One Kirkby set was lost yesterday due to the 150 it was with failing, and there was indeed a New Mills pacer all day yesterday.
The 13.49 Piccadilly-Sheffield is a 2 car 195. I don't know what it's like other days but on the return service out of Sheffield on Monday more than half the rear coach was taped out of use and passengers were directed to the front coach - where the front third was also taped off. The guard didn't patrol the train. Seeing a 195 at the platform I thought there'd be enough distancing space, and there was, but it was more crowded than it needed to be. Using a Pacer would require deploying a 150 as well. It's currently a 150, 195/0 and 195/1 combination on Hope Valley at present.
The 0808 Piccadilly service to Chester beforehand comes in from Buxton and 142 are banned to Buxton. Timetable should have been thought out a lot better beforehand say for example using the 0556 Chester to Manchester Piccadilly 142/150 combination instead off sending to newton Heath T.M.D until its next booked working at around 2300 pm. However what Northern should seriously do now is at least to March 2021, when the 769 start is to retain at least some 142s especially again for the Chester to Manchester Piccadilly lines and Kirkby lines.
Was on that train, ridiculous that one guard gets half a train.. but the paying passengers have to be crowded into one half. I’ve been getting that a lot recently, but luckily it was only crowded that one day.
It does seem crazy that people will be forced to put their health at risk all in order to fulfill DDA compliance. I cant help but feel DDa should not be a priority until this pandemic is over.
It should be noted that the unit refurbishment programme is starting to wind down, 195 utilisation isn't really high and there's a lot of strengthened formations running about; so the loss of half a dozen 142s isn't going to make a difference.
it will, and it’s a dozen.
I would also agree with this so long as they continue to only work with a compliant unit
Less units away for refurb will help, unless they then go away for Wifi and USB installation. Retaining the few 142s would provide some contingency especially with the delays to the 769s entering service
We're straying from Pacers but lthe last return service to operate on the Hope Valley last night seems to have been a 5 car 195/0 and 195/1 combination. It's a long time since stations in the valley will have seen that length of train stop. Another train had been cancelled so stock postioning may have been needed.
A few days before timetable change
They have also lost some of the 32x EMUs
They lost all their 32x EMU's, 3 x 321's and 5x322's all gone Darn Saarrf
Apart from the 323s, with more due to arrive from Brum in the future.
DDA has been delayed far too long already.
That's a shame. Have this as a consolation prize - photographed at Rainford yesterday on the 1435 Kirkby - Manchester Victoria.
The 331s didn't do a great deal for Pacer replacement, as they're all operating on lines that were already electrified (Albeit quite recently in the case of Manchester - Preston).
Make a complaint if this happens again.
And those 223 replacement carriages are all 23m long, giving a total length of 223*23=5130m. The 214 Pacer carriages were only 16m, so their total length was 214*16=3420m. Arguably a 50% increase in capacity!
Yes so in this case the guard was right to have the unit locked out. If this happens East of Wigan it's usually not allowed.
