A question about the high speed South Eastern service to Dover which I haven't used before. I went to Broadstairs yesterday (a Sunday). Arriving at St Pancras early I caught the Dover train to Ashford International where I waited for the next Margate service. The Dover train was 12 carriages long but throughout the journey Dover passengers were advised that they should be in the front 6 carriages. As far as I could tell the rear 6 carriages (all empty) left Ashford still attached to the train and continued towards Dover. What's going on here please? Is it a Covid thing, or a Sunday thing due to only 1 member of staff on board, or some other reason? Seems a bit of a waste to be dragging empty carriages around.
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St Pancras - Dover Priory.
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R
RailUK Forums
I'm lead to believe that it's a safety precaution for the narrow Shakespeare Tunnels near Dover:
Trains without passenger access between units serving routes including tunnels
Moderator note: split from https://www.railforums.co.uk/threads/derailment-and-collision-near-salisbury-fisherton-tunnel-31-10-21.224217/ Looking at Tiger Worldline, it looks like the three loosely diagrammed Romsey Portsmouth shuttles today are in the hands of two separate three car units...
www.railforums.co.uk
Yes this is a requirement due to the Shakespeare Tunnels issue and evacuation requirements. There was an incident several years back and the current method of operation is that 12 cars to Dover / Folkestone have this requirements. They often don't run that far as a 12-car (with coaches splitting at Ashford), but in the rare event that they do either there's a 2nd on-board manager or driver, or they are locked out of use.
brad465
Veteran Member
Did they not modify the inside of the Shakespeare tunnel somewhere to enable 395s to use it in the first place?
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