Carriage Fleet Strategy and Standard Rake Consist

Believe it or not, there is a vague strategy to what we do in C&W! We do get buffeted by events from time to time so inevitably plans change, but the overarching direction of travel will hopefully remain the same. Seeing as we’ve had some comments questioning why the rakes have been mixed up a bit recently, our Head of Department Ian as explained what it’s all about. Over to Ian….

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Historically, GWSR have run
three rakes of seven carriages with rakes 1 and 2 running throughout the season
and 3 or more rakes running for Race Trains and Galas only. Each rake has been
formed of a combination of open and compartment stock together with a brake
vehicle and where possible, a catering vehicle and an accessible carriage but
otherwise there has been no consistency between individual rakes in the
formation/type of vehicles.

Our Standard Rake Consist strategy is intended, over a
period of time, to achieve three interchangeable rakes of seven carriages with as
near as possible identical formations. These will be the formation supporting
our current commercial business model. This will enable rakes to be regularly rotated
out of service during the Running Season such that:

• Routine inspections, planned
  maintenance and reactive repairs can be planned and undertaken throughout the
  year thereby reducing the workload during Annual Winter Maintenance and
  improving the overall customer experience of riding in our carriages
• Tyre and brake wear will be more even
  across the rakes
• Reserve vehicles can be substituted
  into rakes more easily allowing vehicles to be brought into the works for
  planned refurbishment
• Commercial activity is unaffected

The current agreed standard formation of each rake is as
follows:

North

TSO

SK/FK or CK

FO (or SO
upgraded to First Class)

Catering
Vehicle (RBr or RMB which is subject to RCS On-Train Catering Strategy)

Brake/Accessible
Vehicle

TSO

SK or FK

South

Factors taken into account in formulating the above
formation were:

·      
Retention of mixed open/compartment
vehicles to optimize the passenger experience

·      
Overall seat capacity and thus loading
per rake

·      
Seating configurations to take
account of group bookings (which prefer TSOs so that a large group can be
seated together)

·      
The number of available toilets per
rake (note any toilets immediately behind the loco are locked out at both ends,
so we have sought to ensure that the vehicles at the extreme North and South ends
do not have toilets at the end of the rake)

Spot the odd one out!

To achieve the current agreed
formations across all three rakes, we need the following vehicles by type:

Qty.6 x TSO

Qty.6 x SK/FK
or CK

Qty.3 x FO
(or SO upgraded to First Class)

Qty.3 x Catering
Vehicle (RBr or RMB which is subject to RCS On-Train Catering Strategy)

Qty.3 x Brake

The above
totals must include at least 3 Accessible Vehicles

To
facilitate planned refurbishments and removal from service for operational
reasons, a reserve fleet will be required comprising a minimum of:

Qty.1 x TSO

Qty.1 x SK/FK
or CK

Qty.1 x FO
(or SO upgraded to First Class)

Qty.1 x
Catering Vehicle (RBr or RMB which is subject to RCS On-Train Catering
Strategy)

Qty.1 x
Brake/Accessible Vehicle

The vehicles
in the reserve fleet will also be available to supplement Race Trains and to form
a fourth rake for Galas.

Combining
both the operational and reserve fleets will require a minimum total fleet
comprising:

Qty.7 x TSO

Qty.7 x SK/FK
or CK

Qty.4 x FO
(or SO upgraded to First Class)

Qty.5 x
Catering Vehicle (RBr or RMB which is subject to RCS On-Train Catering
Strategy)

Qty.5 x
Brake/Accessible Vehicle

As can be
seen from the table below (GWSR Carriage Fleet @ April 2024), we are in a
position to achieve the desired Standard Rake Consist without necessarily incurring
any acquisitions albeit to fulfil our long-term requirement will require
investment in the restoration of some vehicles.

GWSR Carriage Fleet @ April 2024