On Apr 9, 10:25*pm, "Paul Scott"
wrote:
MIG wrote:
Extension of platforms on South Central ("Southern" franchise) has
been mentioned in the past, and the talk is of extension to ten-car
length.

Now I am trying to reconcile this with the proposal to transfer 456s
to South Western.

Other than 455/456 combinations, what suitable units does Southern
have that could form suburban trains that could fill the extended
platforms?

3 car 377s transferred from the Brighton locals, operating in 3+3+4
formation?
That is supposedly why the ex LO 313s have been obtained by SN for use in
the Brighton area.

I remain unconvinced of the 456's usefulness with SWT though. *The numbers
just don't fit if the aim is to run 10 car trains on their suburban services
either, 24 of them is only about half the number they'd need for their 455
routes. *I think SN will carry on using the 456s with their own 455s...


I think the difference between SWT and Southern is that the Southern
suburban services into London Bridge via Sydenham are planned
(according to the RUS) to jump straight to 12 car length, to give the
necessary capacity during Thameslink work at London Bridge. The
Victoria routes, via Balham, will go to 10 car, in the short term
anyway. On SWT all routes are planned to goto 10 car, also in the
short term.

Therefore, I can see the Southern 455s being concentrated on the 12
car London Bridge - East / West Croydon (and maybe even peak trains to
East Grinstead); remember the Southern only have 46 class 455 which
won't give many 12 car peak trains. The 377s would run on the 10 car
Victoria services with the 456s being freed up to goto SWT, to partner
their much larger class 455 fleet.