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Post by thewintersoldier on Nov 6, 2019 15:50:23 GMT
First/MTR took a franchise that was running to capacity and added extra and longer trains: also meddling with operation issues hasn’t helped, and the diagrams are now horrendous. I’ve gone from a 9 and a half hour job of 3 Kingston rounders and a Weybridge via Hounslow to a Banbury Stopper and High Wycombe was a no brainer. You were right to leave SWR, its a sinking ship and it will end in disaster for First/MTR. The amount of angry tweets that I read and see on a daily basis are incredible but justifiable. It astonishes me the stuff that SWR gets away with. A couple of weeks ago in New Malden a 707 pulled up with its horn stuck on. The driver and station staff couldn't get it to turn off, it was deafening on the street so it must have been even louder on the platform. The driver carried on to deafen the whole of South West London. I’m hoping they isolated the horn and it didn’t continue in service to london!?
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Post by george on Nov 6, 2019 15:52:49 GMT
First/MTR took a franchise that was running to capacity and added extra and longer trains: also meddling with operation issues hasn’t helped, and the diagrams are now horrendous. I’ve gone from a 9 and a half hour job of 3 Kingston rounders and a Weybridge via Hounslow to a Banbury Stopper and High Wycombe was a no brainer. You were right to leave SWR, its a sinking ship and it will end in disaster for First/MTR. The amount of angry tweets that I read and see on a daily basis are incredible but justifiable. It astonishes me the stuff that SWR gets away with. A couple of weeks ago in New Malden a 707 pulled up with its horn stuck on. The driver and station staff couldn't get it to turn off, it was deafening on the street so it must have been even louder on the platform. The driver carried on to deafen the whole of South West London. And now we have first taking over the West Coast mainline from Stagecoach/Virgin who have run it so well for many years.
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Post by Deleted on Nov 6, 2019 16:41:49 GMT
You were right to leave SWR, its a sinking ship and it will end in disaster for First/MTR. The amount of angry tweets that I read and see on a daily basis are incredible but justifiable. It astonishes me the stuff that SWR gets away with. A couple of weeks ago in New Malden a 707 pulled up with its horn stuck on. The driver and station staff couldn't get it to turn off, it was deafening on the street so it must have been even louder on the platform. The driver carried on to deafen the whole of South West London. I’m hoping they isolated the horn and it didn’t continue in service to london!? Not sure but it sat at New Malden for a good 10 minutes before moving off with passengers on board.
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Post by rif153 on Nov 8, 2019 23:06:21 GMT
First/MTR took a franchise that was running to capacity and added extra and longer trains: also meddling with operation issues hasn’t helped, and the diagrams are now horrendous. I’ve gone from a 9 and a half hour job of 3 Kingston rounders and a Weybridge via Hounslow to a Banbury Stopper and High Wycombe was a no brainer. You were right to leave SWR, its a sinking ship and it will end in disaster for First/MTR. The amount of angry tweets that I read and see on a daily basis are incredible but justifiable. It astonishes me the stuff that SWR gets away with. A couple of weeks ago in New Malden a 707 pulled up with its horn stuck on. The driver and station staff couldn't get it to turn off, it was deafening on the street so it must have been even louder on the platform. The driver carried on to deafen the whole of South West London. SWR is just an utter joke. The service is chaotic and abhorrent, just to further this misery, the service is constantly plagued by strikes. I very occasionally use the Hounslow loop line but have more or less stopped now due to the poor relability of the service under SWR which is just ridiculous, certainly not a service I want to plan my life around/depend on. I know someone who travels to Staines on a daily basis but has given up using SWR because of how poo the service is, instead they get the Piccadilly Line to Hatton Cross then the 203 to Staines.
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Post by T.R. on Nov 11, 2019 17:34:27 GMT
Rolling stock update:
The last class 444 to be internally refurbished headed to Eastleigh last week. All 450/0 units have been internally refurbished, with the 450/5s now being done. In time they are expected to be renumbered to 450/0.
Repaints of the Desiro fleet have also begun, with one 444 (037) and 450 being done in the plain grey & blue with no stripes. The diesel fleet continues to be re-upholstered and repainted as they go for C4 exams (?) at Loughborough.
442's are being tested in the Southampton area following an attempted fix to stop them tripping signals, with re-introduction 'hoped' to resume from the December timetable change. (Although I haven't heard anything concrete on this.).
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Post by routew15 on Nov 16, 2019 9:33:14 GMT
Modern Railways has posted pictures on their twitter account of SWR Cl.701 units - Interior (At first the grab handles threw me and i thought it was a 700 (not a 701) interior, then i saw the windows looked like a 345 and it all added up ☺️) - On test 5 car 701/5 - Driving end of a 701
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Post by rif153 on Nov 16, 2019 10:12:28 GMT
Modern Railways has posted pictures on their twitter account of SWR Cl.701 units - Interior (At first the grab handles threw me and i thought it was a 700 (not a 701) interior, then i saw the windows looked like a 345 and it all added up ☺️ What a lively and pleasant interior not!
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Post by george on Nov 16, 2019 10:48:12 GMT
Modern Railways has posted pictures on their twitter account of SWR Cl.701 units - Interior (At first the grab handles threw me and i thought it was a 700 (not a 701) interior, then i saw the windows looked like a 345 and it all added up ☺️ What a lively and pleasant interior not! Yeah that looks really bad. I still can't believe SWR are getting rid of the perfectly good 707s
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Post by routew15 on Nov 16, 2019 17:39:42 GMT
Modern Railways has posted pictures on their twitter account of SWR Cl.701 units - Interior (At first the grab handles threw me and i thought it was a 700 (not a 701) interior, then i saw the windows looked like a 345 and it all added up ☺️ What a lively and pleasant interior not! I think the interior reflects the SWR brand — no thrills. I think the exterior branding is ok (probably the best it has looked of all the fleet). However i still feel the branding team for SWR are inept in colour psychology I.e. how certain colours make you feel about a product. The grey and off white do not feel customer friendly and feel very corporate or industrial. I hope the SWR type of branding is not the direction they choose to go for the West Coast Route as that could backfire on such a high profile long distance service. It needs to be something that stands out.
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Post by rif153 on Nov 16, 2019 18:13:35 GMT
What a lively and pleasant interior not! I think the interior reflects the SWR brand — no thrills. I think the exterior branding is ok (probably the best it has looked of all the fleet). However i still feel the branding team for SWR are inept in colour psychology I.e. how certain colours make you feel about a product. The grey and off white do not feel customer friendly and feel very corporate or industrial. I hope the SWR type of branding is not the direction they choose to go for the West Coast Route as that could backfire on such a high profile long distance service. It needs to be something that stands out. The paintjob does look uninspiring and dull, the carriages look akin to their unpainted metallic body shells in the vile new livery, whilst the vibrant SWT colours are lost
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Post by T.R. on Nov 27, 2019 17:19:42 GMT
Platform extensions at Feltham Station will finally come into use from 1 December. (One to remove from the short platform list...)
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Post by bottomless on Nov 28, 2019 1:29:19 GMT
But does that mean the bridge is complete and all roads will reopen?
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Post by T.R. on Nov 28, 2019 10:13:52 GMT
But does that mean the bridge is complete and all roads will reopen? Just the platforms at present — although with that in mind, Hounslow Road is expected to initially open southbound only on the same day (according to the council website). The remaining road is said to reopen in 2020. However the website also says a new footbridge over the former Bedfont Lane level crossing (in Network Rail’s remit) isn’t expected to open until December 2020.
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Post by TNL33036 on Nov 29, 2019 22:59:20 GMT
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Post by george on Dec 1, 2019 21:02:36 GMT
Strike this week. Will be interesting to see what the passenger loadings are like on the 87,77,156,337,131 and H37 to name a few few.
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