Gatx units off route

[Graham H]

While I have seen the occasional red livery unit on west coastway, a journey I did out to Pevensey yesterday seemed to have a large number of Gatx units providing the service from Brighton to Ore/Eastbourne. Is this due to a shortage of Southern stock or a surplus of Gatx ?? Interestingly the platform PIS I observed alerted passengers that the service was formed of Gatx stock and the onboard announcement referred to us being "welcome aboard the (slight pause) service to xxx" so no reference to a TOC.

 

[JonathanH]

Is this due to a shortage of Southern stock or a surplus of Gatx ??

Gatwick Express only runs half hourly from London Victoria to Brighton now on Monday to Saturday, with no Victoria to Gatwick shuttles, so there are spare 387s which are diagrammed on the East Coastway.

Nothing about a shortage of Southern stock. Just a more efficient use of the overall GTR fleet to provide the desired level of service.

 

[MrJeeves]

the onboard announcement referred to us being "welcome aboard the (slight pause) service to xxx" so no reference to a TOC.

The pause is being fixed in a new software upgrade.

 

[Islineclear3_1]

Red GatEx units have been utilised on East Coastway services for a long time now and have also been used on Brighton diversions via the Arun Valley when the Brighton Direct has been shut (e.g. south of Haywards Heath or Three Bridges)

 

[Hassocks5489]

I have been travelling on the 0826 Brighton–Ore fairly regularly for the last 4 months and on every occasion it has been a Gatwick Express unit. I usually get an ex-Seaford train coming home from Lewes, but on the rare occasions when I catch an ex-Eastbourne/Ore it has always been Gatwick Express as well.

 

[Andy1673]

Southern using 5 single class 387 GatEx unit on weekdays on East Coastway and one pair forms peak Littlehampton - London Bridge - Littlehampton services.

 

[ThameslinkUser]

A service that ironically does not call at Gatwick Airport.

 

[kacper]

welcome aboard the (slight pause) service to xxx

The great northern 387s do this aswell, but i suspect that’s because the slow cambridge trains used to be branded “Thameslink” and you would get great northern trains on it sometimes

 

[K.o.R]

"welcome aboard the (slight pause) service to xxx"

To me the pause comes across as massive quotation marks around the word "service".

 

[modernrail]

Gatwick Express only runs half hourly from London Victoria to Brighton now on Monday to Saturday, with no Victoria to Gatwick shuttles, so there are spare 387s which are diagrammed on the East Coastway.

Nothing about a shortage of Southern stock. Just a more efficient use of the overall GTR fleet to provide the desired level of service.

Would be even more efficient if they stopped pretending there still is a Gatwick Express service, painted the trains into uniform colours and re-introduce a Clapham Junction stop for the Brighton to London services that are erroneously referred to as Gatwick Express services.

 

[ValleyLines142]

Gatwick Express only runs half hourly from London Victoria to Brighton now on Monday to Saturday, with no Victoria to Gatwick shuttles, so there are spare 387s which are diagrammed on the East Coastway.

Nothing about a shortage of Southern stock. Just a more efficient use of the overall GTR fleet to provide the desired level of service.

Most frustrating because the GatEx services are mainly only 8 coaches which isn't enough. They should all be 12.