Greater Anglia to Abellio - confirmed

[ANorthernGuard]

Do I need to mention all of Northern's un-refurbed 142, 143, 144, 150, 153, 156 and 158 units kicking about up here?

You try working all day on a 142, brings a whole new meaning to pain (back, knees and feet usually)
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Oddly, everyone thinks their local TOC is the worst in the country...

I'd rather have a 315 than a Pacer, for example. Maybe users of Merseyrail would like to suffer from the 360s and 379s on NXEA?

Grass is always greener...

Compared to Northerns stock, everyones is greener lol

 

[ginger]

Here we go, as published in Rail Magazine today.....

"Abelio set to remove 9 class 317s from Anglia route.......

So no change on metro, rural, west anglia, Inter City but LESS capacity on the Great Eastern Mainline where it is desperately needed the most......"

More worrying is the complete clap trap that the Abelio spokesperson has come up with.....I quote Justine Moon from Abelio.....

"There will be 92 additional carriages compared to today, and eight carriages less in service than with the December 2011 timetable"......"This is the net effect of currently under utilised rolling stock in the franchise and new stock deployment over the next few months, which enables us to return 36 carriages".......

Asked when the trains would be returned she said "she wasn't a train person and could not comment".......

She was asked about these "additional carriages".....and referred the reporter to the incumbant NXEA.....who surprise surprise "declined to comment".......

I am not usually lost for words but this is one of those rare moments........can anyone help? This is VERY worrying.....apart from the fact they have stonewalled all enquiries from MPs / press etc on this subject....when they do finally wheel someone out, they havent got a clue what they are talking about......

What new carriages? None ordered, being built, planned that I know of......
What is she talking about????

Derek Monnery of ERUF "once again Essex Rail passengers have been denied a decent rail service by penny pinching civil servants....."

Well done Derek, keep it up!

Disgusting from Daft......and VERY worrying from Abelio.......oh the war of words has only just begun!!!!

 

[tbtc]

Here we go, as published in Rail Magazine today.....

"Abelio set to remove 9 class 317s from Anglia route.......

"There will be 92 additional carriages compared to today, and eight carriages less in service than with the December 2011 timetable"......"This is the net effect of currently under utilised rolling stock in the franchise and new stock deployment ov

Do they currently have a high number of units out of service on an average day?

As they have (approx) 300 trains, we are talking about (approx) a 3% reduction in fleet size - is this something which could be covered with better maintenance?

Presumably the thirty 379s have freed up a handful of 317s?

 

[ginger]

the failure rate on the Cl 317s / Cl 321s is going up steadily but whether they do or dont is not the point....the capacity is needed in to strengthen train length in the rush hour.....appx 65% of all travellers on the GE mainline use it for commuting during the rush hour....

The Cl 317s were being moved over to provide additional capacity to reduce severe overcrowding.....

I guess this will just save more money and make it the most profitable franchise in the counrty with the worst service....

 

[Z12XE]

tbtc has hit the mark on this one

 

[ginger]

what is the lady talking about????

 

[87015]

Presumably the thirty 379s have freed up a handful of 317s?

Yes, but from December they are all diagrammed again. Until February 5th, anyway?!

Interesting comment about it being two units down on Dec 11 timetable, so by extension they will be covering seven units by shortening trains and/or diagramming more units out each day. The required unit availability is pretty typical for the type of train, the 321 fleet is at 86 diagrams for 94 units IIRC. If you wanted to diagram any of the units much harder then you'd really need a new shed somewhere, there are now so many units allocated to IL that getting them in there to do the maintenance on is where the backlog starts - of those 86 321s very few spend the night at IL (I think its six)

I suppose they could have another curve ball in mind and form the 12th Mk3 set up again?

 

[ginger]

Ilford is jammed during the day whenever I go past.....I thought the reopening of Clacton was supposed to help.....

One NX Manager was trumpetting Clacton being "the Cl 321 centre of excellence" a while back?
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whenever I get on a Cl 321 these days the seat bases are falling to bits, the heating rarely works, toilets are locked out of use and window panels are blown and not fixed......well done NX you must be so proud!

 

[tbtc]

I suppose they could have another curve ball in mind and form the 12th Mk3 set up again?

As Virgin get new 390s, the Pretendolino will maybe be going spare in the next year or two?

(bear in mind that we don't exactly know what Abellio are giving up/when)

 

[HH]

I think that it's quite likely that Abellio believe they can maintain the fleet better than NX. TBH they could hardly do worse. Some of you may recall all the blown 321 engines last winter caused by a faulty modification.

The problem with this scenario is that improvements could not be expected to happen overnight. Indeed one would expect it to take months to work out where NX were going wrong before you even started putting it right.

As for Justine Moon, she sounds like she could become a legend.

 

[ginger]

I did ask a Senoir NX Manager about the traction motor / wrong type of snow saga......they of course said it was one of those things.....when I pointed out that Scotrail operate very similar trains (314s/318s) and they did not have the same problem I was met with silence.....mmmmm

As for Justine, I think she already is with comments like that!

 

[ChiefPlanner]

I did ask a Senoir NX Manager about the traction motor / wrong type of snow saga......they of course said it was one of those things.....when I pointed out that Scotrail operate very similar trains (314s/318s) and they did not have the same problem I was met with silence.....mmmmm

As for Justine, I think she already is with comments like that!

Not quite - the Scotrail electric fleet was very badly affected by the deep cold and snow this January - cant remember the figures now , but the numbers out of service some days was very high. (they luckily had some of the extra 380's to augment the core fleet)

 

[SprinterMan]

The removing of the 9 317s is worrying, because I bet they will go for the non-standard (and best) ones, the 317/7s; what with there being 9 of them and all. I have a sneaking suspicion they will end up at Northern.

 

[WillPS]

I agree with tbtc, if this move simply cuts out slack and hands a little to a TOC with nowhere near enough - this is a good move.

 

[Aictos]

The removing of the 9 317s is worrying, because I bet they will go for the non-standard (and best) ones, the 317/7s; what with there being 9 of them and all. I have a sneaking suspicion they will end up at Northern.

Nah, let Abellio have the 13 Class 321s from FCC and let FCC have 13 Class 317/6s to balance the books with a option to transfer the Class 317/7s to FCC to use on the Kings Lynn services.

 

[tbtc]

Nah, let Abellio have the 13 Class 321s from FCC and let FCC have 13 Class 317/6s to balance the books with a option to transfer the Class 317/7s to FCC to use on the Kings Lynn services.

That does seem odd, the way that they both have (100mph, 3/2 seated) 317s and 321s. I'd have thought a rationalisation would have taken place by now, to improve maintenance/ staff knowledge etc.

 

[jopsuk]

well, at East Anglia the 317s operate on the "West Anglia" whilst the 321s are Great Eastern

 

[Aictos]

That does seem odd, the way that they both have (100mph, 3/2 seated) 317s and 321s. I'd have thought a rationalisation would have taken place by now, to improve maintenance/ staff knowledge etc.

Exactly, I rather let Abellio take the Class 321s and use them as they see fit ideally on Great Eastern services with the other Class 321s they have and let First Capital Connect have a equal number of Class 317/6s in return.

I say Class 317/6s because 1.) It means more services can be formed of 12 car 317s (which it ought to be) and 2.) They've had a decent refurbishment which brings them in line with the Class 365s.

The ex London Midland 321s could have been better used by Northern or National Express East Anglia to name two TOCs with First Capital Connect being given 13 maybe 14 Class 317/6s in return.

 

[87015]

What makes GN commuters more deserving of 'decent' 317/6s than West Anglia ones? If they are that bothered about the units being inline with 365s they can spend some of their pink pounds on what they have already.

Not to mention that 317/6s would represent a seated capacity decrease on GN services vice 321 which would be a(nother) FCC PR disaster.

 

[Aictos]

What makes GN commuters more deserving of 'decent' 317/6s than West Anglia ones? If they are that bothered about the units being inline with 365s they can spend some of their pink pounds on what they have already.

Not to mention that 317/6s would represent a seated capacity decrease on GN services vice 321 which would be a(nother) FCC PR disaster.

1.) Before the London Midland 321s became available, the GN fleet was simply formed up of Class 313s, 317s and 365s.

2.) By simply transferring some Class 317s instead from the West Anglia route, it means not having to train up staff on the "new" Class 321s and instead have the Class 317s enter service a lot more quicker as a result.

3.) By not having the 13 Class 321s, it means not having another small fleet and would help standardised the GN fleet by just having 365s/317s on the Outer Suburbans and 313s on the Inner Suburbans.

4. If it really made that much of a difference where the seating capacity was concerned then why didn't FCC send their 317s to National Express East Anglia so all the 317s are used in one area and replace them with 25 Class 321s from London Midland instead?

NXEA wouldn't have missed out as the remaining 12 Class 317s would head to Ilford and the Class 321s could head to Clacton.

 

[IanXC]

I've started a thread on what future these units have in Traction and Rolling Stock (http://www.railforums.co.uk/showthread.php?t=55338) before we go off at too much of a tangent!

 

[ginger]

and they have their new website up and running.......

http://www.greateranglia.co.uk./working-for-greater-anglia

directly appealing to staff for their thoughts on how to improve things.

 

[Eagle]

Red and grey? Was not expecting a colourscheme like that... Plus the logo looks awful, and it appears to be in Calibri, the Microsoft Office default font :roll:

Nothing much on the site other than a recoloured map from the back of NXEA's timetables.

 

[ginger]

if it is an indication of what is to come then the word "minimalist" springs to mind.....they will be taking all the seats out to reduce overcrowding next....LOL

 

[mappman1000]

Interesting colour scheme, look forward to it being applied to one 90 set!

 

[Eagle]

if it is an indication of what is to come then the word "minimalist" springs to mind.....they will be taking all the seats out to reduce overcrowding next....LOL

To be fair, the company isn't trading yet; you can expect its website to be pretty empty until they get the marketing team in.

 

[jopsuk]

Nothing much on the site other than a recoloured map from the back of NXEA's timetables.

Look at the "Southbound" arrow at peterborough for extra lols...

 

[ginger]

Given the huge fleet I very much doubt they will able to paint everything in 2 1/2 years.....not much point when they might lose it.....

I am guessing they will just apply the log and as trains become due for painting that the White livery will begin to prevail across the entire fleet until the grown up franchise is let.

Experiencing the 321s everyday I have to say they look disgusting......whoever thought of white should be shot! When I was going to buy my first car, my father told "never buy a white car".....he was so right!

 

[swtandgw]

Red and grey? Was not expecting a colourscheme like that... Plus the logo looks awful, and it appears to be in Calibri, the Microsoft Office default font :roll:

Nothing much on the site other than a recoloured map from the back of NXEA's timetables.

I was also expecting the NS arrow to appear, but then, wouldn't it be confusing, especially if it were to appear next to the National/British Rail arrows on outdoor station pole signs? As for font, wouldn't it be worse if Comic Sans were used?

 

[gordonthemoron]

they should paint the Class 90s red and have the rolling stock white/grey with a red horizontal stripe, then they'd look like a DB IC set