Post COVID - Shorter trains.

[Ron Ron Ron]

Along with yesterday’s announcement that SouthWesten Railway are abandoning the plan to reintroduce the modified, upgraded and refurbished Class 442 Wessex fleet, was the news that the Class 458’s that will be redeployed to fill the gap, will be shortened from 5 cars, back down to their original 4.

 

Apparently, this shortening is the precursor to a range of such shortenings, affecting a number of train fleets across the U.K..

The word is that XC Super Voyagers are to be reduced to 4 cars and that the 11 and 9 coach West Coast Pendolino fleet is to be reduced to 7 cars.

The proportion of 1st class carriages in the Pendolinos will be increased, due to the expected continuation of social distancing norms and the expectation that there’ll be an increased market for passengers who are prepared to pay extra, to obtain greater separation from their fellow travellers.

Rumours are that the 7 car Pendos will be reconfigured with 5 first class and 2 standard carriages.

 

IET equipped long inter-city and regional services are thought to be adequately provided for, as 5 car trains can operate in singles and because the modular design allows for the 9-car trains to be reduced to 5-cars quite easily. 
Again, the proportion of 1st to standard accommodation is being looked at and refits are being considered.

 

No news yet on regional and local trains, but similar reduction measures are expected.

 

 

.

[Stu from EGDL]

RRR

 

It’s almost too mad to be true...

 

Later,

Stu from EGVN

[Pete the Elaner]

7 minutes ago, Stu from EGDL said:

RRR

 

It’s almost too mad to be true...

 

Later,

Stu from EGVN

 

& its also April 1st 

[Stu from EGDL]

13 minutes ago, Pete the Elaner said:

 

& its also April 1st 

 

I know!!

[Ron Ron Ron]

  

[Edwin_m]

But will the shorter trains still have windows?  

[Ed-farms]

9 minutes ago, Edwin_m said:

But will the shorter trains still have windows?  

 

Yes but they will be at knee height not noraml height owing to the shorter trains

[locomad2]

Not surprised there is a group on Facebook who watch while sea fishing north Wales trains, most claim not a single passenger on any for whole of lockdown. I agree as often see on walks dozen trains a day, often not a single passenger 

[zarniwhoop]

4 hours ago, locomad2 said:

Not surprised there is a group on Facebook who watch while sea fishing north Wales trains, most claim not a single passenger on any for whole of lockdown. I agree as often see on walks dozen trains a day, often not a single passenger 

Maybe the passengers are shorter, and below the windows ?

[andyman7]

You missed the bit about shortening the Class 153s. Apparently they will be chopped in half so that 3 seating bays can be removed then joined back together again 

[locomad2]

19 hours ago, zarniwhoop said:

Maybe the passengers are shorter, and below the windows ?

 

Well knowing someone who works on railway as a guard admits it's a very lonely journey, perhaps a pre beeching era. When someone realises just how little the trains and busses for that matter are used prehaps all gone in a few years. Not easy to buy a ticket, security guard wont let you on platform without a ticket, appt doesn't work, ID checks on travel and written reason required during most lockdown period just put everyone off 

[Wheatley]

Apart from those workplaces which are still open there's nowhere to go on a train at the moment. 

 

They'll be back as soon as the shops and pubs re-open, last summer was a rolling pub crawl in some parts of the north-west. 

[black and decker boy]

20 hours ago, andyman7 said:

You missed the bit about shortening the Class 153s. Apparently they will be chopped in half so that 3 seating bays can be removed then joined back together again 

I’d seen plans for a cut & shut to use the bits left from your ‘upgrade’ to combine the two loo sections and create a public convenience unit, a bit like the Scotrail bike units, which will be added to all of those new toiletless commuter trains on Fri & Sat nights.

 

I dread to think what the themed vinyl wrap will be though. Greatest sewage works of Britain??

[corneliuslundie]

Does that mean I shall be charged an excess for being over 6 ft tall?

J

[Wheatley]

23 hours ago, andyman7 said:

You missed the bit about shortening the Class 153s. Apparently they will be chopped in half so that 3 seating bays can be removed then joined back together again 

In all seriousness, the Northern Spirit Staff Suggestions Scheme once received an idea to turn the newly redundant 141s into centre cars for 142s by sawing them in half and welding the non-cab ends together. There was even  a diagram showing how the sawn-through centre windows in the saloon (!) could be plated over on both sides with perspex to cover the join. Nina, the young lady clerk who administered the scheme,  was crying with laughter when she passed it to me for evaluation. 

Edited April 5, 2021 by Wheatley

[jonny777]

I find the thread title somewhat over-optimistic, with the implication that there will be a "post-covid" time. 

 

I don't think the virus will ever go away. It is far too easily transmissible for that. I suspect it will recede into the background at times, only to re-ignite rapidly when mutations provide it with a way around the various vaccination programmes, coupled with people becoming more likely to ignore simple precautions.  

 

I would have thought that shortening trains, and thereby forcing people to sit closer together, is the opposite of what railway operators ought to be thinking about. The idea of 50% empty seats on trains may cause the accountants to have panic attacks, but from a social distancing point of view this is exactly how services should be run. 

[Edwin_m]

2 hours ago, jonny777 said:

I find the thread title somewhat over-optimistic, with the implication that there will be a "post-covid" time. 

 

I don't think the virus will ever go away. It is far too easily transmissible for that. I suspect it will recede into the background at times, only to re-ignite rapidly when mutations provide it with a way around the various vaccination programmes, coupled with people becoming more likely to ignore simple precautions.  

 

I would have thought that shortening trains, and thereby forcing people to sit closer together, is the opposite of what railway operators ought to be thinking about. The idea of 50% empty seats on trains may cause the accountants to have panic attacks, but from a social distancing point of view this is exactly how services should be run. 

My rather more optimistic view is that although extra vigilance will be needed for new variants, most people will be able to live a fairly normal life most of the time.  There are at least two reasons for hope: the same mutations are turning up independently in different places, suggesting that there is a limited number of viable mutations; and what we have learned about vaccination should make it much quicker to tweak the vaccine for new variants.  

 

Rather than shortening trains, I think commuter operators should re-launch first class as a lower-density seating option.  This would be useful to people who were working part time in offices, quite possibly making their office visits off-peak and working on the train.  Prices would be somewhat more than Standard (which I would keep for essential workers who are lower paid and can't do their work on the train) but a similar cost for someone now using it two or three days each week.  

[corneliuslundie]

Back to C;lub Trains perhaps?

J

[Michael Hodgson]

On 04/04/2021 at 22:47, andyman7 said:

You missed the bit about shortening the Class 153s. Apparently they will be chopped in half so that 3 seating bays can be removed then joined back together again 

The Marketing people call them the Great Little Trains of Wales.

[Hesperus]

That would be a 153 with 2'8.5" chopped out of the middle lengthwise.