Greater Anglia Rolling Stock Updates

[Alfie1014]

One of my friends was on short formed Stansted sets tonight and the reason for short forms on services was because the fleet is having WiFi updated.

With all the unit shortages? Now? Really?

Is that the reason too why the number of 360 diagrams was reduced by 2 from May?

I see today in addition to the semi-regular evening peak heat reductions there will be no service at all on the Colchester Town branch this afternoon. Any one know what the specific issue on the branch is?

 

[F Great Eastern]

Is that the reason too why the number of 360 diagrams was reduced by 2 from May?

I see today in addition to the semi-regular evening peak heat reductions there will be no service at all on the Colchester Town branch this afternoon. Any one know what the specific issue on the branch is?

I have no idea, but it's a bit smoke and mirrors stuff saying that Wifi installation is the reason for the short forms, when we all know that the real reason is a lack of serviceable rolling stock, which the PR men probably have advised them not to say publicly on Journeycheck.

Greater Anglia should be cancelling projects like this until the stock availability improves or carrying out the work at off-peak times or weekends when they can spare the stock without having to operate short forms as a consequence.

 

[samuelmorris]

I'm assuming the idea is that the interiors are sufficiently gutted by this process, you can't return them to service in the space of a weekend. Even so, stating that lack of availability is due to the WiFi upgrades gives no less vibe of incompetence than simply saying there aren't enough serviceable trains available.

 

[F Great Eastern]

I'm assuming the idea is that the interiors are sufficiently gutted by this process, you can't return them to service in the space of a weekend. Even so, stating that lack of availability is due to the WiFi upgrades gives no less vibe of incompetence than simply saying there aren't enough serviceable trains available.

If that's the case and they do need a fair few days out of service then I would suspend the program until there are enough units avaliable on the West Anglia side.

They already have Wifi, it might not be the best but it's no showstopper if they have to wait a few more weeks to have faster version, whereas being crammed in, at heat of 35c into a short formed train is far worse.

 

[Defiance149]

Anyone know why 156415 ran to Nemesis' Burton depot today please?

 

[cl90001]

What's with the livery on 311? No red on it anywhere, just grey lines and the GA logo. Is that from it having been vandalised?

exactly that, 311 was subject to a serious vandalism attack not long ago and the grey stripe/lines got removed when the graffiti was removed.

 

[LAX54]

I see today in addition to the semi-regular evening peak heat reductions there will be no service at all on the Colchester Town branch this afternoon. Any one know what the specific issue on the branch is?

It was heat, with the rails at 50+c and a tight curve, it was, I assume deemed risky running a train round into the Town, risk of a buckle ? bit like sticking a bit of metal in blacksmiths furnace !

 

[Kite159]

The Yarmouth fasts yesterday was a 153 & the 37s with 2 coaches.

I would imagine some services would have been cosy!

 

[rick_suffolk]

What I don’t understand is that for months and months there are short forms on the outer suburban lines. Meanwhile sidings full of idle class 319s. Madness

 

[dk1]

The Yarmouth fasts yesterday was a 153 & the 37s with 2 coaches.

I would imagine some services would have been cosy!

Think yesterday was the first Saturday since May that every dated Yarmouth service actually ran. Cosy yes but better than the standby bus or simply being unable to board the following service.

 

[Down North]

The Yarmouth fasts yesterday was a 153 & the 37s with 2 coaches.

I would imagine some services would ha

Do DRS not have enough mk2 coaches to be able to provide a spare at Norwich? Presumably anything other than a simple fault and they have to go back to Carlisle/Crewe, leaving the short set with barely more capacity than a 153 in the interim.

 

[Wivenswold]

It won't be long before someone suggests sending some spare Pacers to Norfolk. [runs for cover]

 

[Kite159]

It won't be long before someone suggests sending some spare Pacers to Norfolk. [runs for cover]

What spare pacers?

 

[Wivenswold]

Oh yes, I forgot, every other cascade is delayed too. Just wait til next year when 58 pristine Stadler Flirts are sat at Calais awaiting our government to agree export and import tariffs with the countries they've passed though. At least our Aventras will already be in the country, albeit, minus any parts EU countries stuck in what will become knows as "The Great Blockade". Joking aside, I assume hard borders have been considered by the GA team.

 

[dp21]

It won't be long before someone suggests sending some spare Pacers to Norfolk. [runs for cover]

There are a number of options on the table for the DRS set. Some probably more far fetched than you might thing...

 

[jopsuk]

There are a number of options on the table for the DRS set. Some probably more far fetched than you might thing...

A ludicrous suggestion: A 20 at either end, through wiring for push-pull and power doors

 

[F Great Eastern]

Is .the stock situation getting worse? Seems to be more four cars around this morning!!

Struggling for diesels as well. Fair few cancellations and trains late out of depot. Fact they're late out suggests they might well be short term fixes.

Friend on 07:47 Cambridge to London says it's double short formed with 4 instead of 12.

 

[F Great Eastern]

Friend on 07:47 Cambridge to London says it's double short formed with 4 instead of 12.

She was on the 17:07 from London tonight and that was also 4 cars instead of 12.

At this stage GA need to buck their ideas up or there needs to be some enforcement action taken against them because this problem is not getting any better and it's getting worse if anything.

It's clear that appointing a new engineering director in 2016 with no previous railway experience has backfired spectacularly and an experienced head should be brought in to turn things around.

It's not like they can point to one class of train and say it's just bad luck, the reliability of pretty much all classes in the entire franchise appears to have gone through the floor.

My season ticket is up the end of the month. If it doesn't change I'll just go back to driving because at this stage it's no longer enjoyable to travel by train.

 

[dk1]

Another far from ideal day on the locals. Short forms a plenty along with a few cancellations. Not helped by the following train being formed of a single 153 leaving passengers behind at intermediate stations too.

Latest rumour doing the rounds is of a possible short HST rake replacing the DRS37 short set. Not sure where this has come from. From what I believe, they are permitted to run at SP speeds which would allow them to operate on the far more suitable Norwich-Cambridge route.

 

[465 Forever]

I wonder what the chances are of the franchise being lost like VTEC?

 

[F Great Eastern]

Well it looks like they need all the rolling stock they can get, we'll be rechristening some of the locals as the 'Misery lines' soon the way it is going.

The state of 170 207 this morning, getting late out of the depot and then seemingly having some issues in Ipswich, making not a great noise makes me think that's a failure waiting to happen.

The situation on the West can't be much good though if they're now at a point where they're having to short form 12 car services to 4 cars at peak times which is just ridiculous.

I can forgive GA the Renatus stuff to a point and some of the freak stuff that happened with some of the units, but that still doesn't explain why every single line and fleet is effected.

 

[F Great Eastern]

I wonder what the chances are of the franchise being lost like VTEC?

Thing is that I have been very supportive of GA as a whole until the last few months or so as overall until that point they had done a good job, even if I do have misgivings about their fleet replacement strategy.

It's not that there are short forms that is the core of the problem per se, it's simply that this has been going on for many months now and GA have not been able to demonstrate that they are able to resolve the problems or are willing to take any proper remedial action.

Now whether that is down to poor management, lack of experience in the engineering management or simply a conscious decision to skimp on maintenance as the fleet is being replaced next year, is open to debate.

 

[dk1]

I try to take into account the building site that is Crown Point at the moment but that should have been worked into this enormous fleet transformation project & is not the current customer or staffs fault. It really is a daily embarrassing muddle & the new trains cannot come soon enough as far as I'm concerned.

 

[F Great Eastern]

The front-line staff like always have been first class, all credit to them.

It becomes more important than ever that the new stock roll-out goes as smoothly as possible, because if the current situation continues until then I doubt there will be much in the way of slack or goodwill given to them from commuters who would have been long suffering at that point.

Certainly we are currently at the lowest ebb of Abellio's tenure as custodian of the franchise.

 

[samuelmorris]

Seems very unlikely, the MTIN of new stock is seldom over 5000 for the first year, the old fleet isn't that bad is it?

 

[F Great Eastern]

Seems very unlikely, the MTIN of new stock is seldom over 5000 for the first year, the old fleet isn't that bad is it?

Not sure if MTIN is really the best way to analyse the current situation though, since it only measures how often trails fail, rather than how long they are failed for. Fleet availability is a better way to measure it and surely that has to be at an all time low under Abellio at present.

Example:
a) If a train is out for three months because of a fault that counts as one incident.
b) If a train is out for two weeks because of a fault that repeats twice that counts as three.

Example a) would have a far greater impact on the customer, but would have less of an effect on the MTIN figures than b).

Thing is there is only so much commuters can take, the fact we're now starting to see 4 car units substituting for 12 cars is a very worrying development.

 

[samuelmorris]

Very true, but I'm not sure having trains repeatedly failing in service is much better than having a fair few out of service long-term. Certainly, if multiple technicians per train are still required by the time the 720s are introduced, they'll run out of fitters long before the fleet is fully introduced. Hopefully the software issues will be resolved by then, but 14 months in and so far using the evidence of the 345s and 710s progress on that seems pretty grim.

 

[86246]

The state of 170 207 this morning, getting late out of the depot and then seemingly having some issues in Ipswich, making not a great noise makes me think that's a failure waiting to happen.

I like the 170s but they really have seemed to suffer quite a bit as well recently. A few weeks back 170270 was in service for at least a week with both toilets out of order. Not particularly useful when it spent most of that time on the Ipswich to Peterborough run. The service I was on had an extended stop at Ely for passengers requiring the station toilets.

I agree with dk1, the new trains are desperately required but it is still going to be a long wait.

 

[F Great Eastern]

Still a fair few short forms this morning (25) but not as bad as yesterday, but for some reason a lot of the Southend services have been increased from being booked as 8 cars to operating with 12 cars, whilst we seem to have an increase in trains with 4 cars which are booked as 12 cars.

Meanwhile we've already had two DMU services cancelled and a bunch of DMU and EMU services which are only doing part of the route because of a lack of stock.

 

[47421]

Latest rumour doing the rounds is of a possible short HST rake replacing the DRS37 short set. Not sure where this has come from. From what I believe, they are permitted to run at SP speeds which would allow them to operate on the far more suitable Norwich-Cambridge route.

I think Mk3s cant stop Thetford, doors swing too near posts on platform or something?

Anyone know contracted delivery dates for 720s? Thinking they may be late already as 710s are late and 720s must be behind them on production line. Thought I read somewhere having to stop production as no room on Bombardier site to store new trains as 710s lined up pending acceptance by NR