Lumo 10-car services today

[JonathanH]

Leaving no spare unit for maintenance would seem very optimistic and then some.

Maintenance schedules can no doubt be adjusted to make five units available concurrently once a week. It is the unforeseen availability challenges that cause a problem, particularly on a route where people book in advance.

 

[43 302]

I wonder how many LUMO / Hull Trains services could actually become a ten car given all the platform sharing they do at King's Cross. And this is before LNER 897s enter service

 

[Bletchleyite]

I wonder how many LUMO / Hull Trains services could actually become a ten car given all the platform sharing they do at King's Cross. And this is before LNER 897s enter service

I'd also be interested to know how many they'd fill at 10 car. That is a LOT of seats as noted above!

 

[hexagon789]

Maintenance schedules can no doubt be adjusted to make five units available concurrently once a week. It is the unforeseen availability challenges that cause a problem, particularly on a route where people book in advance.

Not permanently though, certain maintenence exams take longer than a week.

 

[H F Stephens]

Selling tickets on the basis of all five units being available, with no contingency, is not a very robust idea.

Leaving no spare unit for maintenance would seem very optimistic and then some.

Launching the West Coast operation with no spare unit demonstrated the issues with that approach.

Technically, there was some contingency in this case, as LUMO has in the past subbed-in a Hull Trains unit to operate a service.

The publicity would have been pulled, of course, and there would have been a number of passengers unable to travel on the booked service owing to the lower capacity of the Hull units (and some booked passengers would have been able to sit in First Class seats).

In that scenario, assuming that a Hull Trains unit or units were available, it would probably have been reasonably manageable, but would equally probably have gone unpromoted until the next opportunity.

 

[Killingworth]

I know I'm getting old but in the 1950s and 1960s a 10 car train was fairly common.

I have a copy of a RCTS survey diligently taken for the Sheffield area on August 11th 1962. Those bewailing shortcomings on XC today would love it.

11s were plentiful, St Pancras - Edinburgh, Bristol- York, St Pancras - Glasgow, Bristol - Bradford to highlight just a few.

12 from Bristol to Newcastle, Newton Abbot to Bradford, Exeter to Bradford.

13 from Paignton to Bradford, Newquay to Newcastle.

I wouldn't be surprised to hear of 14 through York on the ECML.

There were still long trains being split in Sheffield for Bradford and Newcastle about 1980.

Through corridors back then, all rolling stock compatible too!

 

[MCR247]

I know I'm getting old but in the 1950s and 1960s a 10 car train was fairly common.

I have a copy of a RCTS survey diligently taken for the Sheffield area on August 11th 1962. Those bewailing shortcomings on XC today would love it.

11s were plentiful, St Pancras - Edinburgh, Bristol- York, St Pancras - Glasgow, Bristol - Bradford to highlight just a few.

12 from Bristol to Newcastle, Newton Abbot to Bradford, Exeter to Bradford.

13 from Paignton to Bradford, Newquay to Newcastle.

I wouldn't be surprised to hear of 14 through York on the ECML.

There were still long trains being split in Sheffield for Bradford and Newcastle about 1980.

Through corridors back then, all rolling stock compatible

Remember these are 10x 26m coaches

 

[cle]

Old carriages were much shorter - also more had first class, mail, all sorts. But yes, more people did use the railway and there were more lines that got split up!

 

[Killingworth]

Remember these are 10x 26m coaches

And compartment stock with leather suitcases piled in corridors as additional seating - reserved seats on some trains but charged. On ECML there could be a battalion returning to Catterick or Barnard Castle from Cyprus or Aden. The challenge of overcrowded trains isn't new. It's much greater today with so many classes of limited run incompatible stock. In 30 years time spares issues are going to be a problem. They are for some fairly new classes now.

Hopefully the Lumo and Hull Trains units won't suffer.,

 

[Harpo]

Remember these are 10x 26m coaches

About the same as a loco and 12 mk1/2 which was fairly common.

 

[A S Leib]

I know I'm getting old but in the 1950s and 1960s a 10 car train was fairly common.

I have a copy of a RCTS survey diligently taken for the Sheffield area on August 11th 1962. Those bewailing shortcomings on XC today would love it.

11s were plentiful, St Pancras - Edinburgh, Bristol- York, St Pancras - Glasgow, Bristol - Bradford to highlight just a few.

12 from Bristol to Newcastle, Newton Abbot to Bradford, Exeter to Bradford.

13 from Paignton to Bradford, Newquay to Newcastle.

I wouldn't be surprised to hear of 14 through York on the ECML.

There were still long trains being split in Sheffield for Bradford and Newcastle about 1980.

Through corridors back then, all rolling stock compatible too!

I'd suspect that most of those routes, if not end to end, have considerably more frequent services now.

 

[DesDobramento]

There were no available unreserved seats on all LNER northbound Anglo-Scottish ECML services from London throughout today, up to at least mid-afternoon, other than those in half of Coach C.
Busy travel days now with Scottish schools off.

 

[Avenger20]

Things must of changed since they first sent 10 cars there, as they were never allowed in 5/6 originally, I think due to can being past signal.

I'm not sure if that was simply a worry, but 10 car fits comfortably into 5 & 6. The signals have never been resited and indeed there's a 10 car in there every day now.