centraltrains
Member
I am trying to find out why the new Aventras will only make "most" services 6 coaches, and not all.
To do this I wanted to work out how many diagrams there were on the Cross City line so I wasted lots of time and put together a spreadsheet. (there are lots of transposition errors, and the overnight transitions are very likely to be wrong - it is the main gist of the day I am interested in)
It shows there are 16 fully contained diagrams (with a few splits onto other diagrams on other lines) (and excluding the end/start of service), and 1 partially contained diagram (in the morning peak).
Which you could then question, couldn't all services be 6 coaches if 16*2 = 32 and they are getting 36 trains. 4 spare would seem enough? It seems very few extra trains would need to be ordered to make them all 6 coaches?
What I have labelled as diagram 13, is 3 coaches in the morning peak, but the timetable shows that in the evening peak it is 6 coaches from the 1716 departure from Four Oaks (FOK) onwards.
What I can't work out, and was wondering if anyone could help me work out is where it gains the additional 3 coaches from. I can't see any logical places it would pick them up.
The only possibility I can see is if what I have labelled as diagram 18, stables at platform 2 for around 5 hours before coupling to it, however given it would need to occupy half the platform for 5 hours, seems unlikely (and other 6 car diagrams are scheduled to use that platform fully in that time). I also went train spotting earlier in the year there, and this wasn't the case on that day either.
To do this I wanted to work out how many diagrams there were on the Cross City line so I wasted lots of time and put together a spreadsheet. (there are lots of transposition errors, and the overnight transitions are very likely to be wrong - it is the main gist of the day I am interested in)
It shows there are 16 fully contained diagrams (with a few splits onto other diagrams on other lines) (and excluding the end/start of service), and 1 partially contained diagram (in the morning peak).
Which you could then question, couldn't all services be 6 coaches if 16*2 = 32 and they are getting 36 trains. 4 spare would seem enough? It seems very few extra trains would need to be ordered to make them all 6 coaches?
What I have labelled as diagram 13, is 3 coaches in the morning peak, but the timetable shows that in the evening peak it is 6 coaches from the 1716 departure from Four Oaks (FOK) onwards.
What I can't work out, and was wondering if anyone could help me work out is where it gains the additional 3 coaches from. I can't see any logical places it would pick them up.
The only possibility I can see is if what I have labelled as diagram 18, stables at platform 2 for around 5 hours before coupling to it, however given it would need to occupy half the platform for 5 hours, seems unlikely (and other 6 car diagrams are scheduled to use that platform fully in that time). I also went train spotting earlier in the year there, and this wasn't the case on that day either.