Which is all well and good but explain then how these issues with TFW predate the pacers being withdrawn. This has been a long standing issue and has only gotten worse. I do not dispute passenger growth over a longer period and I get with no additional trains, issues will come about. Fully, fully understand that. What didn't make sense though was that it was quite quickly after TFW came into play that carriages were vastly reduced and the overcrowding hit silly levels.
A long standing issue under ATW, who never had enough stock. TfW have not had time to fix this issue yet - with the only new stock that has entered service not being enough to cover what's been lost.
How does it work out in terms of carriages? A 769 is obviously 4 carriages which replaces 2 pacers.
Indeed, but there are only a handful of them, plus some single car 153s that have come into service since. The Pacers represented a loss of 60 cars (albeit shorter then other trains).
As for the 769s, their reliability isn't passengers issue. Why don't we just stop the economy because of an unreliable
No, but it's not TfW's fault either
175s on Chester to Crewe. Only needs a 153 on it. It's hardly busy. Chester to Liverpool, 153 could also suit. Combined, that is 2 units which can be used for strengthening in other areas.
175s aren't booked on Chester to Crewe except on Sundays. A single PRM 153 does not provide enough capacity for either of those routes.
Conwy Valley might as well be replaced by a bus given that is the reality most of the time. That could be another unit saved.
True - but I'm sure you'll have lots of angry people down there saying it's whatever line you live on that should suffer, not them. Plus, cutting service to a heavily tourist orientated route during what promises to be a bumper year for domestic tourism would certainly be an odd move.
Trains doing sod all are the 230s.
Not enough crew trained yet. Sorry - but that's reality. Blame Covid for that one
They will be doing some training but I and probably the 197s though they will need approving and stuff first.
If TFW is that short, hire trains in as per has happened elsewhere. Windermere branch had the train up there. As you have pointed out, the 37s to Rhymney. I'm sure that there will be stock out
No longer permitted under PRM rules.
That I guess then is why I see the issue more than some others being from Chester, I am seeing the never ending cancellations and really poor service. You may not notice it as much in Hereford or whatever but that I presume is why I have the view that I do because I am based in the areas which has the most issues. Whatever the issue, obviously it's something which needs looking at.
I work through Chester, amongst other locations. I've not witnessed the massive deterioration you claim to have occurred since TfW have taken over, either there or anywhere else on the network. The only issues I've seen are the ones caused by legacy issues from the zero growth ATW franchise, and delays in the introduction of new stock caused by Covid and manufacturing failures.
Put it this way - if Arriva had won a franchise extension, we'd be in exactly the same mess.
Maybe the Wrexham-Bidston closure will help things as those drivers can then be training for a bit on other stuff. Shame that Sundays are all voluntary as there is quite a bit of engineering works in Chester coming up over weekends so that could help some backlog.
Sundays are not voluntary at TfW for the vast majority of staff. I do agree though that not running that service will hopefully allow staff to be released for training.
The conditions under which you did your training don't affect your ability to work trains once trained!
The bigger issue is that you wouldn't be able to do training on the Borderlands line purely under English Regulations, as obviously half the line is in Wales. That wouldn't stop training happening between Chester and Crewe though, for example, which everyone signs and where there are plenty of spare paths.
Most training isn't done on a training train just bouncing around the Network. The first half of the training takes place in a classroom - which until recently meant that class sizes had to be smaller than usual to cope with social distancing.
Once completed, drivers move on to complete 265 hours of supervised train handling with a driver instructor, following that instructors normal roster. Route learning forms a part of this 265 hours. Restricting this only to the English routes would cause no end of problems to do, would take even longer, and in the end produce drivers only able to drive on the English routes.
