And the endless endless never ending weekend and late night engineering work, IMHO, have turned substantial numbers of leisure travellers away from the GEML. An MP from Essex recently described GA as 'a bus company that occasionally runs a train'.
How would the (nameless) MP like to maintain and renew the railway then? An extended Blockade perhaps? More weekends and no evenings? Answers on a postcard to GA maybe?
However I will accept that the number of weekends the line has been blocked to London has been too many. The previous MD, Ruud Haket, I think was on the right lines with eight weekends of all day blocks on the GE Main Line per year if not the right execution - I think perhaps a number nearer to 15 might be more realistic but frankly the current number is just way over the top.
I think their planning replacing EVERY train is silly. There's absolutely nothing wrong with the 170s for example. There's some argument about having a uniform fleet, but I doubt there's really much of a saving there.
The fact that even I as a railway layman can see there aren't enough trains for the service pattern suggests that not only were the bid team divorced from operations, but that they were a bunch of jokers.
It's not as if that's the only problem that's emerged, there's a litany of errors:
Not enough trains
Trains too long for platforms
Bimode FLIRTs too heavy for Sprinter differential speeds. So they remove some fuel tanks. Now it appears they may be incapable of carrying enough fuel to fulfill a typical diagram, and STILL be too heavy.
The Brantham depot débâcle.
The Crown Point refurbishment impacting current fleet maintenance to the extent it's got noticeably shabby over the past year.
A more sensible plan would have been to keep the 170s, replace the 15x units with something new(er) and replace the MK3 stock with mk5s or cascaded mk4s and kept the class 90 locomotives.
There is a saving in having a uniform fleet in terms of maintenance spares (units) but also parts.
The trains being too long for the platforms is NOT an issue in itself as this happens now on Clacton, Braintree and Southminster branches as well as various routes in the former Anglia area. It is how its to managed in respect of other risks like Level Crossings and others and I don't think this has been thought through in respect of the new trains.
Have the Bi-mode FLIRTs definitely been confirmed as being too heavy for SP speeds? I heard there might be another solution to this? The removal of the fuel tanks I haven't seen mentioned on this board so would be interested to know where you heard that one?
But in the long term I doubt the parent company will even want to try and dip their toes into the British railway ever again, especially with a higher percentage of no-deal brexit.
The Brexit vote hadn't happened when the bid was submitted. There was talk apparently that the bidders might withdraw given the vote was for Brexit. It will be indeed interesting to see what happens in the event of a no deal Brexit - which I sadly think is looking more likely than not.
