Summary of points discussed with Abellio 'Stakeholder Engagement Adviser' yesterday evening:
General
- What is the seat pitch and how will the seats compare to those on other contemporary stock like the Class 387, 700 etc?
>He did not have seat pitch figures available unfortunately, so these have been requested. The seats will not be the same as the controversial ones on the 387s and 700s, but beyond that I don't have much specific info.
There is currently a mockup of a Stadler unit already in existence at Norwich. An Aventra mockup is underway at Derby and will be ready within a couple of months. However, as these are full-size mockups they are not suitable to showcase in stations.
We laboured the point that the passengers should have a say on the seat design before units are arriving for test en masse and strongly suggested that an individual seat demo, as per Northern, is conducted at Liverpool Street. This has been passed on and highlighted in his notes (I observed him doing so) as the most important point regarding the new fleet.
- How will the power/USB sockets on the units be configured? (Not shown on the current renders) Particularly with regard to the '3 side' on the Aventra 3+2 seating since power sockets on such a system is unprecedented
>For this, he was specific regarding the Stadler IC units, Standard class gets a power socket & USB port for every pair of seats in Standard, a power socket & USB for every single seat in First class. I didn't establish if that also applies to the regional Bimodes.
Information regarding the power socket config for the Aventras wasn't available to hand, so I'm waiting to hear back about this.
- What is the capability of the PIS fitted to the new fleet, how does it compare to existing second generation displays (e.g. Class 700), and will the system fitted be the same for both types of unit?
>Generally speaking the system is to be considered similar to that of the Class 700, though he did allude to the possibility of extra (arguably less useful) info appearing on the intercity units. The system will use colour displays to show stopping patterns and loading indicators at the very least, though loading indicators are apparently on a 3-level scale not 4-level as per the Class 700.
Aventra
- How many 8-car off-peak services will be shortened to 5-car?
>All down to management once the fleet is introduced, so we won't know yet. I didn't receive a 'many / few / none' answer.
- Will the 10-car fixed formation units be restricted to peak time usage? If so, will this not create a maintenance discrepancy between units that cover fewer miles and don't work the late night services?
>Seemingly it looks like they might, but I am a little concerned about this, ending up after a few years with tatty 5-car units and still immaculate 10-car sets. Again though, this is more of an operational issue that could change dynamically once the fleets are introduced.
Flirt
- Where are the seating layouts for the Stadler units?
>These seemingly were omitted from the presentation, they are around and will be passed onto us in due course. No doubt they will be shared as soon as we see them.
- What is the unit length (per train and per vehicle) of the Stadler fleets?
>See above, info has been requested
Renatus
- What is happening, and have things reached a point where Eversholt are considering pulling the plug?
>Nothing heard at this stage but he does agree that the value of having extensively refurbished units potentially cover only a few weeks in service before withdrawal is minimal. I suspect we may only hear more of this further down the line.
It did not seem that we had the 'right man' for asking questions about Renatus, but nonetheless the question has been noted.
I had a few other questions but a lot of this revolved around timetabling, which will have a separate consultation period as the new timetable that considers this fleet will be written next year. We also raised the point that rail user groups should have more say regarding the timetable, which has also been noted.
The only point I was able to extract was that the third off-peak Norwich service is likely to be an additional service to the current Ipswich stopper, not an extension of.
Despite an interesting discussion, most of the important parts are at this point unanswered, though I understand one man isn't likely to know the detail for all these points. I'm hopeful that we'll see at the very least the seat pitch and the Stadler seat layouts before long. We'll keep a close eye on the development of a seat demo.
