EMR would also be ideal for the 175 to replace the 158. There are 27 of them vs 26 158's, Plus about half of them are already 3 cars so they can easily can work in 4-6 cars, has a higher top speed, larger toilets etc. Seating Capacity is also very similar (134 per 2 car vs 158's 138 ish). Im not sure the acceleration between the two but i expect that'll also be similar.
A small section of first class on the 3 car set?
I think EMR passangers on the Norwich - Liverpool service would welcome these type of trains, Only missing is the end gangway.
Given the lack of end gangways I personally would only suggest 175s for Liverpool-Norwich if they were run as 5/6 coaches throughout (ie. no splitting and joining at Nottingham or anywhere else) which would probably mean they need more units.
GWR to cover Cardiff - Portsmouth route, much more suitable than 158/166 units. The cascaded 158's can remain with GWR to help replace the HST's and the 166's can be swapped around GWR to release 165's to Chiltern and in turn allow replacement of their LHCS.
Not sure if 175s would be more-suitable than 158s due to the afformentioned gangway issue but a suitably refurbished 5-car 175 formation on Portsmouth-Cardiff certainly would be an improvement on 166/165.
Also approach TfW to start them back at Swansea/Carmarthen or link them to the two hourly Cardiff - Milford Haven service giving a direct South Wales - Bristol - Portsmouth service.
I'm not sure the lines west of Swansea/Carmarthen justify more than 3 coaches, so extending a 5-car Portsmouth service west of Cardiff is probably unrealistic (as much as I used to fantasize about a Fishguard Harbour to Portsmouth Harbour service - although that would have been with 158s which could split at Cardiff). Currently I'm lamenting that TfW didn't snap up more of the mark 4s that went for scrap, since the ideal thing in my view would be to run Manchester-Swansea hourly with mark 4s and cascade the 175s west to Landore with the 2-car sets doing HOWL and some Swansea-Pembrokeshire workings.
The 3-car 175s would then do the rest of Swansea-Pembrokeshire plus an hourly Cardiff-Carmarthen calling at only Port Talbot Parkway and Llanelli (partly for speed to compete with the M4 and partly to avoid it getting swamped by passengers between Cardiff and Neath/Bridgend/Swansea). This fast Cardiff-Carmarthen service would extend to Fishguard Harbour twice daily (calling only at Whitland and Fishguard & Goodwick) as the boat trains (other Fishguard workings fall under the Swansea-Pembrokeshire category above) and to Milford Haven (fast to Haverfordwest, calling only at Whitland on that leg) providing roughly half the service at the latter (the rest going to/from Swansea).
How do you reach that conclusion? They would require a large training exercise to be undertaken. That costs money. Much easier to stick with the current fleet, even if there are difficulties with Turbo reliability.
Do GWR have any crew based in Cardiff and, if so, could they do an exchange (TUPE?) of employees between TfW and GWR with any TfW staff who sign 175s (but
haven't learnt the new TfW stock yet, to avoid wasted training) transfering to GWR and some GWR staff moving to TfW in return?
They don't meet requirements to do Sprinter speeds (unlike 170s etc) so no chance they'd make it to Norwich on time across that weak Fenland track.
Where are the SP differentials on that route? I was aware that 175s are unsuitable for XC's Birmingham-Stansted route because of SP differential(s) somewhere on the route, but the only section common to both routes is Peterborough-Ely I believe so it's possible only one of those routes is impacted.
