Progress on Avanti West Coast's 805/807s Hitachi AT300 sets

[southern442]

Hopefully however it shows an approach where this sort of thing is seen not to matter. As opposed to the common practice elsewhere where, once replacement trains are even anticipated, their predecessors start to be withdrawn, maintenance is given up, rolling stock shortages begin - and then the new deliveries are inevitably delayed, more predecessors are withdrawn, all the time new stock is sat in sidings.

It does seem to be the new world that an entire new fleet can now be built and be in sidings somewhere, before the first one is used in sensible service.

Very true. I'd rather see a new class be rushed into service in this way than, say, what's happened with the 701s!

 

[Phil from Mon]

Here's an interesting one for the rollout of these trains: I have two tickets booked on 1R14 STA>EUS tomorrow. I bought the tickets months ago and so have reservations in coach P (which only exists on the 2x 805 configuration). At some point AWC have changed their rollout plans and now 1R14 is going to continue to be a 2x221 service. I reached out Avanti as I obviously can't sit in a seat in a carriage that doesn't exist, and they've had a look into it today and discovered that there's been an issue when mapping the reservations from 805 back to 221s so I don't have a reservation for that service anymore, and there aren't any other reservable seats available. So I've now got to hope that this hasn't affected lots of others and I'm able to grab an unreserved seat at Stafford.

Can't fault the Customer Service team as they've been really helpful but also something you'd think someone would have thought "Okay we're changing this service back to a 221, lets check if anyone booked seats on the 805 version?" - at least that's my thought as a customer.

Couldn’t get a reservation for Friday on the 0922 Bangor - Euston either, which is supposed to be a double 805. National Rail app is showing no fares available, Avanti WC has the train and fares, and at Bangor they sold me the ticket but couldn’t do a reservation.

 

[Chiltern006]

Have these got new Automated announcements, or are they the ones on the 390s?

 

[voyagerdude220]

Avanti have today uploaded onto their website a separate First Class menu for their "Evero" trains, although it seems almost identical to the Super Voyager menu. Does anyone know what kitchen facilities they have? I'm guessing they won't need chefs if they're not cooking food from scratch, as per Pendolinos, more the Super Voyager way of working.

 

[Toby268]

Avanti have today uploaded onto their website a separate First Class menu for their "Evero" trains, although it seems almost identical to the Super Voyager menu. Does anyone know what kitchen facilities they have? I'm guessing they won't need chefs if they're not cooking food from scratch, as per Pendolinos, more the Super Voyager way of working.

805s will be identical to super voyager offerings with the difference of toast at breakfast as there’s now a toaster. 807 will pendo offering with chefs as it has the larger kitchen with hobs. Or at least that’s the plan.

 

[voyagerdude220]

805s will be identical to super voyager offerings with the difference of toast at breakfast as there’s now a toaster. 807 will pendo offering with chefs as it has the larger kitchen with hobs. Or at least that’s the plan.

Thank you.

 

[MrJeeves]

Will report back tomorrow on the 1st class seating and catering offers

 

[voyagerdude220]

Will report back tomorrow on the 1st class seating and catering offers

Good luck!

 

[Halish Railway]

I took two rides on 805009 today from Coventry to Birmingham New Street and back. My initial thoughts are that these are the best of the 80Xs with the best seats, best seating layout, softer lighting, adequate catering provision and seemingly smoothest ride quality.

My only gripes would be that the first class seats seem a bit firm and the PA needs some work; The automated system was disabled and what there was by way of manual announcements were way too loud, as well as the amount of interference and echoing heard.

 

[Northerngirl]

Find it strange that there still hasn't been anything about them on avanti social media, it seems like everything is up and running now, just a couple of slight issues

 

[Sorcerer]

Find it strange that there still hasn't been anything about them on avanti social media, it seems like everything is up and running now, just a couple of slight issues

They have put out a video on their YouTube channel introducing the 805s with #HelloEvero if you count that, but otherwise it does look to have been a quiet introduction. I didn't even know when they were being introduced until the day that they were, but so far I've heard good things about them even compared to other variants of the 80x class.

(If this doesn't work for anyone it's called "Say hello to our new fleet" on Avanti's YouTube channel. Quite easy to find).

 

[Halish Railway]

Find it strange that there still hasn't been anything about them on avanti social media, it seems like everything is up and running now, just a couple of slight issues

They’ve probably adopted the mantra of underpromising and overdelivering, rather than hyping up their introduction, only to be potentially plagued by issues.

 

[43102EMR]

Have these got new Automated announcements, or are they the ones on the 390s?

16:34 shows the new announcements

 

[Mogz]

They’ve finally got a decent version of the IET!

Sampled one yesterday.

Best mix of tables to airline seats (in my humble opinion) a buffet counter and the seats are more comfortable than earlier offerings.

Oh yes, and the seats nearly always line up with the windows too!

As an “off the shelf” product I imagine these will be easier to lengthen than any of the more niche fleets?

 

[Mikey C]

Several years later, they've finally got the IET design right...

 

[twpsaesneg]

It’s a shame that they are changing power in Crewe platforms rather than after pulling away/before arrival and not polluting the station.

Even if the changeover were done on the fly, I believe the diesels would still need to be running in Crewe station because they need to be warmed up prior to taking load (or deal with a big maintenance penalty). There is only around a mile of usable wiring towards Chester unfortunately.

 

[Meerkat]

Even if the changeover were done on the fly, I believe the diesels would still need to be running in Crewe station because they need to be warmed up prior to taking load (or deal with a big maintenance penalty). There is only around a mile of usable wiring towards Chester unfortunately.

Fair points, but idling and with the wires providing hotel power is quieter and less polluting, and leaving the station on electric is way quieter and less smelly.

Btw…..how are Avanti pronouncing Evero?
E veer o
Ever ro
er veer o

 

[AJDesiro]

Fair points, but idling and with the wires providing hotel power is quieter and less polluting, and leaving the station on electric is way quieter and less smelly.

Btw…..how are Avanti pronouncing Evero?
E veer o
Ever ro
er veer o

The audio described unveiling video pronounces it as Ever ro.

 

[Railperf]

GWR drivers are reporting issues when warming up engines on the move before a changeover stop. Apparently a new instruction in force on GWR not to start engines until changeover station to prevent issues of some pantographs not dropping. Not sure if this issue is resolved on the Avanti version?

 

[Skie]

Btw…..how are Avanti pronouncing Evero?

It rhymes with Nevero on time-o

 

[irish_rail]

GWR drivers are reporting issues when warming up engines on the move before a changeover stop. Apparently a new instruction in force on GWR not to start engines until changeover station to prevent issues of some pantographs not dropping. Not sure if this issue is resolved on the Avanti version?

Correct. Instruction not to start engines up prior to switching over power. Too be fair I know very few drivers who actually did this anyway, the vast majority just hit diesel at the changeover point. Never had an issue, as the engines automatically pre heat anyway.

 

[MrJeeves]

Currently sat behind some Avanti technical staff (well, they were discussing ETCS overlays and ERTMS so I assume they must be!).

Apparently 9 units have been accepted by Avanti so far.

There have also been issues with SDO where the train knows where it is, but doesn't know what service it's on (I don't really understand why this should matter?) and refuses to open the doors at some station meaning the driver must manually select the doors to release.

First class catering in full force today with very kind and attentive staff.

 

[peter166]

First class catering in full force today with very kind and attentive staff.

Is that the Chicken Risotto?

 

[norbitonflyer]

There have also been issues with SDO where the train knows where it is, but doesn't know what service it's on (I don't really understand why this should matter?) and refuses to open the doors at some station

Maybe it doesn't think it's scheduled to call there (for example if it's a Birmingham service but thinks it's a Chester service, it would think it's not supposed to open the doors at Milton Keynes

 

[ollie_hunt1660]

GWR drivers are reporting issues when warming up engines on the move before a changeover stop. Apparently a new instruction in force on GWR not to start engines until changeover station to prevent issues of some pantographs not dropping. Not sure if this issue is resolved on the Avanti version?

What is the policy for instances such as the London to Oxford service that doesn’t call at didcot and is pathed as diesel from Didcot East Junction?

 

[MrJeeves]

Maybe it doesn't think it's scheduled to call there (for example if it's a Birmingham service but thinks it's a Chester service, it would think it's not supposed to open the doors at Milton Keynes

Oh, perhaps. I assumed it'd still at least know what doors to open/not open in case of unplanned stops since the trains surely will be scheduled to stop there on a service. You'd think it'd just be a lookup by station and platform.

 

[Class 800]

Now they're in service, what parts of the WCML are they actually able to do 125 on?

In other words, have any EPS125 sections actually been changed to MU125?

I'm assuming not all of them? Some sections will be just too curvy for non-EPS 125 to be allowed?

 

[AJDesiro]

Now they're in service, what parts of the WCML are they actually able to do 125 on?

In other words, have any EPS125 sections actually been changed to MU125?

I'm assuming not all of them? Some sections will be just too curvy for non-EPS 125 to be allowed?

Rugby-Coventry and Penkridge-Stafford are both MU125, other sections haven’t been raised yet.

 

[800001]

Currently sat behind some Avanti technical staff (well, they were discussing ETCS overlays and ERTMS so I assume they must be!).

Apparently 9 units have been accepted by Avanti so far.

There have also been issues with SDO where the train knows where it is, but doesn't know what service it's on (I don't really understand why this should matter?) and refuses to open the doors at some station meaning the driver must manually select the doors to release.

First class catering in full force today with very kind and attentive staff.

View attachment 159470

Apparently 10 of 13 have been accepted by Avanti.
805001-005, 008-012.
805013 should be accepted later this month (still at Aycliffe).
805006/007 follow in mid-late summer.
Above is from a tweet by Ian Beardsley from Todays Railways magazine.

 

[Railperf]

Rugby-Coventry and Penkridge-Stafford are both MU125, other sections haven’t been raised yet.

Saw no more than 100mph between Rugby and Brum both ways yesterday.