Hello Greater Anglia!

[150222]

I've heard todays been a right shambles for Abellio. I have a few questions I hope someone can awnswer.
1)Have the 317/7's been taken off-lease today?
2)Has 150280 gone back to ATW yet?
3)How long is it expected to take to re-brand/clean all of the trains?

Well I hope they do well over the next few years. Glad to be rid of NXEA. Only travelled with them once. First train cancelled, Next train heaving and couldn't get on then when I finally did get on a train it was a 321/4 in a disgusting state. Was not impressed and haven't travelled with them since.

Good Luck Abellio!

 

[Jordy]

1)Have the 317/7's been taken off-lease today?

Yes

2)Has 150282 gone back to ATW yet?

No, staying for at least a couple more weeks apparently (due to a shortage of 153s)

3)How long is it expected to take to re-brand/clean all of the trains?

Not sure, but at least one 321 already has the new branding.

 

[Aictos]

Yes

Not sure, but at least one 321 already has the new branding.

Which 321 has the Abellio Greater Anglia branding?

 

[DjU]

I've heard todays been a right shambles for Abellio. I have a few questions I hope someone can awnswer.
1)Have the 317/7's been taken off-lease today?

Yes (and no!)

Yes all 9 are now off lease, but it didn't take long for Abellio to get on the phone and have to beg for one to be leased back for today!

:roll:

 

[O L Leigh]

Shame. I have a real soft spot for the Cl317/7s.

I only hope that whoever takes them on gets the best out of them. For a 30+ year old EMU, they really do scrub up well and show just what can be done with a bit of application. I shall miss working them greatly (although I shall not miss battling the punters over the A/C and opening windows).

O L Leigh

 

[SprinterMan]

I've heard todays been a right shambles for Abellio. I have a few questions I hope someone can awnswer.
1)Have the 317/7's been taken off-lease today?
2)Has 150282 gone back to ATW yet?
3)How long is it expected to take to re-brand/clean all of the trains?

Well I hope they do well over the next few years. Glad to be rid of NXEA. Only travelled with them once. First train cancelled, Next train heaving and couldn't get on then when I finally did get on a train it was a 321/4 in a disgusting state. Was not impressed and haven't travelled with them since.

Good Luck Abellio!

I am also glad to be rid of NXEA.
Apparently quite a few of the ex-storage 321/4s had fleas living in the seats but not even this motivated NXEA to clean them internally properly. Oh and btw they have 150280, not 150282. :P

Yes (and no!)

Yes all 9 are now off lease, but it didn't take long for Abellio to get on the phone and have to beg for one to be leased back for today!

:roll:

Can they do that? Why did they ask for it back and what services did it run. They are normally not used on sundays. What conformation do you have of this? I do hope they don't linger like the 460s are doing.

Shame. I have a real soft spot for the Cl317/7s.

I only hope that whoever takes them on gets the best out of them. For a 30+ year old EMU, they really do scrub up well and show just what can be done with a bit of application. I shall miss working them greatly (although I shall not miss battling the punters over the A/C and opening windows).

O L Leigh

I am in 2 minds about them leaving. They are good looking units compared to the rest of the 317s, and they have very comfortable seats and nice big tables and a disabled loo, but they don't have nearly enough seats or standing room for what NXEA used them for in the last days of the franchise, and overcrowding on them was nightmarish. A 12 car 317/7 has less seats than an 8 car 321! Did they have A/C? I was under the impression they didn't because they had hopper windows but I could be wrong. The 317/7s biggest problem was the inter-carriage gangway doors. They are inward opening but powered which is peculiar, I assume this is because they were not built with them so there was no room to fit a sliding door. These doors are dangerous. I have only been on 317/7s twice and in that time I have been trapped in a gangway by the doors refusing to open and the set behind me closing and refusing to open. The doors are normally stuck shut, which means you can't walk from carriage to carriage or stuck open, which makes the train drafty. On the one of the occasions I got the doors to work, they opened with some force and hit the person in the seat next to them with some force. While 317/7s are nice units, they need more seats and tbh are far inferior to 379s.

 

[O L Leigh]

They are good looking units compared to the rest of the 317s, and they have very comfortable seats and nice big tables and a disabled loo, but they don't have nearly enough seats or standing room for what NXEA used them for in the last days of the franchise, and overcrowding on them was nightmarish. A 12 car 317/7 has less seats than an 8 car 321!

To be fair, they were never intended to be used on busy commuter routes. However, once they had been displaced from the StanEx services there was nowhere for them to go where their internal layout suited the use to which they were put. For quite some time all Cl317s were operated as a common pool which meant that Cl317/7s would end up on WA inner-suburban services.

Did they have A/C? I was under the impression they didn't because they had hopper windows but I could be wrong.

Yes they do. To my mind the hopper vents should have been sealed shut as these are the root of the problem. Once the punters started to open the windows on all but the very hottest of days, it wouldn't be long before the heating came on. If you could persuade them to keep the vents shut the A/C actually worked very well.

The 317/7s biggest problem was the inter-carriage gangway doors. They are inward opening but powered which is peculiar, I assume this is because they were not built with them so there was no room to fit a sliding door. These doors are dangerous. I have only been on 317/7s twice and in that time I have been trapped in a gangway by the doors refusing to open and the set behind me closing and refusing to open. The doors are normally stuck shut, which means you can't walk from carriage to carriage or stuck open, which makes the train drafty. On the one of the occasions I got the doors to work, they opened with some force and hit the person in the seat next to them with some force.

Yup, they weren't great. While I know that some were stuck open, those that failed to respond to the buttons could easily be opened manually. None were ever completely stuck in the closed position. And I've walked through many more than just two of these units on an almost daily basis.

O L Leigh

 

[Tottenham Flyer]

Yes (and no!)

Yes all 9 are now off lease, but it didn't take long for Abellio to get on the phone and have to beg for one to be leased back for today!

:roll:

One of the 317/7's just maybe sticking around for a while longer yet! Now they're off lease, availability isn't as flexible and 317511 isn't quite ready for full time employment. Wait and see

 

[MK Tom]

Which 321 has the Abellio Greater Anglia branding?

I'd like to know this as well!

The thing that always struck me with NXEA was the complete inability to repaint their fleet. It's rather astonishing that Greater Anglia have stock in the liveries of Anglia and First Great Eastern, when those liveries were replaced by the one replaced by the one that the new white livery is replacing.

 

[fgwrich]

I'd like to know this as well!

The thing that always struck me with NXEA was the complete inability to repaint their fleet. It's rather astonishing that Greater Anglia have stock in the liveries of Anglia and First Great Eastern, when those liveries were replaced by the one replaced by the one that the new white livery is replacing.

Greater Anglia's livery ranges from Unbranded Anglia (153s & 170s), Unbranded FGE, Unbranded ONE, Unbranded NXEA, NXEA White and Ex NX GAGA / Greater Anglia livery - as per one Mk3...

 

[Zoe]

Is Greater Anglia still effectively run as three separate companies or was there harmonization in the National Express days?

 

[dk1]

Is Greater Anglia still effectively run as three separate companies or was there harmonization in the National Express days?

No harminisation amongst traincrew. Who would agree to anything that was worse? Ruud has already stated he has no intrest in wasting time on this subject as can see no agreement forthcoming.

 

[Zoe]

Who would agree to anything that was worse?

Couldn't they introduce it for new employees though?

 

[dk1]

Couldn't they introduce it for new employees though?

Drivers all come under the conditions & agreements of the depot/company concerned. A two-tier system would not be acceptable to the union.

 

[O L Leigh]

...nor the staff. It's bad enough that we're effectively voting on each other's T&Cs without adding yet another layer of division into the mix. Voting on pay and conditions is a real minefield.

Personally I would welcome some degree of harmonisation to remove this problem. Certain issues could be dealt with as core conditions and the remainder could simply become local rostering arrangements for example. It's going to happen eventually, though probably not in the life of the caretaker franchise. Provided it's done right and the offer is acceptable there shouldn't be too many problems.

O L Leigh

 

[rockford]

379022 is marked up in the new Stansted Express / Greater Anglia livery.

 

[Aictos]

379022 is marked up in the new Stansted Express / Greater Anglia livery.

Thank you,