LM 350's on Glasgow Services

[MatthewTurner]

Managed to get a lucky sighting of LM 350372 at Carlisle this evening with TPE 350404 just as I was passing through.

 

[themiller]

If that 350/3 unit number is correct there has been another unit swop as has always been 373 and/or 374.

350372 was on a northbound working at 0845 on 11/08/2014 in the company of an unrecorded (by me) TPE 350.

 

[SpacePhoenix]

Managed to get a lucky sighting of LM 350372 at Carlisle this evening with TPE 350404 just as I was passing through.

The LM livery looks way nicer on them then the TPE. If the TPE livery had the stripes going straight along instead of wavy them it might look better

 

[harz99]

350372 was on its own operating the 0907 from GLC-MIA this morning. Presumably also worked 0500 ex Man to GLC, and the 1300 ex MIA to GLC.

So obviously deputising for an unavailable 350/4.

 

[12CSVT]

350372 was on its own operating the 0907 from GLC-MIA this morning. Presumably also worked 0500 ex Man to GLC, and the 1300 ex MIA to GLC.

So obviously deputising for an unavailable 350/4.

350374 was on its own as well, also on a Glasgow diagram.
The only 350/4s not on passenger diagrams were 402 and 403.
Curiously there was a third LM 350 at Ardwick this morning (I presume 373 ?)

 

[Starmill]

There are 2 LM 350s coupled together on the Edinburgh service now at MAN P14,and a third on the shed coupled to a TPE one.sorry no numbers!

 

[paddy]

Can anybody confirm this is happening? The last e-mail I saw was that three of these units were going to be used. Assuming they must be starting this week.

Thanks for any information.

Standish

still running saw one on Thursday leaving Glasgow central for Manchester airport.

 

[thealexweb]

How long will the London Midland 350s be staying in the north for? I originally thought they were only staying for the Commonwealth games.

 

[Boothby97]

How long will the London Midland 350s be staying in the north for? I originally thought they were only staying for the Commonwealth games.

According to this post (made on 22nd July), they are on hire for 6 weeks. Which suggests they will return to LM at the end of this month.

According to Tony Miles TPE have subleased 2 units for 6 weeks. I wonder if they plan to strengthen Edinburgh services after the games with the Edinburgh fringe festival being on in August.

Thanks, Sam

 

[thealexweb]

According to this post (made on 22nd July), they are on hire for 6 weeks. Which suggests they will return to LM at the end of this month.



Thanks, Sam

Damn, I am due to travel between Bolton and Edinburgh on the 1st and 8th of September and am booked on to 350s Preston onwards.

 

[driver9000]

How long will the London Midland 350s be staying in the north for? I originally thought they were only staying for the Commonwealth games.

Not long left they're supposed to be in service until 26 August. They stayed for strengthening of Edinburgh services for the festival.

 

[harz99]

There are 2 LM 350s coupled together on the Edinburgh service now at MAN P14,and a third on the shed coupled to a TPE one.sorry no numbers!

350372/374 seen at Lockerbie southbound on the 1412? ex EDB.

I guess this is the first time these two, or any have run together on Scottish services without a TPE liveried 350/4?

Also seems that seat reservations are not being used in the 350/3s.

 

[harz99]

And the photos.

 

[Starmill]

Yep Harz, that'd be the units I saw at Manchester Piccadilly, and my thoughts regarding that being a first also.

 

[Class 170101]

Not long left they're supposed to be in service until 26 August. They stayed for strengthening of Edinburgh services for the festival.

Lets see how long it is before one is spot hired to cover for Class 350/4 unavailability between August 26 and December timetable change. Not sure if I have mentioned this already but I am surprised that only three of the Class 350/3s have been used by TPE and not cycled around the whole fleet to (a) balance the mileage and (b) for LM to see them all working in service to check the whole fleet works.

 

[LNW-GW Joint]

Not sure if I have mentioned this already but I am surprised that only three of the Class 350/3s have been used by TPE and not cycled around the whole fleet to (a) balance the mileage and (b) for LM to see them all working in service to check the whole fleet works.

Probably because they would then have to pay for them...
TPE is no doubt meeting the cost of the hired-in units.

 

[Class 170101]

Probably because they would then have to pay for them...
TPE is no doubt meeting the cost of the hired-in units.

TPE have only paid for the hire of two at a time. I was just suggesting changing which two it might be.

 

[Solent&Wessex]

I understand that there will be 2 x 350/3s staying on hire to TPE for the next couple of months due to reliability problems with the 350/4s and an ongoing daily shortage of 185s. Without the 350/3s services would be cancelled, and even with them some services are running around short formed.

 

[harz99]

I understand that there will be 2 x 350/3s staying on hire to TPE for the next couple of months due to reliability problems with the 350/4s and an ongoing daily shortage of 185s.

I hope that is the case, however in the long term the 350/3s will be needed by LM.

It is pretty obvious by now that there are simply not enough sets, be they 170,185 or 350, to provide a full strength service on all TPEs routes and have sufficient cover for maintenance and failures.

 

[Starmill]

I watched the 1416 departing from Edinburgh yesterday, 8 cars and a vugger stampede for that than for the fast train to Kings Cross! There were very few seats available put it that way. I knkw it was the end of the festival and stuff, but demand on Manchester - Scotland has visibly skyrocketed recently, it's mental.

 

[Bungle965]

tbh i think that tpe should order some more 350 to cope with the demand off people wanting to go up to Scotland and back down into england

 

[Class377/5]

tbh i think that tpe should order some more 350 to cope with the demand off people wanting to go up to Scotland and back down into england

You can't order any more 350's now. Going forward they are replaced by the 380/700 Desiro City design.

 

[thealexweb]

I watched the 1416 departing from Edinburgh yesterday, 8 cars and a vugger stampede for that than for the fast train to Kings Cross! There were very few seats available put it that way. I knkw it was the end of the festival and stuff, but demand on Manchester - Scotland has visibly skyrocketed recently, it's mental.

What I don't understand is why people travelling to stations like Carlisle, Lancaster, Preston or Wigan, why don't they catch Virgin's London Euston services. Loads of seats and none of the overcrowding issues.

I have been using TPE's Edinburgh services since early 2012 and the lack of capacity has been a problem consistently throughout the last few years. In my experience the 350's have not really solved the overcrowding at all.

 

[MidnightFlyer]

What I don't understand is why people travelling to stations like Carlisle, Lancaster, Preston or Wigan, why don't they catch Virgin's London Euston services. Loads of seats and none of the overcrowding issues.

Debatable - I believe certain Thursday, Friday and Sunday trains can be hellish on VT on account of the huge tourist and weekend break draw. Whilst, owing to the fact that there's usually a lot more capacity, Virgin services will seem quieter (it's now roughly split 50:50 between 221s and 390s, I haven't got a clue what's booked single or double or 9-car or 11-car respectively however), it doesn't help that it's practically an equal split between TPE and VT throghout the day - how is a Chinese tourist or even a local businessman meant to know one operation has a lot more capacity than the other?

 

[harz99]

What I don't understand is why people travelling to stations like Carlisle, Lancaster, Preston or Wigan, why don't they catch Virgin's London Euston services. Loads of seats and none of the overcrowding issues.

I have been using TPE's Edinburgh services since early 2012 and the lack of capacity has been a problem consistently throughout the last few years. In my experience the 350's have not really solved the overcrowding at all.

First point; TPE's advance fares are almost always less than Virgin's.

Second point; a 350/4 has only 30 more seats than a 185, so of course they make little difference on the busiest services. Though it should also be said that the lack of capacity is mostly not TPEs fault as their hands are tied by political whim, but also maybe on their (TPEs) part it was not sensible to introduce the new services from Newcastle to Liverpool without further additional resources specifically for the new service.

 

[edwin_m]

What I don't understand is why people travelling to stations like Carlisle, Lancaster, Preston or Wigan, why don't they catch Virgin's London Euston services. Loads of seats and none of the overcrowding issues.

I have been using TPE's Edinburgh services since early 2012 and the lack of capacity has been a problem consistently throughout the last few years. In my experience the 350's have not really solved the overcrowding at all.

I suspect most of the demand on this section is to/from Manchester rather than intermediate stations between Wigan and Scotland. And with VT running 9 to 11 car sets, even if the demand splits equally they will be less crowded as there are fairly few London passengers that far north. Do connections at Wigan to and from Liverpool work better on TPE or on VT?

 

[JonathanH]

TPE have only paid for the hire of two at a time. I was just suggesting changing which two it might be.

Reports elsewhere that all three (372/3/4) were in action today. Is this correct?

 

[87016]

On Saturday 23rd August all three units worked the following trains:-

350372 1S51
350373 + 350402 1S66
350374 + 350406 1S56

 

[oddiesjack]

I saw a LM 350 set come into Platform 1 of Manchester Piccadilly at around 18.23 today, and left around 18.28, before the Sheffield stopper was due in.

 

[sd0733]

350372/373/374 have arrived back at LNWR Crewe and are parked as a 12-car set.

We've had a message at work that all the /3 fleet are now comissioned are are fully cleared for passenger use now with LM. A usually reliable source has also said that one should be entering service very shortly but will be limited to operations around Northampton-Euston.