Having travelled this route as a commuter from Leominster to Newport for about 15 months until recently, I thought I'd pick up on a couple of points based on my experiences, in no particular order.
Regarding reliability, imo reliability was poor although they usually used to get to their destination eventually. They seemed to frequently be running late because an engine had failed (ranging from a couple in a month to two in a week), not too bad on the three cars but used to pretty badly delay the two cars if it failed early on in the route. Also less frequent but common enough is the electrics cutting out at a station, not sure what causes that although usually it would be sorted after a couple of minutes. There have been a couple of occasions where the train has taken a long time before it could leave the station for whatever reason (once in Manchester, about half hour delay, once in cardiff, an hour's delay - both leisure journeys but in the same time period). Worst experience was sitting at Maindee Junction for two hours when the brakes failed, eventually they tried to hook another unit up but apparently "the computers wouldn't talk to each other". Once the train was taken out of service at Leo (Southbound) due to a fuel leak and another time we got kicked off at Hereford (Southbound) to wait for the next one, can't remember what that was for. On average I would expect two or three delays a month due to reliability issues, with occasional cancellations on route or delays/cancellations before they got to me. Can't say I ever had a 158 terminated on me, but I didn't used to see them that often (maybe once or twice a month).
The 158's seemed to be able to keep up but the 150's generally couldn't when running on a service you'd expect to see a 175. However I know a few months back they retimed some quicker services from Manchester, I don't know if the 158's could keep up with those now but they can keep up with the others. The 158's don't seem to be able to make time back when late though, which the 175's can. Someone mentioned a 153 (which I just looked up on wikipedia), never seen one of those on my journey
although I recognise it from the HoW line. Don't think it would cope very well.
With regard to lengths of trains they were consistent probably about 80% of the time, so they must plan what lengths to use for specific services but can't always stick to it.
The air con isn't too bad once you are used to it, the worst draft is by the two sets of tables at each end of the carriage and one set gets it more than the other (probably why this comment was made by someone who also said there aren't enough tables!). I got quite accustomed to the air con (I was pretty adept at ensuring myself a table seat by learning where to stand on the platforms) and it irritated me when the conductor would fiddle with it because someone was maoning about it The only time it would annoy me was when the air con was blasting out and the heating was on, usually in the middle of summer, so you would be boiling on one side and freezing on the other.
Not sure how those teenagers thought they were first class trains They were a bit grubby and tatty but not too bad to be fair, could do with a proper clean more often and a refurb though. Cleaners apperaing on that route is fairly common, and often the trolley people and sometimes even the conductor does a bit of tidying up. Occasionally though they will turn up absolutely hanging.
Generally, as long as the heating/air con was working as expected and the engines didn't fail, they weren't bad little trains. Can't say I particularly minded the 158's either, the 150's though I used to dread seeing one of them pitch up. The easiest way to increase capacity on that route would be to run more 158's and double them up to four car, but obviously they'd need to find spare ones!
Regarding reliability, imo reliability was poor although they usually used to get to their destination eventually. They seemed to frequently be running late because an engine had failed (ranging from a couple in a month to two in a week), not too bad on the three cars but used to pretty badly delay the two cars if it failed early on in the route. Also less frequent but common enough is the electrics cutting out at a station, not sure what causes that although usually it would be sorted after a couple of minutes. There have been a couple of occasions where the train has taken a long time before it could leave the station for whatever reason (once in Manchester, about half hour delay, once in cardiff, an hour's delay - both leisure journeys but in the same time period). Worst experience was sitting at Maindee Junction for two hours when the brakes failed, eventually they tried to hook another unit up but apparently "the computers wouldn't talk to each other". Once the train was taken out of service at Leo (Southbound) due to a fuel leak and another time we got kicked off at Hereford (Southbound) to wait for the next one, can't remember what that was for. On average I would expect two or three delays a month due to reliability issues, with occasional cancellations on route or delays/cancellations before they got to me. Can't say I ever had a 158 terminated on me, but I didn't used to see them that often (maybe once or twice a month).
The 158's seemed to be able to keep up but the 150's generally couldn't when running on a service you'd expect to see a 175. However I know a few months back they retimed some quicker services from Manchester, I don't know if the 158's could keep up with those now but they can keep up with the others. The 158's don't seem to be able to make time back when late though, which the 175's can. Someone mentioned a 153 (which I just looked up on wikipedia), never seen one of those on my journey
although I recognise it from the HoW line. Don't think it would cope very well.With regard to lengths of trains they were consistent probably about 80% of the time, so they must plan what lengths to use for specific services but can't always stick to it.
The air con isn't too bad once you are used to it, the worst draft is by the two sets of tables at each end of the carriage and one set gets it more than the other (probably why this comment was made by someone who also said there aren't enough tables!). I got quite accustomed to the air con (I was pretty adept at ensuring myself a table seat by learning where to stand on the platforms) and it irritated me when the conductor would fiddle with it because someone was maoning about it
The only time it would annoy me was when the air con was blasting out and the heating was on, usually in the middle of summer, so you would be boiling on one side and freezing on the other.Not sure how those teenagers thought they were first class trains
They were a bit grubby and tatty but not too bad to be fair, could do with a proper clean more often and a refurb though. Cleaners apperaing on that route is fairly common, and often the trolley people and sometimes even the conductor does a bit of tidying up. Occasionally though they will turn up absolutely hanging.Generally, as long as the heating/air con was working as expected and the engines didn't fail, they weren't bad little trains. Can't say I particularly minded the 158's either, the 150's though I used to dread seeing one of them pitch up. The easiest way to increase capacity on that route would be to run more 158's and double them up to four car, but obviously they'd need to find spare ones!
