Forum: Operator X needs more trains....
Operator:We will be introducing more trains...
Forum: Not those trains...
That pretty much sums it up!
Folk may scoff, but the marketing for the new service will need to be quite clever to offer the same facilities, stopping patterns and timings for a mixed LHCS/DMU service.
I don't doubt TfW will do their best to deliver what they can with the resources available, but there's a difference between operating a single "premium" service to which you can give special attention, and the wider all-day service on two principal routes.
It's really not that different, it's just an extension of what they did pre Covid. Certain services advertised as having a premium service (buffet counter, at seat complementary service in first class) and the rest as normal. The standard class experience will be pretty similar regardless of what stock turns up. The diagrams will be pretty much set in stone, your not likely to see the MKIVs appear on other services unexpectedly.
The difference will be that instead of one round trip on one route per day, it will be a much enhanced offering with multiple departures across 2 routes.
They have a DVT with piles of bike space so long as its platformed where you need it.
And at present the DVT is platformed at every station it calls at. Indeed, pre Covid there were several regular biker users on the evening northbound service who traveled with their bikes in the DVT.
With the extension to 5 cars plus DVT, and the increase in the numbers of stations being served there are some stations that will be problematic. The sets are having SDO fitted to cope with the short platforms on the Marches but I don't know yet if the plan for services with the loco leading is for them to stop with the front portion of the train platformed (so the DVT at the back is off the platform) or to for the rear coaches and the DVT to be the ones platformed. It's all very much early days with these plans.