Hardly halfway across the country. Even with the faffing through London, Cricklewood to Northampton is substantially shorter than Cricklewood to Derby/Nottingham.
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EMR Class 360's
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The current journey from Northampton to Cricklewood is pathed at over 3 and a half hours.
Excluding the lengthy stops and pathing allowances, it would be over 2 hours.
ECS up the Midland Main Line would be around over 1.5 hours maximum… it’s a no-brainer to avoid the lengthy journey, subcontracting the hauling to GBRF and reducing carbon emissions.
Don’t know, but as I said upthread, EMR are kitting out Bedford Cauldwell Walk to do some of the more simple maintenance activity.
STINT47
Member
When electrification reaches further north an option would-be to make some journeys to Derby and or Nottingham at the start and end of the day 360s. This would get
the units in and out of maintenance
the units in and out of maintenance
bramling
Veteran Member
Doesn’t solve the problem of the units being remote from the Corby service though. They seem to have committed one of the “don’t do”s in arranging a train service, namely having no train crew depot at the location of the rolling stock depot.
Hopefully that will improve things, surprising this wasn’t envisaged at the start. I suspect it won’t be a total solution though.
But, it doesn't help the fact that Northampton is a dedicated Siemens depot. Most if not all of Derby will soon pass over from Bombardier & EMR to Hitachi (who don't exactly enjoy maintaining other manufactures kit), Nottingham is a Diesel depot and will have their hands full with the 158s and 170s. Relocating maintenance away from their operating area to somewhere further away just isn't a practical solution - let alone using up ECS paths just to run (or haul if the fault requires it) to a depot miles away from their core patch. Upgrading Bedford Cauldwell is a far more practical and cost worthy solution. Hopefully it will take some of the pressure off and increase reliability, and make things easier if Siemens requires GB to haul a unit over to it's Northampton EMUD.
43096
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Agreed. It is a shame that Cricklewood isn't still a maintenance depot.
Notice how I never specifically said where on the Midland Main Line - my point is that regardless of whether it’s at Cauldwell, Etches etc, it’ll be a lot easier from an ECS operational perspective to try and ensure maintenance is moved away from Northampton.
Yes I understand it is a Siemens-based depot, but in all honesty what is that achieving currently? Reliability’s still down the toilet - hopefully that will change in due course.
Bit in bold - that's been true of the Corby service ever since its reintroduction though.
The units which operated the Corby services have never been near a maintenance depot. The only difference was the Corby turns were integrated into the Nottinghams. But a unit failure on a Corby turn was never near a maintenance facility.
bramling
Veteran Member
It was a lot easier before though - there was the option to do a swap at St Pancras to get a unit to Etches Park that day. Indeed most diagrams finished there anyway, only a small number of 222/HST diagrams spent the night at the London end (Cricklewood or St Pancras). The 360 setup contrasts rather sharply.
CR165022
Member
360119 has now had Luton Airport Express decals applied
Lewis C
New Member
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Which I believe is temporary and not applied all over due to Luton DART delays. Think there's a coupla pics out there of it at Cricklewood.
I believe one unit had it applied the other day as a publicity thing , due to the king visiting the dart.
TT-ONR-NRN
Veteran Member
May someone please link a picture?
busestrains
On Moderation
Someone posted two photos on their Twitter here:
I have also uploaded the two photos in case anyone can not access Twitter but note they are not my photos.
Attachments
TT-ONR-NRN
Veteran Member
Ahh, so somewhat subtle then compared to what I expected. I reckon once the 360s have been done up a bit inside, whether that’s the promised refurbishment or a disappointing DfT-cut-led refresh, a Luton Express brand could potentially do well.
D365
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Please don't give any ideas.
STINT47
Member
I wonder if they should start charging a premium fare to use the Luton Express service like they do at other London airports? It could help pay for a decent refurbishment for the units.
Kite159
Veteran Member
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Don't give them any ideas. Next if you use contactless from St Pancras high level you get charged double compared to using low level, even on a Sunday morning when Thameslink use the high level platforms
It would be shunned. Luton is a low-cost airport, being an Easyjet hub and quite a large Ryanair base as well. If you're booking on low-cost airlines, you're going to take the cheapest train to the airport.
Mind you, the Stansted express seems to survive and that's not exactly a high-end airline's destination of choice either.
Bletchleyite
Veteran Member
StanEx is a normal semifast train and doesn't carry premium fares. Or bicycles, for some reason I don't get.
I think this actually gives the EMR livery some embellishments it needed - don't get me wrong, I like it, but I think it looks better & a little less plain with the silver and gold Xs!
Perhaps they should start selling slightly more expensive “Luton Express only” tickets, and insist that they’re only valid on the 360s but not the (few) meridians that stop there, despite all being run by the same TOC.
STINT47
Member
They could sell express class upgrade tickets. A few pounds extra for the non stop train, similar to opposite side of St Pancras if you want to use high speed services.
59CosG95
Established Member
I'm fairly sure that Luton Airport Parkway is the first stop on EMR Connect services anyway...
Merle Haggard
Established Member
Sorry if I'm a bit slow, but is the 'Luton Airport Express' just an advert on one set, or is it the new name for the service? If the latter, then presumably 'East Midland Connect' and 'Corby Electrics' will no longer be used.
Just an advert for the DART on one set.
Merle Haggard
Established Member
Thank you.
Correct.
Even if it wasn't then a premium express wouldn't really work at an airport which is mostly leisure travel who will take the cheaper fare. For any business travellers if there company is sending them easyjet/ryanair they probably won't spend the extra on an express to get them there.
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