On Jan 24, 9:03*pm, (Neil Williams)
wrote:
On Thu, 24 Jan 2008 04:26:45 -0800 (PST), Andy
wrote:

The other problem with the 19.04 is that it is only four coaches,
whilst near all the other services are eight coaches at this time of
day. If the train was lengthened, then it would be comfortable. I'd
hope that this will happen from the December 2008 timetable or when
all the class 321s have been replaced by Desiros as finding a spare
unit will be slightly easier.

Er, wha? *The 321s are, as I recall, the most reliable stock in the
UK, the Desiros rather less so. *As there will be the same amount of
Desiros as 321s, rather the opposite seems likely.


It will be easier finding a spare unit as the whole fleet will be
compatible, unlike at present where you'd need to diagram an extra 350
to lengthen the 19.04. The Desiros have 25 units diagrammed from 30
(=83% in service), the 321s have 29 units diagrammed from 37 (=78% in
service). The other point to consider is that the unit forming the
19.04 is diagramed with a partner in the morning peak, so a complete
rewrite of the diagrams would be necessary to convert to a pair of
321s at the moment.

My personal opinion is that Bletchley have an easy task (not that I
want to put down their being top of the table) with the 321s as they
are so lightly diagrammed and a large percentage of the fleet sit in
Camden sidings during the daytime. Remember at one point silverlink
that three units on loan (two to c2C and one to northern), so the
extra units are there, but can't be coupled to the 19.04. Also, the
350s are catching up the 321s in the reliability stakes (I don't have
this year's Golden Spanner stats to hand though to give the proper
numbers).

I had forgotten that train was 4-car, though, and it surprises me that
there isn't enough stock to make it 8. *Really, everything should be 8
or 12 except at the crack of dawn on a Sunday, as the loadings
certainly justify it.


See above, this is one of the delights of having a mixed fleet of
incompatible units.

Neil

--
Neil Williams
Put my first name before the at to reply.