On Jan 26, 3:14*pm, (Neil Williams)
wrote:
On Fri, 25 Jan 2008 02:53:24 -0800 (PST), Andy
wrote:

I certainly agree about the lengths of trains on Sundays. I thought
(although I'm not absolutely sure) that PIXC (Passengers In eXcess of
Capacity) standards were supposed to be met all the time. I.E. on
Sundays as well as during the week. Sunday afternoon / evening seem to
be far more crowded than most of the peak trains (except the 19.04!!)
and like you say, it is not difficult to make all the trains 8 cars.

I can't help but wonder if Sundays is a case of "take whatever is next
in the line on the depot when you get there" for the drivers, with no
coupling or uncoupling taking place, as it isn't unknown for one of
the 4 diagrams (usually the wrong one) to be 8-car. *Really, with only
4 diagrams, even if (as I suspect due to the lack of Desiros) Sundays
are Bletchley only, with Northampton depot not in use, 8 car on
everything is both practical and necessary.


There are more than 4 diagrams on a Sunday. Trains are every 30 mins
most of the day and take 1 hour and 26-28 mins from Euston -
Northampton, which makes at least 6 duties (and more diagrams). I
don't have weekend diagrams but there is definately some uncoupling /
coupling at Euston as there is usually an extra unit in the platforms
later on in the day waiting for coupling.

Why they don't just run 8 coaches on everything I don't know. Today,
on my way into Euston (from Harrow), the guard apologised for there
only being 4 coaches (train was more crowded than a weekday peak
one!!), but said that the train will be lengthened next week. Maybe da
management have actually looked and seen that the trains are getting
overcrowded at weekends.