The 3 unit 150 micro fleet is an inefficient use of resources. I imagine the per unit maintenance and spares pool costs will be much higher than for Northern's large fleet. And one spare unit for two in traffic is a poor ratio. Furthermore, I fear that the learning curve for the new Bletchley maintenance staff might result in poor reliability/availability when these old trains eventually enter service (as happened when Class 319s were first cascaded to Northern).
that is not accurate - the 230's were required because the 150/153 combo was removed and sent to other TOC's when thier leases expired - the 150's went to Northern. I last saw one of them in Preston the other week!
I don't care. I am sick of walking to Bletchley or getting the bus to work. That isn't meant to be rude. I just want my train service back!
Those options costs money so were never going to happen.
The 230s had the same "inefficient" ratio of one spare to two in traffic, and would still have done so had they been retained.
I would like to think something usefull could have been done in all/most of 2023. But that's thinking with hindsight.
Bit ironic its back to 150s. The 150s must feel like very good news to the users of Marston Vale - fingers crossed the service is back without too much more delay.
When the Marston Vale service was previously worked by 150s and 153s, before the 230s took over, I recall that there were frequent complaints about poor reliability in these forums.
All three should be there by now, stored awaiting the outcome of the Greenford battery unit trials.
It is worth pointing out that the conclusion that only 1 platform is a problem is dependent on local door or SDO operation, which may not be permitted for the doors required (there are some platforms where it would be the rear doors only being opened, which doesn't work with the normal LNR unit-deselect SDO). Also if there's a problem with 1 platform it still needs a solution, whether that's skipping the stop and circling back or actually doing some work. If there's work to be done, it's still a project and needs to go through the approvals process.
And cash. The biggest stumbling block.
IF door operations can be as suggested. If not........................
As a daily user of the line the issues with the 150/153 were not so much reliability based as recovery based. IF one of the units went pop it took ages to get one down from Tysley to restart the service. These issues were mitigated when a spare unit was out based at Bletchley.
You're probably right, but, I expect the fleet will be more reliable returning to a small depot each day. Generally fleets that are all maintained by one depot and return there most days are pretty reliable, 143's ar Exeter was a good example, all of them ended up there each night and there were very few failures.
What I meant was that a depot that maintains a large number of 150s, such as Newton Heath (Northern) or Canton (TfW), likely has a lot of specialised expertise built up over the years. At Tyseley the few 150s must have been very much a sideline.
All training is pulled during the action short of a strike. Although I guess you need the engineering side trained up before you start training runs.
No doubt the Informed Sources Third Law applies: "Always mistrust schedules based on the seasons."no service date beyond "autumn" 2023 - which starts on 23rd September
I don't know what informed sources is but I don't trust anything anyone says in relation to timescales. Ever.No doubt the Informed Sources Third Law applies: "Always mistrust schedules based on the seasons."
Roger Ford's column in Modern Railways magazine.
Real-time trains have paths in for 16/10/2023 onwards but I wouldn't trust this. All buses until this date.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-beds-bucks-herts-66525846Marston Vale Line trains return delayed again
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IMAGE SOURCE,LONDON NORTHWESTERN
Image caption,
Class 230 trains used to run on the Marston Vale railway line but will be replaced with Class 150 trains instead
A train route suspended after a maintenance firm went bust will not resume until "later in the autumn", its operator said.
The Marston Vale Line, which has 12 stations between Bedford and Bletchley, has been out of action since December.
Operator, London Northwestern Railway (LNR), was replacing Class 230 trains with Class 150 trains and training still had to be completed, it said.
A rail replacement bus service would continue to operate in the meantime.
IMAGE SOURCE,LONDON NORTHWESTERN
Image caption,
The Class 150 trains arrived at Bletchley with blue and gold paintwork
LNR said the three Class 150 trains had arrived at its Bletchley depot in July and had its livery applied to them, replacing the existing Northern branding.
Since then its technicians, who would maintain them, "have been busy familiarising themselves with the trains", it said.
The operator has taken over from Vivarail, which employed the maintenance staff who fuelled, checked, serviced and repaired the Class 230 trains.
As a result of administrators being called in, LNR previously said "it was no longer safe to operate our Class 230s... and we were left with no option but to suspend the service".
IMAGE SOURCE,TRACY CARTER
Image caption,
Only buses are currently operating from Ridgmont railway station
It said once technician training had ended, 24 drivers would be trained, but that was being impacted by strike action.
"We regret we will not be in a position to resume the service before the new school term begins in September and we will continue to run rail replacement for affected students until services can restart later in the autumn," it said.
North Western Trains?
North Western Trains?
It seems quite clear from the message you quoted that driver training is a (/another) casualty of the current union / management / DfT trench warfare (apportion blame according to personal preference). Passengers everywhere are simply collateral victims of that.
That is true to an extent, but what they were saying is that they can't carry out training during periods of industrial action taking place - so that is during a period when an overtime ban is in force or a strike is taking place. In between strikes and overtime bans they will be able to carry out training.
