South Wales local services - Pembroke, Fishguard, Swanline, etc.

[whole diary]

[Jez]

Re swapping 158s between Shrewsbury/Holyhead etc and Maesteg/Cheltenham, isnt the early morning Chester-Cardiff-Maesteg a 158 or a 150? And doesnt a 158 or 150 get sent back up North on either the 20xx Chester service or 21xx Crewe service. I think this was the reason these are no longer through services from Milford/Carmarthen etc but start at Cardiff.  I think one of them is definately a 150 so that 150 sets can be swapped between the Wrexham local services and Cardiff.

I think a 158 is covering for the 175 used on WAG2, on one Cardiff-Holyhead service (believe its the 1321 from Cardiff).  When both 175002 and the other 175 used on WAG2 are back in use on Milford/Cardiff/Manchester and Cardiff-Holyhead then we shouldnt see many sprinters used on these services hopefully.

[anthony215]

The 21:55 departure from Cardiff to Crewe is  normally a class 158 & I have seen a class 150 attached once before.

[Jez]

The 21:55 departure from Cardiff to Crewe is  normally a class 158 & I have seen a class 150 attached once before.

It used to run through from Milford-Carmarthen-Swansea all the way to Crewe now its too seperate services, the Milford-Cardiff part is a 175 so obviously they use the Cardiff-Crewe to send a 158 and/or 150 back up North.  I think the Chester service that goes about an hour before is a sprinter too.

[Jez]

I noticed when looking at Live Departure Boards today that the 1710 Swanline and the 18xx WAG2 Holyhead service had merged with the 1710 Swanline showing Holyhead as its destination.

And sure enough when I saw the train at Neath it was a 3 car 175 going all the way to Holyhead. Im sure this wasnt in the timetable??  But a quick look at a few other dates on the journey planner show this as a through service to Holyhead.

Good use of stock by Arriva tho, as I assume the 1514 Cardiff-Swansea was formed by the 175 with it being in Swansea ready for the 1710, so avoids the 175 WAG2 sitting in Cardiff for at least part of the afternoon.  Must have been a nice surprise for local passengers having a 3 carriage train when usually its a 1 car and can be very busy with it being the time people travel home from work.

I assume the 153 that would form the 0900 Shrewsbury-HOW-Swanline and arrives into Swansea it 14xx would therefore be used elsewhere for extra capacity. 

[phile]

I have not accessed for a couple of days so will try and clear some of the recent points raiseden bloc in one post:-   However, some queroes cropping up in spite of being explained.
153 Radyr to Coryton Sats Sats swaps with Pacer West Wales
158 on Fishguard on retrun of 175002.   When -How long is a piece of string ?
WAG^» (Welsh Assembly Government - about) 175 has no link with 150s on Cardiff to Holyheads.    Reason explained already.
Pacers on West Wales High Summer not swapped with 153 on Radyr to Coryton. I have explained this already.
05 15 Chester to Maesteg and 20 17 Cardiff to Manchester swaps 158s North and South.
21 55 Cardiff to Crewe and 23 08 Shrewsbury to Cardiff swap 150s likewise.   These services were previously broken as through for this purpose.
Don't always believe that what you see working a trains is the diagrammed class, however often you see it.   This includes the 17 10 Swansea to Cardiff, the working of which I have already explained (09 05 Shrewsbury to Swansea)

[anthony215]

If it stays a  2 or 3 carriage class 175 I can say the commuters who use the 17:10 Swansea - Cardif service will be very pleased myself included.

WAG1 is supposed to take up WAG2's northbound path in September I can see it going back to being a class 150/153 that said I suppose they could use the loco hauled set if the mk3's are equiped with powered door's

[phile]

I have made some investigations and find that the 17 10 Swansea to Cardoff is extended to Holyhead on a Short Term Planning basis just for this week.  I don't kmow the reason behind it or if the arrangement is going continue through the Summer at this stage.   If I learn anything, I will post.  It cannot continue beyond September when Holyhead WAG^» (Welsh Assembly Government - about) becomes LHCS^▸ (Locomotive Hauled Coaching Stock)

[Jez]

Looking at the journey planner on National Rail Enquiries it does look like its a one off for this week. Its not even a connecting train in future weeks, it says to catch the 1655 from Swansea to connect with WAG2 or catch the 1710 and connect onto the 1934.

Its a shame as it works well and provides a direct train from Swansea to Chester and North Wales.

I was thinking that it might end in Sept anyway as I doubt the loco hauled set would be suitable for Swanline. If it ran from Swansea-Cardiff and only called at the bigger stations (Neath, Port Talbot and Bridgend) it might be ok but they would still need to cover the swanline at that time.

[phile]

If through train would be a "connection" in theory, but if not the connectional allowance at Cardiff preclude this.

[Jez]

Yes, swanline is timetabled to arrive in Cardiff at 1820 even tho in theory there is slack in the timetable and it would prob arrive at 1816.  WAG2 is 1818 I believe so not possible to connect.

[phile]

Journey Planner shews 18 16 arr.   There is recovery time approaching Cardiff

[Jez]

I notice the 1710 Swanline is still going to Holyhead - I guess this will be for the entire summer timetable?

I travelled on a Milford-Manchester last week between Cardiff and Neath - it was a 150 and not ideal for such a long journey, many people had luggage which was by the doors, i wonder how long until all 175s will be back in service?

[anthony215]

Hopefully ATW^▸ (Arriva Trains Wales (former TOC^▸ (Train Operating Company))) should get the entire fleet of class 175's back in service again soon.

Hopefully once we get WAG2 scrapped in September that shoudl release the class 175 being used on that back onto teh long distance services.

[Jez]

Hopefully ATW^▸ (Arriva Trains Wales (former TOC^▸ (Train Operating Company))) should get the entire fleet of class 175's back in service again soon.

Hopefully once we get WAG2 scrapped in September that shoudl release the class 175 being used on that back onto teh long distance services.

Yes. Im also guessing from Sept they wont run the 1710 Swanline to Holyhead and it will revert to being a class 150 or 153.

[Jez]

I have heard from September timetable change the 1510 Swanline will run through to Chester. With the Holyhead express now being transferred to 18xx they will reinstate the 16xx service to Abergavenny (which still runs on Saturdays as an extention to Swanline0. Rumour has it the 1510 Swansea-Chester will incorporate a Shrews-Crewe local service and a Crewe-Chester service so the only "new" part will be Abergavenny to Shrewsbury. Its good that Swansea has a direct service to Chester, until the timetable changes last year the 2000 service off Swansea, instead of going to Manchester, went to Chester. And currently we have the 1710 swanline which goes to Holyhead as WAG2.

Apparently the 1510 will be run by a 175 from Sept timetable change which i guess makes sense as the diagram will end in Chester where the depot is for 175s. I wonder if that means the 175 currently on WAG2 will be transferred to this and therefore a 158 will still need to be diagrammed on either the 1321 Cardiff-Holyhead or 05xx Carmarthen-Manchester/10.30 Manchester to Milford etc even with 175002 coming back in Sept apparently. I also wonder whether the swanline diagram will be a 175 all day i.e. from its first journey at 9.14 from Cardiff-Swansea or will it swap at 13.14 from a 150 to a 175.

Ive noticed on Saturdays now the summer peak has arrived we have pacers all Pembroke diagrams, but during the week at least 2 diagrams ive see this week have been 153s. the 15.10 Swanline today was a 150 when usually thats a pacer on Saturdays and at least a few times over recent weeks on a weekday when ive seen it its been a pacer!