I've heard that there is one diagram on the Barrow/Windermere runs still being covered by a 156 today, so I think there's still one 195 down. I'll hopefully be able to confirm that later. The lack of any mention of short-forming on Journeycheck (which is usually pretty up to date with these things, in fairness to Northern) makes me think they might at least have put on 2x156 to maintain some semblance of capacity.
From what I've heard from Northern staff I've chatted to over the last few days it's a combination of:
I mean, apparently there are faults happening which are big enough to take them out of service (e.g. three out of the seven being out of service yesterday) but no, they're not big enough issues overall, I don't think, to stop introducing the new units overall.
Yeah, I gathered from the level of frustration that some of the drivers and guards seem to be having with them that all is not well. Lack of enough testing, do you think, and catching these things before they got into service? (Appreciate if you don't want to say any more.)
It's not the training, or the fact that there's a touch screen TCMS - quite a lot of the first drivers trained have worked 180s in the past, 185s, 333s etc and most will have cars with similar systems...
Taking trains out of service after introduction is a normal process. During the first period of time, everything that is somehow a irregularity will be checked with the manufacturer. It might be down to crew unfamiliarity, an easy-to-fix fault or a real issue, but we don't know which one it is.
Other than (potential) differences in internal layout, yes. At least that's my understanding. If the choice is between end gangways or more passenger space, what do you opt for?
I expect the greatest advantage of having multiple toilets is that you aren't out of luck if one is out of service (which can be due to mess, a fault, or just the tank being full).
Yeah, that's what happened on Wednesday. A 2+ hour service from Man Airport to Barrow with no working toilet isn't really ideal.
).
If there were two toilets on the 3-car units there'd be just as many comments on here saying that the second one is a waste of space...
I think the thing is that whilst there are issues with the 195s, they are predominantly issues that - on the face of it at least - should be easy to fix. Better labelling for the bins, fix the PIS software, etc. Yes, gangways might have been wise. Yes, an extra carriage or two would have been welcome. But, neither of those are CAFs fault in the slightest.
I think there is a world of difference between the sleeper introduction with trains arriving hours late or being cancelled left right and centre (although looks like they may have got more of a grip on that recently) and the 195 introduction where trains seem to be fulfilling the basic purpose of transporting passengers from A to B mostly on time (with ARN still being able to sub in older stock to cover availability issues). The main 195 technical issue reported in the thread that would concern me is the doors closing early, but not seen anyone mention that in the last few days so hopefully that's been solved already. From what I can remember of your comments, you would never accept anything except for a completely flawless operation on day 1 of a new fleet, which is completely unrealistic. I mean, Hitachi still managed to dump a load of water from the air con systems on to passengers on day 1 of IEP operation, and they had 9 years of development and testing to get it right.
They're on a timer to close after, I think the guard said, 20 seconds. She also said that if you hold the open button down for five seconds rather than just pressing it, that overides the auto-close and they stay open; useful for wheelchairs etc.
There are a lot of differences between the Civity UK fleets and the main Civity platform design, not least that the main Civity designs have one bogie between vehicle ends, not two bogies per vehicle. Rolling stock tech has also advanced massively in 10 years around mainly software managed functionalities, such as selective door operation, train to wayside communications. The UK also has many peculiarities that need a specific design solution, including a much smaller loading gauge therefore less room to accommodate all the equipment required. In many ways they are a new design.