Great Western Coffee Shop

Extract from the DFT's long awaited rolling stock plan published today.

9. First Great Western would introduce additional class 150 DMU vehicles for regional services around Bristol cascaded from London Midland, as well as new DMU vehicles for London suburban services. Furthermore, the possibility of lengthening some existing HST sets to increase capacity on the Thames Valley route into Paddington is being investigated.

Total quoted is 52 coaches, but no indication of the split. This seems to confirm the cascade of Class 150s from London Midland that has been often quoted.

So NO new carriages for FGW 'West' services then just worn out hand me down stock?

yep just another load of crap......better still prehaps London Midland should be told to use the 180s now and we can then have the 150s now when they are slightly less worn out

well london overground + midland have 32 150's so lets hope they're down here asap...

However i bet we still only get the 10 that got assigned

Here's the link to the DFTs rolling stock plan. Exactly 1,300 coaches! But how many of these are new or does the 1,300 include existing stock?

LMs new 172s are not coming until 2010/2009. By that time, the 150s will be completely clapped out!

They are already banned from the Lickely Incline!

They might make a small difference.

Some 180s should go to FTPE (TransPennine Express) to do the Manchester to Scotland services. This would restore the old fast journey time (125mph) and free up some 185 units to re-add the Manchester to Windermere service, which has been axed (now just an Oxenholme to Windermere shuttle, which is rubbish seeing that Virgin are axing many calls form Oxenholme soon!).

The other 180s could go to Chiltern for them to run their longer distance routes, or perhaps Arriva trains for either the Cambrian Main Line, Marches line or the Cross Country Line.

Definitely not London Midland for Snow Hill Line Commuter stock!

And of course FGW could keep them! Cardiff to Portsmouth, Worcester to Oxford, Worcester to Bristol etc.

There was a strong hint from the WAG that there will be a big improvement to Holyhead -Cardiff services at the end of this year. That seems to indicate that the rumours of ATW taking some have some foundation to them.

Seeing as the last time i used that route it took hours, and it was a cramped 158 which didn't help!

Man i do hope ATW take the 180's as they're badly needed for welsh North > South travel. As driving down takes HOURS

if mookiemoo thinks she has it bad on a hst in first class, she clearly needs to be on a 158 for over 5 hours ;)

Also, note the following comments from London Midland:-

Stephen Banaghan, Managing Director of London Midland said: ^The new TURBOSTAR trains are good news for London Midland passengers. The trains will completely transform the travelling experience of people who are currently using the ageing Class 150s in the West Midlands, and will also assist us is meeting our targets for continuous improvement in punctuality and reliability.^

Lucky Midlanders. Unlucky West Country folk. Incidentally, Bombardier quote in their press release delivery in Q1 and Q2 10. So still another two years to go before we get them.  

The official DfT link can be found below.
http://www.dft.gov.uk/pgr/rail/pi/rollingstock/rollingstockplan

My view?

Wouldnt be surprised if the Class 150 units werent coming for another couple of years. I have suspected as much, and my own plan doesnt envisage the full allocation appearing until December 2010.

The areas quoted by the DfT as receiving "extra" carriages are as I speculated earlier on the forum, so no surprise there either.

I had hoped that the DfT would look at the whole of the Portsmouth-Cardiff route and notice the obvious need (in my view) for specifically tailored extra capacity/new trains, but I guess I should stick to my image as a "cynic"......

Here is the RMT view (link below.)
http://www.rmtbristol.org.uk/2008/01/build_new_trains_in_britain_sa.html#more

At which point much of the 1980's built units will probably be in serious breach of EU emission targets, one of arguments put forward for the MTU fit of HST's. Some decent financial penalties for continuing to use redundant (read totally obsolete) stock would make DfT (Gordy) sit up and take notice.

Fair point. One of my plan's aims was to try and make use of any stock we could realistically lay our hands on, while trying to "win" some new stock as well.

Article links.
http://thisisdevon.co.uk/displayNode.jsp?nodeId=143632&command=displayContent&sourceNode=142719&contentPK=19725632&folderPk=91672&pNodeId=201778

http://thisisbath.co.uk/displayNode.jsp?nodeId=180730&command=displayContent&sourceNode=232315&home=yes&more_nodeId1=163047&contentPK=19732308

Quote :


Official DfT press release (link below.)
http://www.gnn.gov.uk/environment/fullDetail.asp?ReleaseID=348921&NewsAreaID=2&NavigatedFromDepartment=False

The Department for Transport has admitted that some carriages will be transferred from other regions where they have been used for decades (link below.)
http://thisisbristol.co.uk/displayNode.jsp?nodeId=145365&command=displayContent&sourceNode=145191&contentPK=19738843&folderPk=83726&pNodeId=144922

DfT spokeswoman Miriam Lea said:


David Redgewell of Campaign For Better Transport said the news showed the need for the Greater Bristol area to have a single body in charge of transport.

He said: