PaxmanValenta
Member
- Joined
- 11 Apr 2015
- Messages
- 156
I can't help but see that the bombardier Voyagers Class 220/221 are the biggest fail on Britain's railways.
Originally they were meant to be like a diesel version of the Pendolinos with tilt mechanism. The 220 body shell was tapered for this resulting in a cramped claustrophobic passenger cabin despite the fact the 220 was never even intended to tilt. The 221 and 222 had tilting systems but on the 221 they have been removed and tilting bars welded shut.
The introduction of Voyagers by Virgin on the cross country route in 2003 was set with lots of problems from the onset. Loco hauled MK2 stock had to be brought back into service when the Voyagers failed to have the capacity of the HST and loco hauled trains they replaced. Not to mention many voyagers breaking down on the Dawlish seawall when sea water got into badly engineered roof top electronic systems.
Another problem is that the Delner couplings were incompatible with all UK locomotives unless they had been specially modified to couple up to all but a small number of adapted locos.
The good old HSTs by contrast could be rescued by any locomotive even small class 25s could rescue a failed HST! This could lead to long delays until a suitable loco is found to rescue a failed voyager.
Putting voyagers on the cross country routes was another fail.
These were the longest UK rail routes from Penzance often as far as Aberdeen.
1) The passenger cabins are small cramped and claustrophobic designed for tilting which was never even implemented. In any case XC SW to NE routes have so many stops that need to tilt was probably not even necessary unlike on the WC mainline.
2) Seats don't always line up with windows meaning some passengers being stuck between windows with no views. Not very nice on a 800 mile journey from Penzance to Scotland!
3) Underfloor engines lead to a lot of noise and vibration in the carriage unlike the much smoother ride given by loco hauled and HST trains.
4) Sewage smells from the sewage tank are often a problem. I remember travelling from Exeter to Newton Abbot last summer on a Glasgow to Plymouth Voyager, in one coach the aircon had failed. It was very unpleasantly hot inside with a strong smell of sewage. Made worse by a hot underfloor engine. How people coped who had been on the train for 7 or 8 hours? 20 mins was enough for me lol! It was so bad that passengers were being given free bottles of water by train crew. On a larger HST passengers could have been move to another coach and the failed coach shut down.
5) Seat tray tables are often too small for normal sized laptops.
The return of a small number of HSTs by XC when they took over Cross country services from Virgin was a godsend and perhaps because XC Realised that the 22X were unsuitable for long journeys. Many passengers far prefer the older trustworthy HST which is more spacious, with a comfortable smooth ride. Sadly less than one fifth of XC services use HSTs.
I really hope that when FGW stop using HSTs that XC uses the redundant HSTs to replace all their Voyagers.
But ok some will argue that using 1970s trains is not progressive. So my question is why did they not give up on the tilting idea in the first place and develop a train which has the comfort and space of an HST with compatible couplings?
Any opinions?
Originally they were meant to be like a diesel version of the Pendolinos with tilt mechanism. The 220 body shell was tapered for this resulting in a cramped claustrophobic passenger cabin despite the fact the 220 was never even intended to tilt. The 221 and 222 had tilting systems but on the 221 they have been removed and tilting bars welded shut.
The introduction of Voyagers by Virgin on the cross country route in 2003 was set with lots of problems from the onset. Loco hauled MK2 stock had to be brought back into service when the Voyagers failed to have the capacity of the HST and loco hauled trains they replaced. Not to mention many voyagers breaking down on the Dawlish seawall when sea water got into badly engineered roof top electronic systems.
Another problem is that the Delner couplings were incompatible with all UK locomotives unless they had been specially modified to couple up to all but a small number of adapted locos.
The good old HSTs by contrast could be rescued by any locomotive even small class 25s could rescue a failed HST! This could lead to long delays until a suitable loco is found to rescue a failed voyager.
Putting voyagers on the cross country routes was another fail.
These were the longest UK rail routes from Penzance often as far as Aberdeen.
1) The passenger cabins are small cramped and claustrophobic designed for tilting which was never even implemented. In any case XC SW to NE routes have so many stops that need to tilt was probably not even necessary unlike on the WC mainline.
2) Seats don't always line up with windows meaning some passengers being stuck between windows with no views. Not very nice on a 800 mile journey from Penzance to Scotland!
3) Underfloor engines lead to a lot of noise and vibration in the carriage unlike the much smoother ride given by loco hauled and HST trains.
4) Sewage smells from the sewage tank are often a problem. I remember travelling from Exeter to Newton Abbot last summer on a Glasgow to Plymouth Voyager, in one coach the aircon had failed. It was very unpleasantly hot inside with a strong smell of sewage. Made worse by a hot underfloor engine. How people coped who had been on the train for 7 or 8 hours? 20 mins was enough for me lol! It was so bad that passengers were being given free bottles of water by train crew. On a larger HST passengers could have been move to another coach and the failed coach shut down.
5) Seat tray tables are often too small for normal sized laptops.
The return of a small number of HSTs by XC when they took over Cross country services from Virgin was a godsend and perhaps because XC Realised that the 22X were unsuitable for long journeys. Many passengers far prefer the older trustworthy HST which is more spacious, with a comfortable smooth ride. Sadly less than one fifth of XC services use HSTs.
I really hope that when FGW stop using HSTs that XC uses the redundant HSTs to replace all their Voyagers.
But ok some will argue that using 1970s trains is not progressive. So my question is why did they not give up on the tilting idea in the first place and develop a train which has the comfort and space of an HST with compatible couplings?
Any opinions?
Last edited:
haha
They should be banned? 
