Merry Xmas from Cross Country

[whole diary]

[John R]

Having spied a rather immaculate looking but empty HST^▸ (High Speed Train) in the through roads at BTM^▸ (Bristol Temple Meads (strictly, it should be BRI)) this evening, I speculated why, and looked at the service alterations on the XC^▸ (Cross Country Trains (franchise)) website.

18:00 Bristol Temple Meads to Manchester Piccadilly due 21:00
This train will be terminated at Birmingham New Street.It will no longer call at: Wolverhampton, Stoke-On-Trent and Manchester Piccadilly.This is due to a member of train crew being unavailable.

18:45 Bournemouth to Manchester Piccadilly due 23:40
This train is being delayed.This train will be started from Birmingham New Street.It will no longer call at: Bournemouth, Brockenhurst, Southampton Central, Southampton Airport Parkwy, Winchester, Basingstoke, Reading, Oxford, Banbury, Leamington Spa, Coventry and Birmingham International.This is due to a member of train crew being unavailable.

17:21 Plymouth to Leeds due 23:31
This train will be started from Bristol Temple Meads.It will no longer call at: Plymouth, Totnes, Newton Abbot, Exeter St Davids, Tiverton Parkway and Taunton.This is due to an earlier train fault.

18:40 Reading to York due 22:58
This train has now departed from Reading and is now 18 minutes late.This is due to a broken down train.

13:21 Plymouth to Edinburgh due 22:22
This train is being delayed at Bristol Temple Meads and is expected to be 60 minutes late from Bristol Temple Meads.This is due to waiting for a train crew member.

16:25 Plymouth to Leeds due 22:09
This train has been delayed at Exeter St Davids and is now 23 minutes late from Exeter St Davids.This is due to waiting for a train crew member.

18:25 Plymouth to Birmingham New Street due 22:06
This train has been delayed at Plymouth and is now 25 minutes late.This is due to a delay on a previous journey.

16:40 Reading to Newcastle due 22:00
This train will be terminated at Birmingham New Street.It will no longer call at: Derby, Chesterfield, Sheffield, Doncaster, York, Darlington, Durham, Chester-Le-Street and Newcastle.This is due to a member of train crew being unavailable.

So on one of the busiest evenings of the year,  XC can't roster enough staff to provide a decent service.
Still not sure why the HST was empty at Bristol though.
 

[IndustryInsider]

I'm actually quite surprised how well FGW^▸ (First Great Western) have coped so far this Christmas with traincrew resourcing. I'd have thought the driver shortages would have had more of an effect.

Having been keeping an eye on the service in and out of Euston since the VHF service was launched, it appears that London Midland's cancellation rate has been pretty woeful all week. Virgin's seems to be pretty good, though punctuality has been quite poor on a few days. Hopefully things on both fronts will improve when the timetable beds in after the New Year?

[John R]

Looking elsewhere, I've partly answered my own question. There were some fairly sick XC^▸ (Cross Country Trains (franchise)) HSTs^▸ (High Speed Train) today, with the SB^▸ (Signal Box) Dundee-Plymouth 3 hours late when it was caped at Bristol, and a northbound one also terminated at Bristol(?) as it was unlikely to get over the Lickey.

Which is either just unlucky, or maybe they are being pushed too hard with the new TT.

   

[Super Guard]

Every XC^▸ (Cross Country Trains (franchise)) HST^▸ (High Speed Train) seems to have full throttled applied as soon as the breaks are off, whereas FGW^▸ (First Great Western) ones seem to gently accelerate on the whole, whether that makes any difference to the engines or not I have no idea.

[Btline]

Perhaps they are running to Voyager timetables, requiring harsh acceleration.

[12hoursunday]

I'm actually quite surprised how well FGW^▸ (First Great Western) have coped so far this Christmas with traincrew resourcing. I'd have thought the driver shortages would have had more of an effect.
 

That's because there is not much of a driver shortage anymore. Not in Bristol anyway. Rest Day work is still upon us but in no way as much as in the past. Most turns are covered. However there a few A/L days declined on Christmas Eve and on Saturday (of which I am one).

[Electric train]

Every XC^▸ (Cross Country Trains (franchise)) HST^▸ (High Speed Train) seems to have full throttled applied as soon as the breaks are off, whereas FGW^▸ (First Great Western) ones seem to gently accelerate on the whole, whether that makes any difference to the engines or not I have no idea.

Have the XC HST's been re-engined?  I know the Paxman engines could not handle the traction duty cycle hence leading to a lot of failures. 

Do XC HST's have both power car engines running in normal service or has XC instructed that only one engine is used.

[12hoursunday]

Do XC^▸ (Cross Country Trains (franchise)) HST^▸ (High Speed Train)'s have both power car engines running in normal service or has XC instructed that only one engine is used.

Why would they do this? There is no incentive do in so! Using a single power car to do all the work when two are available has no financial or mechanical benifits whatsoever. For a start there is hardly, if any saving of fuel as the the power car doing all the work uses twice as much.

Every XC HST seems to have full throttled applied as soon as the breaks are off, whereas FGW^▸ (First Great Western) ones seem to gently accelerate on the whole, whether that makes any difference to the engines or not I have no idea.

Always been the same those Cross Country drivers. Maxing the power gives no greater acceleration as the engines are fitted with goveners. Great Western drivers also have an instruction not to engage full power until the rear of the train has left the platform.

[G.Uard]

Is the (naturally) superior driving technique of the GW^▸ (Great Western) crews the result of the longest experience with these trains?

[Don]

Is the (naturally) superior driving technique of the GW^▸ (Great Western) crews the result of the longest experience with these trains?

I am inclined to agree with the above.

XC^▸ (Cross Country Trains (franchise)) HSTs^▸ (High Speed Train) are re-engined; and do have both power cars running; but are accelerating quickly because they are trying to run to Voyager timetables.  However they are one coach shorter to make this easier for them (no buffet car). I do not think that XC HSTs are being used more intensively than FGW^▸ (First Great Western) or working harder, so my guess is either a lack of maintenance standards - perhaps XC have not moved high enough up the learning curve on maintenance knowledge or the above quote could well be correct.

[eightf48544]

Roger Ford's annual tables of performance for different classes of train have just been published in January's Modern Railways.

FGW^▸ (First Great Western) HSTs^▸ (High Speed Train) period 7 moving average 2008/9 = 11,501 miles 2007 = 9624
XC^▸ (Cross Country Trains (franchise))   HSTs period 7     "           "         "     =   9,623         2007 = N/A

Best overall IC^▸ (Inter City)  is ECML^▸ (East Coast Main Line) with 24,317. Could it be that loco and coaches gives better performance?

[John R]

and digressing slightly, guess which TOC^▸ (Train Operating Company) is down the bottom of the league for its DMU^▸ (Diesel Multiple Unit) reliability?

[Electric train]

Roger Ford's annual tables of performance for different classes of train have just been published in January's Modern Railways.

FGW^▸ (First Great Western) HSTs^▸ (High Speed Train) period 7 moving average 2008/9 = 11,501 miles 2007 = 9624
XC^▸ (Cross Country Trains (franchise))   HSTs period 7     "           "         "     =   9,623         2007 = N/A

Best overall IC^▸ (Inter City)  is ECML^▸ (East Coast Main Line) with 24,317. Could it be that loco and coaches gives better performance?

To compare and electric traction unit against a diesel traction unit is not a fair comparison. electric traction units have far less moving parts than diesels therefore require less maintenance and the maintenance is of a short duration.  An industry study has recently been done to compare the reliability of an electrified railway compared to a non electrified railway, because of the perception that OHLE is unreliable I don't have the figures to hand but it came out that electric traction failure and maintenance rates per Km was far lower than diesel even though the infrastructure requires a higher level of maintenance this is more than compensated for by the very much lower maintenance and failure rates of electric traction units.

[Super Guard]

Always been the same those Cross Country drivers. Maxing the power gives no greater acceleration as the engines are fitted with goveners. Great Western drivers also have an instruction not to engage full power until the rear of the train has left the platform.

I know at least 2 GW^▸ (Great Western) drivers that obviously haven't read that instruction...  I doubt there is time for the TM^‡(resolve) to do the 2/2/2 buzz sequence before the train is over Cowley Bridge 

[devon_metro]

I find most drivers boring, albeit doing their job

XC^▸ (Cross Country Trains (franchise)) are known to open up quite quickly, normally as they are late 

Worth noting that the XC hSTs aren't running to Voyager timings