The ports-card line needs 9 sets at current capacity.
FGW▸ have a fleet of 11 and need 10 in service,1 card-taunton the rest on the ports-card route.
From those 11 3-car class 158 sets you could make:
- 1 3-car set (the one that really is a 3-car set)
- 7 4-car trains (2-car set + 2-car set)
- 1 2-car set
That's 8 trains, find another 4 2-car units and you have enough trains (9 + 1 spare) for Portsmouth - Cardiff, albeit one remains 3-car. That doesn't cover the Taunton route if one unit is out of service but there is a 2-car unit left over from re-forming the artifical 3-car sets, which could be handy somewhere. Is there anywhere in the
UK▸ where 2 or 3 2-car 158s are coupled together to form a whole train with no reversals or dividing on route? If so, especially if 3 units are so joined, a LCHS operation could free up those 158s.
Personally I would like to see even more 2-car 158s made available so that every other hour the 4-car Portsmouth - Cardiff could have 1 unit extend into west Wales (prefrablly Fishguard since the current service is near-useless to locals) via the Swansea district line. This would restore direct links from west Wales to the south of England and reduce journey times between Carmarthen and Cardiff.
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