GWR Class 165/166 refurb

[mrmartin]

Am I getting confused or did these (Bristol area) not have a refurb relatively recently? I haven't travelled on them in a while. It was thr Portsmouth to Cardiff train, not sure if it's 165 or 166?

The one I was on today was absolutely horrendous. All the windows were broken so slamming open and shut by themselves, the train was outrageously hot, despite being relatively cool later at night (conductor was in shorts - is the heating stuck on or something?) and it's incredibly depressing lighting/colour scheme. It felt like a Halloween fairground ride to be honest.

The awful 3+2 seat layout too, but I guess that is a different issue.

I find it hard to believe these units will last their expected post refresh 10+ years in the current condition.

 

[CR165022]

Their last refurb was around 2023. The 166s have different air con to the 165s, I believe the 165s have air cooling whereas the 166s have air con, and the 166s are absolutely terrible because of it, it never works and always makes the train hotter inside than it is outside

 

[Siemens Staines]

The 165s are currently going through Wolverton for attention to their air-cooling. 165103 is there currently, and 11 others yet to go. Over the last three years, all 16x have been through Doncaster for a below solebar C4 overhaul. Neither of these works visits touch the internal condition of the units.

 

[To the trains]

Am I getting confused or did these (Bristol area) not have a refurb relatively recently? I haven't travelled on them in a while. It was thr Portsmouth to Cardiff train, not sure if it's 165 or 166?

The one I was on today was absolutely horrendous. All the windows were broken so slamming open and shut by themselves, the train was outrageously hot, despite being relatively cool later at night (conductor was in shorts - is the heating stuck on or something?) and it's incredibly depressing lighting/colour scheme. It felt like a Halloween fairground ride to be honest.

The awful 3+2 seat layout too, but I guess that is a different issue.

I find it hard to believe these units will last their expected post refresh 10+ years in the current condition.

Have to mostly agree with your assessment there. I use them quite often in the Bath/Bristol are and they're better than before the refresh (refurb is a bit of a strong word for what it was) but considering how dirty they were then, that doesn't say much.

The 3+2 seats are far from ideal, but I know if they did replace them, they'd have procured some horrid new seats. The air conditioning is mostly theoretical, they basically all had the windows open in this summer (the IETs, for all their flaws, have always had working air conditioning). I've also experienced window flinging open and shut in tunnels or if another train passes.

I don't think they're bad for short routes, but I used the Gatwick to Reading train on Monday and the turbos aren't well equipped for the luggage or the length of journeys like Gatwick-Reading (where a very high proportion of journeys are end to end) or Cardiff-Portsmouth (I imagine not an awful lot of end to end journeys but plenty of people going a fair way). Something like 185s would be perfect for these long turbo routes.

 

[JohnRegular]

They're better than they were! I have to concur with the previous posters that the air conditioning on the 166s is dire, and I have no doubt that is a significant factor limiting passenger growth on the routes they operate (in the summer at least).

Being on a busy train is one thing; being on a busy train that's (e.g.) being held outside a station during a signal failure is another; but when it's baking hot on top of that...