London Banter - View Single Post - 5 car Overground trains to Watford Junction

Recliner[_3_] · January 12th 15, 12:46 PM posted to uk.transport.london

On Mon, 12 Jan 2015 12:49:03 +0000, Neil Williams
wrote:

On 2015-01-12 09:04:22 +0000, d said:

Their top speed isn't the issue - its 75mph according to wonkypedia. Its their
acceleration. On the ELL they're so slow off the mark they barely get up to any
decent speed before they have to slow down again for the next stop. I can only
assume the stations on the watford branch are further apart. Either that or we
enter conspiracy theory land and assume there's a deliberate policy on the ELL
to provide a slow service.

Could there be something about not overloading the power systems? I
believe the acceleration on the S-stock is artificially impeded for
that kind of reason (also to stop them catching up any remaining
classic stock) - they *could* take off like European U-/S-Bahn stock
often does, or like the 350s do here.

I think that when the A stock were still in service, that S stock
performance was restricted, but hopefully the S8s are no longer
limited. But it's very likely that they do draw more power than an
equivalent length 378 would, which might be a problem on the Watford
Junction DC line if they weren't planning to upgrade the power supply.