Yes, I agree, the 231s are much better utilitised on the Barry route. Penarth has inadvertently benefitted over the years of being paired with the Rhymney line, which has historically had the longest trains on the Valleys, from doubled up Pacers to the 769s and recently the 231s.
If someone's biggest problem in life is having to endure a 153 for 15 minutes then they are doing all right in my opinion.There was confected outrage in a local Penarth Facebook group last week from a Conservative councillor stating it was outrageous that "Labour-run TfW" were short changing Penarth passengers and treating them as second class citizens by taking away their new trains...........
Meanwhile today it's now all 231s to Barry Island, 1 x 150 to Bridgend via VoG, and 2 x 153s on the new Sunday Penarth - Queen Street shuttle. Outrageous indeed.
I'm not sure exactly how the 756s will work. My understanding is that they will do Cardiff to Bridgend and back on battery. I'm not sure what role the diesel engine will play. Will it run every time a train goes to Bridgend or only when there is disruption? Clearly one engine will be enough to keep toilets, lights and heating working. I expect it could go a fair way but who knows how the software is set up.
Fair enough. Four trains an hour to Rhymney will be tight. Tirphil to Rhymney start to stop is 7.5 minutes uphill and 7 minutes downhill.
756 Training for drivers and guards commenced today, it will take roughly 4/5 weeks. 1 Day for drivers and 1/2 day for guards.
That’s poor considering they were supposed to enter service on TAM around now. Still, it remains worth doing as surprise surprise, the date for 398s has slipped from November to early 2025.
So what have all these nightly trips to Cheltenham / Gloucester been about for the last few months, mileage accumulation maybe?
potentially, or training instructors maybe
That's for those who already sign 231s I presume?
Correct, it's a conversion rather than training from scratch.
Getting ~200 people trained in 5 weeks is quite an achievement. And it's best got out of the way now as if you wait any longer you'll be getting into school holidays when it's a lot harder to free up staff for training.
I tend to keep an eye on the internal systems for services reported as full and standing just out of curiosity.
The kids are back at school now which helps. The real test will be the next sunny Saturday.
I have no idea, I'm not involved in any of the training or implementation, it's just what I have been told by guards.
I’ve believe it’s 400 miles. The longest diagram is 300 miles.
What is their fuel capacity? Would imagine they're not the best with regards to fuel consumption?
Unfortunately I don’t know, I’ll see if I can find out though.
Thanks, I’m not sure if I’m surprised or not, those V8’s must be thirsty but clearly the plan wasn’t for these to be used on any sort of long distance diagram.
The plan is to use them on the Cheltenham to south Wales route. Goodness knows why they weren’t ordered as bi-modes being as Severn Tunnel Junction to Cardiff is already wired.
What's the diesel range of a 756 though.
If they're like the 755s, they will have very small fuel tanks - maybe @dk1 knows the volume, at least for the 755s
I should have said tri-modes (overhead wire/ battery/ diesel). Perhaps someone who has tested 756’s on a fully charged battery can tell us?
If I had to guess, I would think they’d be a bit better on fuel as new trains are a lot lighter than older ones.
Without the knowledge you have I guess something around that would be normal for a DMU/DEMU as you wouldn't want to risk it? For comparison I know the old HMS Ark Royal (before the previous one) kept her tanks above 50% to avoid the chance of issues and I would assume (dangerous I know) that no planner wants to risk it
How do the new engines compare to the old Cummins engines in the 150s?