Great Northern to see 30 extra trains with possible impacts for Southern and Southeastern
Great Northern services which run from London to Cambridge and Peterborough are set to see 30 former Greater Anglia trains enter passenger usage.
Class 379 stock are relatively new trains but have sat out of use for a couple of years after former operator Greater Anglia opted for new stock.
The move announced today should add capacity but here’s where things get a little hazy. In turn for the Class 379’s arriving, Class 387s are expected to move south to operate Southern services.
In recent days I’ve covered news that Transport for London are no longer looking to run trains into London Bridge as a feasibility study revealed that Southern are looking to restore cut services.
But how some wondered? Southern have lost dozens of trains to the scrapyard in the recent past under Department for Transport orders for cuts.
Cascaded trains from Great Northern will help them restore some services but that brings another issue into play. How many trains exactly will move and will Southern in turn cascade stock to Southeastern to send more Networkers to storage and probable scrap.
There’s some worrying rumours that this will happen but Southeastern will lose a substantial amount of trains when its complete. Hardly ideal when the Metro area is seeing high levels of housing growth around many stations, from Sidcup to Deptford, and Lewisham to Kidbrooke.
As we’ve seen before the DfT have a poor record when it comes to knowledge of housing growth and impacts upon future rail growth. During an aborted franchise process with Southeastern they had wildly incorrect housing figures.
I highlighted it, the excellent former MP Teresa Pearce chased it up and the DfT admitted they were wrong.
Will the DfT order stock cuts soon while housing growth remains strong around various stations? It’d be an abdicating in terms of trying to generate new custom for services but follow a pattern recently seen from Whitehall.
It’s possible that remaining Networkers built by Metro Cammell will head to the breaker’s yard. This isn’t great for passengers as they offer the best on board travelling experience.
I’ve been meaning to write up a post about just how bad the other Networkers built by BREL now are. Recent journeys continue to highlight the issue.
Great trains when looked after but in an ever worse state.
Broken buttons, seats, fixtures falling off, bubbling floors and an all round feel of complete neglect abounds.
It’s no way to entice people to use rail.
New owners
Ownership of the Class 379s has passed onto Porterbrook who will now lease to Great Northern.
One reason they’ve sat unused for so long was reportedly high leasing costs. presumably that’s now reduced for the DfT to agree.
However as stated, that may be at the expense of Southeastern passengers down the line who will lose capacity.
It’s now 18 months since Southeastern tendered for possible replacement trains on Metro services. Nothing has been heard since.
So good news that trains sat in sidings are now to enter revenue earning service – but it’s certainly an issue to watch and see what filters down. Let’s hope the Department for Transport aren’t angling for substantial further cuts on Southeastern Metro.
A Southeastern engineer said at a meeting with Greenwich Council various options were being considered including new and refurbished trains.
I do think that Great Northern should buy and inherit the Class 379s as they can be modified and upgraded to 110mph maximum speed or to be kept as 100mph. And to be used on London King’s Cross-Peterborough, Cambridge, Cambridge North, Ely and King’s Lynn semi-fast services. And to transfer some of the Class 387/1s to Southern and 1 Class 387/1 in GWR livery back to GWR.
South Eastern cannot afford to lose any more capacity in South East London Boroughs including Bexley. With the thousands of homes bring built at Sidcup, Bexleyheath, Erith. Thanesmead, Woolwich. Charlton Riverside, Greenwich Peninsula, Kidbrooke and Lewisham
Services are set to become much busier.
We need to see mote investment in the tranport infrastructure from both DFT and TFL to meet a growing demand.
The Eluzabeth Line is great but like the Junilee Line at North Greenwich is a good bus ride away which means taking one or two buses depending on where you live to reach the Elizabeth Line or Junilee Line
Not everyone can ue4 underground Services due to mobility issues and rely on train services which cab be easier to access..
South Eastern cannot afford to lose any more capacity in South East London Boroughs including Bexley. With the thousands of homes bring built at Sidcup, Bexleyheath, Erith. Thanesmead, Woolwich. Charlton Riverside, Greenwich Peninsula, Kidbrooke and Lewisham
Services are set to become much busier.
We need to see mote investment in the tranport infrastructure from both DFT and TFL to meet a growing demand.
The Eluzabeth Line is great but like the Junilee Line at North Greenwich is a good bus ride away which means taking one or two buses depending on where you live to reach the Elizabeth Line or Junilee Line
Not everyone can ue4 underground Services due to mobility issues and rely on train services which cab be easier to access..
I agree witb all the comments. Thank you John for another indepth article.
Travelling with Southeastern is akin to being crammed into a rancid, festering wheelie bin in the height of summer. No thanks
With the Class 379s to be used on Great Northern. Perhaps Southeastern could inherit some Class 387s as well as Southern and to retain the Class 387/3s with Great Northern. Or to transfer the Class 387/3s to Southern and some Class 387s to Southeastern.
By the way Great Western Railway should have it’s own Class 387 train back as it’s on hire with Great Northern and the Ex-Gatwick Express Class 387/2 back to Gatwick Express. And the others to be cascaded to Southern or Southeastern. And with Great Northern keeping the Class 387/3s.