Manchester to West Wales timetable change from December 2022

[whole diary]

[froome]

Story continues ... From Wales online

Disruption on the trains in Wales following a number of fire are set to continue into next month. Maintenance on a fleet of trains run by Transport for Wales had due to be finished more than a week ago, but now train bosses have said it is not likely to be finished until April.

More than 100 services have been affected after three fires on Class 175 trains. On Monday (March 20) buses run instead of trains were being used on Transport for Wales services between Crewe and Knighton, between Fishguard Harbour and Clarbeston Road and between Milford Haven and Swansea due to shortage of trains.

In addition to this, yesterday one train broke down somewhere along the Marches line. This led to much delay to services and trains terminating early (the train we were waiting for at Hereford to go to Newport ended up terminating at Hereford). Along with all the cancellations, it meant those trains that were running were very busy.

It also meant that I learnt that Hereford is a very cold station to have to wait on when there is a chilly westerly wind blowing!

[welsh1980]

Around 6 weeks on and the situation is slowly improving both with the 175s and introduction of the 197s.  Although neither is happening fast enough really as there is still an abundance of 2 carriage 150s or 153s on long distance routes.  I had the misfortune of having to stand on a 150 the other day for quite a bit of time. There were many people travelling with large suitcases and a 150 is not ideal for large items of luggage with no luggage racks and many suitcases far too large for the overhead racks. A few of the tip up seats were blocked by suitcases and unfortunately there was nowhere they could really be moved to. So not ideal at all.  One thing 150 do have in favour over a 175 is if you have to stand on a train you have a bit more space to move around on a 150 than a 175 with the doors in the middle.  But a quick look at TFW social media pages on Twitter etc show it wasn't a great weekend on the Marches with lots of complaints and photos of overcrowded Sprinters.  The North Wales coast has done a bit better with some 197s doubled up to form 4 cars. Not seen many complaints from there so fingers crossed things are improving slowly. 

The 197 introduction seems frustratingly slow!  However it is getting better with a few 4 cars now plus it looks like Conwy Valley and Liverpool have their services back  now (as 197s).  One even made it to the Crewe-Chester shuttle today but only for 1 service, it was switched to a 175 after that (a real waste of resources when many 150s/153s are on long distance, unless there was a good reason for it, like it couldn't venture far from Chester depot!)   I wonder when we can realistically see the 197s on services out of Cardiff. I hope something starts to happen when the new timetable happens next month.

Regarding the 170s, more have left TFW for EMR^» (East Midlands Railway, also known as EMT^» (East Midlands Trains - about) (East Midlands Trains) - about). But apparently 3 are being kept until November which is a sensible move given the shortage at the moment of suitable trains.  Even if all 175s are back by May, it will take the pressure off a bit with those few extra 170s.

[Hafren]

I even had a 3-car 175 last week.... they seem like a distant memory! One thing all this does show is that a non-uniform fleet can be quite helpful. When 197s are on almost everything non-valley, if they need a mass withdrawal it could be a lot worse! I hope there's decent availability of stock for those potentially warm bank holiday weekends coming up.

The forthcoming closure of the Treherbert line for upgrades will also free up a couple of 150s. (Looks like the CDF^» (Cardiff - next trains)-PPD parts of the journeys will still run.)

I've seen it mentioned that the return of Swanline could be a place for 197s to start appearing in the south. Although before Covid they were very much not self-contained diagrams – effectively 1x interworking with valleys and 1x interworking with HoW^‡(resolve) – both of those routes are in a very different situation now and the Swanline diagrams are therefore very likely to be self-contained. Swanline also don't require multiple crews & depots per journey, so it's simple to ensure only trained crews work them, and keeps the diagrams close to a depot should a swap be needed. So for much the same reason that Swanline will be one of the last bastions of 153s when the full timetable rehash with mass 197s deployment comes into play, it makes sense for it to be a good place for the early 197 diagrams in the south. The CMN-MCR route is at the opposite end of the complexity scale, especially if 4/5-car workings and related split/divides start coming into play, so it will be be more of a long game to put on the hands of 197s.

[welsh1980]

Ive heard that Swanline and Cardiff-Holyhead will be 197s from the May TT change however whether this will be a few diagrams or all of them remains to be seen.

It looks like both the 15xx from Swansea and the 16xx from Llanelli end up going to Chester as they do now. Could this be a sign they will be 197s, or at least 1 of them will be, so the diagram/s end at the depot in Chester.  The one that comes down from Holyhead to Llanelli is no longer showing as a through working from May TT change and will start from Cardiff to Llanelli (it still goes via the district line on the down journey). Could be a sign all Swanlines will be formed of 2 diagrams again and no interworking as such with other routes.

Yes looks like the Treherbert closure will free up a few 150s. No doubt needed for some of the former 170 diagrams in the short term with only 3 staying until November when more 197s should be in place by then.