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INFORMED SOURCES January 2004

Traction and rolling stock reliability reviewed

Captain Deltic gives his white RAF pattern boiler suit a press and finds out what the maintenance engineers achieved in 2003

Engineering is, of course, an art not a science. And since engineers are driven both professionally and commercially to explore the art of the possible, nothing new can be expected to work perfectly out of the box.

While I spent my time in the Drawing Office training school, my engineering metier, such as it was, turned out to be in development and maintenance. And you don't have to be in a depot for long to realise that maintenance is development by other means.

‘How can this be', cry the ignorant, ‘surely you cannot expect the fare paying passenger to be part of the development process'? Well, not only can you, but you have to, since it is impossible to simulate the harsh reality of fleet service.

‘But surely', cry the ignorant, ‘Siemens have found the solution with their test track'? Err, I'll come to that later.

Definitions

A thumb through Informed Sources for 2003 revealed a noticeable lack of hard core traction and rolling stock reportage. And, with the current concern over the railway's performance, I thought a review of reliability was in order.

First, we should establish the rules of engagement. While miles per casualty (MPC hereafter) seems unambiguous, once you start talking to builders, maintainers and operators, you realise that contractual definitions can give different figures for the same fleet.

All the tables in this review are based on figures collated to a common definition for the National Fleet Reliability Improvement Plan. A <bold> Casualty<bold> is defined as a technical or maintenance defect on a train causing a delay of five or more minutes.

This definition also applies to cancellations and part cancellation. Even if subsequent investigation may report 'No Fault Found' (NFF), the delay still counts as a casualty. Technical faults during empty stock movements are also included.

Mileages are for units. If two units run in multiple for 100 miles, that counts as 200 unit miles.

Finally, the average figures are based on performance over the first 10 months of 2003. The spot figure is for the most recent four weeks in the data-set. Fleets are listed in descending order of reliability

I should add that manufacturers and ROSCOs take issue with certain of these data. For example, downloading the Train Management System may show an NFF to be due to finger trouble by the train crew.

That may be so, but the aim is to allow comparison between fleets on a common basis. If you think a figure is unrealistically low, then simply double it. If it is still low compared with its peer group then the comparison is probably correct.

Workhorse EMUs

Where to start? What I think of as the ‘workhorse' EMUs from the late 1970s and 1980s should provide a useful yardstick.

Table 1

British Rail EMUs

So, what do we learn from the Table 1?

Well, for a start, while National Express has proved hopeless at integrating its franchises into a unified operation, the London Lines Business Group has shown what can be achieved by coordinating the engineering teams over the three franchises.

While you would expect the Class 321 fleet to shine, since it was the culmination of York's long running programme of Mk 3 body based, DC drive 31X and 32X EMUs, note that Bletchley Depot gets nearly twice the MPC that Great Eastern achieves with identical kit.

Note, too, meritorious 16,300 MPC for the WAGN Class 313 fleet, now 27 years old. Dual voltage running, with the switch from third rail to pantograph, increases the number of things to go wrong.

In addition, the shift of production from Sheffield to Preston resulted in a notably unstable commutator on the Class 313 traction motors. So well done all round.

A special mention too, for South West Trains for that 19,300 from the unlovely and unloved Class 455. That sort of reliability certainly justifies the decision to invest in major refurbishment.

So, as a first approximation, with EMUs, we ought to set the minimum MPC at 10,000, expect 20,000 and aspire to 40,000. And you will note that Captain Deltic's favourite English Electric powered EMU gives other electrical equipment manufacturers something to which to aspire.

Workhorse DMUs

We could call the next Category the Edmonds Legacy, after John Edmonds who as Sector Director took the dismissively-named ‘Other Provincial Services' and turned it into Regional Railways with an aggressive re-equipment policy based on new DMUs providing faster and more frequent services.

Table 2

British Rail DMUs

So what is a Class 159 doing topping the rankings? Well, Chris Green was ever pragmatic and with Class 158 production coming to an end decided to get some of that end-of-run quality and adopted the design for the Waterloo and Exeter replacement fleet.

But that was not all. A new depot was built especially for the Class 159s at Salisbury , as a result of which we have the best of the last, in a depot designed for the train and with a stable out-of-London workforce. Result – a category-dominating 19,000 plus MPC.

And in second place we have the Class 150, British Rail Engineering's basic new generation DMU which launched the Sprinter revolution. Yes it is a cheap and cheerful piece of kit. Yes, Silverlink have only seven units to maintain, but an MPC of 13,900 is very impressive – particularly when you study the bottom of the table.

For me the best of the Edmonds DMUs was the Class 156 – perhaps the last true Metro-Cammell DMU. It was a well engineered design, though without the complication of air conditioning, and this inherent quality means that it equips two fleets in the top five.

Daisy & friends

It is with this Table that another issue emerges, the sheer variability of performance among classes. Notice how two Class 150 fleets sit at the bottom.

To humour Mr Miles I have included his beloved class 101s in this category and you do have to wonder how Class 150s can produce an inferior MPC to 46 year old vehicles.

Bearing in mind that all these units have had up to 15 years of development (Daisy and friends excepted), I suggest a minimum MPC of 6,000, with 10,000 expected and an aspiration to 20,000.

At the risk of upsetting engineering chums in certain depots, I would suggest that a rolling average MPC of under 5000 is unacceptable. However I appreciate that there may be mitigating circumstances – details to eraf@dial.pipex.com.

Poorly Pacers

According to the Chairman of the SRA, if passengers don't like Pacers they can have buses. When you look at Table 3 you have to be thankful that Metro-Cammell and West Midlands PTE got together and decided that the replacement for a classic DMU was a modern DMU and not BR's preferred option of the Railbus.

This was reported in the very first Informed Sources back in January 1983 and I like to think that this column's campaigning for the concept helped bring about the Sprinter revolution.

Bearing in mind the sums spent on re-engineering the Pacers, I think it fair to say that the concept was flawed. Anyone getting an MPC of over 5000 from these units deserves a bonus or, in the case of Wales & Borders, there's a champagne challenge from the Captain.

Table 3

Pacers

Heavy metal

Moving on quickly we come to the InterCity legacy fleets. I wasn't sure what to expect here, but given all the hard work put into the Class 91 and Mk 4 coaches by GNER's engineers and their opposite numbers at owners HSBC, not to mention the manufacturers, it should have come as no surprise that IC225 tops the table and is set to improve.

On the other hand, the performance of the Eurostar is a disappointment. True it is a fiendishly complex train, but those figures are unimpressive.

On the other hand, I reckon that West Coast Train care and the Anglia Railways engineers at Crown Point are putting in a solid performance with their ageing assets. Assuming Greater Anglia gets some of the Class 90s and Mk 3b coaches from West Coast, I would expect to see them nudging the 10,000 mark.

More kudos for GNER for also turning out the most reliable HST fleet, and look at the Latest 4 weeks performance. Commiserations, rather than opprobrium, to Midland Main Line whose reliability has been dragged down by the ex-Virgin units imported for Operation Rio. One suspects that new MD David franks will be driving hard for the industry norm of a 6000 MPC.

Continues.........

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