I spent most of the day on the Borderlands line yesterday, hopping on and off both the 230 and the 150, making some (small) observations. [Just for reference, I travelled on 150250 3 times, 230008 4 times and 230009 1 time.]
I'll start with the most prominent observation... Both units were running late. The 230 was at its latest running 19 minutes late, while the 150 ran 26 minutes late [from what I witnessed while checking RTT to see how the train was progressing while waiting on the platforms throughout the day]. Both trains had their services cancelled between Wrexham General and Central at least once to try and make up some time, however, it didn't really make a difference because of how late they were running. There were no reasons given on board any of the services that I boarded as to why the trains were running so late, however, the tight turnaround times at both ends of the line do not allow for any recovery time so as soon as you incur a small delay, you're stuffed for the rest of the day...
When 230008 returned to Birkenhead Depot during the afternoon and was replaced with 230009, it allowed some of the afternoon services to start running on time again, so while the unit may not be able to run for a whole day [as seems to be a common complaint further up this thread], there are some benefits to have the trains swap halfway through the day. The services operated on by 150250 continued to be delayed throughout the day until it's final round trip of the day was cancelled [2F94 and the return of 2J96].
Some of the other observations I made:
- The seating onboard the 230s was more comfortable than the 150s, and the hybrid seating layout worked well on the newer trains.
- There were plug sockets onboard both classes of trains, however, I had more success at charging my phone on the 230s than the 150s, with 2 attempts to plug in my phone on the 150 failing as the sockets weren't working.
- The automatic announcements and information screens on the 230s were working on all bar 1 services that I boarded. The announcements were clear and audible. On the 150, there were no automatic announcements and the information screens were blank on all services that I boarded. On 1 of the 150 services, the guard was making manual announcements but these were very quiet and difficult to hear.
- During a heavy downpour, water started to ingress in 1 of the carriages on 230008, through a lighting fixture, soaking 2 seats, a table and a passenger..
- Both the 150 and the 230 provided a very bouncy journey, with no real difference between the ride quality on either train.
- Both trains were reasonably clean and tidy, however, the 150 was noticeably tired and worn down in its appearance.
- The doors on the 230s are slower to open, and I noticed multiple guards physically pushing them to make them open quicker [a cause of the reported door faults possibly?].
So ultimately, both units have their pros and cons, however, at this present moment, I wouldn't say that one class of train is preferable to the other for the Borderlands line because the thing that most regular passengers travelling on the line care about is being able to get from A to B with as little delay as possible, and without cancellation, and right not that simply isn't possible. The only way I can see things changing on this line is if the timetables are changed so that trains have a longer dwell time at Wrexham Central so that there is more chance of recovery when delays do occur [since they're inevitable], however, due to the length of the line, it's doesn't really appear feasible to change the timetable without cutting stops out or reducing the frequency of the services. As a side note though, would it ever be possible for TfW to achieve something closer to a 45-minute timetable, with 3 trains running on the line [with longer dwell times at Wrexham Central] compared to the current hourly timetable with 2 trains running on the line?
www.realtimetrains.co.uk
)) trains?
