GWR Class 800

[Clarence Yard]

Load 8 would be ideal for the sidings at Long Rock.

But not ideal for loadings towards the London end of the route.

 

[Thunderer]

Load 8 would be ideal for the sidings at Long Rock.

But not ideal for loadings towards the London end of the route.

And there you have it, for me, the root of all the IEP issues, Thames Valley Commuters come first. This whole IEP project has been Oxford/Reading/London-Centric from the outset with Long Distance South Wales, Devon & Cornwall services just an after-thought "make do with what your given" approach, as long as the Thames valley commuters are all happy, thats all that matters. Thats why we are lumbered with a train internally designed to suit local commuting needs (hard seats, more seats, pack 'em in approach, no Buffet etc.) rather than a long distance Inter-City train with an interior and facilities designed, with the longer distance Inter-City traveller in mind.

 

[The Ham]

If we're going to complain about how many 5 coach units there are then maybe we should be comparing the numbers of pairs of them there are (i.e. half the number of 5 coach units) to compare the number of full length units the new fleet has created.


As such there are 39 (36/2= 18 plus 21) 800's and 25 (22/2=11 plus 14)


This totals 64 units this is almost the HST/180's fleets which was 65 (14/2=7 plus 58), as such the fleet is probably the right size, and therefore debates about should there have been fewer 5 coaches need to explain why the fleet has the wrong configuration of units.

 

[Bletchleyite]

Thats why we are lumbered with a train internally designed to suit local commuting needs (hard seats, more seats, pack 'em in approach, no Buffet etc.)

I don't like the seats any more than anyone else, but what "pack em in approach"?

There is more legroom and there are more tables than the previous HST layouts. That aspect is about the same as the Class 180 which is unusually good.

There is far more legroom than there is on a 1990s layout (76 seat) Mk3 coach with IC70s.

You can accuse them of many things, but really, really not that.

 

[Clarence Yard]

And there you have it, for me, the root of all the IEP issues, Thames Valley Commuters come first. This whole IEP project has been Oxford/Reading/London-Centric from the outset with Long Distance South Wales, Devon & Cornwall services just an after-thought "make do with what your given" approach, as long as the Thames valley commuters are all happy, thats all that matters. Thats why we are lumbered with a train internally designed to suit local commuting needs (hard seats, more seats, pack 'em in approach, no Buffet etc.) rather than a long distance Inter-City train with an interior and facilities designed, with the longer distance Inter-City traveller in mind.

Not really Thames Valley, more the medium to long distance commuters, which seems to be the prime market that the DfT (and the Treasury) are more interested in these days.

 

[Mike395]

As these trains have been in service for a while now, we've made a decision as a forum team that one thread discussing all aspects of 800s is no longer necessary. Just to emphasise, if you want to discuss an aspect of the GWR 800s you're more than welcome to, but please open a separate thread for this.