Marston Vale line suspension over - FULL services start running 19/02/24

[jfowkes]

According to reports they are 150137,,150139,150141

Yeah on LNWR's page on the 150's:

Last month (April 2023), a team from London Northwestern Railway visited Northern to inspect the trains which we will be transferring to us in the coming weeks. The specific trains are 150137, 150139 and 150141.

 

[Silverlinky]

Passed through Northampton in numerical order 137/139/141 around 25 mins early this afternoon. All in Northern livery, but re-liverying is scheduled to take place soon after their arrival.

 

[DarloRich]

Are these trains surplus to Northern's requirements or will there be short-formations as a result, bearing in mind that TfW also has two units on hire)?

we have had short forms of 0 carriages since last December.

 

[TT-ONR-NRN]

we have had short forms of 0 carriages since last December.

Yes but admittedly that’s on LNR for choosing 230s, not Northern.

 

[pokemonsuper9]

we have had short forms of 0 carriages since last December.

Surely busses count as 1 carriage? Or maybe like 0.5

 

[Peter Sarf]

Don't get excited. They have to be re-liveried according to @

Passed through Northampton in numerical order 137/139/141 around 25 mins early this afternoon. All in Northern livery, but re-liverying is scheduled to take place soon after their arrival.

..........

Whaat. Surely the Marston Vale users (if any are left) don't care what colour they are !. Why not get them in service asap. Spend the time and money looking after the mechanics of them instead.

 

[Geeves]

I'm really surprised they didn't go for the low rider seats of the ex WM units.

 

[DelW]

Don't get excited. They have to be re-liveried according to @

Whaat. Surely the Marston Vale users (if any are left) don't care what colour they are !. Why not get them in service asap. Spend the time and money looking after the mechanics of them instead.

I think train crews and maintenance staff will have to be retrained on the 150s, as it's some years since they've been on the line (and the ex Northern ones may have differences too). So hopefully the repaint (or vinyl wrap?) can be done during that period and not cause any more delays.

 

[12LDA28C]

Don't get excited. They have to be re-liveried according to @

Whaat. Surely the Marston Vale users (if any are left) don't care what colour they are !. Why not get them in service asap. Spend the time and money looking after the mechanics of them instead.

Sure, they can arrive at BY and be in service the next day, apart from the fact that drivers, guards and fitters won't sign them any more.

 

[AJDesiro]

Don't get excited. They have to be re-liveried according to @

Whaat. Surely the Marston Vale users (if any are left) don't care what colour they are !. Why not get them in service asap. Spend the time and money looking after the mechanics of them instead.

They’ll most likely only rebrand one unit at a time, allowing them to continue their training regime on the other two units, the impact will be negligible. It’s not like they’ll have all three OOU at the same time.

 

[GatwickDepress]

Excellent news. That the Marston Vale has been without a rail service for so long is nothing short of embarassing.

 

[Peter Sarf]

I think train crews and maintenance staff will have to be retrained on the 150s, as it's some years since they've been on the line (and the ex Northern ones may have differences too). So hopefully the repaint (or vinyl wrap?) can be done during that period and not cause any more delays.

Good point, had not thought about that. Any competency must have lapsed long ago.

And it is very good news for the users of the line to have their service back.

 

[Haywain]

So hopefully the repaint (or vinyl wrap?)

Do any trains get painted these days? I thought vinyl wrap was pretty much universal apart from the base coat of paint.

 

[Neptune]

Do any trains get painted these days? I thought vinyl wrap was pretty much universal apart from the base coat of paint.

Northern’s legacy fleet was painted after overhaul.

 

[12LDA28C]

Good point, had not thought about that. Any competency must have lapsed long ago.

And it is very good news for the users of the line to have their service back.

They haven't got the service back yet... several months before that happens.

 

[Peter Sarf]

They haven't got the service back yet... several months before that happens.

I do wonder how quickly. Heres hoping it is going to be a case of staff just renewing their competency rather than new, so unfamiliar, staff having to start from scratch. It is longer ago than I care to think that the 150s were last used on the Marston Vale line.

 

[45107]

I do wonder how quickly. Heres hoping it is going to be a case of staff just renewing their competency rather than new, so unfamiliar, staff having to start from scratch. It is longer ago than I care to think that the 150s were last used on the Marston Vale line.

All competency on 150 will have lapsed.
Training for all staff will be the same irrespective of whether or not they have worked 150s before.
With there being no service for over 6 months between Bletchley & Bedford, route LEARNING will take place rather than route review.

 

[m79900]

It is longer ago than I care to think that the 150s were last used on the Marston Vale line.

2019 isn’t that long ago. I bet most drivers were there four years ago

 

[Peter Sarf]

All competency on 150 will have lapsed.
Training for all staff will be the same irrespective of whether or not they have worked 150s before.
With there being no service for over 6 months between Bletchley & Bedford, route LEARNING will take place rather than route review.

Dang. No refresher ?. In that case that is another reason to have totally re-modelled Marston Vale for the future arrival of East-West rail !.

OK - I just remembered - freight has been happily plodding along the Marston Vale in the meantime. So not convenient for the civil engineers. Still unlikely a freight train driver for the route would know the class 150 traction as well I suppose ?.

2019 isn’t that long ago. I bet most drivers were there four years ago

It just occurred to me to ask - were the drivers & guards in a common pool (with WCML) or have they left due to boredom and found jobs elsewhere in the UK ?.

 

[Ibex]

Dang. No refresher ?. In that case that is another reason to have totally re-modelled Marston Vale for the future arrival of East-West rail !.

OK - I just remembered - freight has been happily plodding along the Marston Vale in the meantime. So not convenient for the civil engineers. Still unlikely a freight train driver for the route would know the class 150 traction as well I suppose ?.

It just occurred to me to ask - were the drivers & guards in a common pool (with WCML) or have they left due to boredom and found jobs elsewhere in the UK ?.

Yes the train crew have always been Bletchley based drivers and conductors who also work mainline services. There's no specific branch line pool, infact there were some crew diagrams which had mainline and Marston Vale work in the same shift.

The maintenance staff have all been recruited from scratch for Bletchley TMD it seems, a few months ago WMT had job adverts on their website for technicians and supervisors at Bletchley TMD (specifying it was for 150s). Seems like Tyseley will have nothing to do with the MV operation this time round.

 

[Peter Sarf]

Yes the train crew have always been Bletchley based drivers and conductors who also work mainline services. There's no specific branch line pool, infact there were some crew diagrams which had mainline and Marston Vale work in the same shift.

The maintenance staff have all been recruited from scratch for Bletchley TMD it seems, a few months ago WMT had job adverts on their website for technicians and supervisors at Bletchley TMD (specifying it was for 150s). Seems like Tyseley will have nothing to do with the MV operation this time round.

Hmm. maintenance side could be tricky. I wonder what sort of recruits they got. Non-rail or (very) hopefully some gained from another deport servicing 150s.

 

[Silverlinky]

Yes the train crew have always been Bletchley based drivers and conductors who also work mainline services. There's no specific branch line pool, infact there were some crew diagrams which had mainline and Marston Vale work in the same shift.

The maintenance staff have all been recruited from scratch for Bletchley TMD it seems, a few months ago WMT had job adverts on their website for technicians and supervisors at Bletchley TMD (specifying it was for 150s). Seems like Tyseley will have nothing to do with the MV operation this time round.

I think the drivers were all in one link, mixed traction they call it, it has a bit of everything in it, but thats the only link where the 230's were, those drivers worked 319's too as well as 350's and I believe it is them who are also being trained up on 730s. There were six diagrams if I remember rightly, one or two had a mix of mainline and Marston but the others were purely Bedford work.
All new depot staff for Bletchley, the 230 project was maintained by VivaRail fitters, all of whom got made redundant at the back end of last year. Tyseley will still be used for heavy maintenance in the event of a major failure, Bletchley for the day to day stuff, exams and fuelling. Suppose they will have to get replacement parts in, tools and everything else which goes with that.

 

[jfowkes]

I do wonder how quickly. Heres hoping it is going to be a case of staff just renewing their competency rather than new, so unfamiliar, staff having to start from scratch. It is longer ago than I care to think that the 150s were last used on the Marston Vale line.

LNWR's website says:

We will shortly begin liaising with community stakeholders over the proposed timings of the morning and evening peak-time service which we will reinstate on the Marston Vale Line this autumn ahead of the restoration of the full timetable by January 2024.

 

[richieb1971]

Excellent news. Will definitely give those 150s a whirl when in service.

 

[DarloRich]

And it is very good news for the users of the line to have their service back.

We haven't got a service and we have no date when we will have a service beyond a vague "peak hours only in the autumn". It is interesting that LNWR have now committed to a full service in January 2024.

The last train ran in December 2022.

In that case that is another reason to have totally re-modelled Marston Vale for the future arrival of East-West rail !.

thanks for shutting my rail service down for 5 years! Could we not have a bit of service first before the rebuild?

were the drivers & guards in a common pool (with WCML)

it was a common pool irc. I often chatted to MV guards on the trains into Euston when I bumped into them. ( With the Vale being a bit of a backwater we see the same faces ( passenger and staff) everyday and start to recognise each other!)

I wonder how many will return when the service restarts?

 

[Wyrleybart]

As a matter of interest what are ticketing arrangements on the Marston Vale route ? Is it booking offices, TVMs or "paytrain" as in paying the guard ?

 

[MrJeeves]

As a matter of interest what are ticketing arrangements on the Marston Vale route ? Is it booking offices, TVMs or "paytrain" as in paying the guard ?

From the journey I made to Bletchley, the station buildings are still open (even when seemingly unstaffed?), with TVMs still active, so presumably that.

It seems LNR operate penalty fares on all their routes (it doesn't say there are any stations which aren't PF stations?) so one assumes it's TVMs or booking offices before boarding for all stations.

London Midland's PF policy used to exempt some stations, though, so it may be that LNR's site isn't updated.

 

[A0wen]

As a matter of interest what are ticketing arrangements on the Marston Vale route ? Is it booking offices, TVMs or "paytrain" as in paying the guard ?

Both Bedford and Bletchley have barriers, so you need to buy before boarding at those. It always used to be you could buy tickets on the train as some of the intermediate stations definitely didn't have TVMs.

 

[DarloRich]

As a matter of interest what are ticketing arrangements on the Marston Vale route ? Is it booking offices, TVMs or "paytrain" as in paying the guard ?

ticket machines at all stations now. Pre shut down guards would still sell on the train. Guards tend be quite sensible & I wonder if the commission on London tickets is worth chasing! Barriers at both Bedford & Bletchley

 

[InkyScrolls]

2019 isn’t that long ago. I bet most drivers were there four years ago

Probably. But a driver will lapse after six months.