East Coast franchise - ongoing discussion, merged topic

[whole diary]

[Chris from Nailsea]

From the Grantham Journal:

Man hit by a train in Grantham

Emergency services are currently at the railway bridge in Barrowby Road, Grantham, where a man died on the train tracks.

The man is believed to have been struck by a train.

The news follows a report on the Journal^s website on Friday morning of a 44-year-old Grantham man threatening to jump from the same railway bridge.

We reported how he was standing on the bridge for just over an hour before police managed to get him down and arrest him for trespassing.

He was detained under the Mental Health Act.

National Rail has confirmed there are major delays on the lines through Grantham due to this afternoon^s incident.

Rail passengers were being forced to abandon their journey home at Grantham station where buses where buses were being arranged to pick them up.

[Chris from Nailsea]

An update, from the Grantham Journal:

Grantham woman killed on rail tracks at Barrowby Road bridge

A woman from Grantham took her own life by throwing herself in front of a train at Barrowby Road bridge on Wednesday afternoon.

The 45-year-old woman, who has not yet been formally identified, died when she was struck by a train at around 4.15pm.

The train was the 15.00 Kings Cross to Glasgow East Coast Trains service.

The death is not being linked to an incident on Thursday evening where a 44-year-old Grantham man was threatening to jump from the same railway bridge.

A British Transport Police (BTP^▸ (British Transport Police)) spokesperson said: ^BTP officers were called to the line close to Grantham rail station, Lincolnshire, on Wednesday, March 30 after a report that a person had been struck by a train.

^BTP and Lincolnshire Police officers attended the incident, which was reported to police at 4.13pm and a body was discovered.

^Enquiries have begun to establish the identity of the person and the circumstances leading up to their death.

^A file will be prepared for the coroner.^

[Mookiemoo]

Ok, so I've been using east coast a few weeks now and to all intents and purposes, apart from the shiny silver trains being electric the interiors and shape of the train appear to be the same as the FGW^▸ (First Great Western) HST^▸ (High Speed Train)'s.....

Except they have new slidey door things - but I didnt think you could put them on HST's

The old non shiny blue ones are diesel and have the same doors as FGW HST's so I guess they are the same.

But what gives with the silver slidey doors.!

[northwesterntrains]

The term HST^▸ (High Speed Train) refers to Intercity 125, which are formed of 125mph capable mk3 stock.  This is the type of trains FGW^▸ (First Great Western) and EMT^» (East Midlands Trains - about) have.  East Coast and CrossCountry also have some of this type.

The newer mk4 carriages are 140mph capable and have electrically operated doors.  This forms the majority of East Coast's fleet.  Rather confusingly this was called Intercity 225 opposed to Intercity 140.  While the carriages are 140mph capable the East Coast Mainline has a 125mph speed limit.

Here's some more information:
mk3: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_Rail_Mark_3
mk4: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_Rail_Mark_4

[JayMac]

East Coast operate two types of train. There's the diesel HST^▸ (High Speed Train) sets which are, to all intents and purposes identical to the ones you are used to on FGW^▸ (First Great Western), excepting interior design and being one carriage longer.

Then there's the electric sets which consist of a Class 91 electric loco, a Driving Van Trailer (DVT^‡(resolve)) and a rake of Mark 4 coaches. Together these make a train sometimes referred to as InterCity 225.

The Mark 4 coaches are substantially different to the Mark 3's found on HST sets, with, as you discovered, powered doors. The carriage shape is also noticeably different, with tapered sides as it was originally intended that the stock would eventually be retrofitted with tilt enabled bogies allowing increased speeds on many parts of the East Coast route. There was also a plan to introduce a further build of InterCity 225s on the West Coast route, where tilting capability would have been even more use, but this was shelved.

[paul7575]

Rather confusingly this was called Intercity 225 opposed to Intercity 140. 

225 kph = 140 mph - cos we were supposed to be going metric at the time...   

Paul

[Brucey]

And a Driving Van Trailer (DVT^‡(resolve)) is basically a power car mimic which controls the loco at the opposite end of the train.  So unlike the FGW^▸ (First Great Western) HSTs^▸ (High Speed Train), Intercity 225s only have one loco.

[northwesterntrains]

There was also a plan to introduce a further build of InterCity 225s on the West Coast route, where tilting capability would have been even more use, but this was shelved.

Wouldn't the tilting stock have been classed as mk5 stock if it had gone ahead?

[brompton rail]

I am afraid the colour on the outside is not much help in deciding if the train is an HST^▸ (High Speed Train) or an electric Mark 4 train. When you get on board the familiar layout of an HST will reveal that it is a diesel powered HST with a power car at both the north and south (First Class, where you are probably travelling) ends. The electric trains have a DVT^‡(resolve) which has a drivers cab, a luggage van (for your bike!) and the Train Managers Office. The loco (which can be as noisy as an HST power car!) is at the front.

Slam doors, with drop windows and outside handles, are of course HSTs, but sliding doors are only found on the electric Mark 4 sets.

Some trains, mostly the electrics, still are painted dark blue GNER^▸ (Great North Eastern Railways) colours, some HSTs and electrics are in National Express White and with a Gray slash at the ends of the carriage, whilst some trains are in the newer East Coast silver colour. Confusing, you bet.

Did you find East Coast on board service better than First GW^▸ (Great Western)? East Coasts free food service in First Class doesn't start until End of May.


By the way the seats don't help once you are inside as all the HSTs and electric trains have had their original seats removed and 'Mallard' seats installed. Incidentally Cross Country's HSTs have Mallard seats too which makes them a damn site more comfortable than Voyagers (but then, so are coal trucks!)

[Timmer]

http://www.eastcoast.co.uk/travel-information/travelapology/

East Coast would like to sincerely apologise for the delays that occurred to our services during the afternoon and evening of 15 April as a result of Network Rail's signalling problems.  Infrastructure failures on the East Coast Main Line have been all too frequent of late - causing massive delays and inconvenience for our customers, and Network Rail has to improve its performance measurably.

Ouch! I wonder if a privately owned TOC^▸ (Train Operating Company) would get away with posting something like this on their website?

[JayMac]

Heavy political undertones in that comment, methinks. 

[Timmer]

Heavy political undertones in that comment, methinks. 

Yep

[Rhydgaled]

Interesting. One of nationalised parts of our rail network complaining about the other. I expect any other TOC^▸ (Train Operating Company) would be equally cross if they had had frequent issues, but are quieter about it. Nationalisation would claw back a lot of the extra subsidy our railways have required, but perhaps this illustrates that, even nationalised, having the track separate from the train operator has issues. I doubt British Rail would have had such arguments in public, but am not old enough to know.

[eightf48544]

I doubt British Rail would have had such arguments in public, but am not old enough to know.

Certainly not in public but the regional GM would have the Regional S&T^▸ (Signalling and Telegraph) Engineer on the carpet to find out what was going wrong. This would probably occur very shortly after the first few incidents perhaps even before the public became aware there even was a problem.

The diference being if the failures were not the S&Ts engineer's fault (woe betide him if they were) then the GM would be banging the table at the BRB^‡(resolve) for money to put it right because it was literaly his railway.

[Electric train]

Todays delays on the East Coast Mainline was due to ............................. go on guess ..................


 


 

No not signaling ....................


 

No not Overhead problems ...................


 

or Power supply problems ...............


 


The delays were due to "Traction Unit Failure"

One should be very careful about throwing stones in a glasshouse