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Recent content by Energy

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    Controversial railway opinions (without a firm foundation in logic..)

    It should be easier to justifier if extending the London - Banbury and dropping the Leamington Spa - Stratford Upon Avon / Birmingham Moor Street. Warwickshire County Council has had this listed as an aspiration for a while. However Lapworth would lose its connection to Leamington and Warwick...
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    DfT press release on Northern Powerhouse Rail

    XC particularly struggles due to the voyagers' low density. WMR manages 311 seats in a 4 car 196 while XC manages 174 standard and 26 (lightly used...) first class seats in a 220.
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    Potential up to 2,000 job losses at Alstom Derby

    Bombardier dropped off all QC under covid to get the units out the door which left some units (mostly 701s) riddled with faults.
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    Potential up to 2,000 job losses at Alstom Derby

    384 cars were hardly killing the Aventra though. 196s and 197s maybe but Arriva was already concerned about Bombardier's ability to deliver the train on time while they had large orders of 710s and 345s.
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    Potential up to 2,000 job losses at Alstom Derby

    Not really, there are only 384 cars of 195s, 196s and 197s. 701s alone were 750 cars.
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    Why are XC allowed to continue?

    They did this with a London - Birmingham - Liverpool service, it had appalling reliability.
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    XC Voyager Refurbishment

    The 12 extra units should be enough for either 5 cars or 4+4 cars on all diagrams. XC can make more diagrams double voyagers by attaching an extra unit around the XC core. E.g. on the Manchester - Bournemouth runs detaching/attaching the front unit at Reading where there is already a reversal...
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    Potential up to 2,000 job losses at Alstom Derby

    With a single manufacturer, I'd fear stagnation, when Bombardier lost the Thameslink order they made changes and improved the Aventra platform. I don't see why we need to do final assembly in this country, manufacturing components in the UK and assembling abroad seems far more stable and would...
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    Potential up to 2,000 job losses at Alstom Derby

    The platform screen doors are Masats. Its a lot easier to get the 5 extra 345s built by Alstom now than have a small fleet of different crossrail trains later.
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    LNER to offer free period products on trains

    Good scheme, hopefully other operators adopt it. Nice and discreet, and staff will know when they've run out. Just hope they don't get customer orders mixed up!
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    Potential up to 2,000 job losses at Alstom Derby

    Core stations are big enough, just lacking platform screen doors. The issue is particularly Heathrow as well as other stations outside the core. I suspect part of this immediate order is getting some extra 345s or whatever else they might be built before it's too late. Derby is in a poor...
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    Cross Country overcrowding - shortage of rolling stock

    When well managed this is a good thing, on operators with multiple trains coupled together running 12 cars at peak and 6/8 cars off peak allows the uncoupled units to go into maintanence in the day time. Running full size sets throughout the day is great for capacity but requires either more...
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    Coventry VLR

    BBC News reporting difficulties getting DfT to approve funds. I'm glad someone has realised that it's similar capacity but less flexible than a bus. I'm yet to here anyone name any benefits over a bus which actually relate to this being on rails...
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    Cross Country overcrowding - shortage of rolling stock

    Correct, from East Coast IEP Agreement Page 166 Reading isn't ideal as the staff base is guards, TMs and catering staff, no drivers. Full list of XC driver depots here. Out of the 14 'spare' (if 175s come) 802s, about 10 in service would be reasonable, assuming GWR don't need any additional...
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    GWR fleet procurement

    The DfT only has so much it can spend on operation subsidy, if it isn't given any extra by the Treasury there isn't much it can do.

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