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

[whole diary]

[TonyK]

GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway)’s bullet style train, which has been in service since October 2017 and now operates on all of GWR’s long distance routes, formed a special service from Oxford to London Paddington non-stop, departing Oxford at 1127.

"Bullet style" - musket ball, more like.

[IndustryInsider]

The flip side is that some Oxford "fast" services are still being run on occasion by turbos rather than IETs^▸ (Intercity Express Train), when I thought that had been finally confined to history, such as 1D30 this afternoon. Confused auto announcement at Reading claiming it had 9 coaches and sending standard class passengers to Zone 3 upwards, which would just about be the last carriage of the 3-car 166, although the platform display was correct. (I see it arrived nearly a minute early into Oxford though!)

No excuses for the announcements, but that is one of the very few remaining booked Turbo fast workings.  The set previously works 1P23, the 09:50 Moreton-In-Marsh to Paddington then stables at West Ealing. The rest of the diagram is stopping work.  A couple of late evening services are still in the hands of Turbos, but that's it AIUI^▸ (as I understand it), and all should be gone from December.

It has been an IET the previous two times I have taken it (a 5 and a 9). Maybe a turbo was unavailable  (or more likely the diagrams have been changed)

It probably changed at the May TT change.  The unit then goes on to work six Didcot's, a Banbury and a Reading so not ideal work for an IET.   

[TaplowGreen]

Two in a row shortformed today, a cosy afternoon for everyone.

14:03 London Paddington to Penzance due 19:21

15:03 London Paddington to Plymouth due 18:35

[IndustryInsider]

14:03 now a 9-car and amended on journeycheck.

[alexross42]

I had my first experience of an IET^▸ (Intercity Express Train) this weekend, albeit rather short as it was a journey of just ten minutes.

I boarded in coach 9 and then immediately the tannoy announced that for passengers wishing to alight at the next stop they could only do so from coaches 1 and 2. So I started what turned out to be a rather long journey through almost the entire train only to meet the trolley in coach 7, which was seemingly popular at this time. I pulled into a vacant seat just behind the attendant and waited for him to finish serving the current customer after which I tapped him on the shoulder and asked if I could please slip past, thinking that he would pull the trolley past where I was stood, I would step into the aisle and carry on up through the train and he would push the trolley back to it's original position.

Instead, he said he would just serve the next customer on the table opposite and I'd be able to move then, so I waited as the passing scenery increasingly took on the form of that approaching my desired stop.....when the trolley then moved past the attendant explained that it can only move in one direction so if he had pulled past me he would not then be able to return to the waiting customer. At that moment I didn't have time to ponder/query this as I still had another 5 coaches and their respective obstacles (i.e. dogs with twisted leads, bags, elbows, etc) to negotiate as the looming form of the Royal Albert Bridge glided past the windows.

I don't see any reason for the attendant to be bending the truth on this but purely from a safety perspective I find this rather hard to believe. In the case of an emergency this would create a serious obstacle if only able to move in one direction - can this really be the case?

Also....the seats are hard 

[Red Squirrel]

Two in a row shortformed today, a cosy afternoon for everyone.

14:03 London Paddington to Penzance due 19:21

15:03 London Paddington to Plymouth due 18:35

According to Rail (Issue 881, p31), they're still working on problems with radiators getting clogged up with pollen... there are some concerns that if performance doesn't improve, the Dec 2019 timetable may be difficult to achieve.

[Celestial]

Maybe grahame could add a pollen count forecast to the home page then, to give passengers a heads up as to whether their train is likely to be short formed.

[grahame]

Maybe grahame could add a pollen count forecast to the home page then, to give passengers a heads up as to whether their train is likely to be short formed.

I suspect written in jest.   Paid service available from the Met Office ... ooze gonna pay4 it?   Dirty air rather than pollen is easier ...

[broadgage]

More studies are needed to produce a useful forecast.
A simple pollen count is a poor guide to IET^▸ (Intercity Express Train) failures as these are also heat related, a partly blocked radiator may give acceptable cooling in moderate weather, but not on a hot day.

Also a very high pollen count for a week of cool weather, may still cause a number of failures on the next hot day even if the pollen count ON the hot day is low.

How about this
A pollen count for each day, given a figure of from 1 to 10.
For each unit, calculate a rolling average pollen accumulation count for all the days during which the unit has run, since the radiator was last thoroughly cleaned.
This figure will vary from 1 to 10.

Now obtain a weather forecast and give a "hotness score"  of one point for each degree by which the forecast temperature exceeds 22 degrees. 23 degrees=1 point, 33 degrees=10 points.

For each unit, multiply the cumulative pollen count by the hotness score, this will give a figure between 1 and about 100.

Now calculate the average for all the units due to work on a given day. The higher the figure the worse the expected reliability.

Future refinements could include.
1) collect pollen count data for each hour that the unit runs, rather than daily.
2) adjust for self powered or electric running. SOME pollen will get into the radiators even in electric mode, but much less than in self powered mode.
3) forecast temperatures hourly and compare with unit diagrams as high temperatures when in electric mode are less important.

More work is required to ascertain the source of the pollen, should network rail be liable if it is from within the boundary fence ?

[grahame]

More studies are needed to produce a useful forecast.
A simple pollen count is a poor guide to IET^▸ (Intercity Express Train) failures ...

That is an excellent start to describing the serious difficulties. But only a start ... as I understand it, the pollen filters on the IETs have had to be stepped up to a more frequent cleaning routine, but it's still not frequent so there's work to be done probably on a unit by unit basis to assess the likely time of failure.   Which I suspect Hitachi are doing.  Not something I would even attempt!

[Celestial]

Maybe grahame could add a pollen count forecast to the home page then, to give passengers a heads up as to whether their train is likely to be short formed.

I suspect written in jest.   Paid service available from the Met Office ... ooze gonna pay4 it?   Dirty air rather than pollen is easier ...

Indeed, very much so.

[Timmer]

So we have a new railway related excuse...

The wrong kind of pollen.

[TaplowGreen]

So we have a new railway related excuse...

The wrong kind of pollen.

Not to be sneezed at.

[infoman]

https://www.oxfordmail.co.uk/news/17701328.gwr-train-breaks-oxford-to-london-paddington-speed-record/

Admin Note: moved from a separate thread to follow on from the discussion in this topic regarding the high speed Oxford to Paddington run.

[Red Squirrel]

So we have a new railway related excuse...

The wrong kind of pollen.

Not to be sneezed at.

Ah-choo-choo!