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Post by chris11256 on May 7, 2016 16:01:23 GMT
As soon as there are enough S stock to run the whole service, that'll be it for the D's. I wish that were so. There are two camps - one that would like to see the Ds gone and a 100% S stock fleet asap and one that would like to hang onto some as long as possible "just in case" there's a sudden dip in reliability or unexpected event. Worth remembering the D stock is almost free to use at the moment as there are only minimal maintenance tasks remaining and they can rack up quite a bit more mileage before any money needs to be spent on them. For S stock on the other hand every mile they cover brings them closer to the next exam that does cost money. Hence why one day recently had something like 25 out of 26 in service. I thought I'd been seeing a lot of Ds recently. For my commute it's gone from S stock being common to them being like gold dust.
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Post by chris11256 on Apr 25, 2016 10:06:30 GMT
I think these will go a little way to improve things, but am I the only who doesn't think this will completely solve the issue?Be interested to know what others have made of the saga and how it's panned out, including what people thought could have done differently. It won't solve the issue completely. C2C are in a genuinely difficult position largely not of their making. Their traditional market is Essex to the City commuting. In the last 20 years this has been augmented by Essex to Canary Wharf commuting via West Ham and Limehouse. More recently though the population increases plus more people moving to cheaper areas like Barking and Dagenham have caused a huge surge in people wanting to use the "express" capability of C2C between Barking and West Ham / Limehouse / Fenchurch St. Those factors are outside of C2C's direct control. The DfT (and I assume TfL a a consultee) required a "Metro" style stopping service which C2C duly implemented. This meant the fleet was somewhat stretched and clearly Essex commuters got heartily fed up. The Metro style service no doubt created a further surge in demand. The problem hasn't and won't go away though. It will get worse and worse and worse because people will continue to migrate to this part of London. We have a massive expansion due at Barking Riverside. Ditto at Beam Park which will add a new station on the Rainham line. If the infrastructure could take it you could make every peak C2C train 12 cars long and they'd still be full to bursting point. Regrettably C2C is no longer just an Essex commuter service - it is also a London one and London's demands are growing faster than Essex's. Commuters in Essex will, unfortunately for them, have to get used to very different commuting demand which means their concept of a guaranteed seat on the train is gone. They can demand all they like but it's too late (in my view). The line will also need resignalling at some point to increase capacity (ATO inwards from Barking?) and something may need doing at Fenchurch St if a lot of 12 car trains are to be run. What is really lacking is the recognition that something new and genuinely additional is needed to serve the Thameside corridor to add a big uplift to commuting capacity in about 15-20 years time. That might actually give C2C a bit of a break although their service will remain very busy (IMO). The 'Metro' service was actually c2c's idea completely. The DFT liked the idea and included it in the franchise spec. Although the 'metro' part of the franchise has now been suspended by the dft. The May timetable cuts a number of Barking stops in both the morning/evening peak.
I commute from Thorpe Bay, which means I always have a guaranteed seat coming into London. I have little sympathy for Barking people who cram themselves on to save a meagre 10/15 minutes. Going home is simple. I know the 16:16 arrives at FST at about 16:06 and after uncoupling the doors open about 16:10. I always try to be waiting on the platform for the doors to open, guaranteed seat. I think a lot of the problem is that c2c don't have enough stock to make the timetable work properly. There's too many 4 carriage peak services(my 16:16 from FST included). The only thing stopping all peak services being 12 carriages is the amount of stock c2c have. Guards aren't an issue as 12 carriage trains are going DOO later this year/
These 6 new trains will help a little. It frees up 6 357s to lengthen existing peak services, which potentially means up 6 new 12 carriage trains.
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Post by chris11256 on Mar 30, 2016 21:00:50 GMT
Ahh ok. Think we'll have to journey via West Ham then and get it done there.
Thank you!
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Post by chris11256 on Mar 30, 2016 20:28:16 GMT
Apologies if I've posted this in the wrong place. My partner has just renewed her young persons railcard and needs it reloaded on her oyster card. I'm taking her back to uni this weekend so i'm wondering whether the ticket office at Limehouse(NR) will be able to do this as we pass through?
Many thanks!
Chris
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