CAF class 197 Civity for TfW: News and updates on introduction.

[BenBracken]

I had a trip on the lunchtime Cardiff - Milford service last Saturday and the display boards were advertising 2 x 2 carriages with the rear two to Carmarthen and the front to Milford. But only a two car unit turned up. Is it always meant to be this and they were lacking stock or do they just put the extra unit on at peak times? I’ve not seen or been aware of Carmarthen splits for a while.

 

[SuperLuke2334]

I had a trip on the lunchtime Cardiff - Milford service last Saturday and the display boards were advertising 2 x 2 carriages with the rear two to Carmarthen and the front to Milford. But only a two car unit turned up. Is it always meant to be this and they were lacking stock or do they just put the extra unit on at peak times? I’ve not seen or been aware of Carmarthen splits for a while.

Sometimes I've seen on RTT the unit duplicates itself between (usually) Carmarthen and Swansea, so this may have been what happened and the departure boards showed that information.

 

[sd0733]

I had a trip on the lunchtime Cardiff - Milford service last Saturday and the display boards were advertising 2 x 2 carriages with the rear two to Carmarthen and the front to Milford. But only a two car unit turned up. Is it always meant to be this and they were lacking stock or do they just put the extra unit on at peak times? I’ve not seen or been aware of Carmarthen splits for a while.

Presuming it's the 12:04 from Cardiff, it's booked a 2 car throughout. Had a look for last Saturday was was thr same then.

 

[nigelsporne]

197024 has just arrived in Chester from a trip out and 31&33 have just left for Crewe I think

 

[Jez]

There seems to be a bit of a shortage of 197s today. However out of curiosity I just checked RTT to see where they are today and it seems out of a total fleet of 51 units we have 41 in service which I thought was about right. This includes 24 x 2 car and 17 x 3 car. Of the 10 not in service a pair appear to be going to Tyseley (197011/197016).

Of those in service we have 5 on Ebbw Vale/Maestegs, 2 on Bidston, 2 on Liverpools, 1 on Crewe Chester, 1 on Conwy Valley, 2 on Pembroke Dock, 1 on the daytime Fishguard, 4 on Holyhead to Cardiff, 8 on Manchester to North Wales and 8 on West Wales-Cardiff/Manchester, 1 on Cardiff-Fishguard (evening service), 2 on Swanline-Chester's, 1 on the Swansea/Cardiff-Manchester diagram that will be the 5th MK Diagram. Please note this info is taken from RTT at the time so some may have done other work e.g the evening Cardiff-Fishguard may have been somewhere earlier in the day.

We also have these 3 - Llandudno-Crewe (197047) Chester to Shrewsbury and Chester to Crewe (197108). Unsure if these are full diagrams or just attached to another unit for part of the day/stock movements. If we can discount those 3 as covering p'roper' diagrams then that bring the total down to 38 diagrams covered.

We appear to have a 158 covering a Cardiff-Milford-Manchester-Cardiff plus a single 153 on one of the 3 main Pembroke Dock diagrams. As well as a 150 on the one of the daytime Swanlines and a pair of 153s did the early morning FIshguard-Cardiff. All of these I believe are now booked 197s.

 

[BillStampy]

There seems to be a bit of a shortage of 197s today.

Almost every single Maesteg - Severn Tunnel has been altered tomorrow to terminate at Central, owing to the lack of trains. JourneyCheck looks absurd!

 

[simonmpoulton]

I wonder are there the same issues with the 195's and 196's? Certainly seems to be a lot of faults on the 197's which you would've thought have been sorted by now.

 

[Western 52]

A pair of 153s were on the Marches today as well, swapped from a 197 at Chester on 1V97 1433 Holyhead to Cardiff. I had the pleasure of it Shrewsbury to Newport.

 

[Anonymous10]

Almost every single Maesteg - Severn Tunnel has been altered tomorrow to terminate at Central, owing to the lack of trains. JourneyCheck looks absurd!

What is the issue with availability? It was said the correct number of 197s are out.

 

[Jez]

Almost every single Maesteg - Severn Tunnel has been altered tomorrow to terminate at Central, owing to the lack of trains. JourneyCheck looks absurd!

Im surprised they didnt just run them as far as Cardiff in the first place and advised passengers to use other services to Newport and then have road replacement transport start at Newport rather than Severn Tunnel.

I noticed the 1747 Cardiff to Milford was also cancelled and then 2 hours later the 1630 ex Manchester also cancelled with no unit to replace either of these services.

Yes lots of cancellations tomorrow with the reason 'more trains than usual needing repairs at the same time' being used again. Hopefully this is just a short term thing as for a while things did seem to improve.

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 23 Jul 2024 ==

A pair of 153s were on the Marches today as well, swapped from a 197 at Chester on 1V97 1433 Holyhead to Cardiff. I had the pleasure of it Shrewsbury to Newport.

At least its not as bad as a 150!

Curious how a spare pair of 153s were in Chester to take over this service. I didnt think any 153s went there since the Chester Crewe shuttle switched to 197s. The 153 fleet is quite stretched itself now there is very little spare availability now they are doing more work around Cardiff.

 

[Lurcheroo]

I noticed earlier that 4 197 diagrams were showing uncovered with 2 being covered with 150’s and 1 with a 158.

Adding: looks like a 153 is allocated to a 197 diagram starting at Camarthen tomorrow.

 

[BillStampy]

Adding: looks like a 153 is allocated to a 197 diagram starting at Camarthen tomorrow.

A single one too! It'll only take the diagram as far as Cardiff as it would not run the 12:06 to Milford and then Manchester.

 

[Krokodil]

Curious how a spare pair of 153s were in Chester to take over this service. I didnt think any 153s went there since the Chester Crewe shuttle switched to 197s. The 153 fleet is quite stretched itself now there is very little spare availability now they are doing more work around Cardiff.

They worked up on 1W92.

 

[nigelsporne]

A pair of 153s did make it to Chester yesterday as I travelled up on them from Wrexham. They were swapped for a 197106 at Chester and the 153s were put in the Crewe bay. They were later joined by 197011 and 16 which were mentioned earlier as possibly going to Tyseley.

 

[BillStampy]

197113 has once again seemed to have had issues, only going to Bridgend before a 158 took over from the Empty Bridgend diagram for Maestegs. 113 headed back to Cardiff

 

[childwallblues]

Saw a pair of 197s on test at Crewe yesterday. One was 197033 but I was unable to identify the second one.

 

[nigelsporne]

Saw a pair of 197s on test at Crewe yesterday. One was 197033 but I was unable to identify the second one.

197031

 

[vicbury]

Im surprised they didnt just run them as far as Cardiff in the first place and advised passengers to use other services to Newport and then have road replacement transport start at Newport rather than Severn Tunnel.

The off peak GWR service to Severn Tunnel Junction is only one train per hour and the journey by road can be a real slog. My train home later is cancelled but thankfully GWR seem all okay. Hope TfW sort themselves out for the reopening of the Gloucester line in two and a half weeks time!

 

[BillStampy]

The off peak GWR service to Severn Tunnel Junction is only one train per hour and the journey by road can be a real slog. My train home later is cancelled but thankfully GWR seem all okay. Hope TfW sort themselves out for the reopening of the Gloucester line in two and a half weeks time!

Not to mention if you're going there from any station along the Maesteg line or Pontyclun, Llanharan or Pencoed, you miss the xx:59/xx:00 GWR service by a matter of minutes!

 

[childwallblues]

197031

Many thanks.

 

[Envoy]

RTT must surely have wrong info for 1W64 today? 153323 will work this service from Milford Haven to Cardiff where it will be joined by 197115 to Crewe. Then 153323 will run on its own from Crewe to Manchester. Totally bonkers of RTT.

 

[BillStampy]

RTT must surely have wrong info for 1W64 today? 153323 will work this service from Milford Haven to Cardiff where it will be joined by 197115 to Crewe. Then 153323 will run on its own from Crewe to Manchester. Totally bonkers of RTT.

It's because 153323 is on it's normal diagram, another 197 should take it's diagram from the 12:04 from Cardiff. 115 will not take on that either, as it'll make it 5-6 coaches. So they'll find a different unit for that too. You have 104 allocated to Aberystwyth! Never believe early allocations

 

[Lurcheroo]

Looks like there are 5 197 diagrams uncovered today.
With 2 diagrams being covered by a single 153 and 2 diagrams covered by 158’s.

On top of this, 8 158’s are on stop with another due to come off at Mach as it’s out of miles for its B exam and 1 unit making its way from canton to Mach for something.
This makes 12 158’s not available for their intended work, leaving 6 diagrams uncovered and substantial short forming on Cambrian and Birmingham services.

Oh dear …

 

[MP393]

Looks like there are 5 197 diagrams uncovered today.
With 2 diagrams being covered by a single 153 and 2 diagrams covered by 158’s.

On top of this, 8 158’s are on stop with another due to come off at Mach as it’s out of miles for its B exam and 1 unit making its way from canton to Mach for something.
This makes 12 158’s not available for their intended work, leaving 6 diagrams uncovered and substantial short forming on Cambrian and Birmingham services.

Oh dear …

I did wonder if there had been a dramatic drop in 158 availability after seeing an email yesterday stating ticket acceptance with West Mids all day to Birmingham due to unit shortages, with both the 16:08 & 17:08 from International being two car vice 4 & 6 respectively. Not good, especially when the other classes can’t be relied on at the minute either!

 

[Lurcheroo]

I did wonder if there had been a dramatic drop in 158 availability after seeing an email yesterday stating ticket acceptance with West Mids all day to Birmingham due to unit shortages, with both the 16:08 & 17:08 from International being two car vice 4 & 6 respectively. Not good, especially when the other classes can’t be relied on at the minute either!

Indeed, I think there were a few others shortformed too as well as Cambrian services. Not helped by a bridge strike in the morning at Caersws either.

Sounds like today WMT have declined ticket acceptance with TFW as they are also short forming services (I’ve not verified that, just what I heard).

 

[nigelsporne]

It's because 153323 is on it's normal diagram, another 197 should take it's diagram from the 12:04 from Cardiff. 115 will not take on that either, as it'll make it 5-6 coaches. So they'll find a different unit for that too. You have 104 allocated to Aberystwyth! Never believe early allocations

I saw 197115 at Chester this afternoon, about 2.15ish. Not sure what its working was but could have been a Cardiff run.
197011/16 appeared again at about the same time so if they went to Tyseley yesterday they weren't there long.

 

[BillStampy]

I saw 197115 at Chester this afternoon, about 2.15ish. Not sure what its working was but could have been a Cardiff run.

Worked 1V96 at the time, 1415 at Chester. Then instead of working the 5-6 coaches as it isn't cleared, it filled in onto Ebbw Vale, then Maestegs as of this post, then off to Milford to replace a 153 pair on the remainder of the diagram.

197011/16 appeared again at about the same time so if they went to Tyseley yesterday they weren't there long.

Yes, came back today, fairly short trip.

 

[ThePeakNed]

Who is it that's been driving 197s to Tyseley, I suspect a ROG driver?

 

[Turbo004]

Who is it that's been driving 197s to Tyseley, I suspect a ROG driver?

TfW Drivers are driving the 197's to Tyseley. Some Shrewsbury drivers are route learning to Tyseley at the moment. The plan is 197's will go to Tyseley for tyre turning.

 

[craigybagel]

Who is it that's been driving 197s to Tyseley, I suspect a ROG driver?

TfW Drivers are driving the 197's to Tyseley. Some Shrewsbury drivers are route learning to Tyseley at the moment. The plan is 197's will go to Tyseley for tyre turning.

It was ROG drivers temporarily, but with the work likely to continue for a while it's now only TFW drivers on it - one link at Shrewsbury has been learning the route.