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

[FGW_DID]

I would hope at least the LNER Intercity bio-modes would temporarily replace the Azuma for us

which are Azuma themselves, it’s the LNER brand name for all the Hitachi 8xx units.

 

[HowardGWR]

At least it's not "Azooma"!

Who is to say how a Japanese word should be spelt in roman letters?

 

[ashkeba]

A sort of gaffer tape solution lol?

I think gaffer tape might not withstand high speed airflow!

 

[neonison]

One Azuma, two Azumi?

 

[Starmill]

One Azuma, two Azumi?

I knew a lady who went by the name Azumi once.

 

[kez19]

which are Azuma themselves, it’s the LNER brand name for all the Hitachi 8xx units.

So where are the Intercity trains?

 

[rebmcr]

I think gaffer tape might not withstand high speed airflow!

Nor water ingress.

 

[swt_passenger]

Telegraph report doesn't make much sense does it... HST carriages are not much use without the locos !

Especially when it includes a GWR denial of the actual main story…

 

[kez19]

LNER's intercity bi-modes ARE Azumas. Their only other trains are electric-only

I thought intercity acted similar? As when they were operating up here it did the same thing, ie diesel to Haymarket switched to electric onwards then in reverse?

 

[LNW-GW Joint]

Unfortunately it’s behind a paywall (and I’m not a telegraph subscriber), but this has just appeared in my google notifications. Would anyone be able to see what the article details?

British Rail-era InterCity 125 trains to return after mass cancellations

Unless it's been updated, I posted the full version of this is #1604.
It's more about the train procurement than the current operational issues.

 

[swt_passenger]

I thought intercity acted similar? As when they were operating up here it did the same thing, ie diesel to Haymarket switched to electric onwards then in reverse?

They run two types of train to Scotland, class 800 bimode and class 801 electric - they look just the same, but the latter can’t run beyond Edinburgh. Unless you get into the real detail, they all look identical to passengers…

 

[43096]

I thought intercity acted similar? As when they were operating up here it did the same thing, ie diesel to Haymarket switched to electric onwards then in reverse?

I have no idea what you are talking about.

 

[TRAX]

Spot on they have got it wrong

They’ve "corrected" it.

 

[crablab]

We are continuing to work together to begin the return of Azuma trains into service from next week.

Back to referring to them as "Azuma" today and not "Class 800 Hitachi", as in yesterday's video from David Horne.

How confusing.

 

[Pokelet]

There is one stuck at Exeter too

So that makes 5 units off depots (Worcester 2, Gloucester, Exeter, Oxford 1 each)

 

[krus_aragon]

I'm not sure I would trust anything in there, especially as they can't even spell Azuma correctly!

Maybe Azumi is the plural?

 

[Bletchleyite]

I think gaffer tape might not withstand high speed airflow!

Engineer taping up an easyJet engine cowl - from Internet Flight Community but as it's been round the Internet a million times who knows who took it?

To be fair it's "speed tape" which is £100+ a roll!

 

[Starmill]

So where are the Intercity trains?

The family of trains were originally known by their project name Intercity Express Programme or IEP before there was anything else to call them. After Hitachi won the work with their A Train product, (derived from the now-famous aluminium of the body) they were known as AT300 Super Express Train for a time. They are now known by many different names which they've been given by their operators:
Nova 1 at TransPennine Express
Azuma at LNER
Intercity Express Train or IET at GWR
Paragon at Hull Trains
Aurora at EMR

 

[railphotoghw]

So that makes 5 units off depots (Worcester 2, Gloucester, Exeter, Oxford 1 each)

There is also 1 at Hereford!

 

[43096]

The family of trains were originally known by their project name Intercity Express Programme or IEP before there was anything else to call them. After Hitachi won the work with their A Train product, (derived from the now-famous aluminium of the body) they were known as AT300 Super Express Train for a time. They are now known by many different names which they've been given by their operators:
Nova 1 at TransPennine Express
Azuma at LNER
Intercity Express Train or IET at GWR
Paragon at Hull Trains
Aurora at EMR

Or Super Hitachi Intercity Trains by some staff and enthusiasts. Yes, there’s an acronym, which seems more appropriate than ever.

 

[swt_passenger]

I don't recognize this statement from Andrew Adonis about the Azuma introduction on the ECML:

"They [NR] had 10 years to get these signalling issues right," he said. "They'll be much more expensive to operate, they'll be slower, they'll have less capacity and hundreds of millions of pounds of public money has been wasted again.”

I think he was actually referring to the GW electrification truncation and the consequent need to order more bi-modes for GWR instead of cheaper electric-only sets.

That pararagraph you’ve quoted does seem to run together in the article, but I reckon it should be broken down into two completely unrelated problem areas. There were trackside interference issues on the ECML, I think at the time it was explained that some signalling equipment didn’t meet NR’s published electrical noise tolerance - so they altered the trains to solve a problem on the track. We had a thread about it, and funnily enough Adonis was quoted making the same “NR had 10 years” point:

Class 800 electrical interference issues on the Northern ECML

Mod Note: Posts #1 - #22 originally in Class 800 thread and posts #23 - #26 originally in the this thread. https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-tyne-45435683 New BBC article on interference issues north of York on ECML

www.railforums.co.uk

But that seems totally unrelated to the effect of GWML wiring decisions. And I also don’t think it’s possible to describe the overall ECML fleet numbers as causing a capacity issue, they basically got an equivalent 9 car fleet and many extra 5 cars. (Give or take a couple of units.)

 

[snowball]

so they altered the trains to solve a problem on the track.

A frequent complaint in Ian Walmsley's column in Modern Railways - rolling stock engineers being made to solve problems created by others.

 

[robbeech]

To be fair it's "speed tape" which is £100+ a roll!

Only because it CAN be £100+ a roll.

 

[Grumpy Git]

A frequent complaint in Ian Walmsley's column in Modern Railways - rolling stock engineers being made to solve problems created by others.

Again I can sympathise with this argument.

I'm continually asked to make equipment work outside its design parameters because someone with no experience has designed another product out of specification.

In an extreme case, imagine someone building a train with an incorrect wheel gauge, and the solution being to alter all the track (and all the other trains)!

 

[BayPaul]

So where are the Intercity trains?

If you are referring to the Intercity 125 class trains, otherwise known as HST, these trains are diesels, not bi-modes. LNER disposed of their fleet in 2019. Many have been scrapped, but Scotrail and GWR both run fleets of shortened HST trains on their own services, Cross Country have a few for their services, and East Midlands Trains are about to take their last few out of service (or may have just done so). Chances are, if you use a Scotrail service from North of Edinburgh to connect into an LNER service south of Edinburgh you will go on one of the Scotrail HSTs.

None of LNER's crew are still competent on the HSTs, and the out of service ones are not compliant with current legislation, so it is not a simple short-term solution to just bring some back in to service on the routes - a good comparison would be how difficult it would be now for British Airways to re-introduce Boeing 747s.

 

[aar0]

I'd have thought Paddington to Cardiff would be a more sensible use of what are very limited resources, with TFW handling the connections for stations to Swansea.

There's a IET Depot in Swansea, almost within sight of the station. Contractually I believe (not that it matters with so few trains!) that GWR have to run Swansea-London, and their Cardiff-Londons are extras.

 

[Failed Unit]

Looking at the announcement today - still nothing to get excited about if you are on LNER. (On a Bi-mode route)

The timetable for tomorrow loaded. Nothing much that needs to be a Bi-Mode (the Leeds - Aberdeen service which is terminating at Edinburgh) - All other Bi-Mode trains cancelled.

See what Saturday brings, but at the very minimum nothing from North of Edinburgh as the stock didn't make it there on Friday evening (unless of course they already have trains in Aberdeen and / or Inverness)

 

[Ediswan]

Who is to say how a Japanese word should be spelt in roman letters?

There is a standard romanisation of Japanese hiragana characers. Here it is "A ZU MA".
https://i.ytimg.com/vi/w9w9amWKhV4/maxresdefault.jpg

 

[fgwrich]

Telegraph report doesn't make much sense does it... HST carriages are not much use without the locos !

The 387 run down to Parkway seems to have gone well. Timing looks very close to what some 800 services achieve.

Realtime Trains - 3Z77 1010 Reading to Reading Depot Entrance A

Realtime Trains provides live realtime running information for the Great British railway network using open data.

www.realtimetrains.co.uk

It’s funny, because the article they produced yesterday was excellent and really told the IEP program how it is (Insanely Expensive Project). This article seems to contradict itself and is frankly, gash.

 

[RobShipway]

The BBC news website are saying that the trains are being reintroduced https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-57100278. However, LNER is running a reduced service and GWR say that disruption is likely to continue for some time.