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Stock At Weekends On GN Side

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LewisT

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6 Aug 2017
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Hi all,

I was just wondering how they've allocated the stock at the moment on weekends on the GN side between Cambridge and King's Cross. I overheard some staff expecting a 365 to turn up to operate a Great Northern service, but a 700 did, which seemed confusing given that they were likely to have access to the allocations internally. Apparently TL operates the semi-fasts on Sundays and the stopping services on Saturdays and vice-versa on Saturdays, but how does this all work out stock-wise? Is this just an interim thing until the weekend service gets to where it was meant to be originally, and before, hopefully, 12 car Core services on weekends?

Thanks in advance.
 
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bramling

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Hi all,

I was just wondering how they've allocated the stock at the moment on weekends on the GN side between Cambridge and King's Cross. I overheard some staff expecting a 365 to turn up to operate a Great Northern service, but a 700 did, which seemed confusing given that they were likely to have access to the allocations internally. Apparently TL operates the semi-fasts on Sundays and the stopping services on Saturdays and vice-versa on Saturdays, but how does this all work out stock-wise? Is this just an interim thing until the weekend service gets to where it was meant to be originally, and before, hopefully, 12 car Core services on weekends?

Thanks in advance.

Yes it’s an interim arrangement. It’s not possible to run the Peterborough service with all 700s, as having decided to run the service with 8 cars, this introduces the problem that no 700/0s stable at Peterborough. Therefore with a proportion of the service starting up from Peterborough in the morning there will need to be 365s and/or 387s out to start up the service.

Likewise at Cambridge the 700/0s that stable there are required for the stopping service, although I’d have to check the stock balance to see if there are actually insufficient 700/0s.

As much depends on where the units are booked to start and finish, the result is that there’s a seemingly random mix of unit types from one service to the next through the day, which with some crossover between the various destinations results in 700s and 365s reaching Ely on a few trips. However anything which goes to Kings Lynn will be 387s.

The stopping service is generally solid 700/0 due to the need for SDO, although there is the odd 387 working on a Sunday.

From what I’ve seen they do seem to stick to the diagrammed traction, although substitutions can occur. However you’re unlikely to see, for example, a 700/0 on a 365 diagram as this means the wrong traction would end up at Peterborough. Single 365s have also been known to cover 700/0s on the stopping services - again quite feasible as 365s stable at Letchworth overnight, in common with 700/0s, plus there’s always spare 365s at Hornsey.
 

LewisT

Member
Joined
6 Aug 2017
Messages
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Yes it’s an interim arrangement. It’s not possible to run the Peterborough service with all 700s, as having decided to run the service with 8 cars, this introduces the problem that no 700/0s stable at Peterborough. Therefore with a proportion of the service starting up from Peterborough in the morning there will need to be 365s and/or 387s out to start up the service.

Likewise at Cambridge the 700/0s that stable there are required for the stopping service, although I’d have to check the stock balance to see if there are actually insufficient 700/0s.

As much depends on where the units are booked to start and finish, the result is that there’s a seemingly random mix of unit types from one service to the next through the day, which with some crossover between the various destinations results in 700s and 365s reaching Ely on a few trips. However anything which goes to Kings Lynn will be 387s.

The stopping service is generally solid 700/0 due to the need for SDO, although there is the odd 387 working on a Sunday.

From what I’ve seen they do seem to stick to the diagrammed traction, although substitutions can occur. However you’re unlikely to see, for example, a 700/0 on a 365 diagram as this means the wrong traction would end up at Peterborough. Single 365s have also been known to cover 700/0s on the stopping services - again quite feasible as 365s stable at Letchworth overnight, in common with 700/0s, plus there’s always spare 365s at Hornsey.

Thank you for the reply, yes, I thought it wouldn't be permanent. Hadn't even thought about the SDO issue at stations like Meldreth northbound. The train I was on was timed for a 365 on a Sunday, but a 700 turned up. Having checked its future workings, it was on 2Cxx Cambridge-King's Cross the whole day which avoids the issue with the wrong traction ending up at Peterborough. Makes things interesting at weekends for the serial 700-avoiders.
 

philjo

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9 Jun 2009
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On the Kings Cross to Ely (&vv) semi-fasts on Saturdays in the last few weeks I have had a mix of 365s, 387s and 700s turn up.
 

bramling

Veteran Member
Joined
5 Mar 2012
Messages
17,686
Location
Hertfordshire / Teesdale
Thank you for the reply, yes, I thought it wouldn't be permanent. Hadn't even thought about the SDO issue at stations like Meldreth northbound. The train I was on was timed for a 365 on a Sunday, but a 700 turned up. Having checked its future workings, it was on 2Cxx Cambridge-King's Cross the whole day which avoids the issue with the wrong traction ending up at Peterborough. Makes things interesting at weekends for the serial 700-avoiders.

Don’t take too much notice of the timing loads at weekends, they don’t seem to bear much resemblance to the actual diagrams.

The actual diagrams do seem to hold pretty true though - my weekend experience is fairly limited however thusfar I haven’t turned up for a 365 or 387 that has turned out something other than what was booked. Others with more regular use may of course have had different experiences. Naturally things will vary during any engineering work as well.

I’m not entirely sure why they haven’t diagrammed any 12 cars at weekends. It may be that they simply don’t feel they are necessary, or it may be that it’s not an easy matter to fit them into Kings Cross when the timetable was designed around such trains going to the core. There’s also the slight issue that a few diagrams go to Ely, but outwardly there’s no reason sticking out why things couldn’t have been done differently.
 
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