On Aug 20, 9:30*pm, (Neil Williams)
wrote:
On Wed, 20 Aug 2008 13:26:04 -0700 (PDT), Andy
wrote:

True, but London Midland do have the possibility of lengthening all
their remaining peak trains to 12 coaches.

No, they don't, as they are constrained by the middle platforms at
Euston not being 12 cars long, and by Bletchley's platforms 4 and 5
being only 8 cars long. *(Hopefully once Bletchley depot is dispensed
with completely those two can be extended across what is currently the
junction).


In the short term, Bletchley could be dealt with using selective door
opening (as already used in their class 444 and 450 cousins), whilst
any trains using the single 8 car platform at Euston (the other being
LO) would have to be moved to another, but platform utilisation is not
high at Euston. Compare the number of peak departures at Euston to,
for example, King's Cross with only 11 platforms three of which are
limited to 8 cars. The idea being that, on the WCML, there is only a
small amount of infrastructure left which would cause a problem for 12
car trains. I'm not saying that all train will immediately be
lengthened to 12 cars come December, just that services which need
lengthening could be with little problem.

This is a luxury that few
of the other London commuter operators have without Network Rail
spending money on the infrastructure. I would certainly expect a few
peak trains will get longer as the new class 350s come on line, as the
class 321s are not fully diagrammed, even with units on loan
elsewhere.

They are a 1-1 replacement for the 321s, and currently the reliability
figures are vastly better for 321 than Desiro.


Personally, I'd like to see upto date reliablility figures for the LM
321s and the 350s, I think that availability for the 321s has dropped
like a stone since LM took over. The short formed trains only seem to
be those made up of 321s.

With regard to the 1-1 replacement, several of the 321s currently
aren't even used by LM, for example two with are now with NEEA and one
was on loan to Northern for a while. In 2007, diagrams were 25 for
class 350s and 28 (+1 St. Albans branch and +2 on loan to NEEA) for
321s, although there has been some change (19.04 changed from 350 to
321 for example). Even with the extended services north of Rugby, I'm
sure there will be room for more units on the London end of things. If
the current requirement is 56 units / 67 available, then this gives
availability of 84%. Modern fleets have availabilities in the mid 90%
range (for example in 2007, One had 20 of their class 360 Desiros
diagrammed out of a fleet of 21 = 95% availability). A combined LM
desiro fleet of 67, with similar availability to the Class 360s would
have 63 units available. Taking a conservative view (i.e. not counting
two units already with NEEA as extras), this would give an extra 6-7
units available for peak / extra services. Diagramming would be easier
as all units will be able to couple. Also, remember that the
Birmingham end of LM is down to get extra EMUs, whether these would be
the 323s from Manchester or new units. Some of the 350 diagrams here
may then change to these 'new' units in a few years time.