Greater Anglia Rolling Stock Updates

Richard Ingram · 25 Nov 2019

ashkeba said:
Putting the platforms after the crossing must have seemed like a clever idea to someone years ago but it causes problems so often now. Better to have them before like at Watlington.

Doesn't having the gates like Watlington mean having a manually controlled crossing, so that it isn't closed while the train is in the station? That would mean that the gates are down for longer when the station has trains that run fast through it, like Waterbeach, to give the train a string of greens. That also means people might see the train they want waiting in the platform, while they are trapped on the wrong side of a closing crossing, which might encourage them to do something stupid. I've seen enough at Waterbeach to know that it doesn't take much encouragement sometimes.
Problems either way.

RailUK Forums

Class 170101 · 25 Nov 2019

dk1 said:
I used to roster Cambridge guards in Reggie Rail days. The service was always pretty hopeless across the Bury route. What was gained by closing Cambridge as a depot in preparation for Anglia was earlier trains eastbound & later westbound as everything had to return to Ipswich.

Not sure your last sentence sounds right. However in any event these days I am surprised that a last departure from Ipswich to Cambridge at 2116 is considered acceptable these days and a start up of 06:43(ish) Cambridge to Ipswich arriving at 08:02 is reasonable either - seems a tad late into Ipswich.

lord rathmore · 25 Nov 2019

745 007 on test at Diss this evening, just as announcement of 16.30 to Norwich cancelled "due to a train fault". Again, cancellations every day now. The 745s can't arrive too soon, imo, the 90s and Mk3s seem about clapped out.

dk1 · 25 Nov 2019

Class 170101 said:
Not sure your last sentence sounds right. However in any event these days I am surprised that a last departure from Ipswich to Cambridge at 2116 is considered acceptable these days and a start up of 06:43(ish) Cambridge to Ipswich arriving at 08:02 is reasonable either - seems a tad late into Ipswich.

Oh I'm definitely right. First train into Cambridge used to start Newmarket with the first arrival from Ipswich/Bury not getting in til 08:22. Last Westbound evening service was slightly better at 21:50. Anglia did however get this to 22:15 for a while. In the opposite direction the first departure was earlier at 05:25 but in the evening the final through service was at a crazy 18:00!! The next & final two where at 18:57 requiring a change at Bury & a 21:57 which was only a Newmarket shuttle.

dk1 · 25 Nov 2019

MylesHSG said:
90012 arrived at Wembley ICD today. Looking rather tatty I must say.

It's just dirt. With the wash out of action for so long & Crown Point a building site they are being handbashed at the station on nights.

gingerheid · 25 Nov 2019

Class 170101 said:
Not sure your last sentence sounds right. However in any event these days I am surprised that a last departure from Ipswich to Cambridge at 2116 is considered acceptable these days and a start up of 06:43(ish) Cambridge to Ipswich arriving at 08:02 is reasonable either - seems a tad late into Ipswich.

I'm hoping they're not forgetting that there's supposed to be an earlier train from Cambridge to Ipswich on the way!

Bringback309s · 25 Nov 2019

dk1 said:
Oh I'm definitely right. First train into Cambridge used to start Newmarket with the first arrival from Ipswich/Bury not getting in til 08:22. Last Westbound evening service was slightly better at 21:50. Anglia did however get this to 22:15 for a while. In the opposite direction the first departure was earlier at 05:25 but in the evening the final through service was at a crazy 18:00!! The next & final two where at 18:57 requiring a change at Bury & a 21:57 which was only a Newmarket shuttle.

I remember this in the days of the 101's. And it was only a two hourly service all through the day, with most Cambridge shuttles to Bury where a change was needed onto the Peterborough to Ipswich service. Sunday even worse, I seem to remember the last Cambridge to Bury train of the day was around 16.15 with the last Newmarket a couple of hours later! Made worse by the two hourly whippet bus service from Huntingdon, Cambus didn't run Sundays at all, Cambridgeshires public transport was shocking.

Midnight Sun · 25 Nov 2019

Bringback309s said:
Cambridgeshires public transport was shocking.

No change then, it's still shocking. No train Timetable change in 20 years on the Ely Peterborough Line. No Buses on a Sunday in North Cambridgeshire other than the X1.

dk1 · 25 Nov 2019

Bringback309s said:
I remember this in the days of the 101's. And it was only a two hourly service all through the day, with most Cambridge shuttles to Bury where a change was needed onto the Peterborough to Ipswich service. Sunday even worse, I seem to remember the last Cambridge to Bury train of the day was around 16.15 with the last Newmarket a couple of hours later! Made worse by the two hourly whippet bus service from Huntingdon, Cambus didn't run Sundays at all, Cambridgeshires public transport was shocking.

We look back with rose tinted specs but they really where dreary days on the railways.

MylesHSG · 26 Nov 2019

dk1 said:
It's just dirt. With the wash out of action for so long & Crown Point a building site they are being handbashed at the station on nights.

No change there then, half the wash plants in the country seen to be out of action.

Wivenswold · 26 Nov 2019

GA are hoping to get a dispensation for 7 Mk3 IC rakes to remain beyond 1st January but even that seems a stretch. I apologise if I've missed it but I've not seen anything regarding the unrefurbished 317s and 321s. The latter's leases are up in August 2020, suggesting the DfT have relented.

86246 · 26 Nov 2019

While the introduction of a 755 on the Ipswich to Cambridge route got the publicity today, they seem to have been at least three rural units short. An Ipswich to Peterborough diagram has been cancelled throughout the day.

I just hope that no 153/156 departures are imminent although there are varying reports about that.

ttrmine123 · 26 Nov 2019

Wivenswold said:
GA are hoping to get a dispensation for 7 Mk3 IC rakes to remain beyond 1st January but even that seems a stretch. I apologise if I've missed it but I've not seen anything regarding the unrefurbished 317s and 321s. The latter's leases are up in August 2020, suggesting the DfT have relented.

Where did you hear this? GA are not saying anything to me as it's "Confidential information". I have sent the leasing company an email to but no response yet.

dk1 · 27 Nov 2019

ttrmine123 said:
Where did you hear this? GA are not saying anything to me as it's "Confidential information". I have sent the leasing company an email to but no response yet.

They are very unlikely to reply to you & I expect GA did just to be polite. There are plans but nothing released until plans are fully agreed & that will be done via official press channels.

Alfie1014 · 27 Nov 2019

ttrmine123 said:
Where did you hear this? GA are not saying anything to me as it's "Confidential information". I have sent the leasing company an email to but no response yet.

Quoted by Roger Ford in this month's Modern Railways.

86246 said:
While the introduction of a 755 on the Ipswich to Cambridge route got the publicity today, they seem to have been at least three rural units short. An Ipswich to Peterborough diagram has been cancelled throughout the day.

I just hope that no 153/156 departures are imminent although there are varying reports about that.

The one remaining diagram on Monday was reported as a 153 with the expected levels of overcrowding.

Alfie1014 · 27 Nov 2019

I see that the RAIB report on the open door on a refurbished class 321 back in August has been published, basically it was caused by screws working loose that connect the door to the opening mechanism.

https://www.gov.uk/government/publi...shenfield-and-hockley-stations-22-august-2019

Wivenswold · 27 Nov 2019

Thanks Alfie, that's where a friend got it from. My apologies all.

F Great Eastern · 27 Nov 2019

A quick question, this part is unclear

Of the 480 doorways on the refurbished units, Greater Anglia staff identified at least one screw which they deemed to be loose on at least 60 doorways; the exact details were not recorded. On a sample of 160 doorways on ten units from the un-refurbished fleet, staff found at least one door bracket screw which they deemed to be loose in each of six doorways.

Is that saying that essentially that 12.5% (60 out of 480) of the doors on the refurbished train fleet had the same problem compared to 3.75% (6 out of 160) on the non refurbished fleet?

Obviously the unrefurbished fleet has been through years of wear and tear, which might contribute to those figures being higher, but it would suggest that the standard of door work on the refurbs was nowhere near up to the standard of the door work pre-refurb?

If you add this to the poor quality of the plug outlet system on the trains and the other things that have been well documented on here, it just really doesn't help my view of the Renatus project.

As usual with these things though, there's a few steps along the chain that led to this incident and a couple of missed opportunities to spot the problem before it happened. THink a few people will learn from this.

Shunter_69 · 27 Nov 2019

A bogie fire on the 156 working the Sudbury branch today won’t help the rural routes.

Grumpy Git · 27 Nov 2019

Alfie1014 said:
I see that the RAIB report on the open door on a refurbished class 321 back in August has been published, basically it was caused by screws working loose that connect the door to the opening mechanism.

https://www.gov.uk/government/publi...shenfield-and-hockley-stations-22-august-2019

I'm not sure how they got away with fitting the safety interlock mechanism onto the shuttle block and not the actual door? I also wonder if anyone at Wabtec will be for the hi-jump because they put "blue-check-dots" on bolts which were neither torqued-up correctly, or marked with a yellow tell-tale?

F Great Eastern · 27 Nov 2019

Grumpy Git said:
I'm not sure how they got away with fitting the safety interlock mechanism onto the shuttle block and not the actual door? I also wonder if anyone at Wabtec will be for the hi-jump because they put "blue-check-dots" on bolts which were neither torqued-up correctly, or marked with a yellow tell-tale?

The core focus of the refurb was obviously to tick as many boxes as possible in terms of the upgrade but not spent a huge amount of money doing it. That is what the units feel like so it's no surprise that the way the door systems were done was about the same as the plug sockets were.

Grumpy Git · 27 Nov 2019

It really upsets me how workmanship standards have seemingly been allowed to drop below the floor since I was an apprentice.

I suppose anyone who takes "too long" to do something just because some time and motion suit says it can be done quicker, is classed as "difficult"?

People rave about top end stuff that is beautifully made, but when I was trained, everything had to be made right, there was no middle ground, it was either done correctly or you got a thick ear.

Murray J · 28 Nov 2019

37402 dragging 2 ex GA mk3s, not sure where they're going but seeing as they're going through Doncaster I'm sure someone here knows.

Icky Qualms · 28 Nov 2019

Can anyone tell me which diagrams the solitary class 170 is working because I would like a trip on it before it goes to Wales

Alfie1014 · 28 Nov 2019

1700 Up tonight (Norwich in 90) terminated at Ipswich and 1900 back cancelled because of no working toilets, even though it had just come off of Crown Point. 1700 down cancelled as well and 1810 reported as 7 vice 8, (I suppose it was only a matter of time that we got down to 7). Plus a whole host of 8 vice 12 EMU short forms in the evening peak on the GEML.

trebor79 · 28 Nov 2019

Alfie1014 said:
1810 reported as 7 vice 8, (I suppose it was only a matter of time that we got down to 7).

Yes, thought this would happen. How many weeks until all sets are 7 coaches?

F Great Eastern · 28 Nov 2019

trebor79 said:
Yes, thought this would happen. How many weeks until all sets are 7 coaches?

They'll probably start specifying them as 7 coaches so they don't show up on JourneyCheck then like they did when 9 became 8.

86246 · 28 Nov 2019

F Great Eastern said:
They'll probably start specifying them as 7 coaches so they don't show up on JourneyCheck then like they did when 9 became 8.

Journey check this morning had a couple of 8 coaches instead of 12 for the Norwich - London services. Getting a bit ahead of the 745 introduction there.

As for the 7 coaches, usually that is because a coach is locked out of use. Concerning that a day at Bounds Green couldn't fix that.

trebor79 · 28 Nov 2019

F Great Eastern said:
They'll probably start specifying them as 7 coaches so they don't show up on JourneyCheck then like they did when 9 became 8.

Actually I saw a Norwich showing as 8 vice 9 today. So presumably there's still at least one set that's meant to be full length.

dk1 · 28 Nov 2019

trebor79 said:
Yes, thought this would happen. How many weeks until all sets are 7 coaches?

No problem making up time. 90+8 will go like stink.

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