"reverse formation"....

[jopsuk]

on any given day, how many 1st class passengers do the full journey on the Chieftain? I'd walk the length inside the train...

 

[headshot119]

I noticed today a VT Voyager navigating the triangle at Chester.
Obviously this is to reverse the formation before returning to London.
However I didn't think they were that bothered with Voyagers, as it hardly matters with a single set, and if it is a double set the two first class portions will be separated by a block of standard class anyway.

That might not be to get the formation back the other way round just to move first class. A defect may have caused them to do it.

 

[edwin_m]

First class at the London end will lead to the shortest average walk by First Class passeingers. This is because London is the station with the most boarding/alighting on trains that serve it, but also because all the London termini have main exits at the buffer stop end but not all of the other stations served by London trains have the entrance/exit at the non-London end of the platform.

Ironically Nottingham and Leicester have their main entrance/exit at the London end, so FC passengers would have a short walk at both ends if only EMT could keep their sets the right way round.

 

[talltim]

Having the first class at the London end of the longer Meridians can cause delays northbound at Chesterfield the way the stop boards are arranged the last coach is about level with the station entrance, bad enough if standard is at the rear, but when pax have to walk 3 coaches down the platform after the train has stopped it does add on a minute of so to the dwell time.
Neither the PIS nor the automated announcements seem to be able to cope with double Voyagers, they can't say things like 'First class is at the front and in the middle of the train'