Class 387 coming to Thames Valley - ongoing discussion

[whole diary]

[TaplowGreen]

SNAFU^▸ (Situation Normal: All Fouled Up (I have toned down the F word))

[sanfrandragon]

SNAFU^▸ (Situation Normal: All Fouled Up (I have toned down the F word))

yup, SNAFU indeed.  Can anyone tell me the benefits of electrification?  It's cleaner & greener I suppose, supposedly better acceleration but my journey time is the same (when the service runs properly), more capacity maybe but the trains seem just as full and the whole 'front 4 carriages for this, back 2 carriages for that'  just causes confusion; it must be impossible for tourists/non English speakers to comprehend.  It would help if they numbered the carriages for a start.

[Sixty3Closure]

I agree with the carriage numbering. While there are announcements once you're on board (most times) it would be useful to be able to identify carriages whilst on the platform. At the moment I have to resort to counting but even then I find the expected 12 carriages have shrunk to 8 or 4 and have to double back.

[broadgage]

SNAFU^▸ (Situation Normal: All Fouled Up (I have toned down the F word))

yup, SNAFU indeed.  Can anyone tell me the benefits of electrification?  It's cleaner & greener I suppose, supposedly better acceleration but my journey time is the same (when the service runs properly), more capacity maybe but the trains seem just as full and the whole 'front 4 carriages for this, back 2 carriages for that'  just causes confusion; it must be impossible for tourists/non English speakers to comprehend.  It would help if they numbered the carriages for a start.

IN THEORY electrification has many benefits, however this is seldom achieved in the UK^▸ (United Kingdom) these days. Network rail have proved incapable of electrifying lines on time or to a budget. Those bits that have been electrified are unreliable, a problem that will presumably worsen as electrification slowly spreads.
Electric trains SHOULD be more reliable than diesel since there is less to go wrong, unfortunately each new generation of electric trains seems to be more complex and less reliable than older ones. Note for example the number of short formed new electric trains due to "more trains than usual needing repairs"

Trains that divide en-route are in theory an excellent idea so as to serve more destinations, or to better match capacity to passenger numbers. Again however, the practice has not matched the theoretical advantages.
Too many announcements refer to a longer train than actually provided for example. "front 4 coaches for ABC and rear 4 coaches for XYZ" when what appears is only 4 in total.

The old Southern railway was known for portion working, and it worked well for decades, but you cant expect that today.

[paul7575]

The old Southern railway was known for portion working, and it worked well for decades, but you cant expect that today.

Can’t see why not - SWR^» (South Western Railway - about) have various forms of portion working happening 7 days a week and it is completely unremarkable.   Is there any statistically significant unreliability caused by it?

Paul

[didcotdean]

The GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) 387s though are the last build of an older generation of EMUs^▸ (Electric Multiple Unit).  If you look through the diagrams there aren't a lot 'spare' for peak demands (12 carriage sets etc). If they were a new generation, I daresay they could well have had external displays, as the 800s do.

From what I have pieced together there are still not quite the full number delivered, and the damage rate to the pans (or parts thereof) for those in service has been higher than to be expected, which was attributed to a issue on the H&H bay platform.

[IndustryInsider]

GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway)’s 387s have external displays, which are very useful in listing the calling points and could presumably be configured to also display the carriage number.

The problem will largely go away when the platform extension works are completed, but work is proceeding at snail pace for some reason.

[didcotdean]

Have they - I guess you don't notice them when you get on at the starting points

[Electric train]

The GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) 387s though are the last build of an older generation of EMUs^▸ (Electric Multiple Unit).  If you look through the diagrams there aren't a lot 'spare' for peak demands (12 carriage sets etc). If they were a new generation, I daresay they could well have had external displays, as the 800s do.

From what I have pieced together there are still not quite the full number delivered, and the damage rate to the pans (or parts thereof) for those in service has been higher than to be expected, which was attributed to a issue on the H&H bay platform.

I noted last week that the SI (Section Insulator) on the entry into the H&H bay had been replaced, the SI could have caused the damage to the pan carbons which my take a few weeks to manifest as a problem on the train its self

[sanfrandragon]

GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway)’s 387s have external displays, which are very useful in listing the calling points and could presumably be configured to also display the carriage number.

The problem will largely go away when the platform extension works are completed, but work is proceeding at snail pace for some reason.

I may have heard some weeks ago the driver telling us that the displays couldn't be changed due to a programming fault - is this right?

For seasoned commuters its not a problem; everyone knows which carriage to be in, or that you can just walk down the train as it approaches the station, but for casual passengers it seems to cause no end of confusion!

[IndustryInsider]

Well, they can be changed in that the driver enters a code to list all the station stops and the other information for whatever service they’re driving, but they can’t configure it to display specific information like a coach number on the external displays - that would need software modifications.

[ITGuy]

It's Monday so must be time to cancel the 1819 and 1842 from Pad. This week's excuse is lack of train crew.

[IndustryInsider]

I didn’t realise those cancellations were day-of-the-week specific!

[TaplowGreen]

1842 cancelled again......."train fault" this time.

[ITGuy]

More mass cancellations this morning due to staff shortages. Has there been an outbreak of plague in the crew room or just incompetent rostering?