Great Western Coffee Shop

Hi

After the Electrification of the Lines to Newbury and Oxford Can the Classes 165 and 166 Turbo DMU trains move down to  Devon and Cornwall.

Guy

its a possibilty... aswell as other places on the network, but that doesnt mean they would stay with fgw! also being  wide-bodied there are restrictions on where they can go

Electrification will not release that many sets.  Sets will still be needed for North Downs, Reading Basingstoke, Services west of Newbury and north of Oxford, Cotswold line and the TV branches.

Cotswold Line won't need many, perhaps just a two-car for the halts service, as the DfT is planning for five-car bi-mode IEPs to be the backbone of the service throughout the day. West of Newbury is not going to need many sets, nor do the Cherwell Valley stoppers to Banbury - and again some of those in the peaks could well be IEP-worked through to and from Paddington.

And I expect Great Western franchise bidders will be offering wiring on the Thames Valley branches to entice the DfT - so why not to Basingstoke for Crossrail while they're at it, also creating a Class 92-friendly route to the WCML from Southampton? The franchise round also offers the chance to look at whether the North Downs line should be a GW route in the long term and whether third rail should go down.
 
In any case, I would expect the Bristol area and routes radiating from it would have first call on Turbos, as three-car sets are needed there rather more urgently than in Devon and Cornwall.

I agree that Bristol is more likely to get teh class 165's 1st.

 I wonder if in the next few years we could see class 165's working services on the severn beach line providing they are cleared to off course.

I  do think the old Class 142 should be scraped and the people of Devon & Cornwall, Should get new DMU to ride on.

It was not too long ago we use to Have nice Class 158 on my local line

Guy

Don't forget the turbos will be nearly 30 years old by the time any are displaced by TV electrification, so hardly new!

 - - - but the ride on a Turbo is one of the best (for a DMU). Its the three abreast seating on longer journeys that CL travellers do not like.

some turbos have 2 plus 3 seating

We also don't like the air conditioning that only has 2 settings: off or broken

Plus they're only 90mph, so eat paths from Didcot

All but about 21 Turbos have no air conditioning other than open windows. Only the 21 or so Class 166 ever had any air conditioning.