Rail Way

any truth that ex first md dave kaye has been brought in to shake them up. apparently abellio senior management are not happy with greater anglia.

I am surprised that you come out with this comment. As you are aware, the rural services mostly run out of Ipswich and Norwich. Both of those stations have wires and part of the route that some of the rural routes take out of those station is under wires as well - not the whole routes but parts of them. Until the fleet transformation started, they had to use diesel from terminus to terminus. Now part of the route on some of these services is electrified so they can use the wires when this is the case and when they are switching to a non electrified section, switch to diesel. This means a reduction of fuel usage, is better for the environment and should also mean better performance since the switch between electric and battery mode on these state of the art trains is quick and easily performed.

Indeed and this is what I have been trying to point out but few are willing to listen. Anyway, lets see what the next few days bring - hopefully Network Rail will discover what the problem is and fix it.

As you may be aware, unfortunately Greater Anglia, like any company applying for planning permission, does not have control of the planning system and in this country people are able to make objections to planning permission for very obscure and self serving reasons and you also have plenty of Nimbys about who would object to anything. Unfortunately companies can never be sure that planning permission will be granted as people have become more and more clever in order to create sophisticated arguments in order to get planning permission blocked for a project they don't want to go ahead. I hardly think you can blame Greater anglia for that. In relation to the rural branchlines having too long trains, I do not believe this is true and there is nothing that states that it is. It was clearly a deliberate ploy to order a mixture of 3 car and 4 car units as this gives operational flexibility and whilst there are some places that the four car units cannot fit, the three car units will do. Door positioning on the 755s also has taken into account platform lengths and of course there is also cutting edge technology on board these new state of the art trains that ensures that if a train does hang off a platform, only doors fully within the platform are able to open. In relation to fuel, what is often misunderstood is the 755 services are bi-mode units and can run on electricity as well as conventional diesel. Some of the lines that the new fleet run on are partly electrified, so will only be using fuel for the sections where there are no wires, unlike the legacy much higher polluting fleet that required running under diesel even on sections of the route where there were wired provided. This will help the environment as well as use less fuel than the aging, heavier polluting trains they are replacing.

It is good that there is at least one wise man around here. People are doing exactly as you say, making assumptions that the train is the problem when in reality the trains, both old and new, are not being picked up by the signalling system which points to a flaw with the system which has now come to the fore, perhaps through general wear and tear and heavy usage. Since there have been many test trains run to roll out the new fleet as well as the normal scheduled journeys, this would have subjected the infrastructure to increased usage compared to previous years, which may be a factor in why these problems did not happen in previous years.

This is merely speculation, the kind that the MD quite rightly called out recently. How do you know that Stadler didn't do there part and the system was compatible with this so called obscure method and instead the problem is actually with the equipment specified by Network Rail that is not performing as expected? Once again, I doubt you will show me any proof that Stadler had a design flaw, more spoofing basically.

I am an interested observer, I do not have any vested interests. I just am not a fan of conspiracy theories, that's all. In relation to the 360s the Aventra units will be newer and have more comfortable seating, USB power sockets and Wifi and will benefit from faster acceleration, walk through gangways, better passenger information systems and are longer than the 360s which have the drawback of being well worn and with no corridor connections. I'm not sure what you think, but I happen to think that's a significant upgrade whilst at the same time supporting British jobs, which is very important.

I do not work in the rail industry and I never have, I am merely an interested observer. I have no connection with any company involved in this matter so have zero conflict of interest. I am simply being a big supporter of rail travel being transformed in East Anglia as the result of Greater Anglia's groundbreaking plan to replace all the legacy rolling stock with new build stock, which has never been done before by any other operator. After East Anglia being neglected by operators for many years, it is about time it was our turn. Anyway, I can take a hint that my input is not welcome here so this will be my last post.

The parent company clearly has faith in the management of Greater Anglia. If they were that concerned then I'm sure they would make a change, but they haven't because perhaps management are actually doing a good job considering the difficult circumstances that they have found themselves in?

Ancient History more like. Here's the latest: https://www.northnorfolknews.co.uk/news/no-date-train-disruption-norwich-sheringham-line-1-6428472?fbclid=IwAR1a-5-AIyThc7cR71klwLBmZ8PGSuonbr94YjM0NG-XHGyvHKdYhJWTfd0 The bits in bold might be useful for the know-it-alls here.

I will tell you the same as I told your friend on the previous page. Greater Anglia and Network Rail, the train operator of this region and the infrastructure provider has stated that there are signalling issues and Greater Anglia has recently as today said there is a fault with the signalling system on their social media pages and their train updates. Do you think that these people are lying. A simple yes or no will suffice. It is not up to me to prove that what you say is incorrect. It is up to you to prove that you are correct and you have failed to do so yet again and are trying to turn the burden of proof on to me which is a typical fallacy that is used by people who simply have nothing to back their wafer thin argument up. I can see right through you, I'm sure others can too, it seems GA certainly can, since their message on Friday on their FAQ seemed to suggest they're well aware of the rubbish that is being spouted.

In relation to Felixstowe services that were cancelled a fair bit last month this was the result of unfortunate incidents. The problem is many of the rural lines are exactly that and the weather hasn't been great this year. Flooding and a number of vehicles hitting animals and vandalism incidents have resulted in the Greater Anglia DMU fleet being very stretched for a number of months now. This was down to sheer bad luck and there's nothing that Greater Anglia could do about this, when your luck is out and your luck is out. We should not hold a number of freak incidents against Greater Anglia, since the whole idea of ordering the new fleet is to give more redundancy - to prevent this kind of issue in the future and this order will certainly do that, with longer carriages, more comfortable seats, USB sockets, more tables, high speed Wifi and far better passenger amenities. Rail is being transformed in this region and instead of moaning about first world problems, maybe we should realise how lucky we are, when you compare some of the other franchise owning groups who would never even think of doing such a massive step change transformation. Stadler are a well proven train building company and have made FLIRTS all around the world and many repeat customers. If they were so bad as you say they are and everyone else was having problems how would this be the case? The rolling stock market is competitive, you don't win the number of orders that Stadler do if your work is sub standard. Perhaps there's a little bit of sour grapes here because that they were not built in the UK and that is why the anti Stadler vibe? Of course Network Rail will have to fix things at great cost to make the trains run, because passengers deserve to be able to depend on their train service and to enjoy the new features of state of the art rolling stock. If the signalling system worked perfectly then Network Rail wouldn't have to spend this money, but the system doesn't work perfectly so Network Rail need to invest time and money on fixing the issues with the signalling system.

I bet there were conspiracy theorists in the 70s as well, although at least the internet didn't exist so they couldn't spread so easily.

Why would it cost Greater Anglia a fortune? The infrastructure is owned by Network Rail and it is their responsibility for it's upkeep. The fault with the signalling system on the Norwich to Sherringham line is apparently so bad that the whole line might have to have the signalling system changed to a system as used on other lines in the country which are not suffering problems, from what I have heard because there are serious issues with both new and legacy stock being picked up But apparently it's the new trains of course....

If you want to produce a document with some proof that what they say is correct, based on actual evidence rather than your opinion and what you perceive, by all means go ahead and I'll be happy to consider it. Think I'll be waiting a long time though. At the end of the day we've been through all of this before and this idea that Greater Anglia isn't being honest is a bit farcical and as I've said before, if you are going to make such claims you need to back them up since people who make damaging accusations about companies have in the past found themselves in hot water.