Are there any statistics available about how this compares to other long distance DMUs?
What's the engine failure rate on things like Voyagers and what was it when they were new?
The number of GUs isolated still seems very high for units many of which aren't even a year old. Of course things go wrong but with the astronomically expensive maintenance agreement for these trains it's surprising they're still in that bad a state. Is that presumably because a formation stuck in diesel only and with GUs isolated still counts as serving a diagram and thus incurs no penalty, so the bare minimum to deliver that is being provided?
I'm confused, GU = GenSet? If so, Genset = diesel engine providing traction power or just HEP for lights & Aircon?
I used a couple of these units to get to / from Didcot last Saturday & most of the units seen at Didcot had their pans down.
I "think" that the 2 x 5 car on the 1245 Padd to Swansea was running as an EMU, I was in one of the intermediate cars
& there were no diesel sounds under-floor. Maximum speed recorded was 123 mph, is that possible on diesel between Padd & Reading? I changed there to an EMU to Didcot & didn't see Swansea train depart, so no idea which mode it was using.