You also get 2 out of 5 Tunbridge Wells' allocations as 10-car Networkers (the other 3 being 8-car) Mon-Thu. 707s are not cleared to Tunbridge Wells, and I'm guessing 376s are not either. The two 10-car are allocated to the 17:26 and 17:56 departures from Charing X, which are rammed to Orpington, so goodness knows how bad they are if those extra 2 coaches are not there.
You have a point there, however I believe Tunbridge Wells services are eventually going to be 12 car 377s once they arrive. (Tunbridge Wells and Ashford are the main lines 377s will run on, I think).
377 formations are restricted to 8 cars at Tunbridge Wells because 12 cars won't fit in the siding
I heard they are going onto the Gillingham and Ashford ones, not Tunbridge Wells due to the need for some 10-cars on the latter and their stabling locations not being Electrostar dominant. Unless SE have changed this.
Technically trains don't have to turn round in the siding, but most of them do so yes that'll be an issue.
It was originally mentioned as including Tunbridge Wells line alongside Maidstone East, more recent output has focused on Maidstone East only. It's possible that was a communication mixup rather than intended, replacing 10-car Networkers always seemed a weird use of 377s.
SE is getting the 377s from Southern as they are going to be replacing the networkers that run to Kent, and the networkers are only going to be doing the metro routes before the new trains are in customer service at the earliest October 2027. I am guessing that after that, the 377s will be going back to Southern railway including the 377/5s.
I was more talking about their recent reliability issues. Sorry, I should have made that clearer.
Nothing suggests that will happen. The 377s moving to Southeastern would appear to be all about reducing the size of the order needed for Networker replacement and ensuring it can be a 'proper metro train'.
There are certain routes though that could do with stock that has a comfy interior and high acceleration. These include Gillingham stoppers from Victoria, the Medway valley and Sheerness branches, and even the Maidstone East line services that are all stations Otford-Ashford. If the new Metro fleet to be ordered has a 90-100mph top speed across all units, all that would be needed is to refurbish a portion of them to do these longer but frequent calling point services, similar to how the 465/9s got put on these routes with a refurbed interior. 375s and 377s do not accelerate very well at low speeds, so are not as optimal for high calling patterns.
newsroom.southeasternrailway.co.uk
How do you know? I did a freedom of information request with SE railway and the reply I got is that they are going to order from 350 to 640 new carriages. So, even those, I am just guessing on my part. What is the evidence that suggest that will happen?
I don't. We are both guessing.
350 carriages wouldn't be enough to directly replace the 388 BREL 465s carriages. We don't know what the 640 is designed to replace. There must be more than one permutation at play.
Confirming that Tunbridge Wells' will remain Networker-dominated, with the all 10-car uplift being welcome and needed (there are definitely not enough 3-car 375s to form 5x 10 carriage trains and maintain the branch line workings). If 8/13 additional 377s are going to the Maidstone East line, this suggests the Gillingham stopper route won't be all Electrostar as I don't think 5 will be enough, particularly if not all 13 are used daily (looking at the summary I'm willing to bet the 06:45 and 18:12 services will be ones becoming 377 that are not currently).Official announcement from Southeastern
Southeastern introduces timetable boost from May with newer trains and more carriages to support a growing railway
A new and improved timetable starting from Sunday 18 May will add extra capacity to provide more space on the busiest services More of the newer Class 377 Electrostar trains are coming in to improve the customer experience. Extra space to help to support 10 million extra journeys over the next...
Here are the relevant bits for this thread:
Do the 376s and especially the 707s really need to be replaced in the long term?
It would be a daft situation if SE then went another 20 years operating 3 types of metro trains, the 376s, 707s and "2027 stock", before in 2047 then replacing just the 376s and 707s with a new train, that operates alongside the 2027 stock!
SWR
I do imagine a major issue is that the various types are so different, rather than variations of Mk1 EMUs or variations of Electrostars.
I've definitely noticed more 4 cars over the past few weeks/months, and looking up SE's formation updates some days confirms it is not intentional and is due to faults with the trains.
I am not 100% sure but are the SE 377s not maintained by Selhurst despite changing operators ?.
The short forms were formed of Networkers, not Electrostars.
There was also an 11 car service from Ramsgate shortened to 3
On the diagram page, I checked, and all the services short formed except for the 21:15 to Victoria were diagrammed as 377s, so any Networkers on those runs were substitutes. The Ramsgate service was a 375.
I'm not sure either.
The cascade needs 379s to be introduced into service, which isn't all by May.
