The owner of the rolling stock is Rock Rail South Western PLC but they have borrowed huge amounts of money c£900m from banks so like your house if its mortgaged the banks holds the deeds just in case you don't pay the interest. This is same with anything that's leased be it a train, a plane or a bit of machinery but its known as a charge so if Rock rail don't pay the interest/capital the lender has the legal right to take ownership of the asset.
Makes sense, Feltham is an SWR depot and according to an earlier post Nicholas Lewis, 701006 has been accepted by SWR so guess they can start driver training when unions agree to two people working in a cab again.
I'm surprised it's taking SWR this long to get a working agreement for two people in the cab when another operator in the NSE area regularly has two people in the cab and has done for a while now, sometimes there's 3 people in the same cab!
That's good news.
For clarity i said it had been accepted by the lessor Rock Rail as to what arrangements they have we SWR im not aware. One would have thought it was back to back though given this isn't really like the commercial airline market where the product is standard so a lessor can buy them on spec to lease out.
As already mentioned in this thread a few times, SWR do already have two people in cabs for training purposes, using procedures like you describe. The issue appears to be with stock with a centralised driving position such as 707s, which means the trainee and instructor are pushed much closer together than the 158, 159, 444, 450, 455, 456 and 458 stock, on which you can see two people in the cab of. Are the other operators' trains you refer to also central seated Aventra or Desiro City-type fleets, or more conventional stock? I'm guessing the LNER stock in question are Azumas? These do appear to have a more central position than their predecessors, but still offset noticeably to one side. Admittedly not familiar enough with the internal layouts to know exactly what the distance between driving and second seat is though, when compared to Aventras and Desiro Citys.
The Class 80X drivers seat is only very slightly offset, same as on the 701 and other Aventras. Northern and TPE's CAFs have dead centre seats, as do GA's Stadlers and GTR's 700s.
There is no 701 training taking place, as there is no unit accepted/delivered having passed fault free running for use by SWR.
I'd heard elsewhere that some had now been accepted, hence 006 being stabled at Feltham depot the other day.
There has been various units in an swr depot, doesn't mean they are under swr care/lease.
I refer to the above.
Are you suggesting they have tried all 500 and found them wanting? I think that is a little unlikely.
Of course not because some have been stored and not delivered.
I’m guessing but I assume this isn’t random faults so they want to get a small number of units working then make the necessary changes to the rest before trying to fault free them. swapping units around the country isn’t free
That's not a revelation. They've had those problems since introduction.
As I understand it, the TCMS software on the 345s is derived from the Electrostar TCMS found on later 377s, 379s, and 387s. The TCMS on the 710s, 720s, and 701s ought to be almost completely rewritten.
Yes, that's correct. Unfortunately the software on the 345s appears to be no more reliable despite being derived from that on Electrostars.
