That’s interesting. Perhaps the TfW route is also attracting passengers going between Bath/ Bristol & Liverpool - all the more so when the direct services start - even though they will be 197’s. Hopefully timings will be such that a slick interchange can take place at Newport and it be on the island platforms.
They've been great for the capacity side of things, that I do commend the trains on. Good for capacity and better comfort. When the auto PA is turned off, I thoroughly enjoy the journey. Core things such as the PA shouldn't still be going on nearly 2 years after they were brought into use.
Depends on the trip as to whether the announcements are never ending. Stopping pattern, delays, missing stops, too many variables. Also, just because buffet staff can hear the auto PA, when you get part way through an announcement, the last thing you want to do is then restart the whole thing as you were interrupted.
Makes sense to use as a diversionary route to Crewe if via Holmes Chapel has a closure incident.
No plans but it's nice to have possibilities should it ever be required. Holyhead crews sign all the way to Manchester so they could work it if needs be (as they did with the MKIIIs).
It's also worth pointing out that depending on the time of day and nature of the journey fares are often cheaper via Hereford rather than Birmingham.
Warrington is usually only used for preplanned diversions (like because of engineering work) or as a one off to rescue a stranded train. During disruption services tend to get turned at Crewe instead - the timings are too tight for getting a set to Piccadilly and back via Warrington in the time required.
I'm a little confused - it was already 158832 on 1V98. There's only been 1 MKIV set in public service all week, and today it was on the other diagram.
it was reported previously that hd06 had taken a trip to Holyhead so possibly thats what broke down in chest causing the chaos
This had confused me too as its showing as the 158 for the whole trip, looks like they'd moved everybody onto the Mk4 set only to then get them back off again. Cheers for confirming. I did notice the other set a bit later on.
RealTimeTrains indicates that the morning Holyhead-Cardiff service was half an hour late leaving Holyhead and ~40 minutes late leaving Anglesey, but made up some time along the coast to leave Chester at 0741, 25 late.
Correct - it stayed in Chester till this morning when it was moved back to Crewe.
It was down to logistics, it was moved as early as was practical.
Teething problems and unfamiliarity for the most part. It'll be a while if ever before you get the same reliability as you had on the ECML where the crews and maintenance staff were working on them every day. Plus some modifications had to be made to get them to work with the 67s and that takes some ironing out.
Does this mean once they enter service on the Manchester service that they won’t go to Holyhead, or will they run the Cardiff - Holyhead but not Manchester Airport - Holyhead?
The Cardiff-Holyheads are pretty much identical in the new timetable as to now.
So will Manchester - Cardiff 67+Mk4 sets begin in December replacing the Carmarthen/Milford Haven DMUs (and freeing up 175s) interworking with the existing Cardiff - Holyhead ones? This would mean that they can be found on both the coast and the Marches, as well as Crewe - Manchester, but not on all services.
i would expect the Carmarthen - Manchester diagrams may be altered as something will need to run to milford haven
The Manchester diagrams are due to begin in December, although it's expected that at least one of the daily diagrams (one of the diagrams that starts and finishes at Canton and doesn't involve any Holyhead trips) will be worked with DMUs initially.
Broadly speaking, the DMUs will run every 2 hours Manchester - Carmarthen - Cardiff - Milford Haven - Manchester, meaning that frequencies will still stay the same West of Cardiff. The Manchester departures will be at half past the odd hours.
I haven't actually checked, but how are the connections at Cardiff? If it's purely run as a split service in current paths, then there won't be advertised connections between the two portions, as most of the dwells were only 3 or 4 minutes.
The connection is lost every second hour.
Oh dear, just as I feared. Hopefully this can be fixed as part of the wider recast that's happening in May(?).
Its a shame the connection is lost as passengers West of Cardiff will only get a direct service to the Hereford/Shrewsbury/Manchester etc every 2 hours now unless they connect using the GWR service West of Cardiff which means a half hour earlier start to the journey with a wait in Cardiff.
