Great Western Coffee Shop

Might Not be in the right thread , although it does affect commuters in Bristol:

http://www.thisisbristol.co.uk/Help-lobby-carriages-urges/story-12969353-detail/story.html


Personally  if if FGW getting the class 150's from London Midland i think they are still going to have overcrowding issues


I think they should have also bought the 11, 4 carriage class 172's for the Cardiff - Portsmouth Hbr route allowing the class 158's to be re-formed back to 2 carriages sets which will run in multiple during busy periods.

 anyway i think we will have to wait til some of the class 165/166 dmu's arrive from the thames valley (anyone know when we can expect the 1st to arrive?) i am guesing 2014 when the wires reach oxford/newbury and some class 319's arrive from thameslink.

Unfortunately FGW could not buy 172s or any other class as the procurement of stock is totally the domain of DaFT

The transfer of 150s from LM was never intended to provide a significant increase in future capacity - as any cascaded units arrive, other temporary short term fixes such as the hauled stock, the ATW 150s, the Northern 142s and last but not least the SWT 158, will all leave, job done.  The only real gain is in better diagramming of a more consistent fleet, in other words higher utilisation.  There is a capacity increase over the situation 3 years ago maybe, but not really over the current state, IYSWIM...

TOCs do not buy stock - the 11 x 4 car 172s would have been leased from a Rosco as normal.

I reckon your 2014 is far too early - add at least a couple of years.  The first Thameslink stock won't be delivered until some time in 2015, and even then I'd expect the first dozen or so trains to be replaced will probably be the 23 x 377/5s sub leased from Southern.


Paul