Neil Williams wrote:
How reliable is the Richmond branch of the NNL and district line?

My limited experience of a week's use of the NLL (and observation of it
at Euston) suggested that reliability was a sick joke. A lot of it was
down to train failures; they'd do well to talk to Merseyrail to see how
they manage to avoid this being as much of an issue.

I've not been on Merseyrail in years, but I suspect that running
DC-only trains on a DC-only line presents fewer complications than
running 1970s AC/DC (let there be rock!) trains with regular
changeovers. Certainly, the 313s tend to break down at Drayton Park on
the FCC GN route far more than they do anywhere else along the line...

The NLL is a third-world disgrace to a capital city.

Wouldn't disagree, although arguably train length and frequency are
even more of a problem than reliability.

--
John Band
john at johnband dot org
www.johnband.org

John B wrote:

I've not been on Merseyrail in years, but I suspect that running
DC-only trains on a DC-only line presents fewer complications than
running 1970s AC/DC (let there be rock!) trains with regular
changeovers. Certainly, the 313s tend to break down at Drayton Park on
the FCC GN route far more than they do anywhere else along the line...

Good point.

Would there, then, perhaps be some merit in doing a swap for some
diesel units that are running services under the wires in places like
Greater Manchester, one wonders, until reliability on changeover can be
increased?

Eurostars do the changeover daily at speed, so it isn't impossible with
10-year-old technology.

Neil

In article . com,
(Neil Williams) wrote:

John B wrote:

I've not been on Merseyrail in years, but I suspect that running
DC-only trains on a DC-only line presents fewer complications than
running 1970s AC/DC (let there be rock!) trains with regular
changeovers. Certainly, the 313s tend to break down at Drayton
Park on the FCC GN route far more than they do anywhere else along
the line...

Good point.

Would there, then, perhaps be some merit in doing a swap for some
diesel units that are running services under the wires in places
like Greater Manchester, one wonders, until reliability on changeover
can be increased?

Eurostars do the changeover daily at speed, so it isn't impossible
with 10-year-old technology.

The 313s are 35 year old technology. They were also designed for a
maximum speed of 30MPH on DC (series only motors).

--
Colin Rosenstiel

Colin Rosenstiel wrote:

The 313s are 35 year old technology.

The units themselves are only about 30 years old though... (the 507s
and the 508s are the same age as me, 27).

They were also designed for a
maximum speed of 30MPH on DC (series only motors).

Really? Do they differ substantially from 507s and 508s? I always
assumed they were the same but with a 25kVAC-750VDC transformer on the
middle coach. The Merseyrail units are top speed 70mph, though I don't
know if they ever reach that, perhaps they do on the bit out to
Chester.

Neil