No, but that would be somewhat reminiscent of First Great Western's Travelling Chef service (boxed for takeaway in Standard and served at-seat on china in First), which I believe was popular, so would perhaps be of value.
I tend to find the risk these days isn't so much a 197 vice MK4, it's more the MK4 running, but without a chef. The early morning ones and the Swansea service are typically the most susceptible.
If you travel standard class you can choose off the light bites menu, either by going to the counter or ordering from the app / QR code. There are 3 types of breakfast rolls on there ( bacon / sausage or egg & hash brown) and you have the option of adding additional items to the roll for around £1 per item.
As far as I know the hot meals including breakfast are only available in the restaurant so in First Class. Hot Sandwiches can be purchased from the buffet counter for passengers in standard.
Thats good to know if i end up just using standard class. I had a feeling the hot rolls would be available. But the plated breakfast only in first.
Thats excellent news and certainly better than 1 entire diagram not covered by a MK4. The 1830 was very very popular back in the day and often ran as a 2 car 175. Now we just need the early morning Swansea service to switch to MK4! It will also free up a 197 for other duties in the afternoon.
I did wonder about that. Thanks
That would be a great start and certainly would provide much needed capacity on the 18:30 from Manchester and allow the usual 3 car 197 to strengthen another service!
www.networkrailmediacentre.co.uk
Probably the correct place, it's fairly relevant to the Mark 4s.Not sure if this thread (which I don't usually follow) is the right place, or if the info is well known here already, but this press release has appeared on the Network Rail site:
Network Rail and Transport for Wales join forces to cut journey times between Cardiff and Manchester
Passengers travelling between Cardiff, Manchester and Holyhead can now benefit from faster journeys after Network Rail and Transport for Wales (TfW) worked together to remove dozens of historic speed restrictions for trains on the route.
Some allowance is made for that. It runs as 1B13 between Swansea and Cardiff as a unit, then a fresh unit from Cardiff which will change to a mk4 when the diagram goes live. There are no plans to route clear them via the VOG.
Thanks
Sucks that they aren't planning on going via the VOG, would be an interesting sight and would just mean we get full Swansea diagrams on times when the mainline are shut and there are diversions in place.
Same questions here, they do run passenger via VOG too. There isn't really much of any common reason for it, but whatever.
It might make slight sense if they were combining the 05:32 with one of the very early workings into Swansea from Carmarthen. Last time I was at Swansea early enough that early inbound split into another Carmarthen train and a HOW.
You have a 197 running 5F13 via the VOG in the morning to get to Swansea, runs 1F13 back to Cardiff, just for it to be replaced by a different 197, sometimes even shorter than it (3 car 1F13, 2 car 1W13 for example)
Yes, have been for a while
That is more daft since 1W13 was always quiet enough between Swansea and Cardiff, but filled up too much later in the journey.
Should be:
Brilliant, thank you.
Let's hope TFW and Network Rail can do something about the line speed between Shrewsbury and Wolverhampton.Not sure if this thread (which I don't usually follow) is the right place, or if the info is well known here already, but this press release has appeared on the Network Rail site:
Network Rail and Transport for Wales join forces to cut journey times between Cardiff and Manchester
Passengers travelling between Cardiff, Manchester and Holyhead can now benefit from faster journeys after Network Rail and Transport for Wales (TfW) worked together to remove dozens of historic speed restrictions for trains on the route.
It's completely pointless without a recast - the paths west of Shrewsbury and east of Wolverhampton are pretty much fixed in place.
Unlikely the Marches comes under NR Wales & Borders, Shrewsbury to Wolverhampton comes under NR London North Western shortly after Abbey Foregate (Shrewsbury) heading towards Wolves. Upgrading to 90mph running has been on the cards for years, lot of it down to cost and timesaving. Myself i would see about upgrading to 100mph now that West Midlands fleet are capable of a 100mph and soon the TfW CAF fleet. Again the cost, timesaving but that may need signalling works associated track works.
Supposedly when the line was resignalled the braking distances were specified for 90mph, but as I said spending the money to bring everything else up to that standard isn't really worthwhile without a timetable recast. With the exception of Wellington - Shrewsbury the stations are too close together for WMT services to get much above 70 even though their units are capable.
That's good news, I'm using the 1830 tomorrow from Shrewsbury!
For once it shouldn't pull up as a 197!
I think it might, HD01 is running to get it to Canton to have everything in place for Saturday as HD06 needs to run empty to Crewe for repairs.