Why can't Greater Anglia increase the length of busy trains e.g. 2 car to 3 car?

[Adrian1980uk]

Had to drop my wife off at Norwich station today just after the football match and I noticed the class 37 service to yarmouth (better capacity) as it's going to be busy, then I look at the cambridge service being a 2 car 156 and the platform is packed - why wouldn't AGA move heaven and earth to make this a 3 car 170 service knowing it would be busy. It was full and the recommendation was to take the east Midlands service and change trains.
I feel this is an opportunity to impress to people who don't normally take the train, instead it was putting people off.
Obviously AGA will probably say jam tomorrow with new trains but I do wonder if it could have been avoided, there may well have been a train failure causing it?

 

[LowLevel]

Had to drop my wife off at Norwich station today just after the football match and I noticed the class 37 service to yarmouth (better capacity) as it's going to be busy, then I look at the cambridge service being a 2 car 156 and the platform is packed - why wouldn't AGA move heaven and earth to make this a 3 car 170 service knowing it would be busy. It was full and the recommendation was to take the east Midlands service and change trains.
I feel this is an opportunity to impress to people who don't normally take the train, instead it was putting people off.
Obviously AGA will probably say jam tomorrow with new trains but I do wonder if it could have been avoided, there may well have been a train failure causing it?

Their DMU fleet has no slack in it. There wouldn't be a class 156 on that service unless something had already gone wrong somewhere, they're all booked for 3 car class 170s.

 

[adamedwards]

And the new trains are coming, just not built yet.

 

[chubs]

Because they don't have any extra trains. If they did the clapped out hauled junk wouldn't be running at all. The Norwich - Cambridge usually is a 3 car 170.

Luckily the rural stock is pretty much the only stock that has been delivered, and at 3 and 4 car lengths everything should get some extra capacity.

 

[chubs]

And the new trains are coming, just not built yet.

Lots of rural units (and one stan ex) not only built but already delivered and testing in the East. New arrivals seem quite quick and regular.

The other stock is the one that everything is quiet on.

 

[Adrian1980uk]

Because they don't have any extra trains. If they did the clapped out hauled junk wouldn't be running at all. The Norwich - Cambridge usually is a 3 car 170.

Luckily the rural stock is pretty much the only stock that has been delivered, and at 3 and 4 car lengths everything should get some extra capacity.

My point was that normally cambridge is 3 car but my thinking is there was a failure but was it impossible to switch one of the the other 3 car 170s running between cambridge and Norwich to this particular diagram as it was known to be one of the busiest of the day, dare I say the busiest.

 

[Sleepy]

This was caused by failure of the booked 170. The other 170's would have been out on other diagrams by then.

 

[Aictos]

This was caused by failure of the booked 170. The other 170's would have been out on other diagrams by then.

Indeed and two points to note which are:

1. Nobody can magic a train out of nowhere even if one wanted to.

2. Greater Anglia could have been in a position where NO train of any kind was available and the service was cancelled thoughout, thankfully a train was resourced that despite having less capacity then the diagrammed train was still a train that ran.

Also as others have stated, new trains are coming which I believe makes existing 2 cars to 3 cars and 3 cars to 4 cars which is a welcomed increase in capacity on all rural routes.

 

[43096]

2-car 170 on Friday when I was on the 1609 Cambridge-Norwich, which was utterly inadequate for the task. The 4-car FLIRTs cannot come soon enough.

 

[306024]

Demand has been outstripping supply for a while now on some services. Having hourly Norwich - Cambridge, Cambridge - Ipswich and Ipswich - Lowestoft services has put a strain on the very mixed DMU fleet, but it is that frequency that has led to the demand in many cases. Arguably a victim of its own success, but yes the new trains will transform all that.

As for swapping units, obviously you need two trains in the same place at the same time to effect a swap. The Cambridge - Norwich diagrams pass near Shippea Hill and Harling Road so not sure how you would do that! The closest 2 x 3 car 170s get is at Cambridge, but a swap there would delay a Cambridge - Ipswich service which then won’t work on the single line at Newmarket. And even if it did you still need enough fuel in the units to see out their diagrams. None of this is as simple as it may appear.

 

[Harpers Tate]

Because they don't have any extra trains.......

....Nobody can magic a train out of nowhere even if one wanted to.

Indeed. However, what will happen is that, as new trains come on stream, older trains will be placed "off lease" and/or scrapped. I note elsewhere that the fleet replacement going on at TPE will result in a number of (perfectly good) 3-car 185s going off lease - with no immediately planned future role. And this is utterly dumb!

In other words, the very process of fleet replacement could (if there were the will - and I mean at both TOC and political levels) generate the slack that is needed to cater for predictable peak demands - sport events, music festivals, christmas markets etc., etc. But no - despite the potential for enough "spare" capacity we'll carry on running things on such a thin knife-edge, there will continue ad infinitum to be this dismal inability to handle demand.

 

[DarloRich]

Had to drop my wife off at Norwich station today just after the football match and I noticed the class 37 service to yarmouth (better capacity) as it's going to be busy, then I look at the cambridge service being a 2 car 156 and the platform is packed - why wouldn't AGA move heaven and earth to make this a 3 car 170 service knowing it would be busy. It was full and the recommendation was to take the east Midlands service and change trains.
I feel this is an opportunity to impress to people who don't normally take the train, instead it was putting people off.
Obviously AGA will probably say jam tomorrow with new trains but I do wonder if it could have been avoided, there may well have been a train failure causing it?

the simple answer is that GA don't have any extra trains nor are extra trains easily available

Indeed. However, what will happen is that, as new trains come on stream, older trains will be placed "off lease" and/or scrapped. I note elsewhere that the fleet replacement going on at TPE will result in a number of (perfectly good) 3-car 185s going off lease - with no immediately planned future role. And this is utterly dumb!

but they aren't going to go for scrap are they? i am sure they will find a new home in no time. They are good units.