I've heard a loco hauled diagram will be running a Gloucester - Fishguard diagram, but i laughed this off. Can anyone confirm?
Well there is a Gloucester - Fishguard service now, which open train times says is timed for a Pacer but a 158 ran it on its first day of operation I think. Anyone know what is actually booked for the service?
My money is on 1 x "Premier", and 2 x LHCS with 3 x standard Mk3s, freeing up 175s for other routes...and no layover time for the LHCS in Canton.
1x Premier on Gerald mark3 and 1x standard class only rake on franchise services might happen, but you can't have 100% fleet utilisation (3 sets) all of the time. Perhaps they can plan maintenance so they can run all three sets (one running extra services) when there are special events (Royal Welsh Show and Rugby in Cardiff already see extra trains, but other events, such as Beach Break Live, Pembrey, need extras too).
My opinion on what I think should happen eventually (not what I would guess will happen this year, and not one of my top prorities) is two LHCS rakes with a cooked meal service (don't care if there is first class or not, just a decent buffet you can buy meals from). One rake would run Holyhead - Cardiff/Swansea express in the morning and back in the evening, the other would do Cardiff/Swansea to Holyhead in the morning and back in the evening. This would be 7 days a week, though might not have an express calling pattern on Sundays. Ideally the evening workings would actually be run by a different pair of sets, allowing the four sets to interwork with franchise diagrams and avoid the stock sitting idle for long periods, but that would need five or six sets (counting spares) rather than the three sets (one spare, two servicable) it looks like we may get.
My contacts still tell me the big timetables changes will commence Dec12/13, so consultation for that should out immediately the Summer timetable ends.
If the 67 from September is out of action for eight hours at Canton,a lot of flack will fly, & quite right too .
Bob
Can you remind me what the timings for the southbound LHCS service via Wrexham were supposed to be (northbound is current WAG2 path, yes?)? I wonder if an 8-hour layover is enough to send the set up to Manchester and back on one of the franchise 175 services.
Gowerton redoubling is supposed to happen Easter 2013. Hopefully the Pembroke Dock and Milford Haven trains can be made 100% clockface then (would be useful to have everything passing Haverfordwest at the same minutes past each hour (in both directions) as it could help buses connect).