NotATrainspott
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How soon will GWR be introducing the 387s? If they can increase capacity between Paddington and Hayes & Harlington then maybe Connect might be able to get away with fewer trains?
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c2c more stock
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chris11256
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From what c2c say on their website the two units will be loaned until at least 2019. Quoting the last passenger panel meeting. 'we're paying through the nose for units that our drivers can't drive and aren't even cleared to run on our route'.
southern442
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*Meanwhile in the METRO head offices*
"hmm, that would make a FANTASTIC headline everyone!"
SpacePhoenix
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How long would it take c2c drivers to do the traction course and for the units to get cleared on the route?
Nym
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Route clearance is surely just running the profiles through "Clear Route" and letting it crunch the numbers?
The same people who moaned about lack of stock will no doubt moan about the wasted money in due course!
Peter Sarf
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Amazing. A whole fleet of four car units supplemented by two incompatible five car units that no one can, yet, drive !.
I wondered why anyone on c2c would want five car units so it must have been all they could get rather than being a sensible choice. If c2c had the choice I imagine some dual voltage 375s (with the AC bits dusted off !) would have been the most familiar and compatible. The South Eastern 375s could have been replaced on South Eastern by some Southern 377s. Although perhaps some dual voltage Thameslink 377 would have been less risk for c2c. Either way the 377s could in turn have been replaced by those 387/3s that have nowhere to go for a while. That was a (my) logical solution until the problem disappeared !.
I wondered why anyone on c2c would want five car units so it must have been all they could get rather than being a sensible choice. If c2c had the choice I imagine some dual voltage 375s (with the AC bits dusted off !) would have been the most familiar and compatible. The South Eastern 375s could have been replaced on South Eastern by some Southern 377s. Although perhaps some dual voltage Thameslink 377 would have been less risk for c2c. Either way the 377s could in turn have been replaced by those 387/3s that have nowhere to go for a while. That was a (my) logical solution until the problem disappeared !.
edwin_m
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Would it be easier for them to hire in drivers trained on similar units from AGA and just train them on the c2c route?
westcoaster
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If you have just two units , running around on a set in stone diagram mon-fri. You could get away with just a few 4-5 drivers learning the traction. Would take no more than 5-6 days.You just need a robust rescue policy (coupling adapters).
Or the new timetable has performed so well in attracting more customers that there is now this urgent requirement for new stock and thus bidders actually underbid, in terms of their expected passengers and revenue?
If this currently level of demand was forecasted, they would have had to dealt with it with PIXC and thus required more units earlier on.
Mikey C
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But isn't the whole point of the Heathrow Connect trains, that they go to Heathrow?
1) They're a cheaper means of getting there
2) They enable workers living along the route to get to the airport.
SpacePhoenix
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Will there be much difference in how much power a 360 draws from the overhead compared to their existing units?
NotATrainspott
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Yes, but if I'm not mistaken a considerable number of passengers using the service aren't going to Heathrow. If they can instead go on the newly electrified GWR service, then there won't be as much of a demand for the Connect service.
For the lack of any other explanation it seems that the new GWR services must be a factor in Heathrow Connect being able to lose two trains.
swt_passenger
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The only way of cutting the number of units in service on Connect is to run less than the current half hourly timetable, as it requires 3 trains. Even then you'd need to put an Express unit on the CTA-T4 shuttle. I don't believe shuttles from Hayes to the airport are the answer, as that must add congestion in the Hayes area.
Does anyone have a date for this transfer to c2c happening, because the current Heathrow timings are all in RTT as far as it goes.
Mikey C
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Exactly, politically it will be very damaging if the "cheap" Heathrow service is downgraded, and as this is the service that will be absorbed into Crossrail, if anything you'd expect the service levels to be improved not reduced!
chris11256
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I was told they would be in service about May time. But no idea when c2c will actually get them.
edwin_m
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Do they have enough Express units to transfer a couple of them onto the Shuttle? Presumably they would require downgraded interiors for use by the plebs - have all of them been refurbished yet?
swt_passenger
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The inter terminal shuttle currently only uses one unit doesn't it, and although it is that dedicated 360 it is operated by HEx? Does that 360 have a different interior?
D365
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Doesn't HEx provide free transit on the 332s between Central and Terminal 5 anyway?
360205 has been converted to 2+2 seating and refurbished with a different seat moquette, carpet colour and handrail colour.
Heathrow Connect 360205 on the 1303 London Paddington to Heathrow Airport: Interior by Hassaan Chaudhry, on Flickr
swt_passenger
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Thanks. So on the face of it, that unit will have to be either doing normal Paddington through services, or OTOH perhaps it might go to c2c.
Of course, given the dates mentioned (2019) these two units won't necessarily be ever coming back into Heathrow service anyway - the two that go may both be changed internally for all I know...
Unit 205 has been used for a Connect service countless number of times now and the seats have been re-upholstered to its original moquette, problem with using a 332 as a shuttle is that it has slower acceleration an it uses different stopping points at Heathrow Central so sometimes doesn't meet with the platform 2 express to London if departed late
DasLunatic
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...and does a Tightlock - Dellner adapter exist as of yet? If not, how hard (and expensive) would it be to have some made and fitted to the 360s?
Wasn't something similar fitted to the Hastings unit or does it sit on the drawgear rather than actually connect to the Hastings buckeye/tightlock?
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Nym
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Slow speed (<10mph) it's not that hard, especially since the Dellner is an automatically locking coupler.
There is an emergency coupler on all GEML 360's but it is exactly that an emergency coupler. A 5mph get you out of the s**t coupler. I have only ever used one when training in a yard and have never ever heard of one being used on the mainline.
MatthewRead
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I seem to recall seeing a Class 332 in Heathrow Connect livery years ago in Old Oak Common so I don't see why they can't be used on HC services.
D365
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Presumably there aren't enough?
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