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Abellio Greater Anglia Class 755s (Regional Trains)

Railperf

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The Class 317's are very tired on this route now. Hard to think they were once one of our most modern EMUs. The 720's cannot come soon enough.
 
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47421

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Of course as discussed previously 10 car 720s can't run to Hertford East til points and signals moved and 5 cars will be terrible for dwell times
 

Railperf

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The line was officially open for traffic as from Friday!!! EdIT ...will be open for traffic from 25th March. But looks like station work still ongoing. Signalling issues have caused all up services to halt at a non-clearing red signal at the junction north of Lea Bridge. Why the wait til September?
 
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47421

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Harlow would be dropped before Tottenham Hale (TOM) on the Stansted Express. It would be a silly move for GA to remove TOM calls as that would cost a lot of revenue from Stansted passengers getting off the Victoria line. Stansted Express is one of the few lines at GA that is truly a money making cash cow at present.

Either way, Stansted Airport would be unhappy, London Underground would also be unhappy and most importantly, Greater Anglia would be unhappy.

General problem on West Anglia (and GE main line, although I dont know that so well) is that as it is a two track railway all services have to run semi-fast (a) to provide sufficient stops at all stations and (b) because even if stops removed fast services will just catch others, hence the poor overall speed of Stansted Express.

General off peak pattern is half StanExp stop Bishops Stortford, half Harlow Town, and one an hour Stansted Mountfitchet. Difficult to remove these stops as Stansted is a huge employer and many employees live in these places. Also the Stansted Airport to Cambridge service is so poor that it is often quickest to go via Stortford
 

Railperf

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Still signal issues on the up line at Lea Bridge junction....drivers having to ask for permission to pass the signal at danger. Apparently issues at Stratford too.
 

Owen

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General problem on West Anglia (and GE main line, although I dont know that so well) is that as it is a two track railway all services have to run semi-fast (a) to provide sufficient stops at all stations and (b) because even if stops removed fast services will just catch others, hence the poor overall speed of Stansted Express.

General off peak pattern is half StanExp stop Bishops Stortford, half Harlow Town, and one an hour Stansted Mountfitchet. Difficult to remove these stops as Stansted is a huge employer and many employees live in these places. Also the Stansted Airport to Cambridge service is so poor that it is often quickest to go via Stortford

What’s poor about it? It usually arrives in 30 minutes anytime I use it?

Anyone know anything about the 3pm service to Ely from Stansted? Why is this only one service a day?
 

Rick1984

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I thought of an advantage of the Flirts on Stansted Express services. The level access will allow passengers to wheel their luggage straight onto the train rather than having to lift it in with conventional doors, which should save time.

Perhaps they should've had two sets of doors on the lower section, but that might have compromised the interior layout.
 

James James

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I thought of an advantage of the Flirts on Stansted Express services. The level access will allow passengers to wheel their luggage straight onto the train rather than having to lift it in with conventional doors, which should save time.

Perhaps they should've had two sets of doors on the lower section, but that might have compromised the interior layout.
I don't think there'd be any fundamtental issue with 2 doors per section - you'd end up with a layout of 2 windows + door + 2 windows + door + 2-3 windows (2 for cab, 3 for others), where the first and last (or last 2 for non-cab) window are raised. That's effectively what the SBB are doing on their Flirt's (for some trains, e.g. the southern Flirt's, the cab section only has one door, the other being replaced by a Window.

But: those SBB trains are built around having one bay of seats of per window (4x4 seating). For UK style airline seating fitting 5 rows into 2 windows would be too tight, and 4 rows for 2 windows might not be dense enough.

Knowing Stadler they probably could've adapted the layout in some way, e.g. by shifting the doors more and using half-width windows.
 

Rick1984

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But: those SBB trains are built around having one bay of seats of per window (4x4 seating). For UK style airline seating fitting 5 rows into 2 windows would be too tight, and 4 rows for 2 windows might not be dense enough.
That's where I thought things might not add up
 

hwl

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I don't think there'd be any fundamtental issue with 2 doors per section - you'd end up with a layout of 2 windows + door + 2 windows + door + 2-3 windows (2 for cab, 3 for others), where the first and last (or last 2 for non-cab) window are raised. That's effectively what the SBB are doing on their Flirt's (for some trains, e.g. the southern Flirt's, the cab section only has one door, the other being replaced by a Window.

But: those SBB trains are built around having one bay of seats of per window (4x4 seating). For UK style airline seating fitting 5 rows into 2 windows would be too tight, and 4 rows for 2 windows might not be dense enough.

Knowing Stadler they probably could've adapted the layout in some way, e.g. by shifting the doors more and using half-width windows.

Agreed all do-able but the problem is DfT specified lots of seats in tender and Abellio won by ticking that box in big way. Hence only 1 door per side provide more space for seats. 1 door per side is also cheaper.
 

hwl

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I thought of an advantage of the Flirts on Stansted Express services. The level access will allow passengers to wheel their luggage straight onto the train rather than having to lift it in with conventional doors, which should save time.

Perhaps they should've had two sets of doors on the lower section, but that might have compromised the interior layout.
The problems is any advantage is completely destroyed by only having 1 set of doors.
 

James James

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The pitch on the Swiss units isn't great, to be honest. 4 rows would be about right.
What units are you thinking of? The SBB Flirt's have ridiculous amounts of room in 4x4. I can get out of the window seats with aisle passengers not having to move their legs. Ironically it's more legroom than on the IC2000 stock.

(On a few units, the low-level bays have been converted to 3-airline-rows + standing room, which I imagine could be tighter. But the 4x4 bays are very spacous.)
 

Bletchleyite

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What units are you thinking of? The SBB Flirt's have ridiculous amounts of room in 4x4. I can get out of the window seats with aisle passengers not having to move their legs. Ironically it's more legroom than on the IC2000 stock.

You must be short. My legs definitely go past half way, which admittedly is true of most UK stock as well. It's definitely less legroom than the 350/2 has in the bays (which really *is* very good).

That the IC2000 stock is not suitable for a 20 minute all stations stopper through the unscenic flatlands (and thus is totally unsuitable for Switzerland in every way) is by the by.
 

F Great Eastern

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I'm not even sure the positioning of the doors is great either, although the less doors might make tougher for students to try and get away without properly paying between Stowmarket and Bury, although from what I've seen recently the RPIs are already targeting that hotspot. A 2/3 car 170 with a guard and 2 or 3 RPIs on-board nailing a good few of them is always amusing to see.
 

James James

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You must be short. My legs definitely go past half way, which admittedly is true of most UK stock as well. It's definitely less legroom than the 350/2 has in the bays (which really *is* very good).

That the IC2000 stock is not suitable for a 20 minute all stations stopper through the unscenic flatlands (and thus is totally unsuitable for Switzerland in every way) is by the by.
It sounds like you've never actually taken one of these trains. I'm on these daily, with stupidly long legs. No issues to speak of yet. (Which is the exact opposite of any train ride in the UK I've been on.)
 

Ianno87

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What’s poor about it? It usually arrives in 30 minutes anytime I use it?

Anyone know anything about the 3pm service to Ely from Stansted? Why is this only one service a day?

Basically a Stansted-Cambridge service that continues as a Cambridge-Ely service as an 'extra' to meet school demand.
 

Bletchleyite

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It sounds like you've never actually taken one of these trains. I'm on these daily, with stupidly long legs. No issues to speak of yet. (Which is the exact opposite of any train ride in the UK I've been on.)

Assuming you mean the ones used on the RER/S-Bahn Vaudoise, I have used them probably over 100 times. Not a great fan of them seat wise unless nobody is sitting opposite, though with 1st (which is still 2+2 but with extra legroom) being a reasonable price I often upgraded. They are however solid, well-built kit.

The Geneva area ones (which only have one door on the cab end vehicle) may well be different in some way, I haven't used one of those ones.

As for the IC2000, it is, behind the Class 800 (due to the seats), without a doubt the worst long distance "scenic country" train I have ever had the misfortune to use. No legroom, 3+2 width seats, tiny windows and no luggage space to speak of. First Class is borderline acceptable, Standard isn't worthy of the name.
 

mmh

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I thought of an advantage of the Flirts on Stansted Express services. The level access will allow passengers to wheel their luggage straight onto the train rather than having to lift it in with conventional doors, which should save time.

Perhaps they should've had two sets of doors on the lower section, but that might have compromised the interior layout.

Saving what time? An airport express service only has lots of people getting on and off with lots of luggage at either end.
 

hwl

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Saving what time? An airport express service only has lots of people getting on and off with lots of luggage at either end.
Apart from all the ones boarding /alighting at Tottenham Hale for the Victoria Line.

It is an Airport Semi-Fast rather than a real express...

Number of doorways is the main issue though.
 

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