Entire 800/801/802 fleet stood down for safety checks

[ScouserGirl]

Are the 395s being inspected too?

I believe so

 

[21C101]

Paddington HSS are being taught 387s, in order to run Paddington-Swindon shuttles.
Risk assessments should be done by the end of this week.

In the meanwhile, especially this weekend with the alternative route out of Waterloo closed to both Exeter and Bristol via Westbury due to engineering works....

Couldn't the 387s have been double manned with one driver with the traction knowledge and one with the route knowledge west of Didcot?

Plenty of 802 drivers sitting in mess rooms bored at the moment.

 

[popeter45]

The 395's are a fair but older that the other fleets so will be interesting to see what the results of there inspections are

 

[Goldfish62]

That's what someone said to me who works there...

There's a number of trains advertised as 3 vice 5 car today, so clearly some are out of service.

 

[74A]

In the meanwhile, especially this weekend with the alternative route out of Waterloo closed to both Exeter and Bristol via Westbury due to engineering works....

Couldn't the 387s have been double manned with one driver with the traction knowledge and one with the route knowledge west of Didcot?

Plenty of 802 drivers sitting in mess rooms bored at the moment.

387 run empty to and from Swindon everyday so no issue with drivers route / traction knowledge

 

[Jamesrob637]

There's a number of trains advertised as 3 vice 5 car today, so clearly some are out of service.

It's only actually one return/out/return Newcastle diagram. It looks like several on Journey Check but JC has muddled up a Redcar as thinking it's booked 5-car when in reality it's booked 6-car. Probably the 3 freed up to not (have to) cancel the Newcastle.

That could've easily happened on any Sunday!

 

[hwl]

The 395's are a fair but older that the other fleets so will be interesting to see what the results of there inspections are

They have a different bolster and yaw bracket design to the 80x and 395

 

[Watershed]

There's a number of trains advertised as 3 vice 5 car today, so clearly some are out of service.

Four have failed inspection, the location of the failed sets has lead to some substitutions and shortforms. But once usable sets are back the right locations it shouldn't cause any significant issues.

 

[Jamesrob637]

Four have failed inspection, the location of the failed sets has lead to some substitutions and shortforms. But once usable sets are back the right locations it shouldn't cause any significant issues.

TPE probably have more leeway today for the following two reasons:

1) it's a Sunday anyway
2) the enhanced timetable doesn't start until tomorrow week. But what impact that will have on Sunday services is unknown to me.

 

[VP185]

TPE have pulled them all out of traffic.

 

[DanNCL]

TPE have pulled them all out of traffic.

No they haven’t. This service is currently on the move and is an 802: https://www.realtimetrains.co.uk/train/C53540/2021-05-09/detailed

 

[popeter45]

if i need to travel from london to swansea next week whats my best bet?, assume enough of this will be over by them, reroute or just catch the bus?

 

[Dren Ahmeti]

Can I just advise everyone that the information here is being funnelled into the public domain (i.e. Twitter and Facebook) faster than a fireman up a very steep bank.

Some are viewing everything posted here as gospel, when in reality, even some of the stuff I’ve posted myself hasn’t been sourced properly, and is most probably wibble.

I would say to anyone reading this: do your due diligence if you’re in a position to do it, otherwise wait for more official sources of information to come out.

 

[Thunderer]

Given the scale of the problem, dispensations for non-compliant stock would very likely be granted.

Yes indeed..its the sensible solution. Keep the fault-free and inspected IET’s running a Paddington-South Wales/cotswold service thus making the most use of the IET and the 25KV to Cardiff and phase back in some HST’s to work Paddington-Bristol (can be serviced at PM) and Paddington-Plymouth (can be serviced at LA). Im sure there must be drivers at London, Bristol, Plymouth etc still cleared to drive HST’s?

 

[ScouserGirl]

Yes indeed..its the sensible solution. Keep the fault-free and inspected IET’s running a Paddington-South Wales/cotswold service thus making the most use of the IET and the 25KV to Cardiff and phase back in some HST’s to work Paddington-Bristol (can be serviced at PM) and Paddington-Plymouth (can be serviced at LA). Im sure there must be drivers at London, Bristol, Plymouth etc still cleared to drive HST’s?

Plymouth yes as they have the 2+4 sets, am not so sure on London now.

 

[robbeech]

if i need to travel from london to swansea next week whats my best bet?, assume enough of this will be over by them, reroute or just catch the bus?

It’s difficult to know for sure. I would certainly look at alternative options and weigh up how long you’re prepared to wait before you have to finalise a decision.

If there is a coach (or multiples) and there are limited tickets then you’d be able to guarantee (to the best of your ability) you’ll get there. If you don’t book it and the trains don’t run you’re stuck.

If you can go to Birmingham and get a TFW or XC service into Wales but you need to book that to guarantee it then the same applies.
The more important your journey is will likely determine how quickly you give up on the railway providing a direct service.

There is not a chance I would rely on any of these routes being reliable for a few days, but you could take the car and break down.

 

[Dren Ahmeti]

It’s difficult to know for sure. I would certainly look at alternative options and weigh up how long you’re prepared to wait before you have to finalise a decision.

If there is a coach (or multiples) and there are limited tickets then you’d be able to guarantee (to the best of your ability) you’ll get there. If you don’t book it and the trains don’t run you’re stuck.

If you can go to Birmingham and get a TFW or XC service into Wales but you need to book that to guarantee it then the same applies.
The more important your journey is will likely determine how quickly you give up on the railway providing a direct service.

There is not a chance I would rely on any of these routes being reliable for a few days, but you could take the car and break down.

Flixbus run to Cardiff multiple times a day for £0.99 from Victoria Coach Station, so that’s what I would do + TfW from Cardiff.

 

[randyrippley]

Has anyone told the scrap yards to stop scrapping? There's going to be a demand for any mk3/4 coaching stock for the next year or so.......and maybe even Pacers

 

[JonathanH]

Has anyone told the scrap yards to stop scrapping? There's going to be a demand for any mk3/4 coaching stock for the next year or so.......and maybe even Pacers

A good joke but the stock isn't exactly ready to run when it gets to the scrapyards. The scrapyards process scrap pretty quickly nowadays in any case. Can you imagine bringing units back into service after they had been on one of those 1980s train stacks?

 

[SteelWeelApeal]

Has anyone told the scrap yards to stop scrapping? There's going to be a demand for any mk3/4 coaching stock for the next year or so.......and maybe even Pacers

Pacers from London to Bristol would be fun! (I'm aware that that's probably not what you meant)

 

[Wilts Wanderer]

A good joke but the stock isn't exactly ready to run when it gets to the scrapyards. The scrapyards process scrap pretty quickly nowadays in any case. Can you imagine bringing units back into service after they had been on one of those 1980s train stacks?

I’m pretty sure based on previous experience that some people on this forum are capable of imagining just about anything...

 

[Darandio]

Has anyone told the scrap yards to stop scrapping? There's going to be a demand for any mk3/4 coaching stock for the next year or so.......and maybe even Pacers

There's some hilarious stuff in this thread but we are going to another level now.

Given the media are probably reading these threads are some of you doing this to try and get quoted?

"Passengers suffer mass cancellations while hundreds of carriages sit idle in scrapyard shocker!"

 

[randyrippley]

A good joke but the stock isn't exactly ready to run when it gets to the scrapyards. The scrapyards process scrap pretty quickly nowadays in any case. Can you imagine bringing units back into service after they had been on one of those 1980s train stacks?

But there must be some stuff in the system which could be pulled back and reinstated

 

[TommyJ]

”Proper British engineering” - British Leyland anyone?

Completely baseless remark.

BREL made some amazing trains with British engineering, not least the InterCity 125.
The IETs seem very overpriced for what they are. Paid for by the taxpayer.

 

[CBlue]

BREL made some amazing trains with British engineering, not least the InterCity 125.
The IETs seem very overpriced for what they are. Paid for by the taxpayer.

And as stated above, plenty of BREL products had their own problems over the years! Patching up HST's for another 50 years of service life would doubtless cost more to the taxpayer.

 

[Wilts Wanderer]

The high price of the IET fleet is précisely because Hitachi hedged against the possibility of some major issues and priced the risk into their tender for the contract, and the DfT was unable to see this and thought they were getting good value for money.

 

[CBlue]

But there must be some stuff in the system which could be pulled back and reinstated

I don't think it's that simple.

 

[Ianno87]

The high price of the IET fleet is précisely because Hitachi hedged against the possibility of some major issues and priced the risk into their tender for the contract, and the DfT was unable to see this and thought they were getting good value for money.

The DfT is, at present, not paying a penny for unserviceable trains that are not being provided for traffic yesterday and today. It's Hitachi's financial problem now, not DfT's.

 

[LordCreed]

But that is EXACTLY what they ARE doing. By telling passengers their £30 tickets must be used today or refunded and if they don’t use them today their journey will cost them £100. By being flexible and letting passengers travel at a later date you leave more capacity for those that simply must travel today. By acting as they are they are making it more difficult for passengers today and they’re making higher profits from everyone else.

The actual advice is quite clear, do not travel. You can't advise people to use a train at a later date when you simply don't know when the later date will be. How much use is a ticket for today going to be in two weeks? How many people will still want to make that journey? Other than those on this forum, next to no one.

 

[Wilts Wanderer]

The DfT is, at present, not paying a penny for unserviceable trains that are not being provided for traffic yesterday and today. It's Hitachi's financial problem now, not DfT's.

Yes I agree, but in theory it impacts Hitachi less than it should because they anticipated the risk and priced it into the leasing costs over the lifetime of the fleet. Of course as we’re only 3-4 years into the contracts the actual amount accrued so far is 10% but there’s a long time to go (assuming of course that they get to 35 year life!)