Outline design for this is underway, there may be some portal conversions, however the focus of the work at present is to change some crossover configurations on the fast lines, wire grading works and the removal of "shallow curve" registration arms to allow greater OLE uplift.
They could go for longer than that. According to the Sectional Appendix, the first 110mph section is 5m 30ch out of St. Pancras, just north of Cricklewood.
I imagine it's because only end vehicles have a universal access toilet, so the intermediate carriages can make better use of the room to provide more seats and normal toilets.
That's a good point, forgot about that.
In that case, it probably will mean no buffet or maybe less leg room?
I wouldn't be surprised if that happened.
That is going to make it easier to put more seats in.
Don't forget that there is a big over-capacity of first class on the 7-car 222s, which obviously has an impact on the number of seats.
I wonder if they'll use the layout of the other 5-car IETs, and have the composite coach having around 75% of the space as standard class.
There’s a platform length restriction of 240m at St Pancras for a start, so using 24m vehicles makes sense. 5-car sets also make some sense as it is then a standard fleet.
That's true, I think it'll be okay, seeing as the capacity will be comparable to the 7-car units too.
But then you have a non uniform fleet (2 different lengths) that you can't use as efficiently so end up requiring more stock (who would pay for it?).
The capacity of the 5-car is going to be similar to the current 7-car 222s, which may mean a slight reduction on the fast Sheffield trains which use the 7-car 222s, but there also the possibility of a more suitable ratio of 1st and standard class seats.
Thanks!
I doubt that, a lot of work is having to be done to prevent the 804s being slower than the units they replaced. It's likely that the new units will accelerate faster on electric but there aren't many stops in electrified areas on this route so unless/until the whole of the route is electrified, I doubt there'll be any substantial difference, perhaps 1-2 mins might be saved if greater capacity reduces dwell times.
