Abellio Greater Anglia Class 755s (Regional Trains)

[dk1]

Busy on 17:50 although a Stansted Express 745 with a coach locked out.

They are getting busier in the mornings too, 7:05 was full, but I don't know there's enough Rolling stock to increase services without putting 720s on

No there isn’t really. The 06:28/18:10 were always planned to be 720s based at Norwich with another based there too. All changed during the pandemic.

 

[RailWonderer]

No there isn’t really. The 06:28/18:10 were always planned to be 720s based at Norwich with another based there too. All changed during the pandemic.

26/38 755s are operating all the regionals, but tripling up two diagrams for the Norwich IC isn't leaving any spare so they will have to use 720s, or stretch 755 use to the point we might start to see shortforms or cancellations.

 

[dk1]

26/38 755s are operating all the regionals, but tripling up two diagrams for the Norwich IC isn't leaving any spare so they will have to use 720s, or stretch 755 use to the point we might start to see shortforms or cancellations.

No plans to train Anglia Railways crews at Norwich or Ipswich so nothing on the horizon.

 

[Adrian1980uk]

No there isn’t really. The 06:28/18:10 were always planned to be 720s based at Norwich with another based there too. All changed during the pandemic.

Maybe they'll have to revert back to plan, we're probably not quite there yet, possible that they can squeeze another diagram if they recast the timetable using the better performance of the newer stock

 

[dk1]

Maybe they'll have to revert back to plan, we're probably not quite there yet, possible that they can squeeze another diagram if they recast the timetable using the better performance of the newer stock

Nothing will happen now until December or even next May.

 

[chubs]

Why is the 745 availability still so poor? Or is it the extra Stansted diagrams taking up extra units?

 

[Trainbike46]

Why is the 745 availability still so poor? Or is it the extra Stansted diagrams taking up extra units?

For the Norwich service, weren't they planning on requiring fewer diagrams after a recast - which has not happened at present - so they ordered 10 units that now have to cover 10 diagrams

 

[Bald Rick]

Why is the 745 availability still so poor? Or is it the extra Stansted diagrams taking up extra units?

that’s the dirty little secret no one wants to talk about.

 

[Adrian1980uk]

that’s the dirty little secret no one wants to talk about.

Is it totally that or is it so few units ordered, when you compare they had 15 class 90 sets to cover a similar number of diagrams.
If you work on purely availablity statistics then you could argue that 9 will always be available but we all know that failures don't happen in nice intervals, sods law that you'll have 1 in planned maintenance and then be hit with 2 failures, suddenly down to 7 sets.

Having said that, we are where we are and solutions are being found, look at the GA performance stats. When I look at the boards GA are nearly always top for on time etc, admittedly this is in scientific in the fact it's a glance as I walk past them.

 

[TT-ONR-NRN]

that’s the dirty little secret no one wants to talk about.

Precisely. I personally see a clear bias. Everyone wants to complain about the 80x reliability because they don’t like the Fainsa Sophia seats and they don’t like the fact they replaced HSTs, or whatever - everyone seems to think the sun shines out of the FLIRTS gasboxes re. interior and level boarding etc, and thus ignores the fact the 755s were terrible bedding in (thankfully way more of them ordered than diagrams need), the 745 availability is poor, and here in Cardiff the 231s are being taken out of service and swiftly swapped with other ones daily. Almost all Rhymneys are being delayed with Ruth citing it as “more trains than usual requiring repair”. (As 150s do not work on the route anymore, this is nothing to do with 175s, btw)

Would have been very interesting to see how reliable the formerly planned 755 worked Lowestoft Londons were.

 

[dk1]

Why is the 745 availability still so poor? Or is it the extra Stansted diagrams taking up extra units?

Don't forget 720s should have been operating a peak diagram from/to Norwich and all day on Saturdays.

The original plan gave very little wriggle room in the 745 fleet should any trains be stopped for anything other than booked maintenance.

The original plan gave very little wriggle room in the 745 fleet should any trains be stopped for anything other than booked maintenance.

 

[43096]

Don't forget 720s should have been operating a peak diagram from/to Norwich and all day on Saturdays.

720s shouldn’t be allowed anywhere near Norwich. They’re garbage and totally unfit for that route.

Had a run with one to Stansted last weekend:
- appalling ride quality
- seat layout is really poor
- seats far too hard; feel like they have no padding
- poor build quality, lots of rattles. But you’d expect that from Derby…

 

[Adrian1980uk]

Do we have any recent stats to show the availablity of 745s and 755, is reliability an issue here or not.

Compared with other TOCs, GA don't seem to be cancelling services

 

[Railperf]

Do we have any recent stats to show the availablity of 745s and 755, is reliability an issue here or not.

Compared with other TOCs, GA don't seem to be cancelling services

Availability of 745's should be okay. GA are still running fewer Stansted services than before and fewer Intercity services. Also there are no Norwich in 90 trains either. On weekdays there are quite a few 745's parked up at Orient way between the peaks. So no perceived shortage of units. People dobhave short memories and forget how the Class 86 hauled sets were suffering multiple failures. Ecen the class 90's were appaling when they first arrived in 2004.

 

[Adrian1980uk]

Availability of 745's should be okay. GA are still running fewer Stansted services than before and fewer Intercity services. Also there are no Norwich in 90 trains either. On weekdays there are quite a few 745's parked up at Orient way between the peaks. So no perceived shortage of units. People dobhave short memories and forget how the Class 86 hauled sets were suffering multiple failures. Ecen the class 90's were appaling when they first arrived in 2004.

That really was my point, 755s struggled for the first few months but they turned that around quickly and I assume they've done the same with the 745s but there seems a perception of unreliability that I'm not sure is true.

Fewer services than before is true but we know the Norwich to London was always planned to be supported by other parts of the fleet.

 

[chubs]

Precisely. I personally see a clear bias. Everyone wants to complain about the 80x reliability because they don’t like the Fainsa Sophia seats and they don’t like the fact they replaced HSTs, or whatever - everyone seems to think the sun shines out of the FLIRTS gasboxes re. interior and level boarding etc, and thus ignores the fact the 755s were terrible bedding in (thankfully way more of them ordered than diagrams need), the 745 availability is poor, and here in Cardiff the 231s are being taken out of service and swiftly swapped with other ones daily. Almost all Rhymneys are being delayed with Ruth citing it as “more trains than usual requiring repair”. (As 150s do not work on the route anymore, this is nothing to do with 175s, btw)

Would have been very interesting to see how reliable the formerly planned 755 worked Lowestoft Londons were.

New stock always has issues bedding in, if there's more serious issues with the 745's we're not being told. With that said the 745's are still 100,000x better than life expired clapped out junk such as mk3's and the 755's are also a magnitude of improvement greater than what they replaced. As a frequent traveller when aforementioned mk3 junk came over from Virgin it frequently had issues requiring sets to be withdrawn and / or trips cancelled too, the refresh eeked a tiny bit more life out of them but they were very problematic for a while.

I'd have thought with the extra Stansted units or even subbing some Stansted trips for 720's there would be enough 745's to cover most Norwich runs?

 

[Wivenswold]

Precisely. I personally see a clear bias. Everyone wants to complain about the 80x reliability because they don’t like the Fainsa Sophia seats and they don’t like the fact they replaced HSTs, or whatever - everyone seems to think the sun shines out of the FLIRTS gasboxes re. interior and level boarding etc, and thus ignores the fact the 755s were terrible bedding in (thankfully way more of them ordered than diagrams need), the 745 availability is poor, and here in Cardiff the 231s are being taken out of service and swiftly swapped with other ones daily. Almost all Rhymneys are being delayed with Ruth citing it as “more trains than usual requiring repair”. (As 150s do not work on the route anymore, this is nothing to do with 175s, btw)

Would have been very interesting to see how reliable the formerly planned 755 worked Lowestoft Londons were.

The IET are a bargain-basement unit which, like the 700s, shows you what happens when Whitehall decides on a train specification.
While comfy, spacious seats and level boarding may not be an issue for a young, healthy 1st class traveller like yourself, they are important features for many.
Purely based on my own experiences the Flirts are far nicer to use than the 800s, even our 720s are more comfortable for my achy body.

 

[Adrian1980uk]

The IET are a bargain-basement unit which, like the 700s, shows you what happens when Whitehall decides on a train specification.
While comfy, spacious seats and level boarding may not be an issue for a young, healthy 1st class traveller like yourself, they are important features for many.
Purely based on my own experiences the Flirts are far nicer to use than the 800s, even our 720s are more comfortable for my achy body.

Totally agree, we can pick faults but overall as I see it, Greater Anglia region has some of the best services in the country currently, the FLIRTs passenger environment is good by new train standards. Turn up for your train it's more likely to run on time and actually run (same can't be said for other operators).

I believe it's been mentioned on here GA are one of the few TOCs actually breaking even / paying into the treasury.

There is always improvements to be made but if you take a high level view, post COVID it's a good news story here that's the railways don't get published for

 

[Alfie1014]

GA have been responding on Twitter in more detail on service changes this week rather than the previous Train Planning and the Leadership team are looking at it. Here’s one about Norwich in 90. It confirms no plan to return as never loaded above 50% and rewrite for June 24. Also refers to DfT oversight which is as we know the answer to question no one will say!

 

[bahnause]

That really was my point, 755s struggled for the first few months but they turned that around quickly and I assume they've done the same with the 745s but there seems a perception of unreliability that I'm not sure is true.

According to the data published in modern railways, the class 745 is in the normal range.

 

[TT-ONR-NRN]

GA have been responding on Twitter in more detail on service changes this week rather than the previous Train Planning and the Leadership team are looking at it. Here’s one about Norwich in 90. It confirms no plan to return as never loaded above 50% and rewrite for June 24. Also refers to DfT oversight which is as we know the answer to question no one will say!

26 hours for Twitter to get back to you is appalling enough, let alone 26 days.

 

[RailWonderer]

720s shouldn’t be allowed anywhere near Norwich. They’re garbage and totally unfit for that route.

Had a run with one to Stansted last weekend:
- appalling ride quality
- seat layout is really poor
- seats far too hard; feel like they have no padding
- poor build quality, lots of rattles. But you’d expect that from Derby…

They ride like a kitchen dinner tray on wheels.
I think with more 720s deployed on Stansted it should leave enough 745s for Norwich with only one or two pairs of 755s needed, so there is slack in both Stadler fleets.

GA have been responding on Twitter in more detail on service changes this week rather than the previous Train Planning and the Leadership team are looking at it. Here’s one about Norwich in 90. It confirms no plan to return as never loaded above 50% and rewrite for June 24. Also refers to DfT oversight which is as we know the answer to question no one will say!

The 17:00 down could be sped up to make a Norwich in 90 service and the 08:30 up service could be sped up as well in a recast, making a seperate Ni90 diagram redundant.

 

[Adrian1980uk]

They ride like a kitchen dinner tray on wheels.
I think with more 720s deployed on Stansted it should leave enough 745s for Norwich with only one or two pairs of 755s needed, so there is slack in both Stadler fleets.

The 17:00 down could be sped up to make a Norwich in 90 service and the 08:30 up service could be sped up as well in a recast, making a seperate Ni90 diagram redundant.

Not a fan of token services, I know harder to do but I'd prefer majority were 1hour 40mins for example so more benefit. There is slack in timetable to do this but clearly its the paths between Ipswich and Liverpool Street. Basically seems a gentle cruise from Liverpool Street to Colchester in the evening - my guess following a stopper or frieght train, end of the day there is only so much capacity on those sections.

 

[TT-ONR-NRN]

720s shouldn’t be allowed anywhere near Norwich. They’re garbage and totally unfit for that route.

Had a run with one to Stansted last weekend:
- appalling ride quality
- seat layout is really poor
- seats far too hard; feel like they have no padding
- poor build quality, lots of rattles. But you’d expect that from Derby…

So they have started sending them to Stansted then.

 

[43096]

So they have started sending them to Stansted then.

It was on the 0340 from Liverpool Street, so probably not an indicator of use through the day.

 

[F Great Eastern]

So they have started sending them to Stansted then.

They have been running for many months. Last year there were some days when the Stansted Express didn't have a single 745 on it and instead had 720s and 317s!

 

[dk1]

They have been running for many months. Last year there were some days when the Stansted Express didn't have a single 745 on it and instead had 720s and 317s!

Plenty good enough

 

[F Great Eastern]

Plenty good enough

The 720s would be alright if the aisle wasn't so narrow. The narrow aisle is annoying on commuter services, but it's completely unsuitable for Stansted Express.

Should be mostly 2+2.

 

[dk1]

The 720s would be alright if the aisle wasn't so narrow. The narrow aisle is annoying on commuter services, but it's completely unsuitable for Stansted Express.

Should be mostly 2+2.

Just needs the twenty or so 720s surplus to requirement’s to be modified internally for Airport duties but the DfT are far too tight and/or useless to commit to the common sense approach.

 

[bspahh]

The 720s would be alright if the aisle wasn't so narrow. The narrow aisle is annoying on commuter services, but it's completely unsuitable for Stansted Express.

Should be mostly 2+2.

At the very least, the handles should be moved from the side of the seats to the top. The gap between the seats is narrow enough, that saving a few extra cm would make a significant difference to the speed that people can get on and off.