FireSpotter24
New Member
777047 has been out today (05/04) it was working 5T46 Kirkdale Depot to Town Green. Then 5T47 Town Green to Kirkdale Depot.
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Merseyrail 777 introduction
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pokemonsuper9
Established Member
Correct, there are 53 777s (7 of which battery), and (based on a quick look at the Saturday timetable) the count per line is as follows:
Headbolt Lane - 4 (requires battery)
Ormskirk/Hunts Cross - 8
Southport - 8 (ignoring the exiting doubles)
Chester - 6
Ellesmere Port - 3
New Brighton - 4
West Kirby - 5
So a total of 38, meaning you would need at least 76 units (at least 8 of which with batteries) to run as all doubles, and that doesn't account for spares, long term out of service, exams, further expansion, etc.
Last Saturday (yesterday as I'm writing this), there were 4 doubles on Southport services, to 42 units in service (79% of the fleet)
MR-507508
Member
42 units working is the standard number of units out for a weekday. The real test will be later this week, when 51 units are planned to be working for the amended timetable for Grand National festival.
2 units on Headbolt Lane, 12 on Ormskirk (plus 6 for the Aintree shuttle additional services), 10 on Southport to Hunts Cross (plus 2 for 2 x 8 cars which are planned, these will be the first to go if there are any shortages for units) and 19 units on Wirral (to account for the additional unit required on the Chester line to improve reliability/turnaround time at Chester.
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Good to hear, it sure could do with being available for later this week.
A unit (or two, not sure if it was an 8-car) didn't have a good time yesterday - seemed to take over an hour to get from Seaforth to Sandhills and back to the depot, caused quite a lot of chaos for the Southport line. Another unit then went down to Central, let pax on, and kicked them off a couple of minutes later because that too had a fault.
In fairness though, this type of breakdown seems much rarer these days.
In fairness though, this type of breakdown seems much rarer these days.
MR-507508
Member
It was 777047 which broke down yesterday.
Sam 76
Member
Seems to be having a rough time of it at the moment 047
MR-507508
Member
It was out on a few test runs today on the Ormskirk line, from Kirkdale depot to and from Town Green. It has now gone over onto the Wirral and a unit swap took place at West Kirby, so very likely to be on the Wirral line for the next 3 days, out the way of the races
Liverpool 507
Member
Needless to say 777004 wasn’t back out as planned for Aintree. 777047 (unsurprisingly after yesterday) is also not in service today. Several allocations aren’t showing in TOPS so not easy to see what units are out specifically without being out in person.
777142, 777144, 777146, 777148 and 777152 are operating on Southport - Hunts Cross services.
What’s the reason for the additional Chester circuit? Is this for Aintree loads? To me it seems like a waste of a unit which would be better suited on Southport services.
777142, 777144, 777146, 777148 and 777152 are operating on Southport - Hunts Cross services.
What’s the reason for the additional Chester circuit? Is this for Aintree loads? To me it seems like a waste of a unit which would be better suited on Southport services.
Additional Chester is to take into account busy passenger loading and allow a longer turn around time in Chester to provide resilience to the timetable.
51 working trains are required from the 53 for the 3 Day event.
19 on the Wirral and 32 on the Northern.
All 6 Ormskirk Circuits are planned as 8 car
All 3 Race Shuttles are planned to be 8 car
And 2 Southport Circuits are planned to be 8 car.
Liverpool 507
Member
All Southport - Hunts Cross circuits are 4 coaches today
Fixes the Cressington problem at least!
MR-507508
Member
I think the issue today was all 5 of the Southport-Hunts Cross diagrams which started out from Kirkdale were 777/1s today, which can't run in multiple.
The 2 planned 8 car diagrams on the Southport-Hunts Cross route are planned to start out from Kirkdale depot, so perhaps more luck tomorrow as not all 5 of the diagrams will be 777/1 operated tomorrow.
Bletchleyite
Veteran Member
Why can't /1s work in multiple?
jamesst
Established Member
Or far more likely it's all the stock they had available...
I believe the /1s operate a different software version for the battery this means they cannot multi with /0s properly.
Sam 76
Member
I think it points to a key issue.
51/53 units available for service is a tall order to any fleet. Not all reasons are major but even a bad wheel flat could stop a unit for the day. In my opinion it’s not realistic to expect the 51 to all run across 3 days but hopefully tomorrow or Saturday there will be better luck.
Additionally as well if you take 004 which may who knows come out to play this weekend and 047 which is on the naughty step this week that already leaves no margin for error. It’s simple a couple of units at least are required to be ordered sooner rather than later
Looks like an 8-car is already getting taken out with a fault. According to RTT 2G07 ran from Ormskirk but terminated at Sandhills, due to a problem with the traction equipment (MD). Listed as 777011 + 777038.
I assume there's a chance they could be split and at least get a 4-car back out?
EDIT: Looks like they've managed to rectify the fault as it's just been put back in service as 2O10 at Sandhills - originally was signalled into the depot.
I assume there's a chance they could be split and at least get a 4-car back out?
EDIT: Looks like they've managed to rectify the fault as it's just been put back in service as 2O10 at Sandhills - originally was signalled into the depot.
MR-507508
Member
777029 & 043 had a fault with doors earlier today and had to be pulled from service. Quickly replaced with 2 spare units, 010 & 013, from Kirkdale depot.
777033 also performed an ECS move between Birkenhead North depot and West Kirby, this one had a fault on Wednesday.
This meaning today, 52 units had been reported as working, albeit 033 not in passenger service, on the network. The usual 004 the only unit not working.
Sam 76
Member
Unit availability is looking excellent today.
2x8 car units on the Southport line alongside the Aintree and Ormskirk services.
52/53 units in play ?
2x8 car units on the Southport line alongside the Aintree and Ormskirk services.
52/53 units in play ?
MR-507508
Member
I can only see 1 x 8 car on Southport, 777011 & 015.
023 & 045 was an additional to Liverpool Central, which went on to work one of the Aintree shuttles.
50 / 53 units in service currently.
EDIT: 005 & 018 are out on one of the Aintree shuttles this evening, taking the place of 009 & 037 which saw use earlier in the day. This means today 52 units have worked in passenger service (50 units at any one time)!
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Is that not pretty obvious really?
777004 is the only unit not been in service this week.
So I guess it is possible but only once a year, I assume they'll finally sort out the Cressington issues surely! As they clearly have enough drivers for training?
Not like they've been "training" drivers to figure out SDO for 2 years anyways
baldyman26
Member
- Joined
- 2 Aug 2012
- Messages
- 137
Why do you assume it's drivers that is the issue?
Clearly the SDO is another bodge in the long list of bodges that was the roll out of these new trains. This again sits firmly with the local authority, who are able to hide behind the continuous throwing under the bus of everyone else.
It started with buying too few, and too long trains with less doors, poor reliability, slower journeys, longer stops, Sandhills station!
And we have the joy of them changing to local authority control to look forward to. We will then really see how much worse it could be. h wait, it's our fault, these trains were designed by us!
Clearly the SDO is another bodge in the long list of bodges that was the roll out of these new trains. This again sits firmly with the local authority, who are able to hide behind the continuous throwing under the bus of everyone else.
It started with buying too few, and too long trains with less doors, poor reliability, slower journeys, longer stops, Sandhills station!
And we have the joy of them changing to local authority control to look forward to. We will then really see how much worse it could be. h wait, it's our fault, these trains were designed by us!
Sam 76
Member
From what’s been said the SDO technology works on the 777s
It’s purely down to enough available units and train staff to be trained on it. Again you can argue both are the local authorities fault. Not enough units ordered and not enough budget for staff
It's not the drivers fault at all I personally think the blame is with the administrative side of Merseyrail, esp because there has been not a single ounce of communication from them about everything this whole time.
baldyman26
Member
- Joined
- 2 Aug 2012
- Messages
- 137
Because they contractually probably can't say anything. They have no choice but to work with what they have, they can't exactly say we have the worst trains whilst The Mayor is saying they are the best thing ever.
So are there enough drivers trained to use SDO? If not, when are there expected to be enough SDO trained drivers?
If there are (or soon will be) sufficient SDO trained drivers, what needs to be done before SDO can start to be used?
Is ORR permission required? If so, has it been sought? If is required but has yet to be sought why not?
Sam 76
Member
I don’t think it’s the case the 777s are all that bad anymore. They are becoming much more reliable and that was always the main issue with them.
They had a particularly rough start to life by being rushed into service. I’m sure Stadler did not want them to go out in the state they were in. The 701s in London and 730s for LNWR also seem to be having the same reliability issues as them. Nobody can seemingly escape the software glitches these days
An example of where political pressure shouldn’t be given into