TfW 158s air conditioning problems

[py_megapixel]

The aircon is also often repaired and maintained by outside contractors which incurs a call out fee

That might have made sense for a company like Arriva Trains Wales, or Northern a few years ago, when only a tiny minority of trains in the fleet were air conditioned. But there's now enough stock with AC, and enough hot weather that requires AC to be working reliably, that I'm a little surprised that it doesn't make sense for them have in-house expertise?

I assume the planners have considered this, though, and concluded that this is the best way of doing things (by some definition)

 

[Andrew888]

In the end they've wound up cancelling 2/3 (yesterday) and pretty much all (today) trains west of Shrewsbury too. They've pulled out the "more trains needing repairs than usual" excuse in addition to the weather. (I call foul at this point -- if more trains than usual need repairs several times a week, can you really keep saying that?)

There are rail replacement buses from Shrewsbury to Mach, but if you're going north along the coast you've basically been told to catch a series of local buses. (See below.)

This is while it is a high of 27° today in Mach today, and 24° up along the coast. I appreciate it's hotter in Shrewsbury, but really.

I wonder at what point we just give up on trains and focus on buses out here, given TFW's apparent disinterest in running them. It's a lot of money on infrastructure to then be wasted on a system that would apparently rather be doing almost anything else.

Or, hand the whole thing over to Lloyd's Coaches?

For customers travelling further on our Cambrian line towards Pwllheli, you can also use local bus services to complete journeys where possible at no extra cost on the following routes:

T3 between Barmouth and Dolgellau with Traws Cymru

G21 between Machynlleth and Dolgellau with Lloyds Coaches

G23 between Barmouth and Minffordd with Lloyds Coaches

T28 between Machynlleth and Aberystwyth with Lloyds Coaches

X75 between Aberystwyth and Newtown with Celtic Travel

T12 between Welshpool and Machynlleth via Newtown with Lloyds Coaches

T2 and T28 provided by Lloyds Coaches between Machynlleth and Aberystwyth.

3 between Porthmadog and Pwllheli with Cae Lloi

Customers with rail tickets travelling on T2 Traws Cymru buses to Bangor can connect with Transport for Wales rail services from Bangor to Birmimgham via Shrewsbury at no extra cost.

 

[SWML9102]

In the end they've wound up cancelling 2/3 (yesterday) and pretty much all (today) trains west of Shrewsbury too. They've pulled out the "more trains needing repairs than usual" excuse in addition to the weather. (I call foul at this point -- if more trains than usual need repairs several times a week, can you really keep saying that?)

There are rail replacement buses from Shrewsbury to Mach, but if you're going north along the coast you've basically been told to catch a series of local buses. (See below.)

This is while it is a high of 27° today in Mach today, and 24° up along the coast. I appreciate it's hotter in Shrewsbury, but really.

I wonder at what point we just give up on trains and focus on buses out here, given TFW's apparent disinterest in running them. It's a lot of money on infrastructure to then be wasted on a system that would apparently rather be doing almost anything else.

Or, hand the whole thing over to Lloyd's Coaches?

Spent the last few days in the area and can see exactly what you are saying. The infrastructure costs must be immense to run a fairly sparse and somewhat unreliable service. 2 out of 6 trains intended to take were cancelled (traincrew displaced due to late running and track defect on Weds shutting the coast line for several hours).

Almost all the 158s I used or saw had hopper windows open, so something not quite adding up about the "we needed to fix the air-con first" reason for cancellations. 158s have had air-con issues in hot weather for as long as I can remember, nothing has changed in that respect for 15+ years. My guess is current issue is either drivers/guards refusing to take them in that condition, or some "passenger safety" related policy re on board temperatures.

In comparison, none of the heritage railways were cancelling trains, despite being genuinely roasting on board! What's the difference? Perhaps small independent companies who take a pride in providing the best service they can fo customers? Or simply that they will soon be bankrupt if they don't run trains when the weather is nice.

 

[Bletchleyite]

In comparison, none of the heritage railways were cancelling trains, despite being genuinely roasting on board! What's the difference?

A droplight at every door and a wide opening window at every bay is light years different from four hoppers per vehicle in 158s. And staff who do it because they like playing trains may still want to play trains even if it's hot.

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 14 Aug 2026 ==

Spent the last few days in the area and can see exactly what you are saying. The infrastructure costs must be immense to run a fairly sparse and somewhat unreliable service.

It is not normally unreliable. The service is two-hourly, this is not unusual for very rural lines and is more than the Scottish rural branches.

 

[BuhSnarf]

A droplight at every door and a wide opening window at every bay is light years different from four hoppers per vehicle in 158s. And staff who do it because they like playing trains may still want to play trains even if it's hot.

You will also find paying customers are more tolerable of the conditions when they're paying to ride on a heritage train where there is no expectation of creature comforts and they'll likely at max be on it for 30 minutes at a time rather than a stressed commuter trying to get to work and packed in like sardines.

 

[Caaardiff]

This is while it is a high of 27° today in Mach today, and 24° up along the coast. I appreciate it's hotter in Shrewsbury, but really.

Maybe they should put seats on the roof then? Some of those trains have been reaching 30+ degrees inside.

 

[Andrew888]

I travelled from Mach back to London on the 14th, four cars with no A/C. (Another 25-27° day.) it was hottish, but the only time people were actively fanning themselves was when we were stuck still at Wolverhampton for 20 minutes with no explanation. (The poor driver had to send the guard across the bridge to try to get some info from station staff, but I don't think he ever did. What a shambles.) It was considerably hotter on the platform at Euston, and as for the tube ... . People make their own decisions as to whether they can take it.

Travelling today, after the coffee shop guy at BHI spontaneously brought up the constant TFW issues over the last month with this service, I reach the platform to find that we have a short train (2 cars) with as ever no A/C, at 25°. It's fine with the breeze blowing through. (Though I slightly fear when it gets absolutely rammed at BHM. Wouldn't it be great if we got delay repay for short cars, particularly on a route like this where it can be genuinely dangerous at times.)

Anyway. At this point we can confidently say that in a month-plus of constant cancellations or short runs from Wolverhampton or Shrewsbury, they haven't fixed a single carriage as far as I can see. So the question remains, what was the point of all that in the end? It led to longer, hotter journeys for me and a lot of others due to the disruptions, and the complete lack of sense in any of it leads me to completely distrust what TFW is saying about anything.

(I live seven miles from Talerddig, so that is perhaps not great.)