Thameslink Programme, South Central & South Eastern area fleet cascades etc

[mackenzie_blu]

as far as im aware e+c was open all day on the other hand balcombe has been shut all day.

They reopened the slow lines around 0500 meaning Elephant would recieve trains but alot of effort and running around was done trying to ensure enough staff there for customer problems before they announce it (on call manager told us it was to remain shut all day).

 

[David Sinnett]

FCC website currently advising people not to travel....Advice to Thameslink route customers: until further notice, we recommend that Thameslink route customers do not attempt to travel. Due to the severe weather conditions we cannot guarantee a Thameslink route service today. The situation is not anticipated to improve in the near future. Please keep checking this site for updates. Click 'further information' below.

Is this related to the E&C or is it the weather? I used EMT this morning with no problems. Has the overhead line died?

 

[jon0844]

Great news for all those people who are now at work!

 

[The Box Photter]

FCC fell apart this moning with multiple failures through the core, both north and south. I was luck enough to be delayed heading into London and then again trying to get back home again!

Hardly any trains are running north of StP Int'l and those that are seem to be "all stations to Bedford". I managed to extracate myself from a failed 377 at StP Int'l and get an EMT Meridian to Luton, where a replacement bus service had been laid on for northbound passengers. The rumours were that a points failure had caused trains to be unable to leave Cauldwell Depot, but knowing FCC they could have made that up on the spot.

As an aside, whilst waiting for the bus to get me to Flitwick, the unit I had bailed out of at StP Int'l hurtled though Luton non-stop with passengers, presumably heading direct to Bedford as usual.

Anyone who has to use FCC to get to work should phone their boss today and tell them they won't be able to get in for the foreseeable future as FCC couldn't give a toss about running a service. EMT services were mostly running as timetabled.

 

[jon0844]

Not so many problems on the GN side though. I really do try and see FCC TL and GN as two separate companies at times.

 

[Edvid]

Sounds like an almighty FuCC-up. (Sorry.)

 

[Aictos]

Well FCC GN has texted a alert advising passengers to leave London early as possible due to the weather they cannot guarantee late/last trains tonight with a much reduced timetable from 19.30 and as expected the emergency snow timetable will be in operation tomorrow.

Lord knows why they even bothered trying to run a normal timetable today when it was obvious to all but the ones at the top that it would have been far better to play it safe and run with the snow emergency timetable which is what they're now had to do anyway.

 

[mackenzie_blu]

Great news for all those people who are now at work!

Be fair to FCC who took the line don't travel at 0400. people spoke said yeah but I need to get to the airport. No you want to go to the airport, not need.

What made things worse is units were failing at soon they tried to enter service. Between 0430 and 0630 choas everywhere as services were cancelled.

The first service that actually made it into the Core was 2T07 which then failed with frozen shoes at Farringdon (and became the train in passenger service to reverse at City on AC, units 377519/521).

At 0530 the only thing runing on the entire FCC TL network was 2T07. Seems things got worse as the day went ahead.

Not so many problems on the GN side though. I really do try and see FCC TL and GN as two separate companies at times.

At the level where decisions are made they are two seperate companies. Over senior management level do the two companies come together.
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FCC fell apart this moning with multiple failures through the core, both north and south. I was luck enough to be delayed heading into London and then again trying to get back home again!

Hardly any trains are running north of StP Int'l and those that are seem to be "all stations to Bedford". I managed to extracate myself from a failed 377 at StP Int'l and get an EMT Meridian to Luton, where a replacement bus service had been laid on for northbound passengers. The rumours were that a points failure had caused trains to be unable to leave Cauldwell Depot, but knowing FCC they could have made that up on the spot.

As an aside, whilst waiting for the bus to get me to Flitwick, the unit I had bailed out of at StP Int'l hurtled though Luton non-stop with passengers, presumably heading direct to Bedford as usual.

Anyone who has to use FCC to get to work should phone their boss today and tell them they won't be able to get in for the foreseeable future as FCC couldn't give a toss about running a service. EMT services were mostly running as timetabled.

Actually its not a rumour, points failed at Bedford station, Cauldwell depot, West Hampstead and Crickelwood meaning the few trains that didnt fail in depot then got trapped unable to move.

As I understand the first northbound service from the Core would have been around 0700 from SPILL (There was still nothing through City when I left at 0630). The reason for everything being an all station is the fact that FCC had to take emgency level decision and run something rather than a few services. You'll find the all stations services were extended from St Albans/Luton to bedford to give Bedford customers a chance to get home as nothing was running up the Brighton MainLine.

Also bare in mind FCC still haven't recovered from the near hour shut down of the Midland MainLine last night around 2130 due to 'complete system failure' that hit EMT and FCC with all services stopped and most had a 50min delay. FCC units were still at the wrong place before the Core opened making the problem even worse.

Its likely the 377 was decleared a failure but they tried their best to get it on the move again which seems may have happened. Its a situation where they can't be sure but are trying and this morning everyone was trying to get something running.

 

[Aictos]

Had problems with the 313s last night where the doors would open but refuse to close due to the solid ice building up around the door runners.

Ended up using a T Key to bang away at the ice to try and remove the ice with the drivers doing the same as well.

Just wondering if there's any tips on any better ways to deal with ice building up around the doors other then my idea of having a kettle of hot water to melt the ice.

 

[mackenzie_blu]

Well FCC GN has texted a alert advising passengers to leave London early as possible due to the weather they cannot guarantee late/last trains tonight with a much reduced timetable from 19.30 and as expected the emergency snow timetable will be in operation tomorrow.

Lord knows why they even bothered trying to run a normal timetable today when it was obvious to all but the ones at the top that it would have been far better to play it safe and run with the snow emergency timetable which is what they're now had to do anyway.

Thats werid as Platform showned the GN on a snow timetable on the 7th when I got into work the night before.

Had problems with the 313s last night where the doors would open but refuse to close due to the solid ice building up around the door runners.

Ended up using a T Key to bang away at the ice to try and remove the ice with the drivers doing the same as well.

Just wondering if there's any tips on any better ways to deal with ice building up around the doors other then my idea of having a kettle of hot water to melt the ice.

De-icer if its approved for use in the COSSH manual.

 

[thelem]

De-icer if its approved for use in the COSSH manual.

There was an FCC member of staff with a huge bottle of de-icer on the platform at Brighton this morning. Still didn't stop them locking the first 4 carriages of the 0836 train out of use becuase they couldn't fix the doors though.

 

[Aictos]

Thats werid as Platform showned the GN on a snow timetable on the 7th when I got into work the night before.

Well I phoned the SDC in the early hours to enquiry what timetable we were running so I could let my relief know what kind of a service was running and as of 6am this morning having worked last night was showing a normal service for the GN.

De-icer if its approved for use in the COSSH manual.

No De-icer on station available but enough snow shovels though....

 

[mackenzie_blu]

Well I phoned the SDC in the early hours to enquiry what timetable we were running so I could let my relief know what kind of a service was running and as of 6am this morning having worked last night was showing a normal service for the GN.

No De-icer on station available but enough snow shovels though....

Werid.

We've got about 10 shovels per station (Including the underground City!) but where do you put snow in a station like Blackfriars? Eh? No-where!

 

[hawkeye]

Werid.

We've got about 10 shovels per station (Including the underground City!) but where do you put snow in a station like Blackfriars? Eh? No-where!

Chuck it over the bridge into the river

The first service that actually made it into the Core was 2T07 which then failed with frozen shoes at Farringdon (and became the train in passenger service to reverse at City on AC, units 377519/521).

Would they have been sitting in Smithfield Sidings this afternoon then? Wondered what they were doing in there.

Did have the amusement of a Southeastern train turning up at City (about 1610) and failing (apparently) which blocked the northbound platform. The Bedford train behind it switched to the southbound platform which led to everyone firstly looking confused then running to change platforms. Lots of confused people on plat 2 asking where the train was actually going!

Mind you, useful to have a crossover at each of City

 

[mackenzie_blu]

Chuck it over the bridge into the river



Would they have been sitting in Smithfield Sidings this afternoon then? Wondered what they were doing in there.

Did have the amusement of a Southeastern train turning up at City (about 1610) and failing (apparently) which blocked the northbound platform. The Bedford train behind it switched to the southbound platform which led to everyone firstly looking confused then running to change platforms. Lots of confused people on plat 2 asking where the train was actually going!

Mind you, useful to have a crossover at each of City

You can't chuck anything over into the river for 2 reason, one its all boarded off now and second its a traffic way and FCC would be fined by the river police. Those boat captains have already suspended work at Blackfriars due to plastic bags falling from the bridge.

2T07 was the first train south in the morning and was on AC power so no way was it in Smithfield as thats DC only.

You have ONE useful crossover at City on the south side. The north end one is only good for shoving trains on DC into Smithfield. It is not AC electfied. One nearer Farringdon is however.

Its more annoying when the train you need gets trapped at City and you watch everything being diverte around as you want to go home as happened to me!
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More of an update for you all

Latest update for you all

Fleet

377503 - Commissioning runs going well and the unit is expected to have completed its commissioning yesterday. For some reason even tho unit hand over date is expected to be 15/01, final unit delivery for service (ie delivery to Cauldwell) is stated as 21/01 Gangway issues with 523 are also present with 503.

377504 - Currently due to go to Selhurst for its return to Derby unpon delivery of 523/503.

377523 - Problems with gangways have held back its transfer to FCC following completing its commssioning runs. Unit was expect to reach Cauldwell 13/01 but due to Core shut down this never happened.

Water ingress of the units have been fixed with the water affecting the AC supervision control box.

Stations/Infrastruc ture

West Hampstead - 60% of new OHLE has been completed tho electrical bonding caused a 3hr overrun on a possession.

St Albans - 400m slew of the track to allow platform 2 to be a standard width has been completed

City Thameslink - Completion of works now due 31/07/10

Harpenden - Two bridge decks have been completed to allow widening and extention of platforms 1 and 3 so they can take 12 car trains.
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A bit of an update for everyone

377504 returned to Selhurst so it can have a internal refit at Derby. Unit ran as 5Z69.

377523 & 377503 ran from Selhurst to Cauldwell in return as 5P00.

This now means FCC have 22 377/5 to use and all the sub class have now been commisioned so hopefully 504 will return early next month to get FCC its full fleet at last.

Driver training has restarted today with 377516/519 running around from Bedford to Bedford via Herne Hill reversing siding as 5Z21.

 

[mackenzie_blu]

Update 25/01/10

Fleet

377501 was taken out of service due to a transformer failure w/c 18th Jan. Unit was in service today 2/2.

377504 finally went off to Derby today. Its due back in early March after snagging works are completed.

Currently there has been a number of transformers failures on the 377/5 and FCC is working with Bombardier on the problem.

Stations - Blackfriars - The old platform roof over the tracks at the northern end of the station will be removed at the end of the month. This will leave platform 5 uncovered the whole length. Platform 4 will have some cover on the south end. The link bridge from the concourse to platform 4 will be extended at Easter as futher demolishing works are done. Final sign off for the Blackfriars design is due to be completed in mid March (yes, nearly 14 months after they started work are they due to actually decide what they are doing).

 

[jon0844]

At the end of March they'll decide it was better as it was!

 

[asylumxl]

Wouldn't suprise me. We're talking about Network Fail.

 

[mackenzie_blu]

The next six months will be important for the Thameslink programme with decisions made on the new trains, deciding what to do with London bridge and see if/where these cuts will come from! Not good.

 

[jon0844]

I was at a conference with Kulveer Ranger (transport advisor to the Mayor of London), amongst others, talking about Connected Britain today and he was talking up HS2, Crossrail and the Thameslink project that 'will offer 24tph through London'.

So, as that was today, I wonder if he already knows that some of these things aren't actually going to happen - but forgot to mention it to the general public and journalists alike.

 

[mackenzie_blu]

Just confrming here what was already said. The KO2 is now a year late, ie the whole Thameslink programme will be finished in December 2016. This month is also the date for the final introduction of all new trains the the completion of London Bridge.

 

[Class377]

Sorry to keep asking questions, but do we have diagrams for this new timetable? Or is it kind of "Random" as to which ones are 377-run (due to the earlier industrial action)?

 

[Edvid]

I've attached a copy (there are 20 SSuX, 2 SO, 2SuO).

 

[Edvid]

The BBC have just published a new video [Clicky].

By the way, does anyone know the location about 18-25 seconds in?

 

[Aictos]

The BBC have just published a new video [Clicky].

By the way, does anyone know the location about 18-25 seconds in?

Not too familiar with the route but I think it may well be St Albans.

 

[jon0844]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/beds/bucks/herts/8549198.stm

"The line is now being rebuilt"

Bloody hell, the BBC should have put this up as "Breaking News"

 

[mackenzie_blu]

It did manage to make it sound like Blackfriars was going to be a four trough track station tho. But on the whole its good to see some positive news about the project especially as this year will be interesting in terms of construction and by the end of the year we should be seeing parts of the final station coming along nicely.

 

[jon0844]

I heard that bit and did wonder. Wow, imagine if they suddenly slipped in the news that the whole central core was being made 4-track! That WOULD be breaking news!

 

[westcoaster]

The BBC have just published a new video [Clicky].

By the way, does anyone know the location about 18-25 seconds in?

the location is just south of bedford south junction, the bridge they go over (20 secs), is where the marston vale line goes underneath the mml.

 

[Aictos]

Thanks Westcoaster, that multi story car park though in the vid - is that at St Albans?e