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INFORMED SOURCES January 2007

Train reliability – new EMUs start to deliver

Captain Deltic's Annual Reliability Survey separates the good eggs from the curate's eggs – handing out gold and silver spanners and ASROs in the process

There is a major change in terminology in this year's Train Fleet Reliability Survey – the fourth in the series. Out goes Miles Per Casualty (MPC) and in comes Miles Per 5-Min Delay (MP5MD).

All the tables in this review are derived from data collated by the National Fleet Reliability Improvement Programme(NFRIP), under the auspices of the Association of Train Operating Companies. As in previous years, the review is based on performance as at Period 7 (16 September – 14 October) of the current reporting year which started on 1 April 1 2006 . There are 13 four week periods in the year.

For each fleet in the tables the MP5MD for the four weeks of Period 7 is shown, plus the moving annual average ( MAA ) MP5MD also as at Period 7. The MAA is calculated as sum of a fleet's unit mileage over the last 13 periods divided by sum of all Technical 5-Min Delays over the same time.

To these current figures I have added the Period 7 MAA for 2005-06 and this is used to calculate the percentage change in reliability. A negative percentage means reliability has fallen.

Within the tables, improving fleets are colour-coded green, and deteriorating fleets red; fleets where the year-on year decline less than 5% on last year are coded yellow. The ‘red rating' is the percentage of fleets in the category which have deteriorated year-on-year.

At the end of each section there are three MP5SD figures. These are my estimates of the minimum acceptable reliability, the expected performance and the level to which maintenance engineers should ultimately aspire

Definitions

A Technical 5-Min Delay is counted where there is a fault on a train causing a delay of 5 or more minutes and the root cause is a technical or maintenance defect on the train. Cancellations and part cancellations also count. From Period 2 '03/04 onwards, 5-Min delays have included all technical 'No Fault Founds'.

Included are train technical faults under the following situations: empty stock moves; occasions where delay is exacerbated by operational error; and under adverse weather conditions.

Excluded are train technical faults caused by: vandalism; proven infrastructure defects; and other third parties.

Mileages are derived from actual fleet unit miles run so that a complete IC125 trainset counts as one unit. However, two 2-car sets working in multiple count as two units.

Poorly Pacers

Operator	Class	Unit Miles	P7 MP5MD	P7 MAA 2006-07	P7 MAA 2005/06	2005/06 ranking	Change in MAA
Northern	Class 144	156,708	4,897	4,607	4,723	2	-2.5
Northern	Class 142	563,293	3,435	3,271	3,845	3	-14.9
First Greater Western	Class 143	55,646	1,855	2,811	4,518	1	-37.8
Arriva Trains Wales	Class 142	83,462	1,855	2,352	2,689	5	-12.5
Arriva Trains Wales	Class 143	97,447	1,740	2,203	2,762	4	-20.2

So much for the housekeeping, now for the analysis, starting as always with the Pacers. Last year, I was looking forward to handing over a champagne challenge to the first Pacer operator to have got above 5000 MP5MD.

So much for optimism. Even Northern's Class 144s, which were pushing for a popping cork, have effectively hit the wall, while the rest of the fleet have fallen back alarmingly. With a Red Rating of 80%, listing an aspirational MP5MD would be risible.

Despite all the money thrown at the traction packages, brakes and so on by BR, the British Rail Research Railbus concept remains a pigs ear. But current performance is, I suspect due to a combination of nature and nurture.

Last year I got my knuckles rapped for suggesting that the variations might be down to the quality of maintenance. One Pacer operator adduced differing duties, particularly the greater frequency of door operation on some routes.

Hmm, I am reminded that after their re-engining by BR, the Pacers were achieving 10,000 miles per casualty, albeit under pre-NFRIP rules, so 5,000 MP5MD really ought to be achievable. And with the Pacers leased to 2018, the owning ROSCOs have some money to spend on ‘mid-life' reliability enhancement mod's.

‘Anything but that', I can hear readers cry. But even if we bin the Pacers, it doesn't mean that train operators can afford a modern replacement. In the bad old days a cascade would have seen the Pacers replaced by Class 150 Sprinter DMUs, but the message I get is that no one can afford new trains to start a cascade.

Yes I know my old chum David Shipley will point to his low-cost made-in-China DMUs as a potential solution, but the capital lease rental is going to be more than the total cost of a Pacer. And a new train with all the disability buzzers and bells and modern amenities is not going to be cheap to maintain.

Time perhaps, for ATW to take some stroppy young engineer, give him a small budget and tell him that getting a bottle of champagne from Captain Deltic will greatly enhance his career prospects.

DMU performance polarises

BR era DMUs 2006-07 figures
	Operator	Class	Unit Miles	P7 MP5MD	P7 MAA 2006-07	P7 MAA 2005/06	2005/06 ranking	change MAA
1	South West Trains	Class 159	354,810	39,423	27,225	17,130	1	58.9
2	First Scotrail	Class 156	330,726	9,727	8,544	9,172	2	-6.9
3	First Transpennine Express	Class 158	292,258	8,350	7,424	5,925	11	25.3
4	Central Trains	Class 156	105,031	8,079	7,385	5,673	12	30.2
5	Central Trains	Class 153	122,223	10,185	7,139	6,376	8	12.0
6	Northern	Class 156	429,874	6,933	6,463	6,607	7	-2.2
7	One	Class 156	102,877	6,430	5,894	3,169	22	86.0
8	First Greater Western	Class 150	227,532	5,550	5,549	5,271	13	5.3
9	First Greater Western	Class 153	109,735	9,976	5,516	6,029	10	-8.5
10	Central Trains	Class 158	140,875	7,826	5,403	6,748	6	-19.9
11	Arriva Trains Wales (1)	Class 158	480,353	4,141	4,930	7,098	4&5	-30.5
12	Northern	Class 158	238,972	5,974	4,919	4,338	17	13.4
13	Central Trains	Class 150	254,352	5,529	4,635	4,175	18	11.0
14	First Greater Western	Class 158	231,627	6,095	4,517	4,963	14	-9.0
15	Silverlink	Class 150	40,262	2,684	4,487	6,364	9	-29.5
16	One	Class 153	49,453	5,495	4,477	4,737	15	-5.5
17	Arriva Trains Wales	Class 153	127,623	4,401	4,452	7,525	3	-40.8
18	Northern	Class 153	147,666	3,516	4,183	3,642	21	14.8
19	First Scotrail	Class 158	266,537	4,518	3,973	4,029	19	-1.4
20	Northern	Class 150	326,581	3,711	3,829	4,422	16	-13.4
21	Northern	Class 155	55,620	2,927	3,303	3,096	23	6.7
22	Arriva Trains Wales	Class 150	148,931	2,810	2,688	3,922	20	-31.5

1) Composite figure of sub-fleets previously shown separately

A characteristic of this year's review is that in several categories performance is polarising. The best are getting better, or, at least, holding their own. But in too many cases, those at the bottom of last year's tables have started to decline.

Thus among the BR-era DMUs, South West Trains Salisbury Depot, which won last year's Golden Spanner with an MPC of 17,000 for their Class 159s, against 9000 MPC from runners up, the First ScotRail Class 156 fleet, have won again with a truly impressive 27,225 MP5MD. This improvement also gave them second place in the new Silver Spanners awards for most improved fleet in each category.

First ScotRail are still second, but the Class 156 fleet reliability had dropped by 7%. However, as any Fleet Engineer will tell you, Salisbury has several advantages, not least, a captive fleet that comes home at night, a dedicated modern depot facility and a stable workforce able to draw on a pool of ex-service technicians.

Yes, but, to post the 5th best reliability of all multiple units – diesel and electric, old and new – is the result of a relentless drive to use these advantages to the full. Before I ran this year's analysis, I wondered about the logic of SWT swapping its 170s for more Class 159s. But the best performing Class 170 – also Salisbury based, has half the MP5MD of the Class 159.

And Fleet Manager Pete Blackman has firm views on why this should be. It is an engineering adage that the first application of new technology will be inferior to the final examples of the mature technology it replaces.

Thus the Class 170s, with theoretically less troublesome electronic control systems, has yet to match the Class 169s with electro-pneumatic controls. Anyone who has tried fault finding ignition problems on cars with old fashioned distributors and modern electronic systems will appreciate the difference.

Nor is it just DMUs. The most reliable train in Britain is the ultimate expression of the thyristor-controlled dc traction motored, Mk3 bodies EMu, the Class 321

Super Super Sprinters

Also in the top half of the table, note the dramatic rise of the First TransPennine Express, Central Trains and ‘one' Class 156 and 158 ‘Super Sprinters'. I must confess to a soft spot for the Class 156 – arguably the last true Metro-Cammell product. The Class 158 is a more complex unit with its air conditioning. But both are honest bits of kit which with some TLC ought to be pushing past 10,000 MP5MD.

Oddly, the even more basic Class 150, now has only one fleet above 5,000 MP5MD – the ex-Wessex, now First Greater Western, units. These workhorses surely deserve a mid-life reliability upgrade; depot engineers must know what needs fixing.

Reflecting performance trends I have reduced the expected MP5MD and Aspirational MP5MD figures slightly from last year

RED RATING 45% (43)

MINIMUM MP5MD 5000

EXPECTED MP5MD 10,000

ASPIRATIONAL MP5MD 12,000

New diesels variable

2006-07
New generation DMU
	Operator	Class	Unit Miles	P7 MP5MD	P7 MAA 2006-07	P7 MAA 2005/06	2005/06 ranking	change MAA
1	Hull	Class 222	68,688	34,344	27,233	38,191	1	-28.7
2	South West Trains	Class 170	82,061	9,118	13,126	8,502	8	54.4
3	Southern	Class 170	123,984	24,797	10,509	8,337	9	26.0
4	One	Class 170	176,954	17,695	9,881	10,742	5	-8.0
5	Virgin Cross Country	Class 220	646,534	14,694	9,795	9,548	6	2.6
6	First Greater Western	Class 166	226,766	8,099	9,553	12,964	2	-26.3
7	Midland Mainline	Class 222	377,224	10,195	9,115	11,710	3	-22.2
8	First Greater Western	Class 165/1	320,755	9,720	9,011	10,753	4	-16.2
9	First Scotrail	Class 170	650,335	7,475	8,398	8,647	7	-2.9
10	Arriva Trains Wales	Class 175	338,998	8,692	8,000	5,186	15	54.2
11	Virgin Cross Country	Class 221	777,262	6,759	7,768	7,741	12	0.3
12	Chiltern	Class 168/0	56,004	9,334	7,500	4,295	17	74.6
13	First Transpennine Express	Class 185	347,829	6,820	7,451
14	Chiltern	Class 168/1	110,967	9,247	6,927	8,054	11	-14.0
15	First Greater Western	Class 180	186,893	5,663	6,236	7,398	13	-15.7
16	Chiltern	Class 165/0	314,153	8,055	6,193	6,383	10	-3.0
17	Central Trains	Class 170	605,534	6,055	5,789	5,101	16	13.5
18	Chiltern	Class 168/2	74,583	7,458	3,550	8,094	10	-56.1

Performance of the new generation DMUs, in which I include the immediately pre-privatisation Networker Turbos, is, to put it mildly, all over the place.

For Hull Trains, the honeymoon is over and the rough and tumble of daily operation is being felt, even under the relatively benign operating conditions. But with a MP5MD of 27,000 they are nearly three times better than the next best 22X units where it looks as though reliability improvement has reached a plateau. These are complex pieces of kit, but I would hope to see continuous improvement start again, one the first batch of reliability mod's have shaken down.

Of course, the Class 170 is now part of the furniture and in second and third places South West Trains and Southern, have really gripped their small fleets, producing improvements of 54% and 26% respectively. Similarly, at Chester , ATW and Alstom have continued the, long-overdue, upwards march of the Class 175, with a 54% gain to a respectable 8000 MP5MD. Back in P7 2004-05, the MPC was 2,375.

Interestingly, according to Informed Sources, Alstom are getting some serious hours between overhauls on the Cummins engines in the Class 175s. One report says 25,000 hours.

This is attributed to two factors. First the use of a high quality Shell oil, and second, the units' compressors which are driven by an electric motor rather than directly from the engine.

When a driver takes over a train first thing in the morning, the engine needs to idle while the oil and coolant warm up. However, at idle with direct drive the compressor is running at low speed and so it takes time to full charge the reservoir and release the brakes. There is a button which the driver can press to increase to speed up the ending, but ‘revving' a cold engine does it no good at all, shortening its life.

With electric drive, which is a it more expensive to make, the compressor runs at full speed immediately. Now there's an interesting subject for a whole life cost analysis.

At the bottom of the table, something has clearly gone seriously adrift with Chiltern's Class 168/2 fleet, although the P7 MP5MD is more in line with other fleets in this category. Chiltern clearly knows what needs to be done, however, because last year's lanterne rouge, the Class 168/0, is this years silver spanner winner.

RED RATING 44% (29%)

MINIMUM MP5MD 10,000

EXPECTED MP5MD 15,000

ASPIRATION MP5MD 20,000

BR EMUs ageing

BR era EMU
2006-07 figures
	Operator	Class	Unit Miles	P7 MP5MD	P7 MAA 2006-07	P7 MAA 2005/06	2005/06 ranking	change MAA
1	Silverlink	Class 321	321,359	35,707	43,267	40,687	1	6.34
2	South West Trains	Class 442	322,798	29,345	28,885	15,398	5	87.59
3	One	Class 317/7	286,673	15,926	26,624	19,386	4	37.33
4	One	Class 321	543,279	27,164	21,098	21,620	3	-2.41
5	South West Trains	Class 455	324,269	21,618	19,446	21,854	2	-11.02
6	South West Trains	Class 455R	334,556	17,608	17,199	9,143	15	88.10
7	First Scotrail	Class 320	139,225	9,282	14,642	14,215	9	3.00
8	First Capital Connect	Class 319 (1)	837,083	10,208	12,756	14,786	6 & 10	-13.73
9	One	Class 317/1 & 317/6	179,933	11,246	12,734	10,662	12	19.43
10	First Capital Connect	Class 317/1	105,165	15,024	11,488	14,607	7	-21.35
11	Southern	Class 456	121,840	7,167	10,168	13,095	11	-22.35
12	First Capital Connect	Class 313	249,167	16,611	9,613	10,002	13	-3.89
13	Southern	Class 319/0	19,794	4,949	9,148	9,876	14	-7.38
14	Silverlink	Class 508	10,816	10,816	8,140	8,367	16	-2.71
15	Northern	Class 321	24,059	8,020	7,893	6,520	22	21.05
16	One	Class 315 (GE)	243,720	10,597	7,636	8,295	17	-7.94
17	Southern	Class 455/8	286,033	6,976	7,010	7,161	19	-2.12
18	Southern	Class 319/2	25,604	4,267	6,550	14,255	8	-54.05
19	First Scotrail	Class 318	178,553	6,867	6,396	6,619	20	-3.38
20	Merseyrail	Class 508	163,207	7,419	6,353	5,050	25	25.82
21	Merseyrail	Class 507	182,792	8,309	5,880	4,913	26	19.68
22	One	Class 317/5	76,760	3,838	5,399
23	Silverlink	Class 313	129,779	7,210	4,905	6,427	23	-23.69
24	Southeastern	Class 508	63,735	3,749	4,659	6,525	21	-28.60
25	One	Class 315 (WA)	109,883	3,330	4,655	5,512	24	-15.54
26	First Scotrail	Class 322	24,033	4,006	4,495	7,448	18	-39.65
27	First Scotrail	Class 314	87,088	5,806	3,704	3,558	27	4.08
1) Composite 319/3 and 319/4 from last year

Continuing the unsettling polarisation in this year's review, the BR EMU fleets appear to fit into three groups. The superstars are reaching 20,000 MP5MD and above, the solid achievers in the 8000-15000 range but the bottom third at 6,000 and under.

There are mitigating circumstances. Note that positions in the table are, with notable exceptions, in increasing order of age of the fleet. Four of the bottom five are 25-30 years old, but that does not explain the massive reductions in reliability compared with last year.

Why, for example, does the all-conquering London Lines Engineering team get half the MP5MD from the Silverlink Class 313 fleet that First Capital Connect achieves? This is, of course, a trick question because London Lines ran Hornsey Depot before FCC took over in April. But it is a valid question because while the FCC units are continually switching from AC to DC traction on the way into Moorgate, the Silverlink units are DC only.

There are similar anomalies in the Class 317s and Class 319s. And why the disparity between One's two Class 315 sub-fleets?

Pondering performance in this category I did note one factor. Nearly all the top 10 fleets are accumulating over 300,000 miles a period. This both provides the statistical data for continuous improvement programmes while cushioning the NFRIP statistics against the usolated major failure.

In contrast, at the bottom of the table no one is over 200,000 miles a period and there are several below 100,000 miles.

What conclusions can we draw from these statistics? I would suggest that with the current new trains order-hiatus, and with most fleets tacitly expected by DfT Rail to run through to 2020, now is the time to launch some substantial mid-life upgrades. Elsewhere in this issue you can read what just such a scheme has achieved for First Capital Connect's Class 319s.

Given this year's performance I have both reduced the minimum MP5MD to 12,000 and increased the aspiration to 45,000. It's been that sort of year.

Oh, yes, and for all those readers who share Captain Deltic's fondness for the Class 442 and are up in arms about its withdrawal by SWT on 13 January, note how close the ‘plastic pigs' were to winning a silver spanner for most improved fleet.

RED RATING 53% (30%)

MINIMUM MP5MD 12,000

EXPECTED MP5MD 20,000

ASPIRATION MP5MD 45,000

New EMUs excel

2006-07 figures
Three phase drive EMUs
	Operator	Class	Unit Miles	P7 2006/07 MP5MD	P7 MAA 2006-07	P7 MAA 2005/06	2005/06 ranking	change MAA
1	c2c	Class 357	464,560	51,618	37,391	43,183	1	-13.4
2	One	Class 360	220,895	22,090	31,563	14,212	7	122.1
3	Southern	Class 377/3	245,436	24,544	25,844	17,733	4	45.7
4	Southeastern	Class 375/3,6&7	591,976	36,999	25,622	17,069	5	50.1
5	Southeastern	Class 375 8/9	538,364	38,455	25,135	14,441	6	74.1
6	Gatwick Express	Class 460	111,676	37,225	23,280	19,582	3	18.9
7	First Capital Connect	Class 365	493,191	27,400	23,203	22,567	2	2.8
8	South West Trains	Class 444	505,237	21,052	23,040	11,496	10	100.4
9	Southern	Class 377/4	1,283,510	20,055	21,398	13,386	9	59.9
10	Southeastern	Class 376	136,757	34,189	17,853	8,253	16	116.3
11	South West Trains	Class 450	962,240	19,245	16,962	10,975	11	54.6
12	First Greater Western	Class 360	21,250	21,250	15,420	4,865	23	216.9
13	Northern	Class 333	136,946	34,237	14,814	8,568	15	72.9
14	South West Trains	Class 458	ceased P4 '06/07		13,839	13,580	8	1.9
15	Silverlink	Class 350	139,372	27,874	13,164	9,168	13	43.6
16	Southeastern	Class 466	208,419	20,842	12,153	9,870	12	23.1
17	Southeastern	Class 465/1	259,873	11,812	10,048	8,944	14	12.3
18	Central Trains	Class 350	152,035	15,204	10,003
19	Southeastern	Class 465/9	244,234	16,282	9,385	4,963	22	89.1
20	Southeastern	Class 465/2	92,581	13,226	8,637	7,339	17	17.7
21	Southeastern	Class 465/0	270,167	9,649	8,199	6,904	19	18.8
22	Central Trains	Class 323	190,092	6,789	6,651	6,287	20	5.8
23	First Scotrail	Class 334	351,214	8,566	6,524	7,292	18	-10.5
24	Northern	Class 323	99,420	6,214	5,496	5,478	21	0.3

At last, some unambiguous good news. Only two red ratings and almost every fleet showing double digit percentage improvements, with some more than doubling last year's figures.

There are so many meritorious performances, that it is almost invidious to pick out individual fleets. Despite an endemic fault with the Class 357, Bombardier and London Lines sorted the problem and held off one's fast improving Siemens Class 360 for top spot.

Bombardier's Electrostar continues to be the master on the more environmentally demanding DC electrified lines, although Siemen's Desiro, in the form of the Class 444 is closing in on the 25000 MP5MD club. Note, too, in the tight group at 23,000, the Gatwick Express 460 (dedicated depot and well trained drivers), and my local Class 365s.

While this table is nominally about new generation EMUs, BR's three phase drive Class 323s and Networkers are listed in this category. The Class 365 combined the excellence of BREL 's mechanical parts with GEC Alsthom's traction package. That it can hold its own with equipment benefiting from at least a generation of technical progress in traction technology is a tribute both to the Networker concept and the TLC provided by Hornsey Depot.

I suspect that the difference between SWT's two Desiro fleets is down to duty cycle. You would expect the outer suburban Class 444 to suffer less from doors than the inner suburban Class 450.

Shall I point out that the 442 beats the 444 by 5000 miles? Better not, it might be construed as mischievous and Luddite. And wasn't the Class 450 intended to equal the 50,000 MPC (and better) of the slam door stock it replaced?

Congratulations to Siemens for not weaselling on this one. In reality, NFRIP is a much more demanding task-master that the reliability regimes in new train contracts, excluding a number of causes. According to one senior engineer, who should know, contractual failures, which are down to the manufacturer, typically represent a third to a half of NFRIP casualties for a fleet.

A key factor in this encouraging performance is the involvement of the manufacturers, ranging from spares support to total train service provision packages. Both Bombardier and Siemens are maintaining their own kit, sometimes in purpose equipped depots. Alstom supports the Class 460s directly.

Such involvement brings multiple benefits. First the staff can be trained to maintain the kit to the manual. Second, you don't have a third party buying ‘pattern' spare parts because they are cheaper and third, a long term contractual commitment to improving reliability and availability – backed by bonuses – justifies spending on upgrades.

And when latent endemic faults start to emerge, as they will, the maintenance people are backed by their companies' manufacturing resources. For example, when the Class 390 Pendolino traction packages started to suffer from IGBTs failing after around 4,000 hours in service, West Coast Train Care was able to put Preston Works on the job.

Similarly, at Ilford, c2c pay tribute to the efficiency with which Bombardier carried out the modification programme when the Class 357 fleet ran into the sensitivity of the transformers' Buchholz relays to low atmospheric pressure .

It may be unfair to put the BR first generation three phase drive EMUs in such company. South East think so because, as reported elsewhere, HSBC Rail are retrofitting the Class 465s with Hitachi traction packages.

Given the 2020 deadline for RVAR compliance, the economics of such retrofits must be finely balanced. But if it can be made to pay, the Class 323s are also potential candidates for a heart transplant and I can't see Alstom and Siemens leaving this back door open.

Meanwhile, given the improving performance I have raised the expected reliability from 20,000 to 25,000 MP5MD

RED RATING 8% (9%)

MINIMUM MP5MD 15,000

EXPECTED MP5MD 25,000

ASPIRATIOPN MP5MD 50,000

InterCity – Investment tells

Intercity 2006-07 figures
	Operator	Class	Unit Miles	P7 MP5MD	P7 MAA 2006-07	P7 MAA 2005/06	2005/06 ranking	change MAA
1	GNER	IC225	482,293	17,863	18,522	13,397	1	38.25
2	Virgin West Coast	Class 390	1,000,030	10,204	9,372	3,772	6	148.43
3	GNER	HST Set	173,002	6,654	9,202	7,532	3	22.18
4	Midland Mainline	HST Set	185,167	9,258	7,185	7,934	2	-9.44
5	First Greater Western	HST Set	741,849	8,064	6,903	7,193	4	-4.03
6	One	Electric-loco Trainset	206,115	5,153	4,873	4,171	5	16.82

More good news, with only one red entry and some considerable improvements. An emerging theme of this year's review is that with DfT Rail unable to fund new trains, what money is available should be spent on reliability upgrades for the mid-life fleets.

Just what this can achieve is demonstrated by the performance of the GNER IC225 fleet. The performance upgrade to the Class 91 locomotives, with the manufacturer and owning ROSCO heavily involved, was followed by the Mallard mid-life refurbishment of the Mk 4 coach which included attention to the known problem areas – such as auxiliary power supplies.

As a rule of thumb, once a fleet gets up to around 15,000 MP5MD, its effect on PPM becomes secondary compared with other factors. It will be interesting to see whether GNERs engineers can get the IC225 MAA above 20,000.

Mind you, it is not all IC225. To inject a bit of ‘needle', Captain Deltic's personal Golden Spanner in this 30 th Anniversary Year of 125 mile/h operation was for the most reliable InterCity 125. The lads and lassies at Craigentinny walked it with a 22% improvement where their rivals fell back. With GNER engineers waxing lyrical over their pimped 43s coming out of Loughborough, five figure reliability is expected next year.

Despite coming from a very long way back, the Virgin West Coast Pendolino fleet's Silver spanner was well earned. As reported above a latent endemic fault emerged during the year and was dealt with. But really, guys, it's no time to rest on your spanners when a 30 year old diesel train is more reliable!

RED RATING 17% (nil)

MINIMUM MP5MD

ELECTRIC TRACTION 15,000

IC125 8,500

EXPECTED MP5MD

ELECTRIC TRACTION 20,000

IC125 10,000

ASPIRATION MP5MD

ELECTRIC TRACTION 25,000

IC125 15,000

INFORMED SOURCES January 2007

Train reliability – new EMUs start to deliver

Definitions

Poorly Pacers

DMU performance polarises

Super Super Sprinters

New diesels variable

2006-07

New generation DMU

BR EMUs ageing

BR era EMU

2006-07 figures

New EMUs excel

2006-07 figures

InterCity – Investment tells

Intercity 2006-07 figures

Top link

Simply the best - the 25k Club

Golden Spanners 2006-07
Spanner	Category	Class	MP5MD	% improvement	Operator	Depot	Owner	Manufacturer	traction
Gold	Most reliable BR era EMU	321	43,267		Silverlink	Bletchley	HSBC	BREL (Bombardier)	Brush
Silver	Most improved BR era EMU	455		88.1	South West Trains	Wimbledon	Porterbrook	BREL (Bombardier)	GEC Alstom

Gold	Most reliable BR era DMU	159	27,225		South West Trains	Salisbury	Porterbrook	BREL (Bombardier)	Perkins/Voith
Silver	Most improved BR era DMU	156		86.0	One	Crown Point	Porterbrook	Metro Cammell	Cummins/Voith

Gold	Most reliable new generation EMU	357	37,391		c2c	East Ham	Porterbrook/Angel	Bombardier	Bombardier
Silver	Most improved new generation EMU	360		216.9	First Greater Western	Old Oak Common	Angel	Siemens	Siemens

Gold	Most reliable new generation DMU	222	27,233		Hull Trains	Crofton	HSBC Rail	Bombardier	Cummins/Alstom
Silver	Most improved new generation DMU	168/0		74.6	Chiltern	Aylesbury	Porterbrook	Adtranz (Bombardier)	MTU/Voith

Gold	Most reliable InterCity fleet	IC225	18,522		GNER	Bounds Green	HSBC Rail	GEC Alstom/Metro-Cammell	GEC Alstom
Silver	Most improved InterCity fleet	390		148.4	Virgin West Coast	Manchester Longsight	Angel Trains	Alstom	Alstom

Gold	Most reliable IC125 fleet	IC125	9,202		GNER	Craigentinny	Angel Trains	BREL	Paxman/Brush