It's planned to run every day Monday to Friday, although I don't believe they've been selling advanced tickets for it. It is of course subject to the caveat that.....
..... Thanks to our old friend Covid meaning only one driver and guard can be trained at a time, there are still a large number of guards and drivers who require training, particularly in Cardiff (who work the 1712 as far as Chester).
Started on 7th June
1005 Holyhead - Crewe and 1445 Crewe - Bangor (after which it then runs empty directly into the sidings at Holyhead). It's likely to be two different sets - I believe the plan was always for this service to run to swap the service set at Holyhead and the training set at Crewe but it was planned on being ECS rather than a public service.
In service due to Chester Races I believe.
The 1445 return from Crewe, presumably departing Chester around 1515 is somewhat early for returning race goers?
It's an existing move that's become passenger.
They only recently announced that they had obtained the Grand Central rakes (and, if COVID hadn't happened, those rakes wouldn't be available anyway, although Eversholt may have some other off-lease sets) so at best it would only be three rakes running two diagrams per day. We might therefore have had the full morning, lunch and dinner express service each way if it weren't for COVID but there wouldn't be any more than that.
Should be ok for today. If it was planned on being cancelled/subbed for a 175 due to lack of available 67 trained crew it would normally be cancelled by now, and the set is currently en-route from Holyhead apparently without issues.
Hard to say. At present they can only be used on Cardiff - Holyhead anyway, and direct services on that route have been suspended since Covid anyway (other than the once a day service the stock is currently working which was reinstated for that purpose).
Many thanks for clarifying the situation.
The carriages and locos needs mods/ testing and there's quite a lot training needed, so Dec 2022 is a sensible date to aim for getting them in service.
I would back up what MR are saying, there's not much hope you'll see a regular service to Manchester before December 2022. I wouldn't hold out hope of even seeing any extra Cardiff Holyhead services for a fair few months yet.
Tbh I am not expecting anything extra until the December timetable change. Baby steps and all that.
Yes it is. One set is booked to do 10:05 Holyhead to Crewe and then a fresh set comes off the shed to so 1D68. Its how the sets are being rotated at the moment so the set on 1D68 should do the WAG for a week barring faults.
They'll need changing at some point, as they won't be consistent with the exGC fleet when they enter service. As to when this will happen or what branding they will go for, that has not yet been confirmed.
Any idea if the first class meals are back yet or when they will be?
AFAIK No catering yet. Onboard trolleys are meant to be restarting on a limited basis this month on other services but I've no idea what the plan is for the MKIVs just yet.
Nice photos there, bit more photogenic a scene than my attempts at Abergavenny and Hereford 
