Three mini blogs: 546, 756, 807.

Thursday 12th December 2024

1. Another connecting bus that doesn’t connect

Residents in the village of Downe just inside the Greater London boundary with Kent have had their usual seamless bus journey into Bromley disrupted these past few weeks due to Southern Gas Networks closing Rockery Road; the main access road from Keston, used by TfL’s hourly route 146.

While the closure’s in place arrangements have been made for Stagecoach operated buses on the route to terminate on the A283 by Keston Church with a connecting shuttle minibus, operated by Ensignbus, taking passengers on to Downe by hurrying around alternative narrow roads so it can reach the terminus in Downe, turn round and hurry back to Keston Church in the 15 minutes available in the normal schedule buses on the 146 take to continue to Downe via the normal route, stand for five minutes and return.

It makes sense to use a minibus as it means there’s no need for stand time to be taken at Downe and also, North End Lane, one of the roads on the diversion, is very narrow and although it’s used by route R8, it can be tricky for a normal size bus, especially one in a hurry to complete a diversion within a constrained time to meet a connection.

Indeed, as I found when using the 464 Connector back in February between Biggin Hill Valley and Tatsfield when a similar situation arose, it’s essential buses connect in both directions as emphasised by the timetable given to drivers by Southern Gas Networks which is also available online to inform passengers.

Obviously TfL don’t deem it necessary to publish a timetable for route 146 even though it only runs hourly but thankfully bustimes.org fills the gap and the current online timetable shows both temporary Keston truncated journeys as well as the normal through journeys to Downe. As you can see the shuttle has 14 minutes to get from Keston to Downe and back again compared to the nine minutes it normally takes together with the five minute layover.

I thought I’d give the connection a try out on Tuesday afternoon last week and caught the 14:33 from Bromley North station which was screened up with Keston as the final destination, so any strangers unaware of the arrangements for Downe would still be unaware and possibly even give that bus a miss.

The bus appeared two minutes late at 14:35 and to cut to the chase, after a struggle through the busy A21/A222 traffic light controlled junction south of Bromley South station, we arrived at Keston Church four minutes late at 14:55. But, I was pleased to see the shuttle minibus waiting in the northbound lay-by as we did a 360 degree turn at the mini roundabout and pulled up ahead of it.

While another passenger and myself hopped off smartish and got on the minibus, where two passengers were already on board…

… we had to wait for another passenger who seemed unaware of the arrangements so delayed us for a couple of minutes prior to our then doing a u-turn on the A283 to head off towards Downe.

It was already 14:57 and we were due back again in just eight minutes. The driver was certainly doing his best to make up time on the diversion…

… which although only an additional 2.2 miles, is along narrow twisty roads where care is needed. We arrived at the Downe terminus alongside Keston Parish Church seven minutes later at 15:04 but that was only one minute before the time we were due back at Keston.

Despite heading straight off again back to Keston and doing his best along the narrow lane…

… the driver arrived at Keston at 15:11 only to find the Stagecoach bus on the 164 had already left for Bromley.

All was not lost though as there are other alternatives on routes 246 and 320 which pass this stop to Bromley. If a connection is to be missed it’s obviously better to do it northbound where there are these other options, than southbound, where there aren’t, but it was still disappointing as the Stagecoach driver must have known we’d be a little late.

2. TfW’s tri-mode Class 756

Transport for Wales has started running its new Stadler FLIRT Class 756 trains on the Cardiff Valley lines. They’re almost identical to the bi-mode Class 755s run by Greater Anglia, even down to the livery and interior moquette…

… but whereas those are bi-mode (capable of taking overhead electric power or from on board diesel generators) TfW’s are tri-mode, as they also carry batteries as an additional source of traction for those sections of track where overhead power lines have been omitted such as in Pontypridd where the lead photo above was taken.

The interior layout of the trains is also the same as on Greater Anglia’s even down to the flip down seats by the doors…

… the middle section of ‘gubbins’…

… the excellent level boarding arrangements…

…the flexible space at either end…

… of the train…

… and the accessible toilet.

TfW began rolling out the first of its 24 Class 756 units on the Aberdare-Cardiff Central-Merthyr Tydfill lines on 15th November but the intention is to allocate them to the Rhymney line later next year as their permanent home, once the Class 398 tram-trains enter service on Aberdare and Merthyr Tydfill.

You get a sense of a true transformation underway on the Valley lines, not least when passing by the new Taffs Well depot and control centre where the tram-trains are currently stored.

It really will be a step change from the old Class 150s and Pacers of years past.

3. Avanti West Coast’s Class 807 Evero

Another new class of train just starting to hit the tracks is Avanti West Coast’s 10 Class 807s. Like their sister fleet of 13 Class 805s introduced in June they’ve been christened Evero and are replacing the Marmite like (you either love ’em or hate ’em) Voyager Class 221 fleet. But whereas the 805s are bi-mode units, the new 807s are all electric and destined for use on the route between London and Liverpool (including additional journeys to the current timetable) as well as between London and Blackpool and London and the West Midlands.

Although these Hitachi built trains are only seven coaches long rather than the nine or 11 we’re used to in the Pendolino fleet, as you can see in the photos, the coaches are very long so the overall seating capacity of 451 is not far off a nine coach Pendolino with 469 seats. With Avanti’s plans for a half hourly frequency between London and Liverpool, it means there’ll be a much welcome significant increase in overall capacity.

First class is just in the end coach with the first coach after that split between Standard Premium…

… and standard class.

It looks as though the Standard Premium section could also act as first class if needed due to the number of passengers paying the extra. All told there are 49 seats designated either First or Standard Premium.

Leg room in standard class is pretty ‘standard’ and there’s one three point socket and two usbs at the base of the seat back in front. The seats are the same as on the refurbished Pendolino trains.

The accessible space for a wheelchair user is in its normal location in coach A and is clearly marked…

… with the accessible toilet nearby, as is the one at the other end by first class.

As with Pendolinos and the Hitcahi trains on LNER there’s a ‘shop’ from where refreshments can be purchased in coach D.

It’s also nice to see many more tables in the other coaches, and, even better, lining up with windows.

All in all a nice train albeit the decor is not particularly inspiring and you have to like the new style seats with their ‘winged’ head rests.

Roger French

Blogging timetable: 06:00 TThS

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