As I expected
That was a quick rewrite of history. What you actually wrote was the following:
Apparently W&S▸ will cease to trade from December. I have read various rumours which I will summarise henceforth:
Basically W&S are not making a profit, and DB» are not happy. Most passengers are travelling to London in the morning and back in the afternoon/evening. Therefore the morning peak W&S service will be run by the loco hauled set. During the off peak time it will run Snow Hill trains, before returning to Wrexham in the evening. The other Wrexham trains (which may be axed) will be operated by 168s, enabling journey time reductions (better acceleration and because higher speed limits apply to 168s). The other rumour is that ALL Wrexham trains will be 168s and the loco hauled sets will be put on Snow Hill trains all day. ALL trains will be branded and operated by Chiltern Railways.
Whereas what's actually happening, and only if officially approved, is the W&S company will continue to trade - it has to, because Chiltern has no powers to run into Shropshire and Wales, as they are outside its franchise area. W&S is open access, so different rules apply, which means Chiltern can't get a subsidy, open access means the operator bears the financial risk. And there would be a hell of a protest from franchised operators if there was even a hint of an open access firm getting an operating subsidy.
W&S will remain in the same three-way ownership by DB Regio, Renaisssance and Laing, but they want to transfer day-to-day operations to Chiltern to save some money. It will continue to operate from Wrexham - just as well given the grant they got for their depot from the Welsh Assembly Government, which might have wanted its money back.
W&S-branded trains will continue to run - and no wonder, given that in a little over a year they have established the brand, with a customer satisfaction rating off the scale - even by comparison with Chiltern's high rating among franchised operators.
In terms of rolling stock, all that is known is that they have asked for the
ORR» 's consent to use 168s, nothing more, nothing less. Whether or when they will actually be used remains an unknown - and it could be pretty confusing for passengers if Chiltern trains appear in Shropshire while W&S sets turn up at Snow Hill. Never mind that Chiltern ditched first class and has minimal trolley catering. And why would they use an expensive loco and coaches to cover for a 168 when the cuts to Chiltern's Stratford trains from December will free up a nice cheap 165 or two instead?
While they have consulted in advance and no doubt had some preliminary discussions with the ORR, it can still refuse some or all of what they want to do. And it may be the case with the prospect of more open access operations on the horizon, in the shape of Grand Central's Yorkshire trains, some of the franchised operators may want to challenge the removal of the restrictions on Banbury stops, as this could set a precedent they might not like.
And by way of a footnote, having just looked up their track access contract on the ORR website, Chiltern does not have rights to use Class 67s and coaches on its services (schedule 5, page 35 should you care to check) and even if it would be a formality, has not applied to do so so yet. This is in contrast to
FGW▸ , which has got the powers to run 67s and
Mk2▸ or Mk3 coaches pretty much anywhere on its network, including places such a formation has never been seen, like the Cotswold Line.
