyness, but otherwise looks fairly tidy - as long as they presumably sorted out a replacement bus between Shoeburyness and Central in short order, should have been manageable. A 6 hour blockage is nasty but only spanning 4 miles and otherwise unimpeding services I can't see any passengers experiencing real-term delays particularly bad.

No TOC is perfect, not c2c certainly, but it has been a while since they've made the news for an issue like this I believe?

 

[ChiefPlanner]

Major issue between Southend Central and Shoeburyness, but otherwise looks fairly tidy - as long as they presumably sorted out a replacement bus between Shoeburyness and Central in short order, should have been manageable. A 6 hour blockage is nasty but only spanning 4 miles and otherwise unimpeding services I can't see any passengers experiencing real-term delays particularly bad.

No TOC is perfect, not c2c certainly, but it has been a while since they've made the news for an issue like this I believe?

A problem will be getting the 357's home to bed at Shoeburyness - but they will manage that I am sure. Fingers crossed - no major out stabling...

 

[Wivenswold]

AGA's planning guys failed to remember that at 1pm most offices in the city close and Westfield is jammed with shoppers.

My train, the 13.18 Liverpool Street to Clacton was, according to the driver, was booked for 4 coaches. An additional unit was attached at Liverpool Street, presumably due to overcrowding, but it still wasn't enough. Rammed isn't the word.

Back in the day BR, First and even NX put 12 cars on during Christmas Eve afternoon. It would seem that GA either don't care or don't think about loadings and their passenger's comfort. An email has gone to their top brass and I'll share their response.

 

[LAX54]

AGA's planning guys failed to remember that at 1pm most offices in the city close and Westfield is jammed with shoppers.

My train, the 13.18 Liverpool Street to Clacton was, according to the driver, was booked for 4 coaches. An additional unit was attached at Liverpool Street, presumably due to overcrowding, but it still wasn't enough. Rammed isn't the word.

Back in the day BR, First and even NX put 12 cars on during Christmas Eve afternoon. It would seem that GA either don't care or don't think about loadings and their passenger's comfort. An email has gone to their top brass and I'll share their response.

Was booked 8 car inbound ex Clacton (1105 dep) and 8 car on the 1318

 

[Wivenswold]

Was booked 8 car inbound ex Clacton (1105 dep) and 8 car on the 1318

Really? Not sure why the driver announced that it was originally supposed to be 4 car. Anyway, I'm not here to knock the driver he did a fantastic job with his informative and festive announcements. Probably kept a lid on things as there were a lot of angry customers.

The point was that previous companies have acknowledged the fact that early afternoon on Christmas Eve, there are a lot of commuters, people travelling for Christmas visits and last-minute shoppers who want to get away from London. AGA just ran their normal length trains.

 

[hassaanhc]

Really? Not sure why the driver announced that it was originally supposed to be 4 car. Anyway, I'm not here to knock the driver he did a fantastic job with his informative and festive announcements. Probably kept a lid on things as there were a lot of angry customers.

The point was that previous companies have acknowledged the fact that early afternoon on Christmas Eve, there are a lot of commuters, people travelling for Christmas visits and last-minute shoppers who want to get away from London. AGA just ran their normal length trains.

I had a look around Twitter, AGA were not only TOC to get criticism over 4 car trains around 1-3pm. Southeastern even went as far as declassifying First Class until 4pm (Link 1, Link 2). SWT said they needed to keep some units back for the evening otherwise too many units would end up at the country end and lead to shortages in the evening, when things got busier.

Not the easiest thing to do, to try and ensure the right services are strengthened. Did AGA have most services as 8 at that time? If so, then they appear to have done better than others.