westie7 Posted May 28, 2014 Share Posted May 28, 2014 On BBC Scotland news this morning http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-scotland-business-27599963 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
(The) Youth Posted May 28, 2014 Share Posted May 28, 2014 More info here http://www.serco.com/media/pressreleases/SercoselectedfornewCaledonianSleeperrailfranchise.asp New Stock from CAF Introduction Of Pod Bed/Seats Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium brushman47544 Posted May 28, 2014 RMweb Premium Share Posted May 28, 2014 Introduction Of Pod Bed/Seats Oh no... With the airline versions at least, not one has ever been long enough. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fenman Posted May 28, 2014 Share Posted May 28, 2014 En suite berths. Great news. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
darrel Posted May 28, 2014 Share Posted May 28, 2014 So will that be class 88s under the wires, class 68s north of Edinburgh and class 73s to fort William? Or if DRS are supplying all the traction the return of the class 37/4 to the west highland line? Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold Accurascale Fran Posted May 28, 2014 RMweb Gold Share Posted May 28, 2014 Considering what a rip-roaring success the recent CAF coaches have been here on Dublin - Cork services I fear the worst. The ride is that bad on our stock that I'd pity anyone trying to get a nights sleep on it! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cornish Triang Paul Posted May 28, 2014 Share Posted May 28, 2014 Don't expect a follow-on order for Cornwall............ . Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fenman Posted May 28, 2014 Share Posted May 28, 2014 More info here http://www.serco.com/media/pressreleases/SercoselectedfornewCaledonianSleeperrailfranchise.asp New Stock from CAF ... I'm enjoying the double-speak in Serco's press release. Apparently "Serco also plans to promote and support Scottish enterprise by sourcing local products and produce from small and medium-sized businesses". It's interesting that they're only concerned with supporting businesses in one of the two countries that the Sleeper serves: not sure that's good for marketing. But what's particularly funny is how, having written that, they manage to go on at great length about their exciting new train being manufactured by CAF, without once mentioning that it will be built in Spain while they ignore UK small and medium-sized train manufacturing businesses. So Serco's vision appears to be that the UK will be a nation of brewers, beef farmers and raspberry growers, while all the high-tech manufacturing is done elsewhere. Intriguing. Paul Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
lmsforever Posted May 28, 2014 Share Posted May 28, 2014 It will bee interesting to see how many berths there are in a coach taking into account the ensuite ,perhaps the stock will be articulated and obviously will be light weight all in all an interesting time for our railway.How come no follow on for Cornwall Paul? Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold The Stationmaster Posted May 28, 2014 RMweb Gold Share Posted May 28, 2014 I really do wonder about the new vehicles - and just how many they will get for that sort of money. Thus I treat Serco's 'news' with considerable circumspection until we see how it translates into real rolling stock because building vehicles of the sort they are talking about to fit into the UK loading gauge is not a simple, as the 'Nightstar' vehicles ordered by ENS showed all too clearly with coaches containing over 1 mile of wiring and a maze of small bore plumbing all of which added to axle loading at an ever increasing rate. I wonder what the maximum permitted axle loading is on the West Highland line nowadays. Oh and will the new 'club car' offer as good a range of malts as the present one? Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Glorious NSE Posted May 28, 2014 Share Posted May 28, 2014 Don't expect a follow-on order for Cornwall............ . On the positive side, sourcing a few serviceable spare Mk3s for that one should become a good deal easier... Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
shortliner Posted May 28, 2014 Share Posted May 28, 2014 OH,DEAR! 'Nuff said! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
'CHARD Posted May 28, 2014 Share Posted May 28, 2014 I'm enjoying the double-speak in Serco's press release. Apparently "Serco also plans to promote and support Scottish enterprise by sourcing local products and produce from small and medium-sized businesses". It's interesting that they're only concerned with supporting businesses in one of the two countries that the Sleeper serves: not sure that's good for marketing. Paul In fairness to SERCO, the ITT explicitly required bidders to state how they would maximise Scottish content. There was a score attached to this - however, the weighting won't have been particularly heavy! So will that be class 88s under the wires, class 68s north of Edinburgh and class 73s to fort William? Or if DRS are supplying all the traction the return of the class 37/4 to the west highland line? I haven't found reference to the use of DRS traction anywhere. I suspect the 73s may well be correct, but not the other two classes you mention. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
pete_mcfarlane Posted May 28, 2014 Share Posted May 28, 2014 In fairness to SERCO, the ITT explicitly required bidders to state how they would maximise Scottish content. There was a score attached to this - however, the weighting won't have been particularly heavy! I encountered this with one of my previous employers on Scotish Public sector IT contracts. It actually cost the customer more to have the high level of Scottish content they wanted. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold The Stationmaster Posted May 28, 2014 RMweb Gold Share Posted May 28, 2014 In fairness to SERCO, the ITT explicitly required bidders to state how they would maximise Scottish content. There was a score attached to this - however, the weighting won't have been particularly heavy! I haven't found reference to the use of DRS traction anywhere. I suspect the 73s may well be correct, but not the other two classes you mention. Re-engineered Class 73s on the West Highland - that could be extremely interesting as one (certainly this 'one') wonders where the traction grunt plus hotel power will come from to shift some heavy vehicles up the 1in50ish/1in60ish banks on that piece of railway. Judging by other examples sleepers with the hotel wherewithal these are promised to have are going to need a lot of power - unless they use genvans. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Bigbee Line Posted May 28, 2014 Share Posted May 28, 2014 Is that the same company that have their fingers in many other pies and are having to pay money back to the government (joe public) after ripping them off. Alleged to have repaid £68.5m to the government for its overcharging on the contract for tagging criminal offenders.I rest my case. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
frobisher Posted May 28, 2014 Share Posted May 28, 2014 Re-engineered Class 73s on the West Highland - that could be extremely interesting as one (certainly this 'one') wonders where the traction grunt plus hotel power will come from to shift some heavy vehicles up the 1in50ish/1in60ish banks on that piece of railway. Judging by other examples sleepers with the hotel wherewithal these are promised to have are going to need a lot of power - unless they use genvans. It would be a pair of 73's though which is 3000HP ish, as I understand it which should be in the right neck of the woods. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
'CHARD Posted May 28, 2014 Share Posted May 28, 2014 Re-engineered Class 73s on the West Highland - that could be extremely interesting as one (certainly this 'one') wonders where the traction grunt plus hotel power will come from to shift some heavy vehicles up the 1in50ish/1in60ish banks on that piece of railway. Judging by other examples sleepers with the hotel wherewithal these are promised to have are going to need a lot of power - unless they use genvans. I'm struggling to reconcile various pieces of the jigsaw, as press-released. Gen-vans could feature north of Edinburgh, I guess. Bit of a shunting/ logistical headache importing asset cost, operational resilience risk and extra vehicles to sit at Waverley during the day (unless the gen vans also double as extra day coaches). The other thing I don't get is the stated vehicle quantity of 72. Granted the present amount of spare vehicles facilitates some slack availability (7 routinely spare, from 75, plus the diagrammed Edinburgh add-ons), either Serco plans to have 8 spare including floaters, or has a different take on fixed formations to the present suituation (plausible). Perhaps their solution increases the standard rake length? Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium phil-b259 Posted May 28, 2014 RMweb Premium Share Posted May 28, 2014 The other thing I don't get is the stated vehicle quantity of 72. Granted the present amount of spare vehicles facilitates some slack availability (7 routinely spare, from 75, plus the diagrammed Edinburgh add-ons), either Serco plans to have 8 spare including floaters, or has a different take on fixed formations to the present suituation (plausible). Perhaps their solution increases the standard rake length? Don't forget that at present the trains are already the maximum length they can be in England (i.e. after all the 'bits' have been joined). Its one of the reason they stuck with MK2 seating coaches even after Virgin released their MK3s from WCML as their extra length would actually mean having to take a coach out for the train to fit into Euston. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
'CHARD Posted May 28, 2014 Share Posted May 28, 2014 Don't forget that at present the trains are already the maximum length they can be in England (i.e. after all the 'bits' have been joined). Its one of the reason they stuck with MK2 seating coaches even after Virgin released their MK3s from WCML as their extra length would actually mean having to take a coach out for the train to fit into Euston. Indeed. Hence a need for radical solutions. Whatever such out-of-the-box thinking might come up with! EDIT: The choice of cuisine figurehead in Albert Roux was quite inspired. French-born naturalised Scot with a number of Scottish restaurants and a vocal advocate of the remote Scottish outdoors. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
br2975 Posted May 28, 2014 Share Posted May 28, 2014 Oh dear .................. One hopes the service is better than that provided by the arm of Serco that my wife worked for endured. . Brian R Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold The Stationmaster Posted May 28, 2014 RMweb Gold Share Posted May 28, 2014 It would be a pair of 73's though which is 3000HP ish, as I understand it which should be in the right neck of the woods. Depends on the hotel power demand - ENS was going to run 7 coach sets with 2xClass 37 (=3,500hp) over generally less demanding gradient profiles and with a genvan to cover the hotel demand. The critical factor for power demand with modern sleeping cars is the hotel factor although the vehicle weight (='heavy') obviously has a role to play as well, especially on heavily graded lines. It will all come down to whatever the formations are going to be, particularly on diesel hauled sections, but at least they'll have the benefit of operating an a.c. electrified railway compared with the problems posed by hotel loads on d.c. electrified lines. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium brushman47544 Posted May 28, 2014 RMweb Premium Share Posted May 28, 2014 Indeed. Hence a need for radical solutions. Whatever such out-of-the-box thinking might come up with! Will the Pacers be off lease and therefore available for conversion? Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
rob D2 Posted May 28, 2014 Share Posted May 28, 2014 I propose the use of transrail 37/4s, and intercity mk3 sleepers......sorry slipped through a wormhole in time.... Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
shortliner Posted May 28, 2014 Share Posted May 28, 2014 Oh dear .................. One hopes the service is better than that provided by the arm of Serco that my wife worked for endured. . Brian R Hence post #12....and despite all the badnesses of G4S and Serco, they STILL get government work! The old quote about Peanuts and Monkeys spring to mind - words fail me! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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