Class 345 progress

[PR1Berske]

You evidently haven't been on a Northern 319 yet.
The worst PIS announcements on the network.

I think there's a forum poll to be started on this subject!

 

[47802]

I don't see what is diarrhoea about giving a constructed sentence with punctuation. I'm not asking for the OTT Southern style nonsense, just a few simple sentences which anyone can understand.

"Next Station Romford" what is difficult to understand about that? We are not writing a letter or a novel just keep it simple and to the point.

 

[spark001uk]

The bus announcements up town only say where they are, not even a "the next stop will be" etc. Even this would be ok on the train imo, if everyone took their nose out of their mobile phone for five seconds when the train slows down they'd see where they were anyway!

 

[Via Bank]

I don't see what is diarrhoea about giving a constructed sentence with punctuation. I'm not asking for the OTT Southern style nonsense, just a few simple sentences which anyone can understand.

I posit that "next station, Romford" is perfectly understandable to anyone who understands the English words for 'next' and 'station.'

I further posit that less time DVA is blaring in people's ears, the less likely it is that people will switch off.

 

[samuelmorris]

I prefer the brevity, honestly - they just need to sort the stutter out and it'd be fine I think. 'Next station:' is fine, and 'This is the train to' is just a shorter version of 'This train terminates at' which is easier for non-native speakers to understand. With stations close together, too much DVA spam and you end up with what happens on the East London line. This is a much better way of doing it, I feel.

 

[delticdave]

I wish that lacklustre Bombardier's Class 378 Electrostar trains on London Overground were modified to have higher rates acceleration. Timetabled journey durations could be shortened, which would be a 'good thing', especially on longer journeys around London.

Simon

Maybe it's a voltage problem?

I did a wander around London yesterday & the 378's seemed to be OK & on 750 v DC, but somewhat sluggish between Willesden Jct & Bushey, wish is possibly 630 v DC to suit the Underground stock sharing part of the route.....

DC

 

[Ianno87]

Not as bad as Chiltern's recently added "Please remember to touch out on the card readers before leaving the station" at EVERY station in the Oyster zone.

I can understand why they do it (if people don't touch out they don't get the money from TfL for the journey) but it doesn't make them any less irritating and useless (especially for commuters) - and they seem to have managed without them for the last 10 years...

Got that on an arrival at Marylebone the other day. On a train that had run non-stop from Bicester Village :roll:

Way to confuse the tourist shoppers who'll now think they can use Oyster on their next visit...

 

[Goldfish62]

Simple PIS is good in my book in fact the less PIS and general Verbal Diarrhea the better.

I agree. They seem to emulate the Berlin S Bahn, whose clear and concise announcements with no added waffle I've always been a fan of. Even displaying the next three stations seems to be a direct copy!

 

[LLivery]

"Next Station Romford" what is difficult to understand about that? We are not writing a letter or a novel just keep it simple and to the point.

I wasn't suggesting understanding was mutually exclusive, nor am I suggesting a novel. "The next station is xxx" like the Underground is keeping it simple.

 

[LLivery]

I posit that "next station, Romford" is perfectly understandable to anyone who understands the English words for 'next' and 'station.'

I further posit that less time DVA is blaring in people's ears, the less likely it is that people will switch off.

I dispear at anyone if their attention span is so short they switch off at "the next station is". If anything I'd be switching off due to the long pauses between "next station"...."change for"...."exit for". Honestly the only DVA I don't switch off at is SWT and the Tube.

 

[matthewmacleod]

Travelling on Greater Anglia alongside the Tfl services I am yet to see one of these trains. I am thinking that they are the Emperors New Clothes and what can be seen in Ilford Depot are plywood cut outs.

Somebody who lives in Harold Wood said he saw one in platform 18 at Liverpool Street, but not that closely.

Having travelled on one in passenger service I can assure you they were more than plywood

This week there is a single 345 out doing one return journey a day from Liverpool Street to Shenfield as 2Z04 / 2Z05 (you can see it here: http://www.realtimetrains.co.uk/train/F27697/2017/06/26/advanced). I'm not sure what the plan is after that, but I'd be keen to know what the longer-term plan is for starting to get them into proper service.

 

[coupwotcoup]

 

[Shunter_69]

One of the units has been covered in grafitti already ??????

 

[sk688]

One of the units has been covered in grafitti already ��

Well , when you put it in service in that part of East London...

 

[theking]

I imagine this is just a temporary announcement recording for tfl rail and then once transferred to Elizabeth line services a full announcement package will be released.

No way can I see tfl not having "This is Romford this is an Elizabeth line train to....."

 

[RichmondCommu]

Good stuff!

 

[Ayman Ilham]

I saw a 345 at Crewe, wonder what it was doing there?

 

[railfanatic]

I saw a 345 at Crewe, wonder what it was doing there?

Endurance running between Crewe and Nuneaton (WCML).

 

[Techniquest]

Me and Blindtraveller are currently on 345005, please find a summary of views:

Comfortable seats, surprisingly
Excellent acceleration
Brilliant air-con
Very good announcements

 

[Joe D]

One of the notable things with Crossrail is that they've been paying a lot of attention to design -- the most important part of which is not aesthetics but usability. There may be an established way of doing announcements on the tube, but the designers of Crossrail have been revisiting everything, trying to make sure that it has none of the limitations we've inherited with older infrastructure.

I would be very surprised if they haven't done a piece of work to understand different passengers' experiences with announcements, and will have tried to design them so that they work for as many of the system's varied passengers as possible, and the arbitrary aesthetic senses of pedants will not have been their top consideration.

I can quite imagine simplifying to "next station" can make a genuine difference for the hordes of tourists, many with limited English, who will use the line.

Just imagining my limited German -- where on paper I know all the words but I have to process them one at a time and in normal speech can't tell where one word ends and the next begins. I know the words for "the" and "is", but on a noisy train packed with people all they'd be doing is distracting me from the key words I need to listen out for and recognise.

 

[spark001uk]

I'm on 005 at the moment also, 2Z05.
Air con feels just right.
Longitudinal seats - not bad, comfortable enough. Much the same as tube stock.
Transverse - again not bad, bit ironing-boardish but no more so than most new stock these days (I'm thinking 700s, 387s etc)
Ride - quick acceleration, smooth, though I thought the suspension was a little hard in places - it was a bit bumpy over points etc.
So yes, overall impressed. There's a good deal of room for standers so peak loading doesn't look like it'll be a problem.

Edit: came to a sharp halt just after leaving Manor Park, was a "slight technical issue" apparently. On our way again after a few minutes. The PIS are just displaying the time now, so I'm guessing the system had to be rebooted perhaps?

 

[samuelmorris]

Oh well, the class has picked up its first delay minutes then! Still, 5 isn't exactly a lot, certainly not compared to the mayhem a 315 caused this morning. The PIS seems to show the time as a default when no active journey is loaded, as I've seen it do that sitting at the terminus in the various videos on YouTube, but it never appeared during my journey.

 

[spark001uk]

Not bad considering it was 9 late, pulled it back to 5 by the time we got to LST.

 

[samuelmorris]

Yeah but if you see the slack in the timetable for that service you'll realise why - there's almost 5 minutes worth of padding in there compared to the usual services!

 

[DVD]

I was also on this morning's 345 Liverpool Street - Shenfield run. First reaction is that it's a really nice train well-suited to its eventual purpose.

I tried both the transverse and longitudinal seating. The transverse was more comfortable with a supportive (rather than unnecessary 376-like) high back, comfortable (and moveable arm rests), and (unlike the 700s) legroom wasn't cramped in the window seat. Both seats were firm but not at all ironing boards which was a pleasant surprise. Both the 700s and 378s make my bum a little sore, the 345 seats didn't (and I was on board until Shenfield so it was a reasonable bum test).

The PIS announcements sounded slightly odd but no more than that, they serve their purpose.

I like the sombre ambience resulting from the grey floor covering and light grey elsewhere. I found it soothing, unlike 700s whose brightness is a little jarring. I had expected it to feel gloomy, it didn't although once it's running through tunnels, it might feel that way.

Windows are large with a nice ledge convenient as an alternative arm rest.

Acceleration did seem quite swift as others have observed.

I didn't try standing but notice that strap hangers have been fitted to some of the overhead rails which implies that they are too high for those vertically challenged, Bombardier had the same issue with the S-stock.

Overall a nice comfortable train which should be well suited to its Elizabethan role. I look forward to the future Aventra variants.

 

[absolutelymilk]

Can't see it asked before, did anyone try the wifi?

 

[spark001uk]

Can't see it asked before, did anyone try the wifi?

I did look a couple of times whilst on board but didn't pick up anything, I'm guessing it's not operational yet. Which would make sense as no point paying the service provider until it's running a full day's service I guess.

 

[ijmad]

I did look a couple of times whilst on board but didn't pick up anything, I'm guessing it's not operational yet. Which would make sense as no point paying the service provider until it's running a full day's service I guess.

... or not until it's in a tunnel where there's no 3G/4G maybe ...

 

[TT-ONR-NRN]

Please can someone tell me the Friday diagram? Im going to the Liverpool St area then.

 

[samuelmorris]

The same as the rest of the week for now:
http://www.realtimetrains.co.uk/train/F27697/2017/06/30/advanced
http://www.realtimetrains.co.uk/train/F27698/2017/06/30/advanced