TfW Gerald train

[davsarg]

Hi. Does anyone know why this didn't run today up to Holyhead please?

There I was, standing on Newport station, waiting in anticipation for it to arrive at 17:31 and what did I get.... a f*****g 2 car class 150! The Gerald is TfW's jewel in the crown. If they can't even run their flagship service properly, what hope do we have for the rest of their network!

 

[Sheridan]

Which one? From my observation one of the two diagrams did run, with the other being formed of a 150 or a pair of 150s. I don’t know the reason for this.

 

[davsarg]

Which one? From my observation one of the two diagrams did run, with the other being formed of a 150 or a pair of 150s. I don’t know the reason for this.

The one with the restaurant car that goes up from Cardiff to Holyhead in the late afternoon and as I said calls at Newport at 17:31. I was talking to some of the staff on the platform at Newport and apparently it hadn't come down from Holyhead this morning but they didn't know why. Does anyone here know why?

 

[TT-ONR-NRN]

Oh my goodness not this again. There must have been about ten threads in the past couple of months because a MK4 has been replaced by a DMU.

TfW struggle with driver availability, and it happens. Restaurant cars are not guaranteed. First class passengers will get compensated.

You can read all about it here:

I apologise if this starts another thread like the TfW Overcrowding one (recently closed), but just wanted to make the point that TfW are running single car Class 153 units all the way from Cardiff Central to Holyhead...

A lot of this is probably to do with the Craven Arms fire, and I know there will be new trains soon.

Anyway, hopefully RTT is wrong, as I'm about to get on this train...

Realtime Trains | 1W93 1122 Cardiff Central to Holyhead | 01/06/2022

Real-time train running information for 1W93 1122 departure from Cardiff Central to Holyhead on 01/06/2022. From Realtime Trains, an independent source of train running info for Great Britain.

www.realtimetrains.co.uk

I'll let you know!


== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 1 Jun 2022 ==


Sorry! RTT is now reporting two 153s joined together, but I promise it was one before!

TfW DMU Availability

I apologise if this starts another thread like the TfW Overcrowding one (recently closed), but just wanted to make the point that TfW are running single car Class 153 units all the way from Cardiff Central to Holyhead... A lot of this is probably to do with the Craven Arms fire, and I know...

www.railforums.co.uk

Another one that will give you more information is here.

https://www.railforums.co.uk/thread...or-long-distance-rhyl-maesteg-working.230810/

It’s closed, probably because of the amount of times this keeps popping up in different threads at least once a week!

TfW can and regularly do substitute Mk4s and 175s for Sprinters.

 

[D6975]

Because it never left Cardiff in the morning. The diagram starts with the 0645 Cardiff Holyhead, which was cancelled.

edit a 158 ran Salop-Chester in its path and was replaced by a 150 which ran to HHD, an extra 150 was added on the return at Chester.

 

[davsarg]

Because it never left Cardiff in the morning. The diagram starts with the 0645 Cardiff Holyhead, which wad cancelled.

Why was it cancelled?

 

[TT-ONR-NRN]

The Gerald is TfW's jewel in the crown. If they can't even run their flagship service properly, what hope do we have for the rest of their network!

Also, it really isn’t. These days, the foodbar counter is often closed, or open just for snacks, and when the kitchen is open you have to pay a £20 supplement on top of the first class upgrade in order to eat the once complimentary meal. There’s no replacement head cushions for the LNER ones, just a naked headrest; the new announcements take three minutes from start to finish (after every station) and become torturous, and the seat reservations tell confused non-enthusiast passengers that their seat is reserved from Wakefield to Stevenage on the daily.

There’s an evening working formed of a double 175. Give me that anyday.

 

[Sheridan]

The one with the restaurant car that goes up from Cardiff to Holyhead in the late afternoon and as I said calls at Newport at 17:31. I was talking to some of the staff on the platform at Newport and apparently it hadn't come down from Holyhead this morning but they didn't know why. Does anyone here know why?

Apologies - when I first saw your post only the first sentence was visible! Had I seen the rest of it I would have given you a fuller answer.

 

[sd0733]

The set at Canton had a hydraulic brake fluid leak last night and has not been able to be repaired.

The maintenance set at Crewe will be utilised in the morning to run ecs to Chester to pick up 1V91 there and from then on both sets will be out.

A fault on the set which hasn't proven to be a simple repair, nothing more exciting

 

[davsarg]

Also, it really isn’t

Yes it is. It is the only service they run where you can have a decent meal on board and AFAIK it's the only Tfw service that has first class.

I've travelled from Penzance up to Wrexham today and my whole itinerary for the day was built around getting that train so that I could enjoy the experience. However you look at it, swapping this service out for a rammed s****y class 150 is TOTALLY unacceptable!!

 

[sd0733]

Yes it is. It is the only service they run where you can have a decent meal on board and AFAIK it's the only Tfw service that has first class.

I've travelled from Penzance up to Wrexham today and my whole itinerary for the day was built around getting that train so that I could enjoy the experience. However you look at it, swapping this service out for a rammed s****y class 150 is TOTALLY unacceptable!!

Whilst it's far from ideal and extremely frustrating, especially for people like yourself who have planned trips round it or gone with the expectation of full meals to find nothing, when there's a fault on it then it's either sub with an unsuitable unit or cancel it. It's well documented that tfw are incredibly short of stock, there isn't the room at Canton to keep a spare mk4 rake at that end of the route and it was originally expected that the mk4s would be fixed for the 1716.

 

[HamworthyGoods]

However you look at it, swapping this service out for a rammed s****y class 150 is TOTALLY unacceptable!!

What would you propose instead, the set had failed at Cardiff and since the Craven Arms incident TfW is acutely short of rolling stock.

The majority of people (upwards of 95% I would anticipate) waiting for that train would have been grateful a substitute train, albeit a less comfortable one turned up than the service was cancelled. Nobody at TfW purposely today decided I know let’s make that train a 150 just to p*** people off, it’s no different to substitutions in the airline industry where unfortunately downgrades do happen.

Yes it is. It is the only service they run where you can have a decent meal on board and AFAIK it's the only Tfw service that has first class.

Catering is clearly stated subject to availability and there are process in places, like with airlines where passengers have unfortunately been downgraded.

 

[TT-ONR-NRN]

It does seem ever so slightly like a spoilt tantrum (more evident by the swearing and caps) as the OP’s preferred rolling stock was not used. The amount of TfW services that are being cancelled these days, or routes suspended without bus replacement, make it a turn of luck that the service ran at all.

The majority of people (upwards of 95% I would anticipate) waiting for that train would have been grateful a substitute train, albeit a less comfortable one turned up than the service was cancelled. Nobody at TfW purposely today decided I know let’s make that train a 150 just to p*** people off, it’s no different to substitutions in the airline industry where unfortunately downgrades do happen.

95% wouldn’t have even known it was a less comfortable one than planned. Services are not advertised publicly as locomotive hauled or 67+MK4. They’re advertised as having first class (which would not affect most of the passengers and those who’ve paid would be refunded) and catering, which is always subject to availability and is often provided on Sprinter services anyway!

 

[berneyarms]

Yes it is. It is the only service they run where you can have a decent meal on board and AFAIK it's the only Tfw service that has first class.

I've travelled from Penzance up to Wrexham today and my whole itinerary for the day was built around getting that train so that I could enjoy the experience. However you look at it, swapping this service out for a rammed s****y class 150 is TOTALLY unacceptable!!

I hate to break this to you, but trains can and do fail from time to time. Clearly one of the sets was not able to be rostered today for mechanical reasons. Ranting and swearing about it isn’t going to resolve that. It’s disappointing, but these sort of things can happen.

There was a Mk 4 set working on the other diagram on the Holyhead-Cardiff route (05:33 HHD-CDF, 11:22 CDF-HHD and 16:36 CDF-HHD).

With only three sets available to cover two full day diagrams, if one fails at the wrong location or if the third set is in for maintenance then you are going to get DMUs replacing the Mark 4.

With all of the reports of ongoing TfW staff training backlogs, the recent criminal action that has left 2 DMU sets damaged and the ongoing shortage of rolling stock in general, I really wouldn’t be pinning my hopes on everything going like clockwork for TfW in the manner you did until these issues are addressed, which will start to happen later this year.

 

[craigybagel]

I wonder if we'll get to see similar rants in a few years time from people expecting a DMU when a 67 and MKIVs turn up instead?

 

[mmh]

I wonder if we'll get to see similar rants in a few years time from people expecting a DMU when a 67 and MKIVs turn up instead?

What, it's going to take a few years before all the Mk4s are in service reliably? If so I think it's safe to predict there'll be quite a lot of ranting in the future!

 

[craigybagel]

What, it's going to take a few years before all the Mk4s are in service reliably? If so I think it's safe to predict there'll be quite a lot of ranting in the future!

Read it again carefully. It was a tongue in cheek remark about a hypothetical scenario of a DMU failing and getting replaced with MKIVs - a reverse of what happened yesterday.

 

[Envoy]

I see that the Cardiff to Valley (near Holyhead) air service is not going to resume. Media Wales reports that the rail service has improved. Well - not yet as it seems that you can still get 150’s or 153’s operating this route.

Flights between Cardiff and Anglesey won't be returning

The test for whether it offers value for money has not been met

www.walesonline.co.uk

The Welsh Government say that "despite common perceptions" the air service was not always the fastest link to Cardiff from north Wales and especially east of Bangor where rail travel is actually faster door-to-door. They say "investment in new rail carriages, with wi-fi, comfortable workspaces, and onboard catering means that the Holyhead to Cardiff rail service now offers a much more attractive proposition for those who still need to travel on business between the north and the south".

 

[TT-ONR-NRN]

I wonder if we'll get to see similar rants in a few years time from people expecting a DMU when a 67 and MKIVs turn up instead?

Indeed, the tendency of humans to have double standards suggests not

 

[Welshman]

We are used to seeing the odd Mk 4 Holyhead-Cardiff & vv replaced with a dmu, for reasons well documented on this forum.
But I notice from TfW Journeycheck, all journeys for next Monday [18th] and Tuesday [19th] are cancelled.

Homepage | Transport for Wales

Transport for Wales | Buy Cheap Train Tickets and Check Train Times

www.journeycheck.com

Is this an unfortunate collection of all the documented reasons coming together over two days, or some other reason?
Don't they like the predicted heatwave, or are they all being modified, etc?

 

[craigybagel]

We are used to seeing the odd Mk 4 Holyhead-Cardiff & vv replaced with a dmu, for reasons well documented on this forum.
But I notice from TfW Journeycheck, all journeys for next Monday [18th] and Tuesday [19th] are cancelled.

Homepage | Transport for Wales

Transport for Wales | Buy Cheap Train Tickets and Check Train Times

www.journeycheck.com

Is this an unfortunate collection of all the documented reasons coming together over two days, or some other reason?
Don't they like the predicted heatwave, or are they all being modified, etc?

Most likely it's the fact that on a day where there's likely to be a lot of disruption and last minute changes, the last thing you want in service is a train that only a small amount of crews can work, and that can only work a small amount of routes. With the rest of the fleet, they can pretty much all be sent anywhere at any time and during disruption that's very handy.

 

[Welshman]

That makes sense - thank you for replying.