It's at Pontrilas, in between Abergavenny and Hereford. Looks pretty bad. 0750 Fishguard to Manchester currently sat OOS at Newport (175104), 0830 ex Llandudno cancelled and 1121 Cardiff to Holyhead cancelled.
OOS = out of service...?
They are. The seats are the comfiest I've ever sat on. The journey from Cardiff to Manchester feels like I'm sat on my sofa at home!
some of the padding is wearing thin. the seats need to be repadded NOT replaced as that means ironing boards nowadays.
They're absolutely dreadful. I don't know why they combust so frequently!
Andy25 of Alstom said on 6/2/19:
"180's has been a funny one, we hadn't been involved with them for many years and the reliability compared to the 175 was terrible. We signed a tech support contract a few years ago and applied many of the modifications we'd done to 175 to solve a lot of the issues but as always cost comes in to it and what the owner/operator is willing to pay.
At the moment as the future of the fleet is uncertain you won't have anyone willing to put their hands in their pockets to pay for upgrades as there is no guarantee of a return."
"They were built before I joined but I'm aware from those involved that the Coradia fleets suffered because they were built to cost. Customers gave a low budget target and the only way to achieve it was to make compromises that Alstom wouldn't have normally made. Things like the level of corrosion protection on steel sections and not having air dryers on some pneumatic systems etc.
I would imagine knowing how it has affected our reputation on those fleets we would refuse to compromise if asked to do the same again.
It's probably cost the owners more in maintenance than they actually saved over the properly spec'd design."
"I think some of it (fire / overheating issues on 175s and 180s) is to do with how tightly packed some of the equipment rafts are, there isn't much room for airflow in some areas. The heat wash over the alternator powering the auxiliaries is something like 60 degrees and the rating was difficult to achieve based on the engine rpm driving it."
"I have heard many people speak in hushed tones about the stretch 30 initiative, it certainly didn't stick round for long."
"from what I understand it (stretch 30) was a drive to reduce costs by 30% across the board."