- So, I'm on a train.
That's 40 years old, and if you discount the Island white,
which is a place where I've never been, by the way,
these are the oldest trains in service on mainland Britain.
We're on the Northern city line.
It's a strange bit of tunnel rail network in London
that's not part of the tube,
leaves Moorgate goes through Old Street, Essex road,
Drayton Park to Harringay and beyond,
and these trains, these really old trains are going
and today I'm going on a test run
of one of the brand new units that's replacing them.
(upbeat music)
So yeah, these are rather old trains,
GTR themselves I think would admit by the, the paint work,
they're not in the best condition.
And that's partly why they're being replaced,
which is great.
It's 1120 now and 1137,
a brand new shiny one is going to come in
on one of the platforms.
Do we know which platform it's gonna be?
(upbeat music)
- There's one other slide,
small thing to mention
slightly.
It's nice,
but I'm interested in the notice
the press office at GTR invited me today,
have noticed
that I'm nearing the magic 100,000 mark subscribers.
And I think that they've organised a special thing later on.
I heard something that I shouldn't have heard,
and I think they're doing a surprise.
So I've got to be surprised later,
when the thing happens, I'm not expecting.
(upbeat music)
- First time in 40 years,
anyone's tried to put new rolling stock
down the Moorgate tunnels, we've got 25 new six car trains,
17 of them in the UK coming in at service eminently,
they've got full air conditioning through out
(indistinct) points every seat.
There's onboard Wi-Fi
albeit we've yet to fit Wi-Fi in the tunnels themselves
to be fair.
And I believe this is going to be the biggest transformation
and customer experience for our customers that travel on the
Northern City Lines in the last 20 or 30 years.
- It's in,
it's in.
A lot of people in hi vis jackets have just turned up.
There's a whole group of people.
I'll explain who in a second,
but note here at Moorgate,
the entire train does fit in the platform.
That's pertinent
because some of the other platforms on this branch,
there's a bit of an overhang
and they have selective door opening.
Old Street.
We've set off on a journey all the way down here,
and I do mean all the way down,
and what's fantastic is that some of you will have astutely,
already realise that this type of train the seven one seven,
is basically as part of a,
the Thameslink family trains the class 700,
but on the 700 Thameslink trains,
you can't see all the way down
because the toilet kind of sticks out halfway through.
One of these, you can see, what I'm getting at,
I'm setting up a majestic shock because in a minute,
it's going to twist and turn in the tunnel.
Here's an artistic shot.
Zoomed in looking all the way down in front of the train.
(upbeat music)
- So we're doing three trips.
You get to go in the cab in a minute, but while we're here,
it's also worth pointing out like a bad penny,
Matt's turned up.
- Hi.
- So Matt you're now going to be promoted to camera man.
I just got shown something brilliant.
What I hadn't really thought about,
is that the grab handles here, right?
This is a psychological thing, right?
When it's eight 20 in the morning
and it's commuter warfare,
and everyone's shoving for an inch of space,
apparently there's a single handle, right?
Imagine this bit in the middle isn't here,
and someone's got it, that's their handle,
and if someone else has hand comes in,
then that's a bit weird,
two people are grabbing for the same handle.
But by putting in this middle separator,
it means that someone's hand can go there,
the shorter person,
someone's hand can go there,
the taller person.
You don't feel like you're encroaching
on each other's space.
That's genius.
(upbeat music)
- This is Ollie,
we're not stopping at Hornsey are we?
- No
- Today, you've got some of your drivers up the front
and they're doing this
as a route learning, stopping exercise. Correct?
- Yeah. So obviously with any new traction,
there's a time for training
and these drivers have been trained
and they're just finishing it off
by having some practical hands-on experience,
looking at stop car marks, the routes.
- Cause it's the same route,
but just with the new rolling stock.
So it's just adjusting to the new rolling stock.
- Yeah. And we've got to change certain aspects of it.
So the trains have a completely new stopping position
at the older train stations.
So there's a new way of, if you like,
slowing the train down.
- Okay,
and another amazing thing we have to touch on is that again,
because obviously this line is,
Highbury and Finsbury and Drayton Park and beyond.
But there is this amazing three mile section,
which is Drayton Park, South Morgan,
which is ex-tube, it's ex-underground,
was part of the Northern line back up to about the 1950s.
And so all this just showed me and we'll do cutaways,
there's some amazing equipment.
So what's all the equipment in the cabs
that these brand new 2018/19 trains
have to have to cut or comply with 1950s
underground tunnel.
What's in the cab. - So in the cabs, I mean,
obviously we've got the external trip cogs
and all that sort of stuff to get down there,
but in the cab we have many short circuit bars.
We have sort of Bakelite tunnel telephones
that clip on wires.
We have sort of a wide range of things that that little
three miles of track has been a bit of a headache.
- It's like a fascinating retro throwback
that you have to have on a modern train,
just to cope with that three mile of tunnel section.
- Exactly.
- Amazing.
(upbeat music)
- It's chilly day.
The trains arrived at the (indistinct) platform
at Gordon Hill.
It's got to go back
and I think they're going to let me in the cab,
which is great.
- So I have to act surprised now
for something that's about to,
where do I stand? We're going right to the end?
- [Man] You can be surprised you can,
- Aha
look at that.
Is there going to be an announcement as well?
- [Man] There is going to be an announcement,
there will three be announcements
during the 15 minutes that we're here.
- Do I get gifts as well?
- A little something.
Well, you see for us,
we think that you are a great champion of highlighting
what is best about the British rail network.
- A certificate.
A certificate for Geoff Marshall,
who has reached 100,000 YouTube subscribers
- And for being positive.
- And for showcasing,
- There we go.
- British rail.
- For showcasing the British rail network.
So can you see what's coming out now?
We have, this wonderful trophy.
Congratulations. Seriously, Geoff.
- Congrats to Geoff for your 100,000 YouTube subscribers
from all at Govia Thameslink Railways.
- Congratulations.
- I didn't know there was going to be a certificate.
I thought it was just going to be,
I got wind.
I'd heard rumour that they were putting up the,
on the dot matrix on the, on the PIS.
I didn't know about the
artefacts.
(upbeat music)
- This is Mark
and overshadowing him.
Hello, Jason.
- Hello there.
- Jason, I suppose I should ask Mark, but he's driving.
So I'll ask you.
There's a 40 year technology gap between the new
and the old.
So presumably the difference is quite vast.
- There is difference in the technology,
we've got the three one three is a very
sort of a bicycle mechanical electrical kind of train.
Obviously we've got a lot more technology built
into the seven one sevens.
So drivers are getting familiar with that new technology.
And obviously getting used to driving
that train with the new technology built in.
So they can operate it safely
when they're undertaking their driving duties.
- I'm in the cab,
the old important cup holder.
So Drayton park, we'll do the pantograph changeover.
And then we enter the tunnels.
(upbeat music)
- So we're walking down,
I literally just have walked all the way down the train.
I do love it.
It's like being on the tube train.
It's like being on an S stock
where you can walk all the way through.
And the reason why we've come to the back of the train
for Old Street is
to point out,
look, the next station has a short platform.
The CIS is (indistinct)
if you are alighting at the next station,
please move forward to leave the train.
Matt, is there an announcement?
- Due to a short platform at the next station,
the doors on this coach will not open.
- That is great,
but why didn't you get me to do it?
What I just want to see is
are these said doors actually in the tunnel
or are these that are just at the very back of the platform
and not very far enough in.
- There's two issues,
the way the drivers seat themselves,
we have taken a lot of variants.
So we have to have a very (indistinct) a very short person,
a very tall person and everyone in between.
So what happened is this door here,
we have to take a sort of two metre variants on either side
of the stopping position.
So what we can't do is we can't say to you,
it would be exactly that every time,
because obviously like you drive your car,
you stop at a set of traffic lights every day.
You stop in a slightly different position
because that's the way you sit. So what we have to do is,
is we've managed that by fitting STO down here.
So when you come down at that door is much likely to be in
an unusable part of the platform that isn't safe to be used
for passengers.
(upbeat music)
- So that the new class seven one seven
coming to the Moorgate branch,
thanks to everyone at GTR for having me,
to Roger, Matt, Alice, and the certificate and trophy.
All that remains is to go to Hornsey Depot
to do a comparison of old versus new.
(upbeat music)
- Old,
new.
(upbeat music)