!Currently no plans to use 196’s on snow hill lines. If there is any use it will be limited as only Worcester crews will sign them, no snow Hill or Leamington crewsI believe West Midlands Railway said about these topping up the existing fleet (172's) on the Snowhill lines to provide extra space. Good stuff
I imagine in a similar fashion to when 170+153 diagrams used to operate over the Snow Hill lines — those used Worcester crews right?
Yes they did. There will be enough 172’s to cover the snow hill lines now as we have both the 172/0 & /1’s.
Tell that to whoever put a mix of 170s and 172s on the Hereford line... I'm fed up of the latter!Ah right
Are there even 170s on the Hereford line these days? All I ever see is horrible 172s.
Yes they do still turn up. A couple of weeks ago during the Commonwealth Games I travelled on a double 170/5 formation on the line.
No choice due to some of the 170’s already going. Always has been mixed fleet on the Herefords. Before 172’s it was 150’s & 153’s as well as the 170’s. Once the 196’s are in service it should just be 196’s only as far as I’m aware.
Worcester has 3 x 170 booked off the depot each day. 2 as a pair on Herefords all day & 1 attached to a 172/0 or /1 which does a a couple of commuter runs in the morning before going to Tyseley until coming out again in the evening. This allows for any set swaps that need to be done as the 170 & 172 units that work off Worcester all start & finish at Worcester. Worcester can only fuel/clean & do limited maintenance.
Surely the odd 172 or two will work a few peak hour services? Otherwise, I hope they’ll be used to strengthen Snow Hill Line services which have been rather unreliable as of late…
Should be enough 196’s i believe. Obviously there is the option to use 172’s if required.
Yes, there is one diagram a day with them, usually the one with the 10:39 from Hereford. I made a post of all the times a few pages back, presumably this will be the first train to transfer to 196s.
2-coach 172s are reasonably common still, as Techniquest pointed out, there were 2 diagrams with them on the first day of the games I believe, I too had to endure one - it may have been the same train. The Hereford line is really in need of the new trains, perhaps more so than Shrewsbury.
Would say 2 cars are reasonably rare to be honest. As regards newer trains than the Shrewsbury line. The 172’s are newer than the 170’s or anything Tfw are currently using.
Agreed, pre-Covid 2-car services were an all too common occurrence, but their disappearance appears to be one of the few benefits that has arisen from the pandemic! I recall back around 2019 a number of diagrams were 2-car services and covered by any of the following from WMRs rolling stock fruit machine: 170/5, 172/0, 172/2, 150/1, 2*153 (last one was an exotic rarity). I don’t think all of those combinations were visible simultaneously as 150s went off lease before the 172/0s arrived if I recall.
