Stock cascade of class 150s

[whole diary]

[TJ]

Confirmation that two of the seven have departed would be great news.

Out of interest does anyone know which route they take and who (which operator) drives them?

TJ

[LiskeardRich]

What^s the capacity like comparing to a two car 165? The rush hour services on this route are rammed as it is. Be interesting to see what happens, are they planning on strengthening other TV services then? As for being on a 150 all the way from Reading to Gatwick...... no comment!

reading to gatwick is less time than penzance to plymouth....let alone Penzance to Bristol services we the 150s on!

[hornbeam]

I forgot how some of you travel on them for such long services sorry.

The fact they want to run them so close to the depot does concern me, as they cant have much faith!

but on the plus side, least they are trying.

[IndustryInsider]

The fact they want to run them so close to the depot does concern me, as they cant have much faith!

As stated earlier in the thread, it's got nothing to do with the proximity of the depot, but the fact they are not suitable for Driver Only Operation, which precludes them from most of the other LTV^▸ (London [and] Thames Valley) routes, and the other bonus is that the Basingstoke route is operated by 2 units which form a simple, self-contained shuttle service, with drivers and guards that are only supplied from one depot, so training costs would be as little as possible.

Maybe nothing will come of this, but it's an interesting idea.

[northwesterntrains]

As for being on a 150 all the way from Reading to Gatwick...... no comment!

reading to gatwick is less time than penzance to plymouth....let alone Penzance to Bristol services we the 150s on!

In the 1980s tripled up 150s were used on Scarborough-York-Leeds-Manchester-Chester-Holyhead services.

Reading-Gatwick Airport is shorter than some Pacer operated services never mind 150 operated services.

[phile]

Confirmation that two of the seven have departed would be great news.

Out of interest does anyone know which route they take and who (which operator) drives them?

TJ

Via Lickey, Landor St, Derby, Hope Valley and GuideBridge.    Detailed timings on The Messroon Forum

[phile]

Has anybody got any sighting reports recently of "Alien" livered 150/1s in far away places.   Or perhaps of 150202 and to confirm it's livery.

[Jonathan H]

The fact they want to run them so close to the depot does concern me, as they cant have much faith!

As stated earlier in the thread, it's got nothing to do with the proximity of the depot, but the fact they are not suitable for Driver Only Operation, which precludes them from most of the other LTV^▸ (London [and] Thames Valley) routes, and the other bonus is that the Basingstoke route is operated by 2 units which form a simple, self-contained shuttle service, with drivers and guards that are only supplied from one depot, so training costs would be as little as possible.

Maybe nothing will come of this, but it's an interesting idea.

Do not Redhill guards also have some duties on Reading to Basingstoke services?

[grahame]

The fact they want to run them so close to the depot does concern me, as they cant have much faith!

No - it's logical to keep the oddball units on a line that's close to the depot whatever their MTBFs (Mean Time Between Failure)s are - i.e. faith or not. If a unit that was different to the rest of the "pack" were to require attention (even rarely) a long way from home, it would potentially mean a long trip for one of the handful of people who knew about it, whereas a failure of a regular unit at a far outpost wouldn't be so much of a problem - chance would be that one of the local fitters out there would know what to do. 

This has been thought through rather carefully, and seems a sensible way to add some extra capacity onto the line in question and at the same time release capacity for use elsewhere. Good heavens - we could do with those extra carriages on the TransWilts where 600 people have said they want to use the line to commute to their place of work, and of course there are many other contenders where they could be used to relieve overcrowding ... it looks like they'll get them as existing customers can shout louder than potential customers, even though the impact on each individual user would be far greater on the TransWilts.

[IndustryInsider]

Do not Redhill guards also have some duties on Reading to Basingstoke services?

No, I don't think so.

Graham makes a very valid point about how those Class 150/1's could be used to provide the enhanced TransWilts service he is so interested in, but I guess the obvious answer is that something has to be done to relieve overcrowding on a network that, according to the Dft's latest (highly subjective) figures, has the 10 worst overcrowded services in/out of London each day.  It's such a pity that adequate carriages aren't available to supply everyone's needs.

[anthony215]

I cant really see much happening with the TransWilts service  til FGW^▸ (First Great Western) get more DMU^▸ (Diesel Multiple Unit)'s which isnt likely to happen til at least 2016 whan the class 165/166's are displaced by the class 319's from Thameslink.

The only other possible ways to get more trains to worr the route is for FGW to get those 11  4-carriage  dmu's which were planned for the Cardiff - Portsmouth Hbr route to displace the class 158's or hope GOCO^▸ (Previous name for Go-Op Train - ) can start up running some service soon.

Either that or bring back the loco hauled sets for the Cardiff - Taunton route to free up a class 150/158.

Its a shame that a better service can't be offered for this route at the moment. I did eventually manage to travel the route from Swindon to Trowbridge before getting a cardiff train a few weeks ago and the train (a class 150) was very well full of passengers, some of whom had come off the HST^▸ (High Speed Train) from London Paddington/Reading. This just goes to show what could happen if more trains are run along the route.

I think if GOCO can get a service up and running with some suitably timed peak hour services to/from Swindon they could do well in terms of passenger numbers etc.

[paul7575]

The only other possible ways to get more trains to worr the route is for FGW^▸ (First Great Western) to get those 11  4-carriage  dmu's which were planned for the Cardiff - Portsmouth Hbr route to displace the class 158's...

I just cannot see why you keep flogging this dead horse.  The proposal is DEAD, the ITT^▸ (Invitation to Tender) was ripped up the day the last government announced the NW and GW^▸ (Great Western) electrification projects.  It isn't on the back burner, it isn't even down behind the cooker, and it isn't in the room...

Either that or bring back the loco hauled sets for the Cardiff - Taunton route to free up a class 150/158.

The LHCS^▸ (Locomotive Hauled Coaching Stock) was a temporary solution until the 15 x 150s arrived.  It was over and done with once the 6 units arrived from LO.  They won't be coming back - because they are significantly more expensive to operate than DMUs^▸ (Diesel Multiple Unit).

Paul

[Kingfisherdart]

150202 was sighted at Plymouth's platform 3, a week ago. It is in Central Trains lime green livery - without the white 'Cs' at each end. The interior is the original 2+3 seating, complete with orange doors and 'BREL^▸ (British Rail Engineering Ltd), Trainmakers for the World' lettering on the door steps.

L

[ChrisB]

The basingstoke & Gatwick turns are covered by the same teams swapping turns - Union rules mean only so many Basigstoke turns can be done before the crews have to move to other work. Boredom sets in apparently, and that's a safety worry. So they go off & do a GTW turn...and that crew replaces them. Not every turn, but a fair number

[anthony215]

The only other possible ways to get more trains to worr the route is for FGW^▸ (First Great Western) to get those 11  4-carriage  dmu's which were planned for the Cardiff - Portsmouth Hbr route to displace the class 158's...

I just cannot see why you keep flogging this dead horse.  The proposal is DEAD, the ITT^▸ (Invitation to Tender) was ripped up the day the last government announced the NW and GW^▸ (Great Western) electrification projects.  It isn't on the back burner, it isn't even down behind the cooker, and it isn't in the room...

Either that or bring back the loco hauled sets for the Cardiff - Taunton route to free up a class 150/158.

The LHCS^▸ (Locomotive Hauled Coaching Stock) was a temporary solution until the 15 x 150s arrived.  It was over and done with once the 6 units arrived from LO.  They won't be coming back - because they are significantly more expensive to operate than DMUs^▸ (Diesel Multiple Unit).

Paul

Yes I know that what I meant was it's a shame the government scrapped it the same with the loco hauled set's.

I suspect FGW will be waiting for a while to get more dmu's now that thameslink 's new stock is being delayed adding to the fact that the class 319's are also needed up in the north west to work teh routes that are currently being electrified.

Perhaps the government could look at  ordering additional class 377's like they are doing with southern to  work the routes in the north west so that more of   the class 319's can  come to FGW although they would needd to do some more electrification.