I was chatting with someone from
FGW▸ recently, and he said the 143s are all pretty dire at present, due to them not having had much money spent on them for years. According to one of his chums who works in St Philip's Marsh, the door mechanisms are completely worn out, for example, and it's apparently taking 2 fitters a whole day to get one pair of doors working correctly!
From my experience on the Nailsea to
BTM▸ commute, I've occasionally seen the train staff have to give a door some 'friendly encouragement' to close properly, before we can depart!
Just about sums up all that's wrong with government policy when it comes to the railways, two fitters having to waste a day trying to get a clapped out piece of rubbish to work properly when it should have been replaced years ago.
