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Is there a list anywhere of which coaches on an HST will be platformed at stations with short platforms?

I know train managers announce which coaches to exit from shortly before arrival, but if you knew before you boarded it would make life easier.

Back in the "good old days" announcements of which carriages to use for which station were made at Paddington - which made for very long announcements for the Penzance and Hereford trains. I think the paper stickers that used to be placed in train windows also indicated which stations had short platforms.

Nowadays you just get people running madly up the train just before it's due to leave. Had one such person at Hanborough last week. I agree it would help if on-train announcements were made in plenty of time ansd also at the start of the journey.

I do not think that any list has been published.  However, the general rule is that, wherever possible, Coach A will be platformed as that is where cycles are stored.  Which other coaches (B, C etc.) depends on the length of the platform and the location of the door operating panels.  One exception is where a signal would have to be passed to get Coach A alongside the platform - e.g. on the up line at Evesham - if the train is in normal formation with First Class leading.

This is why I believe coupled multiple units without Unit-End Gangways should not divide en-route or serve stations with short platforms unless at least one coach of each unit is platformed. And anouncements should probably be given after each stop explaining which part of the train passengers need to be in to allow passengers to walk along the train, remaining on board, in their own time.

New (?) policy is to keep the First Class coach L locked, at least this us what I heard from guard on Friday last when travelling up from Truro.

This is planned to be done when 2x5car bimodes run along the Cotswold Line. However, different coaches will be platformed according to their length, so announcements on leaving one styop would only be about the following one.

That's one of my concerns about the Cotswold Line and 10-Car Bi-Mode trains (the same can be said to a slightly lesser extent about other routes with short platforms) - if you are going to platform just six out of the ten coaches at certain stations then that is a recipe for delays and confusion.  Yes, I know that HSTs do a similar thing now, but they're not as long and it will potentially affect Standard Class as well as First Class customers, some of whom may need to walk well over 100 metres down the train to find a door that opens.  I do hope due consideration is being given to this and that many of the platforms will be extended to cater for at least seven, preferably eight, 26m long carriages.

The lengthening of certain CL platforms is to 6cars I believe

If indeed that is the case I forsee problems ahead...  :o

I trust Hanborough will be one of them - not that I use the station myself but most times there seems to be somebody running up the train.

Yep....as I remember

They'll all need doing - at least the ones that'll have these 10-Car IEP's stopping at them.  Even the two longest (at Kingham and Moreton in the 'Down' direction) aren't quite long enough.

Not sure that'll be happening, so it may be SDO at most platforms

How would SDO work?  With a double stop at each station concerned?  Or with the rear half of the front train on the platform and the front end of the rear train on?  Either option = delays and confusion galore!

The option I have highlighted in green is what I would expect. Would you agree that a single 9-car unit (using SDO) would be better for short platforms than a pair of fives using SDO?

Given the ways in which double Voyagers turn up with the coach letter order all over the place, this is a recipe for chaos.

"To alight at Honeybourne you will need to be in the middle four coaches, that's coaches B, A, K and J."

And dare I ask what happens with bikes? Spaces at both ends of the units (wasteful)?

I occasionally travel on one of East Midlands' double Meridians. Both units are on the long platform at Leicester, but it's only the front unit that stops at Loughborough. Usually well-announced, but there's quite a bit of scampering at Leicester.

Operationally, without a doubt, yes.

Except that electric 9cars won't be running on this part of the network

Indeed. I was making the point that it may well be more sensible to have some 9-car bi-modes in the GWML fleet, not currently planned to be so unfortunately.

Automated platform announcements at SWT stations do include the message "Due to short platforms, passengers for x,y and z should board the front four coaches and passengers for a,b and c should board the front three coaches" etc.

Even a major station such as Clapham Junction is not immune to short platforms with trains from Bournemouth to Waterloo only having 5 coaches out of 10 that are able to open the doors there. This is 2x5 car trains so I suspect that it is not possible for selective door opening on some of the coaches as you could certainly fit more than 5 carriages on that platform.

SWT's Desiro fleet doesn't have coach level SDO operational yet, they use a system called 'unit deselect' (UDS) enabled from the leading cab behind the part of the train that can open, so either front 5 of 10 or front 4 or 8 of 12 as appropriate.  The fleet is being modified though, with a carriage level automatic SDO like Southern's, using data balises fitted on the track at short platforms rather than primarily GPS.  The new ASDO system on the Desiros should be operational in September this year, starting with the 444s.
Paul

Will the coach letters not be set "dynamically" - in other words, electronic displays which are configured at the start of each journey to the train formation?


From memory, I think the bike spaces are somewhere near the middle of each 5-car unit. So they might both fit on at Charlbury platform 1, but Hanborough could be more difficult...

The coach letters on the Voyagers are set that way - but they've got to allow for First Class. Hence you can get letter sequences like E-D-C-B-A-K-J-H-G-F.

Yes, they're at the end of the fourth coach in the proposed layouts (which are of course subject to change), so not far off the middle.  Space for those confined to a wheelchair is located at either end of the 5-Car units on the proposed design though - so that may well cause problems depending on the method of operation at shorter station platforms.

Not sure when you last traveled then - Loughborough can take a full 10 car Meridian now since about 2 years ago!

Back on to the point of short platforms though and what East Midlands Trains do is advertise the full coach letters order of each service formed of a double Meridian (South West Trains also do this for all CrossCountry services) and then have a separate message if one unit not going to have any access to a certain station, such as Long Eaton or Beeston. Works quite well, although it is a bit different on FGW with a significantly higher number of short platforms. Short platforms is definitely something that will need to be put onto the screens at the stations once we have parts of trains that you physically can't walk through the train to alight at a certain station.

Glad to hear this.