IETs into passenger service from 16 Oct 2017 and subsequent performance issues

[whole diary]

[TaplowGreen]

Day two..........

05:53 Plymouth to London Paddington due 09:00
05:53 Plymouth to London Paddington due 09:00 will be starting late from Plymouth.
This is due to this train being late from the depot.

Someone being careless with the new toys?

09:00 Penzance to London Paddington due 14:01
09:00 Penzance to London Paddington due 14:01 will be cancelled.
This is due to a derailment within the depot.

[JayMac]

Someone being careless with the new toys?

09:00 Penzance to London Paddington due 14:01
09:00 Penzance to London Paddington due 14:01 will be cancelled.
This is due to a derailment within the depot.

That is not an IET^▸ (Intercity Express Train - replacement for HSTs (manufactured by Hitachi in Kobe, Japan)) service.

[JayMac]

Day two..........

05:53 Plymouth to London Paddington due 09:00
05:53 Plymouth to London Paddington due 09:00 will be starting late from Plymouth.
This is due to this train being late from the depot.

Left Plymouth 35 minutes late. Following a CrossCountry service which it should pass at Totnes.

Inauspicious.

[PhilWakely]

And just the 5 cars. Going to be a bit cosy.

[PhilWakely]

And just the 5 cars. Going to be a bit cosy.

Apparently it is 10 coaches.

[woody]

Alsob the 07.30 Paddington/Penzance which was an IET^▸ (Intercity Express Train - replacement for HSTs (manufactured by Hitachi in Kobe, Japan)) yesterday was a HST^▸ (High Speed Train (Inter City class 43 125 units)) today.

[old original]

Alsob the 07.30 Paddington/Penzance which was an IET^▸ (Intercity Express Train - replacement for HSTs (manufactured by Hitachi in Kobe, Japan)) yesterday was a HST^▸ (High Speed Train (Inter City class 43 125 units)) today.

Apparently a 800 set was used as far a Bristol, then a hst to Penzance

[bobm]

Alsob the 07.30 Paddington/Penzance which was an IET^▸ (Intercity Express Train - replacement for HSTs (manufactured by Hitachi in Kobe, Japan)) yesterday was a HST^▸ (High Speed Train (Inter City class 43 125 units)) today.

Apparently a 800 set was used as far a Bristol, then a hst to Penzance

Indeed - see here - http://www.firstgreatwestern.info/coffeeshop/index.php?topic=19690.msg244563#msg244563

[CMRail]

I think I prefer the HST^▸ (High Speed Train (Inter City class 43 125 units)) until these “improvements” come to these 40 years newer trains.

[RobT]

I was due to get on a 2x5 IET^▸ (Intercity Express Train - replacement for HSTs (manufactured by Hitachi in Kobe, Japan)) the other day and before arrival it was announced that first class was in coaches 1,2, 6 & 7. The external coach displays were also showing numbers instead of letters. I wonder if this is a general change from letters to numbers for IET coaches. It could certainly be less confusing, with coach 1 always being at the front of the train.

[PhilWakely]

I was due to get on a 2x5 IET^▸ (Intercity Express Train - replacement for HSTs (manufactured by Hitachi in Kobe, Japan)) the other day and before arrival it was announced that first class was in coaches 1,2, 6 & 7. The external coach displays were also showing numbers instead of letters. I wonder if this is a general change from letters to numbers for IET coaches. It could certainly be less confusing, with coach 1 always being at the front of the train.

Could be interesting for those with pre-booked seat reservations and the set(s) is/are reversed.

[stuving]

I was due to get on a 2x5 IET^▸ (Intercity Express Train - replacement for HSTs (manufactured by Hitachi in Kobe, Japan)) the other day and before arrival it was announced that first class was in coaches 1,2, 6 & 7. The external coach displays were also showing numbers instead of letters. I wonder if this is a general change from letters to numbers for IET coaches. It could certainly be less confusing, with coach 1 always being at the front of the train.

Surely there will need to be both. The numbers are in a fixed order along the platform, and can be (and apparently are being) painted on it. When the train arrives, its carriages will be identified by letters as usual, according to what they are and to locate reservations. If you want to find a reservation, you need to know the mapping from letters to numbers for that service. For that, being told which four carriages (by number along the platform) hold first class is not enough - you need to locate one, and if that fails you certainly want the right unit.

Now, how you get told that remains to be seen. I seem to recall that for TGVs^▸ (Train a Grande Vitesse), at some bigger stations, there are screens showing you this so you know where to stand. GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) did a while ago have posters, but they are a bit less dynamic than they need to be.

[RobT]

I was due to get on a 2x5 IET^▸ (Intercity Express Train - replacement for HSTs (manufactured by Hitachi in Kobe, Japan)) the other day and before arrival it was announced that first class was in coaches 1,2, 6 & 7. The external coach displays were also showing numbers instead of letters. I wonder if this is a general change from letters to numbers for IET coaches. It could certainly be less confusing, with coach 1 always being at the front of the train.

See also posts 783 & 784 on this thread, where numbers instead of letters were first mentioned.

[Lee]

Now, how you get told that remains to be seen. I seem to recall that for TGVs^▸ (Train a Grande Vitesse), at some bigger stations, there are screens showing you this so you know where to stand. GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) did a while ago have posters, but they are a bit less dynamic than they need to be.

We have them at Guingamp for the TGVs. There are two types - One is a big long black screen representation of where the coaches of the train will stop, with the platform divided into zones denoted by letter. Secondly, that same representation appears on the relevant Next Train passenger information screen.

[TaplowGreen]

IET^▸ (Intercity Express Train - replacement for HSTs (manufactured by Hitachi in Kobe, Japan))?

05:53 Plymouth to London Paddington due 09:04
05:53 Plymouth to London Paddington due 09:04 has been cancelled.
This is due to a fault on this train.