Great Western Coffee Shop

How many Arriva 150s does FGW still have on hire?

I think I read that one of the 5 had gone back being replaced by a 158 for SWT.

TJ

AFAIK there are still four of the things on sublease to FGW at this point in time. 150281 was certainly still burbling round the Exeter area as of yesterday.

Seemingly too many

ive never seen so many trundling up and down from ludlow to newport!

normally you only see them on that line in case of unit failure - dont think ive been on a 158 or 175 in the last three weeks!

150280 went back about a month ago

Which service was this running between Ludlow and Newport? Whats happened to the 175's?

Dunno which exactly - I dont pay too much attention to where they came from

But from Ludlow most of the 0645 to Measteg are now 150s where they used to be 158s

And most of the 08XX and 0910 (ish timings) from Newport are 150s and not 158s or 175s

The only one ive been on recently was last night and it was the 074X from Newport which was a 175!

And today whilst working from home and in Ludlow - I saw three seperate 150s trundling up and down - two in one direction and one in the other - and there was no way one had time to get to cardiff before turning around and heading back!

one of them was doing half the Falmouth work today

And failed stuffing up the branch for a while!!

Just seen a train leaving Warminster, 0925 (Soton to Worcs presumeably). Half FGW livery, half Arriva - as I said before - Yuk !

Interesting.

The 0645 from Ludlow is the Chester to Maesteg service and i think they use mainly 158's or 150s to Maesteg - however today I saw a 142 run the Maesteg to Cheltenham service.

Not sure why so many other 150's around Ludlow as its only the Manchester and Holyhead services that run past there I think.

My commute over the past month has often crossed the 08.20ish Cardiff-Maesteg, which has produced a bit of an inconsisnent mix of 150s and 158s. I've sometimes seen what appears to be a 150+158 combination splitting at Cardiff. I would guess that the service is used to return the Wrexham-Bidston 150s to Canton.

I saw an ATW 150 unit run the 1700 CARDIFF-TAUNTON service on Saturday. Some people seemed confused as to whether it was the right train with it being in Arriva colours.

Taunton services seem to be mainly 150s but ive seen a lot more 158 2 car units run this service recently. Rarely any pacers on this service anymore.

On a related note, anyone esle heard this half baked rumor regarding ATW operating certain TAU-CDF pathways vice FGW with LHCS / 57/3's that they own / are leasing but not actually currently operating?
 :-\

It could happen as FGW are looking at a second LHCS set from December when SWT pull out their services beyond Exeter St Davids.  It would however still be a FGW service with hired in stock and possibly drivers.  Guards would be provided by FGW.  The current LHCS set is owned by DB rail with their drivers and FGW guards.

Quoted to be drivers from the "Bristol Bluebirds"

Easy enough to run it with 57 trained HSS drivers (with West Route conductor drivers Filton - CDF) rather than hiring in resources. Things have changed somewhat recently.

Surely it would make sence for ATW to operate some of these services, and earn some money back on them, rather than leasing stock to FGW to do so

Theres an answer to that. Why lease 57/3's that your not using? Surely that obstructs TOC's or FOC's from leasing them directly from the ROSCO at cost and must be costing the Welsh Taxpayer a fair wedge of cash that could go towards refreshing the ATW unit fleet. ATW do however own more coaches than are currently used on the WAG jobbie, however there are other places I'm sure to lease coaches from.

2026 from Newport -  150 yet again - no idea which version but only 3 tables in carriage!

Doors not going thwup thwup though

I will say.........its fecking noisy though!

just tried to make a call and the other end thought I was standing near an aircraft!

But surely it makessence for atw to operate some taunton services, to providesome competition?

In theory yes, but ATW should really concentrate on its own patch. The current franchise system has led to the only real competition to be through the likes of Intercity and local TOCs along with open acces and local TOCs. We will never see the likes of Arriva, First, Stagecoach etc. trying to take passengers outside their own franchise area fearing the consequences of local authorities that are losing out as a result. How would people feel for example if Arriva reduced services in North Wales to compete with First around Exeter?

But what I am saying is what if ATW decided that they could use their coaching stock that remains unused in storage, that isnt used on the Northwales loco hauled set, this would mean an addional amount of stock being used to deliver these taunton services meaning nobody loses out?

ATW are looking at running a second set on the WAG route.

The 2026 service from Newport to Manchester starts at Maesteg so im guessing thats why its sometimes a 150 as it would have worked Maesteg-Cheltenham services earlier in the day.

No local service anywhere in the country makes a profit -so I dont think ATW will want to compete and make a loss  ;D

I believe the modus operandi would be to operate as a subcontractor to FGW supplying loco / coaches and driver in the same way DBS / Cargo Rail do with the current set. However I cannot imagine the WAG (ATW's paymasters) being overly happy in seeing resources being used in this way. The train can be crewed entirely by FGW staff if a little imagination is employed and appropiate locomotives sourced.

I believe something a little out of the ordinary will be running vice the LHCS on the TAU-CDF circuit tomorrow, however this will be crewed entirely by FGW staff with no DBS involvement. The LHCS is being used between Exeter and Newton Abbot / Paignton tomorrow due to Dawlish Air Display and anticipated heavy demand for travel in the area.

I shall however be 'aircaft nedding' from the comfort of my back garden as some of the aircraft will recess at Exeter Airport. Red Arrows have already arrived.

Surely from the welsh assemblies point of view though., it would be seen as more cardiff services going through to other places,providing more oppertunities for travel to wales?

Sadly not. Millions have been wasted on somewhat pointless ervices that are fantastic PR but not practical for the users. For the price of the Wag express, they could have re-introduced services to Fishguard apart from what currently exists along with have money left over for other projects. If they were interested in increasing opportunities to travel then instead of so many Cardiff to Holyheads, there would still be a South Wales to Liverpool service

Wales and Borders trains (as was) used to run a lot of services outside of their area including Cardiff to Penzance. The WAG viewed these trains with some suspicion and ordered their withdrawal or transfer to another operator. Wessex Trains therefore picked them up along with some of the involved units, (158815-7 855). As these trains did not see a great deal of through ridership the WAG took the correct view that they were not in the buisness of underwriting resources for what were effectively local services in Avon, Somerset, Devon and Cornwall. Most people visiting Wales tend to travel on the various Intercity type services. I understand WAG were not that keen to release the 5 x ATW 150/2 although these are used to release 5 x 158 to form the third car in 1 x 158/9 three car sets for the CDF-PMH run including key commuter services on the Bristol - Cardiff corridor. WAG do not contribute towards the existing FGW LHCS although it is used on a busy service towards Cardiff at going home time.

In short WAG is for Welsh internal services only.

... and a Vulcan!  From the BBC: Bomber and Arrows in show flypast  (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/devon/8213143.stm)

Another great photo of a Vulcan http://tinyurl.com/mkkuj4