Catering Facilities

[whole diary]

[Jez]

I think its more convenient for FGW^▸ (First Great Western) to run the early morning/late night services as these are intercity services to London, and anything that runs through the severn tunnel isnt run by ATW^▸ (Arriva Trains Wales (former TOC^▸ (Train Operating Company)))!  As many have pointed out it makes sense for the 4am, 5am, 6am, 6.30 services from Swansea to be run by FGW rather than ATW run a service and then connect at Cardiff with the HST^▸ (High Speed Train) train.

I think the majority of services on a Sunday as FGW is also because there is an hourly service to London whilst the West Wales/Swanline/Mancheter service is 2 hourly I believe (at least West of Cardiff).

I take it FGW dont store any trains overnight/have a depot at Cardiff then since all the early morning services to London start at Swansea. The first to start at Cardiff I believe is the 0955.

The majority of trains between Newport and Cardiff are also operated by FGW. Newport must be one of the few stations in Wales where more FGW trains call there than ATW.

[willc]

Could also be a stock positioning move ran as a service as Landore is somewhat of a busy depot. Apparently they are the best depot with dealing with certain troublesome powercars with a certain component (think is a motor of some sort) so maybe these Landore based sets need to make their way to London and may as well make a service out of it

Yes, you're right, Landore looks after all the HST^▸ (High Speed Train) sets with GEC traction motors, which have always been more maintenance-heavy than the Brush motors fitted to the majority of the fleet. I think there are about 30 Class 43s running with the GEC type.

[Hafren]

Is the early morning swanline you refer to the one that would arrive into Cardiff around 8.20am? I think that is always a 175 now - not sure what service that runs later on - perhaps the 9.20 from Cardiff to Holyhead? Cant recall any other 175's that start at Cardiff.
/quote]

From what I've seen in Cardiff this week I'd go with that. It looks like the 8.30ish arrival goes into platform 4, then to the west end, before going to plat 1/2 around 9 ready to form the 9.20.

Except today, when it was around 35 minutes late, having been delayed by flooding somewhere in Carmarthenshire. I'm not sure, but I have a feeling that it might have ended up turning into the 08.50 Cardiff-Manchester, covering for the working from Milford which was also delayed.

[Jez]

Ive noticed the majority of Cardiff-Holyhead services are 175's now. The 1720 from Cardiff today was. Do any 158's run this service at all?

[anthony215]

Ive noticed the majority of Cardiff-Holyhead services are 175's now. The 1720 from Cardiff today was. Do any 158's run this service at all?

Most of the time now the class 158's are on the cambrian line services and on the maesteg - cheltenham services

[Hafren]

There are a few 158-operated Cardiff-Holyhead services, e.g. some of the daytime Holyhead-Maestegs (the evening peak Maesteg is a 175, although I've seem a 158 on it a couple of times recently) . There'll always need to be a few 158s between Cardiff and Holyhead to swap units between the Cambrian-Birmingham-Holyhead cycle and the Maesteg/Cheltenham route.

[Jez]

Was I seeing things earlier or did a Pacer run the service which would be the 1650 from Cardiff to Manchester?

Will there be a unit swap at Cardiff as id be surprised if a Pacer ran the whole service.

[Jez]

Lots of delays and cancellations west of Cardiff this morning with the 0950 Manchester service starting at Cardiff. Apparently its due to a broken down train.

[Jez]

Has anyone noticed the 1900 off Swansea is now just as far as Cardiff Central not Cheltenham Spa as in the previous timetable? Is this because there isnt a need to extend the service to Cheltenham or is the Cardiff-Cheltenham leg of the journey covered sufficiently by the 19xx XC^▸ (Cross Country Trains (franchise)) service to Birmingham/Nottingham?

[John R]

STAG^▸ (Severn Tunnel Action Group) are not happy about several changes implemented by Arriva including lost connections at STJ^▸ (Severn Tunnel Junction railway station).  More on their website, saveseverntunnel.co.uk

[Jez]

Thanks John.

[matt473]

The service to Cheltenham Spa if I remeber rightly is ran on a commercial basis as it is outside of the franchise agreement so could easily be cut back. Probably this service meets the requirements of the franchise for services between Cardiff and Swansea so Arriva may be cutting this back as far as possible, After all the Cross Country franchise they have is struggling and I wouldn't be surprised if the Wales Franshise is having problems as well, or at least Arriva cutting back on uneccesary costs for the rail division as a whole.

[John R]

Only the recent extension from Gloucester to Cheltenham Spa is outwith the franchise. But of course the legal eagles will have made sure that the changes do not breach the franchise commitment.

One of the gripes of STAG^▸ (Severn Tunnel Action Group) is that having persuaded FGW^▸ (First Great Western) to make additional stops to connect with services to Chepstow and beyond, the connections no longer exist.   

[Jez]

I wonder how long the extension to Cheltenham will run for if it isnt in the franchise agreement?

[matt473]

I wonder how long the extension to Cheltenham will run for if it isnt in the franchise agreement?

Considering it is still in place after being introduced a few years ago suggests the service is profitable so will continue until it ceases to do so. It is however possible though that the DFT^▸ (Department for Transport) may stump up cash to maintain the service if ATW^▸ (Arriva Trains Wales (former TOC^▸ (Train Operating Company))) were to wish to remove it but a case can be argued that a service is important for and should be retained as a connection to the main XC^▸ (Cross Country Trains (franchise)) network