The Anonymous Widower

Hayes Shuttles To Start

This is the headline on an article in the May 2016 Edition of Modern Railways about the May 15th timetable changes. This is said.

Great Western Railway had planned a launch of electric services using Class 387/1 EMUs transferred from Govia Thameslink Railway with the start of the new timetable on 15 May. The operator was to use the ‘387s’ on a series of peak hour shuttles between Paddington and Hayes and Harlington, but delays to the introduction of Class 700s on Thameslink services mean the cascade of ‘387s ‘ has also been delayed.

I have searched the Oracle (National Rail’s Journey Planner) and can find just one extra train from Paddington, which is a new service at 07:15 going to Hayes and Harlington.

The Oracle also shows that the first two services of the day on the Greenford Branch only go as far as West Ealing after May the 15th.

How many people from the Greenford branch will be complaining about the loss of their early morning trains to Paddington?

The Modern Railways article also suggests, that as Bombardier have been making good progress on the building of the eight extra Class 387 trains, that these might be delivered in the summer, to enable GWR to run more services. As some of the Porterbrook trains have been promised to c2c before the end of the year, that means that GWR’s extra trains will be delivered before December 2016, as they are first in the queue.

The article says that a full service can’t be run until infrastructure works at the East of Hayes and Harlington station is completed.

I think we’ll see a gradual improvement of electric services between Paddington and Hates and Harlington over the rest of this year.

These questions will certainly be answered.

• When will the bay platform at West Ealing station for Greenford Branch Line trains be opened?
• Will the bay platform at West Ealing station be electrified?
• Will the eight extra Class 387 trains have an IPEMU-capability, as had been rumoured in Modern Railways?
• How much acrimony is being heaped on Siemens about the non-delivery of the Class 700 trains?
• Are the bosses of Great Western Railway and Govia Thameslink Railway still talking?
• Will Porterbrook add to their order of twenty extra Class 387 trains?

It does seem to me, that the big winners out of this mess, could well be Bombardier and Porterbrook.

I also feel that there will be some surprises between now and the end of the year.

I will keep most of my predictions to myself!

However, it would appear that if there was a plan to create an IPEMU variant of the Class 387 trains, the non-delivery of the Class 700 trains, has effectively made this plan difficult and late.

April 28, 2016 - Posted by AnonW | Transport/Travel | Class 387 Train, Class 700 Train, Electrification, Great Western Railway, IPEMU