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There’s definitely been a legal challenge, I think. Although no doubt the government is still trying behind-the-scenes to row back even further & scupper phase 1.

My bad! Sorry I did mean capacity is similar.

I suspect it’s more likely to be driver training, as length wise a 5 carriage 720 is similar to an 8 carriage 357.

I'm assuming because of the industrial action. Think the same thing happened during the last overtime ban.

Just had a thought on the limited PM use of 720's in the new timetable. It could be related to the ongoing Basildon platform problem, part of platform 2 has been demolished because of ground problems. As a result 12 & 10 carriage services can't stop there. When this first happened they put a...

Exactly! Why only have two PM 720 services. Unless they don't have enough drivers trained yet to run anything but a token handful?

Any particular reason why there's only two services in the PM peak? Must admit I thought they'd mostly replace 12 carriage 357 services.

Could these be driver training runs?

fingers crossed this means an extra in the AM as well.

I do remember someone else on this forum(sorry I can't remember who/when) saying that a return to 4tph Fenchurch-Shoeburyness off peak was partially dependant on these units. I assume because the 357's are becoming more maintenance heavy.

A quick rough count shows 8 12 carriage services in the AM peak. So I suppose to free to the maximum number of 357's you'd run all 6 720 pairs on those services.

Thats understandable, I meant when we'll start to see them more in peak rather than just four services. Unless the plan is keep use of them minimal until the December timetable change?

Any idea when we'll start to see more services run by the 720's rather than just two in each peak?

Not quite a smooth introduction to service. Most days this week one of the two services formed of 720's has been either cancelled to formed of 357s. A second pair has been running through(601/605) for the past week or so. This usually forms the 07:39 from Shoeburyness in the AM & then the 17:43...

There was a rubber stamping cabinet meeting on Wednesday morning to formally approve. But realistically any resistance wouldn't have been worth while, Sunak's distaste of public transport is fairly well known.

That's interesting, is there parliamentary time do do that before the election(assuming Autumn 2024)?

Wouldn't surprise me at this stage! The government will want to make Labour look as bad as possible in advance of the election. Something along the lines of 'labour will spend billions reinstating HS2 when it could fund X nurses in Y brand new hospitals'. Even though we all know capital funding...

As we're 12 month or so from an election I'm taking this with a pinch of salt. A future government could reinstate parts of the project, especially given how anti rail Sunak is.

Looks like it's running the 17:16 from Fenchurch Street - Shoeburyness https://www.realtimetrains.co.uk/service/gb-nr:G81130/2023-09-27#allox_id=0 then going into Shoeburyness CSD afterwards.

I'd be surprised if this leads anywhere. I don't think the government has any interest in sorting these industrial disputes(either rail or NHS) before the election. Gives the perfect opportunity to be seen as squaring up to the unions.