TMS modifications are needed to enable them to work in multiple with XC units - but it's not a huge job.
Are there many double-220 services?
I am surprised how many single 4 car workings I see through Derby. But if those were 5 car it would help.. Then 5 plus 4 on busier services.
That's the thing that's really not appreciated the increase 1 coach can give
I'd catch a 5 car or larger. I just don't bother with a 4 car (and use any other alternatives).
I tried that last year. Went for the 9 car and with split ticketing went to unreserved coach in 5 car unit at rear to avoid musical chairs. Too clever by half, 5 cars detached at Derby, everyone into the 4 car unit, standing throughout from there.
Which if anything like my luck with services towards Bournemouth would be the rear unit being locked out of use at Birmingham New Street due to not having enough staff to crew both units
Nah, a perfect stunt would be a "sorry, cancelled at short notice due to no driver/guard"
Yes. The 1721 and 1823 from Sheffield northbound were both 8-car sets, 2x220. The 1921 service was a 10-car set, presumably the return working on the 0811 from Leeds southbound. First class was shown as being coaches 1 and 10 (correct), but there was no indication that you couldn't enter coach 10. It's a pity it can't be used, even if you can't use the doors to board or alight, especially when it's a Standard carriage.
Without a fifth car there are no unreserved seats, I thought?
Coach D is always un-reserved, regardless of formation length.
When did that happen? It used to be always F; then it got changed last year to be B (if there was one), with a few seats in (I think) D which didn't have corresponding seat numbers in the three ex-Avanti sets. Information I gleaned at this very boutique in one of the other XC threads.
Then add in how XC services between Birmingham and Reading used to be half hourly....I seem to recall the 07.13 ex Nottingham/Derby to Bournemouth also used to be a double set too...(Single from Nottingham, double from Derby)
Not since the start of the summer timetable last year - there are a small number of unreserved seats in coach D to make sure the seat exists on the ex-Avanti stock but the rest of coach D can now be reserved
I haven't gone through the whole of the day, obvs, and most of the rest will have been four- or five-car sets... but that 8-8-10 could have more usefully been an 8-9-9, if the units were in a different order. With the rear coach locked out of use it was really 8-8-9.
That was in the Covid timetable when it terminated at Reading rather than Bournemouth (Bournemouth only had a 2-hourly service during that period). Since May 2023 it's reverted to a single unit, normally a 221 but often substituted by a 220.
I haven't used it since. Nearly did when I'm was going to Southampton, but that day, it decided to only run to Reading.....and connections to the SWR mainline weren't right.
so if you haven't looked you can't claim that only 2 trains were more than 4 or 5 cars. "Obvs."
It’s been coach B and H if 10 cars for years, coach F and L were also used during or just after Covid but that changed last year
Looking back through copies of Modern Railways from 2002, it appears that a case was trying to be made for pushing up the 34 220s and 4-car 221s to 5 coaches even before the September timetable change, but obviously it never happened.
Is it still not coach L when doubled? That's the one I aim for. On occasion, the displays show nothing (which is no help) or seem to be configured for First Class, with a pair of seats shown as available/blank, but they do seem to be all free when I get on them.
Thanks. I see 144 returned to traffic in 2017.
It already was restored to a four car set and is in service with CrossCountry, but it means that 136 and 140 also became 4-car sets.
