Finally I Find The Five Car Class 378 Train
On my way out today I actually caught the elusive five-car Class 378 train at Haggerston. I only rode one stop and then attempted to get the classic Overground picture from the southbound platform at Hoxton, of a train in front of the buildings of the City of London, like the one in this post.
And then coming home, I saw it again at Whitechapel! These are the pictures I took.
This is what I think is the best of the classic pose.
Five Car Class 378 South Of Hoxton
I shall be trying to take the perfect one.
A Visit To Risca
Risca is one of those places that I remember from my childhood. But in an unusual way.
My father was a letterpress printer and one of the type founders he used were called Riscatype and based in Risca in Wales.
It was one of my jobs from about the age of seven or so, to unpack the new type and put it away in the appropriate cases.
So as I wandered up and down the Valleys I just had to stop at Risca and Pontymister station.
This was my first visit to the area.
The visit sums up the problems with some of the Valley Lines. I took a train to Risca, expecting to get the next one back to Cardiff. But due to the nature of the service of one train per hour and the single track north of the station, the two trains cross at the station. So the outcome was that I had an hour to wait for the next train. Luckily, the pub called the Mason’s Arms was welcoming and I spent forty minutes or so, drinking a glass of well-cared-for proper cider.
Wandering On The Valley Lines
I took some of the Valley Line trains from Cardiff.
The weather was good, as you could see. I first went up to Risca and then after returning to Cardiff, I took a train up to Bargoed.
On this trip and my previous one some weeks ago, I encountered typical Welsh scenery with lots of clean and tidy stations, many of which were being upgraded with lifts and decent access.
But although the train to Risca was a decent Class 158, the other journeys were done in Pacers with more rattles than a large nursery.
The lines are crying out for electrification and a fleet of much better trains.
Comings And Goings At Cardiff Central Station
Cardiff Central station is a busy station, that is on the main line from London to Swansea and is also a hub for all the local services serving the valleys and other parts of South Wales.
A Platform 0 has been added, which I used to catch my train to Risca, but it is rather tacked on to the station.
A new Platform 8 is also being added, on the other side of the station.
There are plans to upgrade the station and the South Wales Main Line and the Cardiff Valley Lines will be electrified. I hope that when both projects are completed it becomes easy to change from say a train coming in from Ebbw Vale to a fast train for London.
It’s all a bit chaotic at present and I know it’s not politically correct to say so, but showing destination boards in two languages means that travellers like me, who are unfamiliar with the lines and the station find it difficult.
Some things must be done in my view.
1. Have a better Valley Line schedule, where perhaps all trains going one direction use Platform 0 and those going the other use Platform 8. One example of many, is that the Ebbw Vale line has only one train an hour. So supposing you are going to an important event on the line and you’re coming from London, it could be an hour waiting at Cardiff Central. As Network Rail said about East Anglia, all branch lines need at least two trains an hour.
2. Create a much better information system, that doesn’t confuse travellers. Incidentally, I wouldn’t mind if station names were only given in Welsh, as that would simplify things a lot. I would think that most Welsh would understand a visitor, who pronounced a Welsh town like Treorchy or Maesteg in an English manner. After all, Welsh uses just the Roman alphabet like say Italian or Dutch, and is not like Hungarian, Turkish or Greek.
3. Make the access from Platform 0 to the main platforms a lot better.
I think that it’ll all be better when work is completed, judging by the way station rebuilds in the UK have turned out.
On The 10:45 From Paddington
I went to Cardiff taking the 10:45 out of Paddington. I chose this train as it features First Great Western’s Pullman Dining.
I had a simple brunch consisting of the most exquisite kedgeree, washed down with juice and a lot of genuine English tea. By the latter, I really do mean tea grown in Cornwall.
This is certainly the way to go to South Wales. First Great Western say this about booking on most trains except the ones that leave around 18:00.
Pullman Dining services are open to all ticket holders although, on busy services, priority is given to First Class ticket holders. Please contact the Pullman Service Leader when you board to request a table in the restaurant. Pullman Dining services do not operate on weekends or public holidays.
When did booking a meal in a high class restaurant be so easy?
The train I was on, also called at Reading at 11:10, gets to Cardiff at 12:46 and then goes on to Swansea, reaching there at 13.44, so it is very convenient for a lot of journeys.
The only problem was that the actual train I was on, didn’t have the wi-fi fully installed. I read that this should be running and free in the New Year.
I do hope that this concept succeeds, as travellers like me, who aren’t strapped for cash, will certainly use this type of service as a treat.
My First Class ticket, which I bought on-line the day before, cost me £31.55 and I paid £18.00 for the lunch, with its excellent food and service.
As I have been known to take the occasional day out in Bristol, I do wish a similar service was offered to there. And what about services to Torquay and Cheltenham?
Obviously, First Great Western know the economics and they certainly have a whole fleet of InterCity125s, with which they can run the service.
So will we still see these magnificent trains reborn as high-class leisure trains serving the West Country for upwards of twenty years in the future? I suspect we will, as these trains seem to have more survival genes, than a whole pack of London mongrels.
Did Terry Miller and his team in Derby realise what they were creating?
Will The Felixstowe Branch Be Electrified?
In the previous post on diesel-hauled freight trains on the Overground, I mentioned Network Rail’s Anglia Route Study.
This study says two things about the Felixstowe Branch.
There will be more double track to increase capacity and it is an aspiration to have two trains per hour on all branch lines from the Great Eastern Main Line.
If the latter is implemented on the Felixstowe branch, it will be a good thing, but it would need another train and the increased frequency would probably be opposed by the port.
If the line were to be electrified, the finding of a reasonable Class 313/315/317 train to work the branch shouldn’t be difficult and it would be faster and with better acceleration than the current Class 153, so it could keep out of the way of the freight trains.
As a lot of the line is to be double tracked, I wouldn’t be surprised if this work, at least makes electrification possible.
I sometimes think, that I can remember reports from the 1950s, saying that London to Ipswich and Norwich together with the Felixstowe branch would be electrified by 1964.
Contactless Cards For Travel In London Are Working
This article entitled Tube Record Smashed Again has just been published on Modern Railways. This is the last paragraph.
Numbers on both days were boosted by ‘MasterCard Fare Free Friday’, through which holders of contactless MasterCard debit or credit cards could use their card to travel for free within the capital, with over 270,000 journeys made on 28 November under this offer. Passengers have been able to use contactless bank cards to pay for Tube travel since September, with 18 million journeys made using contactless payment cards since that date and usage reported to be growing at a rate of 12% per week.
The most significant bit is that the use of contactless payment cards is growing at an unheard of rate for anything.
So if it is so popular in London, when will I be able to use my contactless credit card for travel on Nottingham, Edinburgh, Birmingham and Manchester trains, the Newcastle Metro and local trains outside London? If these cities in the North want to rival London, they must give the passengers the easy ticketing system, they obviously like to use!
If any did bring in a contactless system for payment, I think it would be a long odds-on bet, that at least one of Mastercard, Visa and Amex would run a promotion to get people on the buses, trams and trains.
Zopa Goes With The Flow
This article on CrowdfundInsider talks of a tie-up between a boiler maker; Flow and a peer-to-peer lender; Zopa. This describes the link.
The Flow boiler will be launching in January 2015 and will be available to customers through a new finance package. This will provide a payback time of five years for the complete cost of the boiler. Customers may purchase the Flow boiler using a separate unsecured personal loan via Zopa, with repayments being off-set by reductions in your home energy bill from the value of the electricity generated.
I think we’ll see a lot of deals like this, where two new companies in different fields link up to make two and two add up to six.
This is disruptive innovation at its best.
Sorting The Under/Overground Around Gunnersbury
After I wrote this article about reversing loops instead of termini, I wondered if I could find any references to operating problems on the Piccadilly Line loop that serves Termial 4.
I didn’t find anything but I did find an article on London Reconnections called Upgrading The Piccadilly: Calling Time On Mind The Gap?
It is a well thought-out article that starts by talking about the new trains and the problems of platform-edge doors. It then goes on to suggest what it thinks appears to be the bad idea of transferring the Ealing Broadway branch of the District line to the Piccadilly line.
This is the map of the area.
Gunnersbury Triangle
The triangle of lines in the area is bordered at the West or left by the North London Line (orange), the District and Piccadilly lines from Acton Town to Turnham Green at the top right and the District line to Richmond at the bottom right. Chiswick Park station is marked with the red arrow.
The article then goes on to suggest reasons why it might not be a bad idea and that Chiswick Park station might be put on the Richmond Branch of the District line.
I think the Overground and Crossrail could be the key to what happens in this area.
1. Transport for London’s Infrastructure Plan for 2050, talks about linking the Gospel Oak to Barking Line to Hounslow through the area. It would branch off just south of South Acton station.
Acton To Houslow Link
The line is there and I suspect, it will be used to provide a link between West and North London.
2. Crossrail calls at Ealing Broadway station, so will it be better if it joins up with the Piccadilly or District lines?
There are probably advantages for both lines and I won’t choose what is better. But note that the District line has two interchange stations with Crossrail and the Piccadilly has just the one at Heathrow.
3. There are also proposals to create another rail route into Heathrow. One is Airtrack, which goes through Clapham Junction and Richmond.
4. There is also the problems of installing platform-edge doors on the western reaches of the Piccadilly Line, as outlined in the London Reconnections article.
I think the only certainty is that these and many other factors will result in major changes in this area.
And the solution will be very radical.
One thing though convinces me that something must be done. I was on Chiswick Park station today, and in about ten minutes, I met two young ladies; one French and one Italian, who had got seriously confused by the track layout in the area.
The Anonymous Widower 