Greater Anglia Rolling Stock Updates

Driver has requested engineering support.

F Great Eastern said:

A complete disgrace that they've not bustituted the Felixstowe Line but instead implemented mass cancellations on other lines.

all cancelled:
05:40 Colchester to Peterborough due 07:38
06:14 Lowestoft to Ipswich due 07:44
06:52 Norwich to Great Yarmouth due 07:26
07:30 Great Yarmouth to Norwich due 08:05
07:49 Peterborough to Ipswich due 09:26
08:00 Norwich to London Liverpool Street due 10:00
08:03 Ipswich to Peterborough due 09:40
08:09 Norwich to Great Yarmouth due 08:42
08:46 Great Yarmouth to Norwich due 09:19
09:50 Peterborough to Ipswich due 11:28
10:00 Ipswich to Peterborough due 11:39
10:05 Norwich to Lowestoft due 10:52
10:30 London Liverpool Street to Norwich due 12:27
10:57 Lowestoft to Norwich due 11:35
11:50 Peterborough to Ipswich due 13:28
12:01 Ipswich to Peterborough due 13:39
12:05 Norwich to Lowestoft due 12:50
12:57 Lowestoft to Norwich due 13:33
13:50 Peterborough to Ipswich due 15:28
13:58 Ipswich to Peterborough due 15:39
15:50 Peterborough to Ipswich due 17:28
16:00 Ipswich to Peterborough due 17:40
17:41 Ipswich to Peterborough due 19:39
17:50 Peterborough to Ipswich due 19:28
19:50 Peterborough to Colchester due 21:51
20:01 Ipswich to Peterborough due 21:40
21:45 Peterborough to Colchester due 23:43

Greater Anglia essentially has given up on giving a damn about their passengers, no doubt later there will be an article about how they have now rolled out new trains from Ipswich to Lowestoft and how great it is to get rid of the 153s Whilst they shaft others with no service at all.

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Looks like it's just the Peterboroughs and one Lowestoft to Norwich link? Being a tad dramatic as usual are we........

stuart81 said:

Looks like it's just the Peterboroughs and one Lowestoft to Norwich link? Being a tad dramatic as usual are we........

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That was the case at 7.00am, there has been further cancellations added, one 755 has broken down and been taken out of service and another two seem to be struggling based on how late they are running.

There has already been 30 cancellations this morning, there's still almost another 16 hours to go and we've seen over recent weeks that generally as the day goes on, the avaliable fleet tends to reduce.

Sherringham services now confirmed to have been cancelled due to rolling stock failure

08:21 Norwich to Sheringham due 09:22
09:44 Sheringham to Norwich due 10:41

Another failure just occured on the other Ipswich to Cambridge diagram
07:50 Harwich International to Cambridge due 09:42

Has been terminted at Ipswich due to a fault.

Ipswich to Cambridge services are suspended until at least lunchtime, with that and Peterborough out, the Ipswich locals are decimated.

Following all cancelled
08:48 Cambridge to Ipswich due 10:03
09:20 Ipswich to Cambridge due 10:41
09:47 Cambridge to Ipswich due 11:04
10:20 Ipswich to Cambridge due 11:41
10:47 Cambridge to Ipswich due 12:02
11:20 Ipswich to Cambridge due 12:41
11:47 Cambridge to Ipswich due 13:04

Good service though according to GA website.

F Great Eastern said:

Sherringham services now confirmed to have been cancelled due to rolling stock failure

08:21 Norwich to Sheringham due 09:22
09:44 Sheringham to Norwich due 10:41

Another failure just occured on the other Ipswich to Cambridge diagram
07:50 Harwich International to Cambridge due 09:42

Has been terminted at Ipswich due to a fault.

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I'm sure that the 07:50 canellation will be because of the line being blocked at Elmswell. Announced that all Ipswich to Bury St Edmunds services are currently suspended with cancellations up to 10:20.

F Great Eastern said:

Good service though according to GA website.

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They definitely have bad information system problems. The broken down train at Elmswell was still showing as expected to leave following stations and make the return journey on time, even after it already hadn't left some of those stations on time and had been standing still for more than long enough to ensure it couldn't possibly leave Cambridge on time.

8:55 Norwich to Lowestoft now stuck at Norwich due to a train fault.

Cambridge to Norwich line now only running Norwich to/from Ely on at least one diagram.

3 153 just passed Attleborough on their way to Wales. Train to Cambridge and thence London currently 24 minutes late, thankfully I anticipated issues and shouldn't be late for my meeting, barring further problems.
Should have gone from Diss

Have been told that 153306 and 335 in Station sidings at Norwich. Therefore 153309/314/322 on the Landore move.

HTH

Mark

Reported on Facebook that 755419’s pantograph didn’t lower after switching to diesel at Stowmarket it then hit an overbridge on the Bury Route disabling the train. Waiting to be rectified and/or rescued by loco. Ops!

Alfie1014 said:

Reported on Facebook that 755419’s pantograph didn’t lower after switching to diesel at Stowmarket it then hit an overbridge on the Bury Route disabling the train. Waiting to be rectified and/or rescued by loco. Ops!

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Thats every 755 out of service for inspections to be carried out. Oh dear oh dear.

Alfie1014 said:

Reported on Facebook that 755419’s pantograph didn’t lower after switching to diesel at Stowmarket it then hit an overbridge on the Bury Route disabling the train. Waiting to be rectified and/or rescued by loco. Ops!

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Is 755419 the equivalent of the old 'Friday afternoon' car? It seems to be a frequent casualty.

755 rollout will now not be completed until February, with 156s due to leave this week.

Bringback309s said:

Thats every 755 out of service for inspections to be carried out. Oh dear oh dear.

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Is there not a proving light for that, or a camera view?
I kind of assumed the driver would want some kind of confirmation that it was down.

Bringback309s said:

Thats every 755 out of service for inspections to be carried out. Oh dear oh dear.

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Perhaps. But they can/could run diesel only, as they have for several months already whilst they wait their turn for inspection.

F Great Eastern said:

755 rollout will now not be completed until February, with 156s due to leave this week.

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Is there a source for this?

An EMT employee posted the following on twitter a few days ago re 156 transfer dates:

402 - 27 Dec
407 - 27 Dec
409 - 13 Dec
412 - 16 Dec
416 - 13 Dec
417 - 9 Dec
418 - 23 Dec
419 - 5 Dec
422 - 23 Dec

Cant personally speak for accuracy, but sounds like good gen given detail provided

fat_boy_pete said:

Is 755419 the equivalent of the old 'Friday afternoon' car? It seems to be a frequent casualty.

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Hate working it. Always something with this jinxed Basil.

trebor79 said:

Is there a source for this?

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Yes, it wasn't from some random member of the public.

Not all 156s will go this week but they'll start to trickle out.

Meerkat said:

Is there not a proving light for that, or a camera view?
I kind of assumed the driver would want some kind of confirmation that it was down.

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It should drop automatically and brakes apply if going off route with pan raised. There are screen indications and camera view if required too.

F Great Eastern said:

Yes, it wasn't from some random member of the public.

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Nice edit .
Any gen on 745 rollout?

trebor79 said:

Nice edit .
Any gen on 745 rollout?

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Nothing at all at the moment, I'm afraid, but today's pantograph issues on the 755 are unlikely to make it any faster.

jopsuk said:

Oh my. Go to the Greater Anglia website, headline bit says "Good Service" with all service areas green.
Except under that it says that Ipswich-Peterborough is suspended.
Go to Journey Check, and as of right now 27 cancellations and 19 short-forms

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F Great Eastern said:

A complete disgrace that they've not bustituted the Felixstowe Line but instead implemented mass cancellations on other lines.

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The website message is simply crass.

I didn't think that the 27 cancellations was too bad, bad but not too bad, bearing in mind where GA are with stock at this moment in time.
Strip out the 16 Peterboroughs and 2 Liverpool Sts from the list and it was just 9 cancellations [at that time].
Suspension of the Peterboroughs, 2 complete diagrams, gives some 'certainty' to travellers on the route, although the proposed alternatives for the last service each way will not work for those not checking in advance and turning up 10 mins ahead.
I note that the Peterboroughs are still in the NRE Journey Planner for tomorrow, would it not be better to cancel for the whole week ahead?
Not cancelling the Felixstowes does give a hot spare at Ipswich with the relatively easy bustitution from there.

Cruel twist of fate re the 'panto' incident, especially as GA are seemingly now on top of the station stops that had to be missed last week.
Very good news that the East Suffolk is now Stadler cleared.

Overall not quite sure how much longer GA can/should be allowed to get away with reason 'due to a train fault', those not in the know could easily think that the new trains are rubbish!

Hope that the rest of the day does not regress.

11:45 Norwich to Sherringham is turning around at Cromer due to late running.

TheEdge said:

Brilliant solution. Excepting the fact you'd need to stop all driver training on Flirts to train drivers on 365s, equip depots with equipment and staff to service 365s and carefully diagram the 365s to make sure they avoid crews who can't drive them. Other than that an easy solution.

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When do Northern's 321/322 fleet go off-lease? They are PRM compliant as well.

43096 said:

When do Northern's 321/322 fleet go off-lease? They are PRM compliant as well.

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Might be useful later on if the 720 roll out keeps getting delayed and the MK3 shortage gets worse.

Too many 321s are being borrowed from Essex services at the moment to bail out the shortages on the 90 rakes.

trebor79 said:

Nice edit .
Any gen on 745 rollout?

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745 007 sits at Liverpool Street as I write this. RTT:
https://www.realtimetrains.co.uk/train/O65164/2019-12-02/detailed

I suppose London end crews are being trained now, a ton of Network Rail and GA jackets sitting around with forms eating their lunch.

I'm new to the forum but after reading the last few pages of posts it's become very apparent that people have been making some perceptions of what they feel is going on with the franchise in Anglia at the moment and having read them there is an awful lot of speculation in relation to what is going on.

There is a detailed phased plan in relation to the older, tired, unreliable stock leaving the franchise. Whilst this stock has served the area well it is past it's best and needs to be replaced and I am saddened to find the begrudgery exhibited by some on here against passengers in Lowestoft today. Passengers and staff on the East Suffolk Line have suffered for years and they deserve this upgrade, having had the through services taken away from them in recent years.

I have also been reading that there is a shortage of rolling stock on local lines. There is no shortage of rolling stock and there are currently more local carriages in service than there were before any of the new fleet arrived and there are more available to Greater Anglia on a daily basis thanks to the investment that has been made in the franchise. Would you rather have a franchisee like the last one or would you have one that is commuted to transforming rail travel in Anglia?

Unfortunately due to the poor weather and also the local wildlife, floods, trespass incidents and vandalism and some unfortunate incidents, Greater Anglia have had no luck at all which has resulted in a number of units being unavailable every day, resulting in these faults causing cancellations on the Ipswich to Peterborough Line today. If it was not for these incidents, there would be enough trains to run a full service and some spare, so there are plenty of trains.

It is understandable that those who see old trains leaving, new trains arriving put two and two together and come up with five and believe that these incidents are somehow linked. It is a mistake and a misconception that many people could make if they are looking at it from a certain angle. But before the delivery of new stock the situation would have been even worse because there were less carriages to go around and now there are more carriages on a daily basis that are available to Greater Anglia to deploy into service.

Because there are now extra carriages available, even if a 4 car FLIRT is off service, the worst you will get is a 2 car 156 which will be replaced very shortly by 3 car FLIRTS. This is a big difference to a 40 year old class 153. This change, thanks to this weekends withdrawal of 153s was fully welcomed by passengers in Lowestoft this morning, but unfortunately some on here seem to begrudge them that.The end of the 153s should be celebrated, instead we havepeople who want to create a two tier franchise where Lowestoft and Felixstowe passengers are forced to suffer on stock from the 1970s as they are not worthy of new trains.

Progress on the class 720s is going well. THere are currently 20 of these units complete by Bombardier with more being completed every day and Greater Anglia are said to be on course to deliver them on time and with little to no passenger disruption. I'm sure all of the passengers throughout Essex will be pleased by the new trains, which offer reliable air conditioning, faster WIfi onboard and plug sockets and built on the proven Aventra platform, these British built trains will be more reliable than the older class 317/321/360 trains they are replacing.

There may be more tough days ahead in the coming weeks, but Greater Anglia re doing an excellent job to transform this regions rail network with a full fleet replacement, the first of it's kind, leading to truly transforming rail travel over our county. They deserve our support during challenging times due to bad luck, rather than being blamed for factors outside their control. It's about time people got real with this and took the blinkers off and enjoy a front row seat for the greatest transformation project the British Rail network has ever seen as it really is happening to us and a new dawn and an exciting new era is around the corner.

as very few GA rural services, even with the 153s, ran with more than one unit, what matters regarding cancellations is not the total number of carriages but the number of units.

The bulk of the Class 720s were meant to be in service already. Progress is not "going well", is it? The end of the year was supposed to see only 26 class 317 and the 30 321 Renatus in service, alongside the 379s and 360s.

The Mark 3s were supposed to be entirely gone by the end of December

Transformeren said:

I'm new to the forum but after reading the last few pages of posts it's become very apparent that people have been making some perceptions of what they feel is going on with the franchise in Anglia at the moment and having read them there is an awful lot of speculation in relation to what is going on.

There is a detailed phased plan in relation to the older, tired, unreliable stock leaving the franchise. Whilst this stock has served the area well it is past it's best and needs to be replaced and I am saddened to find the begrudgery exhibited by some on here against passengers in Lowestoft today.

I have also been reading that there is a shortage of rolling stock on local lines. There is no shortage of rolling stock and there are currently more local carriages in service than there were before any of the new fleet arrived and there are more available to Greater Anglia on a daily basis.

Unfortunately due to the poor weather and also the local wildlife, floods, trespass incidents and vandalism and some unfortunate incidents, Greater Anglia have had no luck at all which has resulted in a number of units being unavailable every day, resulting in these faults causing cancellations on the Ipswich to Peterborough Line today.

It is understandable that those who see old trains leaving, new trains arriving put two and two together and come up with five and believe that these incidents are somehow linked. But before the delivery of new stock the situation would have been even worse because there were less carriages to go around.

Because there are now extra carriages available, even if a 4 car FLIRT is off service, the worst you will get is a 2 car 156 which will be replaced very shortly by 3 car FLIRTS. This is a big difference to a 40 year old class 153. This change, thanks to this weekends withdrawal of 153s was fully welcomed by passengers in Lowestoft this morning, but unfortunately some on here seem to begrudge them that.

Progress on the class 720s is going well. THere are currently 20 of these units complete by Bombardier with more being completed every day and Greater Anglia are said to be on course to deliver them on time and with little to no passenger disruption. I'm sure all of the passengers throughout Essex will be pleased by the new trains, which offer reliable air conditioning, faster WIfi onboard and plug sockets and built on the proven Aventra platform, these British built trains will be more reliable than the older class 317/321/360 trains they are replacing.

There may be more tough days ahead in the coming weeks, but Greater Anglia re doing an excellent job to transform this regions rail network with a full fleet replacement, the first of it's kind, leading to truly transforming rail travel over our county. They deserve our support during challenging times due to bad luck, rather than being blamed for factors outside their control.

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Please tell me I’m not the only one who read through that and at the very least expected to find a winky face at the end to confirm he was taking the p#ss?!!