“by running the diesel HSTs day and night”
Apparently (no idea if this is true) it’s because if engines are switched off it's hard to restart them.
If so, is this ScotRail ones only??
CityCyclingEdinburgh Forum » Cycling News
Virgin Trains East Coast 'Azuma' train
(104 posts)-
Posted 4 years ago #
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New thread(s) someone?
Posted 4 years ago # -
was on a non-azuma back from london yesterday. put my folder in the guard's van to make more space in my carriage. my ticket is haymarket, but i always bring the bike back to my carriage at Waverley after everyone else has left, because it's tricky to do it at haymarket. this time, the nice guard brought it back to me.
Posted 4 years ago # -
Tried the new Sleeper for the first time last night. Work payed for an extortionately expensive en suite cabin. The actual facilities were very pleasant, and I can confirm that a Brompton fits under the bed. It wasn't all that comfortable though. There seemed to be more high frequency vibration than I remembered from the old Sleeper. I felt very shaken the whole way.
Posted 4 years ago # -
When coming home from Liverpool couple of weekends ago the HST I was expecting at Carlisle turned out to be an Azuma (or aZuma as I've also seen it spelt).
I would say the legroom was a welcome addition, after years of being cramped on the 91s and Voyagers, and the seat profile is a nice shape. But good grief the seats are firm! I think I would be at numb bum stage after a full London-Edinburgh journey.
I also felt that the ride quality was similar to the 91s, but possibly even firmer. The difference was not so great as from HST to 91, but definitely firmer than the Pendolino on which I had travelled to Carlisle.
The nice touch is the red and green lights above each seat that let you see at a glance which seats are reserved and which are available. Possibly not so great for red-green colourblind people.
Posted 4 years ago # -
@Greenroofer I use the seats & the bike stowage is in this carriage.
Observations of New Sleeper was that the seriously under-specified 'hooks'(Max load 18Kg), were showing that there was an HF oscillation (pitch), of relatively low intensity and bikes were bouncing on the hooks. A bit tricky to video with hand held phone, to show movement. Half the space for bikes was used up by 'laundry sacks'.
As with IEP the 'hook' design makes all the basic mistakes that inhibit easy, fast loading. Barely enough 'gap' to fit a regular 37-xxx tyre on a regular rim, past the side 'wings' and around severe & width constrained hook.
I have pictures on A V Lowe Flickr, which may appear on CCE in due course.
For both designs, any tyre size greater than 32/37-xxx on any rim other than a basic type, won't fit
A whole library of fails (photographed) some reported injuries & damage to bikes/clothing, and trains delayed, dispatch staff tied up assisting with loading, failure to unlock cupboard, etc. (example on 26/08 1E09 delayed 3 min departing EDB as 3 people tried & failed to put bike on hook, then delay extended to 8 min when no one came to unlock cupboard at NCL)
Note that TPE are also having to use IEP (Nova 1) on Edinburgh-Liverpool route to standardise trains with LNER.
Need to also reference a Scotrail HST thread for issues on this, including Lee Craigie's bike hooking the emergency door release with the handlebars & making a full emergency brake application!
Posted 4 years ago # -
“trains delayed”
Ah yes.
Had a quite odd experience yesterday.
Got a Cross Country INK to HYM.
Checked that SR ticket was OK.
Checked booking status - “Unfortunately, the two reservable cycle spaces have already been booked. There is one non-reservable space occupied on a first come first served basis if you would like to try for this, or we can check availability on a different service for you, please let us know.”
Checked where spaces where - “Same Coach, Coach D.”
SO...
Waited on platform expecting a 5(?) car train. Few mins late. Checked with platform person - ‘usually coach D’, look out for bike signs.’
Train rolls in except it’s a 125. No bike signs on coach D.
Platform person ‘guard’s van is in front’.
So I run.
Throw me and bike in, and wave out window.
Well I’m only going one stop, don’t mind being stuck in guard’s van - I know I can get though ‘train crew office - if allowed.
Train doesn’t move.
Platform person says ‘you have to get out’.
(Thinks) ‘OK so I have to get in coach’.
Get out.
PP ‘no guard says you’ve got to get bike out too’.
(Me) confused.
Expect train to leave (with me on platform).
Doesn’t.
Head to coach D, get on find a large(ish) luggage space.
All a bit bizarre but I’m on train with bike, now more minutes late. MUST be about to leave.
Guard(?) - still on platform - says ‘bike has to be in van’. ‘Don’t know why PP told you to take bike off’.
PP ‘I’m sorry, least I can do is put bike in van’.
So he sets off for front of train.
Guard(?) ‘he should have been better trained’.
Train loses 4 more minutes (mostly made up by EDB).
Really surprised I didn’t get left on platform. THANKS CC guard(?)
Oh and, no, no other bikes in spacious van.
AND it wasn’t locked.
No idea how often this is a 125. (0632 Dundee to Plymouth)
Posted 4 years ago # -
https://www.realtimetrains.co.uk/train/P38678/2019/09/27/advanced
1V54 - Booked as an HST on Weekdays - presume this was the train - very generous dwell time at INK but 10L depart, & down to 3L at EDB. NB Link disappears in 6 days
Posted 4 years ago # -
“Booked as an HST on Weekdays”
Yes, but CC people online obviously didn’t know. I didn’t realise they ran HSTs here so was expecting a ‘normal’ set.
Posted 4 years ago # -
Meanwhile the new Azuma design has been proven once again to not being fit for bicycle carriage.
Things are so bad that @Backonmybike and @Tulyar have actually been acknowledged by LNER!
"we can set up a time to talk about these issues and see if we can work out a solution!"Green tourism is on the up but LNER and ScotRail are going backwards. Do people in these companies actually get paid to deliver such poor results?
Now their PR departments are involved in trying to sort an engineering solution.My suspicion is that neither want cyclists on trains. Most cyclists drive so will just hire a car - particularly true for families. I know many here have successfully taken their families on holiday despite the pathetic 2 bike per train restriction but the vibe coming from them isn't of a company looking for bike business.
Twitter also unearths the old 'you are all entitled expecting to take sports equipment on train' theme. Buy a folding bike etc...https://twitter.com/backonmybike/status/1178943392665001984?s=19
Posted 4 years ago # -
Such a shame - we had a great weekend in York a few months back - 2 bikes and a kids trailer in the guards van (which was also positively inviting people with excess baggage to drop their suitcases off to go to London) and no worries about manhandling a heavy e-bike into a cramped space. Would have been impossible on the Azuma.
The bikes meant that we could get around York comfortably without expecting 4yo to walk great distances or rely on public transport which would have taken longer and been more inconvenient (station > Youth Hostel > city centre etc and also out to University and back to station).
Posted 4 years ago # -
@LivM - I think the only sensible solution is to have horizontal bike storage particularly as e-bikes are trending. Whether LNER will do anything other than PR remains to be seen. Not if they weren't warned of the problems.
If I put our folded tandem under a big cover what would they do I wonder? Do they have another oversize luggage locker? (Sorry if been answered earlier but the only measure I found earlier in thread was that a 2.5m tandem could go with 'wheels off'!)Posted 4 years ago # -
“
The basins in the toilets – apart from the larger accessible ones – are very narrow, with awkward door handles. But you might walk into a cycle storage compartment by mistake, because they look just the same, especially as the smallish bike symbol is beside, rather than on, the door.“
Posted 4 years ago #
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