Thank You - I knew that it would be on 377/5's informative posts somewhere, but when you don't read thread every day some things get a bit lost in time.
So my simple maths says at end of December we have 15 700/1 and 21 700/0 delivered. We will get roughly another 19 700/0 (assuming 4 per month) between now and May, so next batch of 700/1's should start arriving around June?
So we won't see the 700/0's off the Brighton/Three Bridges services for some time. Which is a shame because at peak times they are inadequate and leaving people behind (but to be fair, pairs of 377's/387's are worse for that so 700/0 are an improvement on capacity if not seats)
Next batch of 700/1 will arrive before June.
Having the BML TL services as all 700/1 is more complex than filling them with 700/1 as you need to have some 8 car workings on the current diagrams as they interwork with Sutton/Kent services.
There is a lot of changes to come diagram wise before we get to December 2018.
That would be Harlington. The platform is plenty long enough for 12-cars on the slow lines (they were extended for just that purpose). Just another example of the flakiness of the electronic systems on these units.
There shouldn't be a situation where the train pulls into a platform and passengers are unable to open the doors from the outside because the train thinks there's no platform there. Think about it, there wouldn't be passengers standing there if there wasn't also a bit of platform!
The official Thameslink Twitter feed was saying last week that the hand dryers in all the Class 700s are out of use pending rectification of a problem. The PIS rarely works correctly, the PA system is a joke and the doors still fail to open at random stations.
It's true that the fast line platforms on some MML stations aren't 12-car length. But apart from Kentish Town (and perhaps Cricklewood) I thought all the slow line platforms were extended (at some cost no doubt) to accommodate 12 car trains. Why bother spending all that money if all the doors on a 12 car train can't be used?
There is no way an intending passenger could know that they're wasting their time standing at the end of the platform because the doors that come to rest opposite them won't open. That's because there is no announcement or information screen showing how many doors will or won't open. You're lucky if the platform information screens shows if its a 4, 8 or 12 car train. This will cause overcrowding and unpleasantness in the rush hour.
The slow lines are 12 cars all the way to Bedford, however the fast lines north of Luton are a mix. NR decided it didn't need to extend all platforms to 12 cars on a 12 car railway. Make of that what you will.
Talk of the Corby's calling at intermediate stations with thier 12 car trains on the fast would only help make the issue worse.
Some drivers are better than others at announcing that not all doors will open.
How does the train know whether it's on the fast or slow lines tho from the perspective of door opening? (I get how it knows what station it's at...)
Due to the layout of the signalling system and point work outside stations, either the train, driver or CIS is sure at some stations what platform the train will come into until it actually arrives.
Places like Flitwick, Leagrave, Luton, Harpenden and Radlett are affected by this. Until all trains work on ATO (IF they ever do) with signalling, this issue will exist.
This is exactly why the doors should be released & closed manually. Either by a driver OR guard who signs the route.
All of which happens now so not sure of what your demanding here?
It doesn't, at least not before arrival. I don't sign 700s, but on 377s the PIS will usually make announcements as if we're stopping at the shortest platform at that station. So for example if all of the platforms are 12-car but one of them is 8-car SDO, then it will announce that you can only alight from the front 8.
Once we actually reach the platform, there are PIBS beacons that tell the SDO system how many doors to open at that platform. If that system fails for some reason, the default will be the shortest platform at the station as determined by GPS.
The announcement system does announce but due to some stations having pointwork just before and then the train it routed into a 12 car platform all doors open and people complain abut false info.
So basically whatever happens people are going to moan. A they have done on this very issue every few pages.
Remember the train cannot know what the signaller is doing as the signalling system is not connected to the train so the train must default to the shortest length it knows which is 8 cars regardless of what platform length it ends up in.
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Trackside balises at the run in to the platform are usually the solution to resolving individual platform differences.
Yes which only happens at it enters the platform hence the 8 car announcement prior.
