Great Western Coffee Shop

It now looks like the 5 142s freed up after the closure of the Oldham Loop, for conversion to tram, will replace 6 Northern 156s currently in service, which will be transferred to East Midlands Trains in December. Just what we need up here - smaller overcrowded trains  :-[

Previously it had been said the 142s would likely be transferred to another part of the country, which led to First Great Western suggestions.

I'd rather we had the 156's, best units ever built!

*ONLY RUMOUR*   
I have heard that there could be a daytime loco & coach service on the mainline in Cornwall come the new year as some of the 150's have to go.

So have I,the day coaches off the night sleeper have been rumoured for such use.

No chance of it being topped & tailed by the 57 and D1015 Western Champion, I suppose?  ;)

Apparently the 156s will go to EMT Route 4 to make sure their 158s are exclusively used on Liverpool-Norwich, enabling more 4 car workings on that route. 

I don't know how the Route 4 diagrams work, but some of them seem to be 150 suitable e.g. Peterbrough to Doncaster (under 1hr15) and others seem to be only 156 or 158 suitable e.g. Nottingham to Skegness (over 2hrs, currently shown as 2hr45 but not sure on usual exact time as there are currently engineering works on that line.)

Route 4 is apparently currently a mix of 153s, 156s and 158s.