Station staff at Stevenage do not dispatch any GTR services unless a 365 happens to call there or if there’s a fault with the in cab monitors on other traction.
Ah, apologies, I thought they helped dispatch the LNER services. My mistake.
Station staff at Stevenage do not dispatch any GTR services unless a 365 happens to call there or if there’s a fault with the in cab monitors on other traction.
They do help with LNER dispatch but not GTR which are all self dispatch by the Driver except 365s. They do maintain a presence during GTR dispatch in case anyone needs assistanceAh, apologies, I thought they helped dispatch the LNER services. My mistake.
Possibly for drivers to take a "personal needs break" between workings, or even to drop off for a meal break and pick up the next service? There may be little opportunity to do this at the Moorgate end of the route with tight turnarounds there.i believe the new design includes a staff welfare facility as well. 1 waiting shelter and one staff welfare. Might be wrong but thats what i had heard. Not sure whether that means they expect someone to be on there full time, or if it is a requirement to provide that nowadays regardless
The use of platform 5 for ECS turnaround has been postponed until next Monday
That’s correct, they will run empty from Watton and instead of turning around at Langley, they will continue into platform 5 at Stevenage. This will keep the down Hertford line clear for other trains including freight. They will then return empty to Watton to return to passenger service. Hope that helps.For us non techies can you elaborate on what ECS Turnaround is ? - is this where the trains will use the platform to wait before making their way back to Watton to start the next service ?
ECS = "empty coaching stock".For us non techies can you elaborate on what ECS Turnaround is ?
ECS = "empty coaching stock".
So yes ECS Turnaround means that the train will run into the platform and turn around there, but without any passengers on board. From posts above I understand this is being done to unblock paths for freight before the platform is ready for service.
The use of platform 5 for ECS turnaround has been postponed until next Monday
Even a Harrington Hump would have been better
Or a better service was wanted and more trains were needed as such it was cheaper to have more new trains than only a few resulting in a mixed fleet.
The platform edge barrier that has been in place during construction has now been removed. There can't be much more to be done now.
Speaking to some station staff they think the platform will open in August, apparently more station staff have got to be recruited because the platform 5 barrier line has got to be manned. Given the low passenger numbers I'm surprised they're not remotely monitoring it from the main gateline. If it has to be manned from first to last train it will increase operating costs considerably.
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RTT has this as the first https://www.realtimetrains.co.uk/train/X01873/2020-07-06/detailed
I bet it will be really frustrating for people still having to use the rail replacement service seeing the trains sitting in P5
The use of platform 5 for ECS turnaround has been postponed until next Monday
I guess remote monitoring isn't very effective when people will just wave anything orange at a camera, and gateline staff can be close by to do assists. Once off duty, platform staff will presumably have quite a walk to do them.
I was told by a manager, he may have been misinformedI was under the impression all ECS moves into the Bay would commence from the 6th, Diagrams for next week show terminating at Watton and going forward ECS into the bay and dwelling for over 10 mins.
i believe the new design includes a staff welfare facility as well. 1 waiting shelter and one staff welfare. Might be wrong but thats what i had heard. Not sure whether that means they expect someone to be on there full time, or if it is a requirement to provide that nowadays regardless
Possibly for drivers to take a "personal needs break" between workings, or even to drop off for a meal break and pick up the next service? There may be little opportunity to do this at the Moorgate end of the route with tight turnarounds there.
They do help with LNER dispatch but not GTR which are all self dispatch by the Driver except 365s. They do maintain a presence during GTR dispatch in case anyone needs assistance
It’ll be for approximately a month, opening is currently scheduled for early to mid August - all depends on how long it takes for the sign offs to be done.I can see the ESC movements being used by some of those groups who like to complain about the railways just for the sake of it, especially if having seen a 717 stabled at P5 they then have to get the replacement bus to Watton. In the meantime the ECS movement back to Watton takes place and the train then leaves Watton on the scheduled service before the bus arrives... resulting in the passengers having to wait for the next service. Hopefully the period between the ECS moves and P5 coming into service will be short.
I'm planning one final update video once the platform is opened (sadly don't expect me to be on the first train at 6am on a Sunday if that is the case !!). From the information I've gleaned, there was never going to be any big ribbon cutting opening, even before CV-19 impacted social events, so bit of a let down there....I was hoping to gatecrash the after launch party
I think people outside the railway industry will find that timescale ridiculous. Even crossrail are managing electronic sign-offs.
P5 and its infrastructure should have been completed before providing services between Cambridge and Brighton - then passengers wouldn't have needed busses between HN and Stevenage.
I think that would be Jo Public's reaction - poor decision when CP5 was pruned.
Just so - we have friends in the HN area who have relatives in Letchworth and always used the train - now they use a car!
Of course if P5 had a turnout back onto the down slow then occasional Moorgate to Letchworth services could be run with minimum occupation of the down slow.
In fact some of the M'gate trains at end of day do just that and stable at Letchworth.
Would it really have been that expensive to do at the time as opposed to doing it later?
It's yet a other strand of the 'removed' services from HN north.
I thought it was to do with land ownership boundaries, and IIRC the planning stuff said the bay position was chosen to avoid rebuilding the footbridge. It’s been discussed earlier in this thread though.I guess I just wondered how much extra it would have cost, whilst doing the job, to have added one more set of points, a signal and a short bit of track to provide?
It could come in useful if either P4 fails for some reason, or a train fails there, or a charter or freight needs to dwell