Class 345 Testing and Introduction

Normally when I look on the departure screen in the morning it has two services with 'Formed of 7 coaches' shown underneath however neither were on Tuesday despite both services still using cl345s.

I've had a couple more observations:

When train approaches a station the train announces 'Next station xxx', I think they should continue to make that announcement after leaving the station before but that second one on the approach should say 'we are now approaching xxx' in my opinion. Why have announcements gone so abrupt now?

Also just like London Overground these trains also announce 'This is the train to', I know its a bit pedantic but to me this is claiming that it's the only service to go to that destination. What is wrong with 'This is a service to' or even better 'This is a TfL Rail service to' (and the same for lo trains)?

Lastly I notice that when the trains pull into the platform the side displays show 'next station' but are displaying the current station on them until the doors open, it seems to me that it would be better for these to change to the following station on the approach to the station.

This is not an opinion, this is a blooming fact! I totally agree with you on this. The PIS does have plenty of other issues though. Didn't they learn from London Overground??

But the trains are made by the same people, and both LO and TFL Rail come under the TFL umbrella.

They seem to be having some door issues, yesterday the door which stopped next to me was out of use (shown by an illuminated red circle around the door opening button). Today the second from last doors appeared to be closed but apparently weren't showing as closed, platform staff and land sherrifs attempted to push in the door from the outside, we had to wait for the on-board engineer to come down and isolate the door from a panel hidden by one of the in trains adverts (rather neat) before getting on our way. We departed 5 minutes late.

Mel has witnessed the same at Gidea Park last week....

All part of the teething issues

I caught the 17:17 Shenfield service from Liverpool Street today, with 345 007 in charge.

As I wondered through the train, I caught this interesting view of a dropped ceiling panel from inside the fifth car.



Is this:

• a poorly fitted panel / failing frame ?
  
• evidence that these cars are flexing, causing panels to drop ?
  
• suggests that they can be easily vandalised ?
  

Additionally several of the doors in the same were displaying red out of service lights on both sides, which flickered or remained on for some time as the train headed east, before the red background lights disappeared and they returned to 'in service' with no backlight.

Thoughts ??

Chris W, Issues with those plug doors have been bugging these units since introduction, around July I boarded a service running as a spare that had to power down completely to compensate for a TCMS software issue. In the first few public diagrams the driver was heard to be making announcements refrain from pressing the door open buttons whilst in motion due to software issues though this was hastily resolved within a couple of days.

The honeycomb lattice aluminium body shell is widely accepted as a robust design for rolling stock although how vibrations and other stresses are transferred though the internal modules tend to be the biggest liabilities regarding distortions as they are dependant on more subjective/conditional factors such as quality of welding or general robustness of fit outs.

Judging by the photo, Im sceptical that a vandal has laboured away to produce the result given that there in no evidence of scuffs or indentations around the panel in question.

Based on that my feeling is that it's just a poorly fitted panel that has worked itself free of it's catch.

Deep Level, The Gidea Park-Liverpool St service was cancelled due to "technical issues" which for the 345's usually means TCMS software glitches. The powering down scenario that I described a few posts above only succeeded because there was a technician on board as it was during the first weeks of service when they were allocated as spares.

Deep Level, It's just dawned on me that with the current changes in temperature and the start of the leaf fall period that the software glitches may pertain to wheel slip protection as adhesion conditions are starting to deteriorate. Now my knowledge of the 345's systems is meager but I believe microprocessors play a role in detecting and mitigating the effects of low adhesion conditions providing a higher degree of fine control akin to ABS fitted in cars. If that communication is hampered for whatever reason then it's clearly a no go. It's fortunate that these faults have made themselves present whilst these units are in their relative infancy and there is still sufficient surrogate stock around to cover diagrams albeit with the inevitable consequences on this intensively used route.

superteacher, Three services have been shuffled around via Aldersbrook to cater for "additional rolling stock movements" at Ilford. All three ran as ECS: one from Shenfield, one to Liverpool St and one to Ilford via Liverpool St. This will in all likelihood become a common occurrence as Ilford depots rolling stock numbers swell temporarily during this transition period. 

I'm not sure how many 345 units will be replacing the 61 units of the TfL Rail 315's but given the teething issues with the new trains the rate of introduction into passenger service has inevitably slowed.

There are 61 Class 315 units in total; the current order for the 345s is 70 9-car units, but that is going to also replace the 360s working Heathrow Connect and all the units working suburban services for GWR.

The 08:11 out of Ilford to Liv St was a 315 this morning despite the announcement still stating that the train was formed of 7 coaches. Anyone know why its not a 345 today?

Edit: I actually haven't seen any CL345's today, the Gidea Park service that passes me in the morning was a 315 and so was the 18:50 from Liv St. Have any run today?

I saw two in service this morning and one this evening...

Just re-read the early posts following the introduction of the S Stock on the Met...

The 345's will have updated/different equipment than these trains, albeit constructed by the same manufacturer. However the predecessor's experienced similar teething issues of trains appearing to be missing back then (read through the pages).

Since traveling on the first (press & public) service back in June, when I interviewed the TfL Transport Commissioner, I have only traveled on two further units. They will undoubtedly enter service in due course, it's just the rate at which they will enter service that may differ from the targets set.

Perhaps targets have been too optimistic ??