Arriva Trains

Mr_Falling_Star

Is it me and my lack of knowledge of how trains work or is this plain wrong?

I was at a large train station today, on the opposite platform a two carriage diesel train pulled in. The passengers and crew got off, and there sat the train, burbling away and the engine spewing out CO2 and fumes. Now I thought OK, it will go in a few minutes but I waited and waited and still it sat there, engine on idle until my train left. From when the other train pulled up to my train leaving half a hour had gone by and it wasn't due to leave for another half hour :mad:

If trains are difficult to start up then I can understand (maybe they need a little starter trolley or something ) but to have a engine on idle for maybe a hour for no reason just seems wrong. I feel like emailing ARRIVA but I don't want to seem ignorant or a wonk, what would you do?

P__G

Im not sure - maybe they require more fuel to switch off and restart??

Perhpas write to your train company? The more people that raise such questions the more companies will bear us "greenies" in mind

http://www.arriva.co.uk/arriva/en/services/contact_us/

moonrakerz

Most diesel engines, including your car, require to be warmed before they will start. A family car has "glow plugs" which heat the engine for a few seconds before you try and start it.

A diesel engine in a train is MASSIVE and would require a huge amount of electrical power to warm it first. To save having to fit a huge amount of extra batteries to the train to power the heaters, the trains are literally "plugged into the mains" when not in use, when being serviced at night for example. However, if they are somewhere where these "shore supplies" are not available, the engine has to be left running.

'Simples' - as the meerkat, Aleksandr Orlov, would say !

frivolous_fay

I know what you mean OP - I had a similar 'isn't it ridiculous' moment in Portsmouth, in a road where there are a lot of bus stops. Buses would sit and idle for ages... the fug was atrocious. IIRC, I did write a letter, and got the brush off.

There ought to be a better way.

moonrakerz

frivolous_fay wrote: »

Buses would sit and idle for ages... the fug was atrocious.

There ought to be a better way.

Keeping the heating/air conditioning running for the benefit of the passengers perhaps ?

Fire_Fox

frivolous_fay wrote: »

I know what you mean OP - I had a similar 'isn't it ridiculous' moment in Portsmouth, in a road where there are a lot of bus stops. Buses would sit and idle for ages... the fug was atrocious. IIRC, I did write a letter, and got the brush off.

There ought to be a better way.

I live in a city centre and my road is wall to wall bus stops. I wrote to our local bus company about sitting idle with the engine running and was advised that, as my street is not technically a terminus, this did not happen. :rolleyes: Trust me I live here and it does, especially first thing and last thing when the buses are ahead of schedule. According to the council the diesel drips out of the exhaust and damages the road. At least now our buses run on bio-diesel.