Living in Inverness the ScotRail HST class 43 are having serious issues with reliability, constantly breaking down. As much as I love them, they are clearly well beyond their sell by date as well as being dangerous. Would be interesting to see class 222’s coming into Inverness. We are at the point our train fleet is really outdated
Thanks for this video Reece. EMR does in general offer a good product but as I usually travel 1st class (I buy the better value Advance tickets) I do find the onboard experience has suffered with the 5-car units as less 1st class accommodation is now provided.
Yeah sadly due to a decision made by the DfT at the time, the HSTs were withdrawn too early, with no units to replace them. Now the 222's are being overworked casusing them to break down more often, hence why most of the services recently were 5 cars instead of 10 cars. The new 810s will have roughly 60 extra seats (301 seats) compared to the 222's 5 cars (242 seats). More if you consider the reformed units 005/006/103/104 have less seats than normal. The 7 cars have 342 seats (due to the 3 first class carriages) so the 810 that is replacing them will have 41 less seats however EMR/DfT ordering the 33 units to repalce the 27 units will basically increase the seats overall by almost 50%. (810's- 9933 seats vs the 222's 6934 seats (roughly)). With the rumours that the 810's will likely be operating more double units diagrams than the 222's, I'm hoping that EMR work out the busy services that need the double units.
Good video, just a handful of comments on some of the stuff you said. 3:54 Due to EMR's decision to shorten unit 005 and 006 from the 7 cars down to 5 cars (removing 1 standard carriage and 1 first class carriage) , to strengthen the 4 car units 222101-104 to 5 cars. Unit 222005,222006 as well as 222103 and 222104 all have part of their first class carriages (005-006 has part of their D carriage declassified, while 103 and 104 has the small first class in C fully declassfied as well as part of coach D declassified) . Recommend if you travelling to use Realtimetrains to see if you got any of these units and you can access the declassified section. Most commuters are unaware of this so msot of the time the declassified section is empty while people are standing. 08:07 As mentioned above the 222's are now in 5 (double up to 10 if needed) or 7 car formations. 08:22. The 14:05 is usually a busy service so usually the trolley service is usually a buffet bar service instead. 08:40 The 222's were built on the same frame as the 220/221's but with slight improvements made from the issues with 220/221's. (One example more components underfloor to free up space inside). 09:50 The 810's are proposed to be in service late 2025 however some of the EMR staff reckon it will be early 2026 instead. Still waiting on remaining untis to be built as well the mileage run for each unit and staff training etc.
But as @Thornaby37 notes below EMR is offering less capacity on its services now than before the pandemic. The new trains are taking so long to appear and they will still be 5-car units. I do hope First Group gains open access for Sheffield-Kings Cross as MML needs some competition !
Good video again Reece.
1k coming up, 146 needed!
👍🙂
Great video!
Living in Inverness the ScotRail HST class 43 are having serious issues with reliability, constantly breaking down. As much as I love them, they are clearly well beyond their sell by date as well as being dangerous. Would be interesting to see class 222’s coming into Inverness. We are at the point our train fleet is really outdated
Thanks for this video Reece. EMR does in general offer a good product but as I usually travel 1st class (I buy the better value Advance tickets) I do find the onboard experience has suffered with the 5-car units as less 1st class accommodation is now provided.
Totally agree that there should be longer trains on this route, as they often fill up very quickly
Yeah sadly due to a decision made by the DfT at the time, the HSTs were withdrawn too early, with no units to replace them. Now the 222's are being overworked casusing them to break down more often, hence why most of the services recently were 5 cars instead of 10 cars.
The new 810s will have roughly 60 extra seats (301 seats) compared to the 222's 5 cars (242 seats). More if you consider the reformed units 005/006/103/104 have less seats than normal. The 7 cars have 342 seats (due to the 3 first class carriages) so the 810 that is replacing them will have 41 less seats however EMR/DfT ordering the 33 units to repalce the 27 units will basically increase the seats overall by almost 50%. (810's- 9933 seats vs the 222's 6934 seats (roughly)).
With the rumours that the 810's will likely be operating more double units diagrams than the 222's, I'm hoping that EMR work out the busy services that need the double units.
Good video, just a handful of comments on some of the stuff you said.
3:54 Due to EMR's decision to shorten unit 005 and 006 from the 7 cars down to 5 cars (removing 1 standard carriage and 1 first class carriage) , to strengthen the 4 car units 222101-104 to 5 cars. Unit 222005,222006 as well as 222103 and 222104 all have part of their first class carriages (005-006 has part of their D carriage declassified, while 103 and 104 has the small first class in C fully declassfied as well as part of coach D declassified) .
Recommend if you travelling to use Realtimetrains to see if you got any of these units and you can access the declassified section. Most commuters are unaware of this so msot of the time the declassified section is empty while people are standing.
08:07 As mentioned above the 222's are now in 5 (double up to 10 if needed) or 7 car formations.
08:22. The 14:05 is usually a busy service so usually the trolley service is usually a buffet bar service instead.
08:40 The 222's were built on the same frame as the 220/221's but with slight improvements made from the issues with 220/221's. (One example more components underfloor to free up space inside).
09:50 The 810's are proposed to be in service late 2025 however some of the EMR staff reckon it will be early 2026 instead. Still waiting on remaining untis to be built as well the mileage run for each unit and staff training etc.
But as @Thornaby37 notes below EMR is offering less capacity on its services now than before the pandemic. The new trains are taking so long to appear and they will still be 5-car units. I do hope First Group gains open access for Sheffield-Kings Cross as MML needs some competition !