Merseyrail

[326VFM]

RE: Merseyrail
Today Golf Open between West Kirby and Holylake, two buses used Rail Replacement between Holylake and West Kirby.

[507002]

RE: Merseyrail
Could you please state which other two units were at Kirkdale as there was only 507024, 508126 and 508130 there when I went past. Also could you tell me which 7 units are currently not fit for service for whatever reason please. Whilst I agree that because of the orange lodge parade they should have had spare trains, why did Southport station have no spare units in case a train failed on the way to Southport? ScotRail use 14 and sometimes 15 of their 16 314's Monday to Friday, First Capital Connect use 41 of their 44 313's, therefore if these trains fail it is disastrous yet they are almost never short formed. They can manage fine and despite Merseyrail's good maintenance standard and very reliable trains, they still have 7 out currently. Merseyrail can afford 9 unavailable units, first capital connect cant afford more than 3 yet they very rarely short form units so why do Merseyrail seem to struggle with their availability?

According to the Merseyside RUS, Ellesmere Port has 0.1 million passengers a year in contrast to Chester's 2.8 million. Yet Merseyrail only provide Chester with twice the capacity as Ellesmere Port when Chester is up to 28 times as busy! The statistics speak for themselves, the Ellesmere Ports are not busy ever and the Chesters always are. Even if you are saying Merseyrail can't spare trains, it would be better to have the shuttle and have 2 of the 6 Chester trains as 6 car's resulting in the same number of trains in service. This would benefit far more people than it hinders. Far less people crammed for a tiny minority who have to stand at Hooton for a few minutes for a connecting shuttle train.

Units like 508112 and 508136 mileage are almost up so to prolong them they should be used on peak only diagrams as much as possible yet they are still being used on high mileage diagrams so Merseyrail aren't utilising their trains as sensibly as they might.

[wirralbus]

RE: Merseyrail
There is more than 100000 passengers a year travelling on the Ellesmere port line , the problem with the Ellesmere Port line is that there is only one staffed booking office at Ellesmere Port mornings only and the other stations all depend on the accuracy of counts and people using TVM machines .

Even Capenhurst is starting to see business now , everybody remembers that place as the station nobody ever used .

[ls1911]

RE: Merseyrail

(14/07/2014 14:59)507002 Wrote:  Could you please state which other two units were at Kirkdale as there was only 507024, 508126 and 508130 there when I went past. Also could you tell me which 7 units are currently not fit for service for whatever reason please. Whilst I agree that because of the orange lodge parade they should have had spare trains, why did Southport station have no spare units in case a train failed on the way to Southport? ScotRail use 14 and sometimes 15 of their 16 314's Monday to Friday, First Capital Connect use 41 of their 44 313's, therefore if these trains fail it is disastrous yet they are almost never short formed. They can manage fine and despite Merseyrail's good maintenance standard and very reliable trains, they still have 7 out currently. Merseyrail can afford 9 unavailable units, first capital connect cant afford more than 3 yet they very rarely short form units so why do Merseyrail seem to struggle with their availability?

According to the Merseyside RUS, Ellesmere Port has 0.1 million passengers a year in contrast to Chester's 2.8 million. Yet Merseyrail only provide Chester with twice the capacity as Ellesmere Port when Chester is up to 28 times as busy! The statistics speak for themselves, the Ellesmere Ports are not busy ever and the Chesters always are. Even if you are saying Merseyrail can't spare trains, it would be better to have the shuttle and have 2 of the 6 Chester trains as 6 car's resulting in the same number of trains in service. This would benefit far more people than it hinders. Far less people crammed for a tiny minority who have to stand at Hooton for a few minutes for a connecting shuttle train.

Units like 508112 and 508136 mileage are almost up so to prolong them they should be used on peak only diagrams as much as possible yet they are still being used on high mileage diagrams so Merseyrail aren't utilising their trains as sensibly as they might.

Merseyrails good maintenance record? You were slating it earlier!!!
If its any consolation all Chesters are booked for 6 cars this Saturday and Sunday. And also for Friday/Saturday/Sunday next week...

[LVC]

RE: Merseyrail
Units at Kirkdale Saturday AM were 507019, 507024, 507032, 508130, 508138 spare, 508126, 508140 not fit for service.

Units unfit for service were 508126, 508140, 507003, 507030, 508127, 508137, 508139.

Can't speak for other TOC's, how they manage their fleet is up to them, but short formations due to availability (and I'm talking about timetabled 6 cars here) are very rare, I can only recall a couple of occasions this year where that has happened.

Isn't that figure for Chester for the entire station, not just for Merseyrail services from there? And if you don't strengthen the other chester circuits then between Hooton and Hamilton Square you have no increase in capacity but a reduction in frequency.

I'm not interested in speculating on mileage to be honest, there could be a number of reasons why those units are on said diagrams.

[507002]

RE: Merseyrail
I didn't criticise their maintenance, I just said the programme could be questioned which is hardly the same thing. 507019 was seen depoting between New Brighton and Birkenhead North in the afternoon, 507032 and 508138 were not at Kirkdale from early afternoon onwards, therefore they would have only had 1 spare 6 car for the Southport line being 507024 and 508130 which were incidentally not coupled together. Therefore there are 3 units which Merseyrail could have used on the Chester races which weren't being used as spares because they moved to the Wirral line. So they had 6 fully fit units spare and 3 of these could have been used too make half the Chester's 6 cars.

Other TOCs clearly have better availability of very similar rolling stock to Merseyrail.
The 2.8 million figure is for the Merseyrail route not for Chester itself. Whilst it wouldn't improve frequency, it would offer a much better spread of loads so that Chester trains don't run full and Ellesmere Port trains run empty at the moment.

Surely it would be better to use a unit, whose mileage is nearly up on a peak only diagram, as it would allow the unit to be used in service for longer and I see no other reason why it should regularly be used all day.

[Sprinterdriver]

RE: Merseyrail
Any MPC figures then?

SD.

[snowey]

RE: Merseyrail

(14/07/2014 20:18)Sprinterdriver Wrote:  Any MPC figures then?

SD.

I'm sure the engineering director said it was above 13k for the last period. One of the highest ever he said yesterday.

[wirralbus]

RE: Merseyrail

(15/07/2014 07:23)snowey Wrote:  I'm sure the engineering director said it was above 13k for the last period. One of the highest ever he said yesterday.

Is that for the 507's or 508's or a combination of both .

[snowey]

RE: Merseyrail

(15/07/2014 11:56)wirralbus Wrote:  Is that for the 507's or 508's or a combination of both .

Everything.