How many carriages will an XC have ?

Towers · Saturday at 13:06

Starmill said:
They're not all in service though are they.

I’ve no idea; are they not? They’ve been around for months now and running quite happily alongside the native fleet, so it’d be surprising if XC had opted to keep some of them sitting idle? Or are there more of them still to be handed over by Avanti?

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Starmill · Saturday at 13:16

Towers said:
I’ve no idea; are they not? They’ve been around for months now and running quite happily alongside the native fleet, so it’d be surprising if XC had opted to keep some of them sitting idle? Or are there more of them still to be handed over by Avanti?

They've gone in for work haven't they. It'll be another two years before they can all be diagrammed.

Towers · Saturday at 13:34

Starmill said:
They've gone in for work haven't they. It'll be another two years before they can all be diagrammed.

I’ve no idea! Do you mean the XC refurb of their existing sets? Or are some of the Avanti units having work that others aren’t having?

Starmill · Saturday at 13:43

Towers said:
I’ve no idea! Do you mean the XC refurb of their existing sets? Or are some of the Avanti units having work that others aren’t having?

I believe all units are having it done yes, across all types.

duffield · Sunday at 09:56

Shaw S Hunter said:
XC doesn't serve London. So DfT staff will have almost no direct experience of the capacity problems. I'm not expecting things to get better under GBR. It might even be better to do away with the whole XC concept.

GBR HQ will at least be based at (or very near) a major XC station, i.e. Derby. Maybe that will make a difference; you'd think GBR staff might be travelling to Birmingham, for example, on XC.

sprinterguy · Sunday at 10:16

Starmill said:
They've gone in for work haven't they. It'll be another two years before they can all be diagrammed.

Eleven of the twelve units are in service - just the one sidelined after its fire at Stafford. The refurb on the Voyagers has yet to start.

sprinterguy · Sunday at 10:19

Starmill said:
Is it something like 7 in storage and 2 at Grand Central?

Six stored, two with GC.

Towers · Sunday at 10:22

sprinterguy said:
Eleven of the twelve units are in service - just the one sidelined after its fire at Stafford. The refurb on the Voyagers has yet to start.

I assumed something like this was the case.

voyagerdude220 · Sunday at 10:34

sprinterguy said:
Eleven of the twelve units are in service - just the one sidelined after its fire at Stafford. The refurb on the Voyagers has yet to start.

221107 was back in service a few days ago.

Towers · Sunday at 10:42

voyagerdude220 said:
221107 was back in service a few days ago.

So, to confirm, all of the former Avanti sets have indeed now entered service with XC?

voyagerdude220 · Sunday at 10:55

Towers said:
So, to confirm, all of the former Avanti sets have indeed now entered service with XC?

I don't know. I can confirm 107 is definitely in service today.

43096 · Sunday at 11:18

yorksrob said:
To be fair to Operation Princess, it worked - frequent trains do attract more passengers.

Not really, it didn’t. It was a fiasco - it was known as “Operation Pumpkin” for a reason.

Starmill · Sunday at 12:50

sprinterguy said:
Six stored, two with GC.

Cheers

Starmill · Sunday at 12:51

sprinterguy said:
Eleven of the twelve units are in service - just the one sidelined after its fire at Stafford. The refurb on the Voyagers has yet to start.

Ahh that's it.

sprinterguy · Sunday at 13:28

voyagerdude220 said:
221107 was back in service a few days ago.

Ah, thanks for that. Just assumed it'd be out of service for a while - apparently not, which is good to know.

sprinterguy · Sunday at 13:30

Towers said:
So, to confirm, all of the former Avanti sets have indeed now entered service with XC?

Yep, I've seen all twelve in service with XC at some point over the past month or so.

yorksrob · Sunday at 13:35

43096 said:
Not really, it didn’t. It was a fiasco - it was known as “Operation Pumpkin” for a reason.

As I said previously, they've had well over twenty years to sort out capacity on XC. It's a bit disingenuous to still be blaming it for the current situation.

Bletchleyite · Sunday at 14:17

43096 said:
Not really, it didn’t. It was a fiasco - it was known as “Operation Pumpkin” for a reason.

It would have worked if all the Voyagers had been full length. It failed because massively improving a service while reducing its capacity was beyond nuts.

Nottingham59 · Sunday at 14:24

Shaw S Hunter said:
XC doesn't serve London. So DfT staff will have almost no direct experience of the capacity problems. I'm not expecting things to get better under GBR. It might even be better to do away with the whole XC concept.

And no MP uses XC to get home to their constituency on Thurdays.

E B · Sunday at 14:48

I’m surprised XC didn’t acquire 221101-106 aswell.

DarloRich · Sunday at 14:58

*cough* HST removal

1V64 Edinburgh > Plymouth today
8 cars! Yeah!

Back 4 locked out of use. FFS

Didn't even try and get on.

Howardh · Sunday at 14:59

It's the state of those trains that prevents me taking breaks in the south and south west by train. I'm sure it puts others off to, maybe the local tourist offices should be, what, encouraging, pleading...TOC's, Dept. of Transport, the government...who exactly??...to put more carriages on. I'm going to Brighton this week because it's easy, not Bournemouth because it's so darned uncomfortable.

Starmill · Sunday at 15:37

E B said:
I’m surprised XC didn’t acquire 221101-106 aswell.

It was mentioned they did, but obviously there's no guarantees. They'd have to make a business case work to take on new leases.

Currently their operations are such a complete mess that more stock wouldn't help in the slightest, so...

yorksrob · Sunday at 15:41

Howardh said:
It's the state of those trains that prevents me taking breaks in the south and south west by train. I'm sure it puts others off to, maybe the local tourist offices should be, what, encouraging, pleading...TOC's, Dept. of Transport, the government...who exactly??...to put more carriages on. I'm going to Brighton this week because it's easy, not Bournemouth because it's so darned uncomfortable.

I just go via London. Generally easier in the long run.

The Ham · Sunday at 18:58

The exile said:
There presumably was more than enough (on paper) to fulfil the minimum requirements - just that a) what works on paper often doesn’t in real life and b) those minimum requirements no longer reflect the reality of passenger numbers.

Rail passenger numbers have increased by 36% in the last two years at XC.

DannyMich2018 · Sunday at 20:00

Last Monday we went to Liskeard for the day from Looe. I heard the station staff saying to a passenger they were assisting that apparently it was their fault the XC 11.15 Penzance - Edinburgh was standing room only (4 car 220). Just a shame XC can't take on 221101-106 for capacity.

Haywain · Sunday at 20:33

DannyMich2018 said:
Last Monday we went to Liskeard for the day from Looe. I heard the station staff saying to a passenger they were assisting that apparently it was their fault the XC 11.15 Penzance - Edinburgh was standing room only (4 car 220). Just a shame XC can't take on 221101-106 for capacity.

Their fault? Station staff, assisted passenger, CrossCountry?

sh24 · Sunday at 20:35

yorksrob said:
I just go via London. Generally easier in the long run.

Same. I've been doing Plymouth-Nottingham a fair bit and have given up on the XC option. Expensive and really not that pleasant. Voyagers aren't bad with two HUGE exceptions, a yammering engine for hours on end and the stinky loos. IET + 222 is preferable.

DannyMich2018 · Sunday at 21:31

Haywain said:
Their fault? Station staff, assisted passenger, CrossCountry?

Yes passenger (s) were blaming GWR station staff at Liskeard for the severe overcrowding on XCs train

AndrewE · Sunday at 21:58

yorksrob said:
To be fair to Operation Princess, it worked - frequent trains do attract more passengers.

No, it failed as was predicted. There had been several precedents starting with (I think) the Liverpool-Newcastle trains which went from hourly 6-coach loco-hauled to 3 2- or 3-car DMUs an hour and it had the same problem of gross overcrowding. Didn't Princess fail because track occupation through Brum was far too dense for any chance of reliability too?

yorksrob said:
However we've had over twenty years since then to increase capacity on XC. Lots of IC standard rolling stock has been withdrawn in that time, yet the powers that be have failed to take the opportunity to boost capacity.

As has been said many times the line doesn't serve London so the Treasury doesn't give a toss, and DaFT wouldn't dare (aren't allowed to) stand up to them.

How many carriages will an XC have ?

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