Wish me luck

[Julian G]

for the email that I am sending to Silverlink County
in order to
Reinstate the 'Cobblers!'
and release the cl321s that are operating to provide extra services for the rush hour

jonathon wished me luck already

 

[Tom]

Well I'll wish you luck but you will get nowhere. A single person, no way, loads of people, maybe.

 

[Guinness]

You need a lot of people to sign it. Most of them been the actual commuters who use the Cobblers.....

1 Person - Nay
10 People - Nay
100 People - Doubt it
1000 People - Silverlink will have to rethink their business plan

 

[Sprog]

You need a lot of people to sign it. Most of them been the actual commuters who use the Cobblers.....

1 Person - Nay
10 People - Nay
100 People - Doubt it
1000 People - Silverlink will have to rethink their business plan

10,000, we could build an army, and invade Silverlink HQ!

Good luck anyway , id be hppy 2 sign a pettition if you decided to produce one...

 

[Simming]

you'll only get a reply if any, along the lines of "thank you for your time, blah blah, we'll get back to youblahblah"

 

[jonb]

Good luck but its not going to happen unfortunately. Silverlink have sufficent 350's to cover daytime diagrams and 321's for the Peak hours. I also believe they have some 321's on hire from 'One'

 

[yorkie]

No point trying.

I know many of us would like the 90s back for sentimental reasons but there's no way Silverlink would act on that.

The Desiros were not actually intended for this route, it was the cancellation of the SWT growth order (Ooops too late, they had already started making the trains! ) by the SRA that meant surplus Desiros were available.

I believe the SRA ordered/requested Silverlink to use the Desiros. The SRA could not afford another embarrasing repeat of the MML Meridian fiasco.

I say that the Class 90s + Mk3s that currently operate are more suited to this service than the 12-car desiros that are proposed by the SRA.

Here's some stats:-

90 + 10x Mk3s + DVT
Standard class seats (2+2): 648
First class seats (2+1): 48
Weight: Approx 450 tonnes
Max speed: 110mph

3x4Desiro
Standard class seats (2+2): 606
First class seats (2+2): 72
Weight: approx 510 tonnes
Max speed: 100mph

The new trains are notably heavier, and with fewer seats.

The loss of 2+1 first class seating, and the loss of First Class at the barriers at Euston, is a blow to first class passengers so could cause a decrease in FC passengers, despite the increase in FC seats.

I am not sure about track access charges but modern EMUs/DMUs are not just heavy but cause more track damage than was previously thought and charges have increased recently to reflect this.

It is much more expensive to lease brand new trains (that must be paid for) than stock that is older and has already been paid for, just needs to be maintained, stored etc.

 

[AlexS]

The extra standing room and third interval doors on the Desiro's may however help with peak hour standing passengers - a standing journey on a Mk3 coach has never been fun in my experience - the vestibules simply aren't large enough.

 

[yorkie]

The extra standing room and third interval doors on the Desiro's may however help with peak hour standing passengers - a standing journey on a Mk3 coach has never been fun in my experience - the vestibules simply aren't large enough.

When I went just about everyone got a seat. It was very busy though.

However I suspect there's lkely to be a lot of spare capacity in 1st class now (Far less incentive to use it, how can you justify the cost when the seat layout is the same and you aren't near the barriers? Is there any real benefit?) at the expense of more people vying for less seats in standard.

Oh well, at least they get a bigger space to stand in, better than a seat any day

 

[OTS]

However I suspect there's lkely to be a lot of spare capacity in 1st class now (Far less incentive to use it, how can you justify the cost when the seat layout is the same and you aren't near the barriers? Is there any real benefit?) at the expense of more people vying for less seats in standard.

TBH, would be surprised if that actually happened to a great extent. A sizable proportion of workers get their tickets paid for or subsidised by their employers, so will continue to us first. Of the rest I suspect most use FC to keep away from the "peasants" - having witnessed some of the Northampton population at first hand I really don't blame them!

 

[Julian G]

and this is the reply I got

Dear Julian


Thank you for your suggestion to improve our services. I apologise for the
time it has taken
for us to reply.

I understand from my colleague who has been working for the railway for
longer than I, that
the 'Cobblers' services refer to services that operate between Euston and
Northampton, but
not particular stopping patterns of those services.

I'm afraid that I'm therefore not sure which services you would like us to
consider reinstating
and I'd be grateful if you were able to clarify this further for me. I will
then be able to record
your comments more accurately so that they may be made available to the
appropriate
managers.

Thank you for taking the time to contact us. I look forward to hearing from
you.


Yours sincerely

Helen Wilson
Customer Services Assistant

 

[Ben]

oh well atleast it wasnt an auto reply

 

[Tom B]

Mmm, but exactly what this "customer service assistant" knows about railways is perhaps debatable. I thought customer service assistant was this week's name for platform staff?

 

[yorkie]

I would like to see how 1288gaje worded the letter though.

Remember 'Cobblers' was a name for the loco-hauled fast services. These services do still run, but are now EMUs.

So if you are asking them to reinstate services, then it's not an applicable question as they have not withdrawn any!

The question really that you need to make clear (did you?) is why they use EMUs instead of 90s. However there is (IMO) no point asking them.

At the end of the day, the SRA has dictacted to them that they must use the 350s because the SRA ordered too many 450s and then had to use them elsewhere. It's all old news, and old decisions, and cannot be reversed by Silverlink.

 

[Julian G]

I would like to see how 1288gaje worded the letter though.

Remember 'Cobblers' was a name for the loco-hauled fast services. These services do still run, but are now EMUs.

So if you are asking them to reinstate services, then it's not an applicable question as they have not withdrawn any!

The question really that you need to make clear (did you?) is why they use EMUs instead of 90s. However there is (IMO) no point asking them.

At the end of the day, the SRA has dictacted to them that they must use the 350s because the SRA ordered too many 450s and then had to use them elsewhere. It's all old news, and old decisions, and cannot be reversed by Silverlink.

hock:

 

[TheSlash]

Isn't the SRA an outdated swearword that the Government would rather not talk about these days?