What is going on with class 345 maintenance?

[MatthewB75]

A discussion in a WhatsApp group I'm apart of with railway employees and the subject of poor maintenance came up RE the Crossrail Class 345 fleet which is something I have noticed myself. One of the users noted a decline in customer facing components which started in 2022 when he started going back into the office. Whether it was the air conditioning not working, heating not working, no PIS audio or video, the frequency of defective equipment not being properly managed became very evident. He shared evidence of a sample of reporting faults to TfL once it was dawning on him it was an almost daily occurance where something wasn't working properly (shared with permission):

He said there was a lot more and the above was just a small sample and then somebody else in the group shared their own reports to TfL (again stressing this was just a small sample) of similar issues found on the 345 fleet (shared with permission):

One group member noted that for all the above problems customers are experiencing, there will be an alert going to an Alstom "ISST" (In Service Support Technican) in the relevant control room which they are supposed to be acting on. Nobody could understand why they are not acting on these alerts to such a degree that customers are actually picking up on the issues and having to report them. And in turn, why on earth TfL haven't sorted the problem out (seemingly Alstom staff not doing their job properly). This isn't one or two odd things slipping through the net, this is a systemic inability to perform a job on a day to day basis! There was a lot of talk in the media the other month RE the performance of the fleet as a whole having one of the worst cancellation records in the country. It makes you wonder what on earth is being missed if basic customer facing components aren't being properly managed.

 

[skyhigh]

It makes you wonder what on earth is being missed if basic customer facing components aren't being properly managed.

Or conversely, they are just fixing the critical items to keep the wheels turning until they have enough slack in the fleet to deal with the "basic" components.

 

[MatthewB75]

Or conversely, they are just fixing the critical items to keep the wheels turning until they have enough slack in the fleet to deal with the "basic" components.

Hi SkyHigh, an actual engineer on the WhatsApp chat touched on this: he said for this to be a possibility it would mean every day there are critical failings of major systems which occur throughout the day, evey day, which is highly unlikely. Ultimately, the fix of the "minor" things noted above would be a one minute phone call to a station based technician to reset something. To believe there are major problems, every day, throughout the day, to such an extent that one minute phone call couldn't be made is unreasonable, and he believed this was a simple case of people not doing their job. Again this isn't one or two things slipping through the net. Major heat problems in the summer, cold coaches in the winter, and a lack of passenger information I wouldn't consider "minor" either to be fair. They are all related to passenger safety and no doubt linked to a TSA as a mandated responsibility to be completed for the same reason.

 

[Ex31Rigger]

There is no alert or notification for the ISST's if a single PIS screen has an issue, only if the entire PIS system fails. To add a bit of context to the initial observations, if we just count the saloon internal PIS screens, there are 4 each car, 36 each unit, therefore 2520 saloon PIS screens across the fleet.

 

[MatthewB75]

There is no alert or notification for the ISST's if a single PIS screen has an issue, only if the entire PIS system fails. To add a bit of context to the initial observations, if we just count the saloon internal PIS screens, there are 4 each car, 36 each unit, therefore 2520 saloon PIS screens across the fleet.

Took this back to the engineer: he said that is absolutely and categorically incorrect. He actually shared the evidence in the chat (which I will not share here as it is a companies IP) but from what he has said from a position of authority, and what I have witnessed with my own eyes: indeed an individual PIS screen will flag up in the form of data being presented to the technician. Somewhat talking out of school: but the asertion was made to me that in the face of so much evidence of PIS failure alone (finanicially costly and with safety implications), the notion that nobody at this point would not have made the common sense call to make an alert to mitigate the clear problem is frankly laughable (their words not mine).

To your point about the entire system going down, Ex31Rigger, we have also just seen evidence of a different code number to reperesent that. But ultimately, my challegenge would be: what is the difference between 9 coaches failing as a whole and one coach failing (or even one component) if a paying customer (or vulnerable person) where relaint on that information, and happened to be sitting in that coach. Regultions in law are quite clear on the matter, and I would imaging the DfT would not discriminate on that basis. All shall be of equal importance and consequence.