THE NORTH WALES COAST RAILWAY NOTICE BOARD

Rheilffordd Arfordir Gogledd Cymru Bwrdd hysbyseb

This site is dedicated to all our regular contributors and supporters, and especially the rail staff of North Wales.

Edition of 05 October 2003

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43 080 is seen speeding away from Valley station on the rear of the afternoon service to London, 5 October. The signalbox here is the latest to receive the Network Rail upgrade treatment. (John Lewis)

Virgin HST notes - by Steve Vaughan

The Virgin Power Car fleet has been thinned out again from the start of the Winter timetable following the conversion of Virgin Cross Country to a Multiple Unit operated railway. Power Cars: 43 090 / 093 / 099 / 100 / 101 / 102 / 103  154 / 157 / 158 / 160 have now left the Virgin fleet and either moved to new operators or at the Ministry of Defence depot, Bicester in safe storage awaiting transfer to new operators. This leaves a fleet of 13 Power Cars to exclusively operate West Coast services: 43065 / 067 / 068 / 080 / 084 / 092 / 094 / 097 / 098 / 121 / 122 / 123 / 153.
 
Also, once the line through stoke re-opens after its engineering over-run (expected to open Monday 5 October) certain Holyhead - London trains will be diverted via Alsager. and Stoke-on-Trent. The following Holyhead trains are diverted this way for the first period of the timetable:
 
UP TRAINS:
1A77 1320 SX HHD-EUS
1A13 0520 SO HHD-EUS
1A39 0921 SO HHD-EUS
1A62 1325 SO HHD-EUS
1A61 1400 SUN HHD-EUS#
1A75 1612 SUN HHD-EUS#
 
# These are booked to run direct Colwich - Stone whilst the others are booked via Stafford.
 
DOWN TRAINS:
1D87 1140 SUN STOKE-HHD
1D88 1824 SUN RUGBY-HHD
1D89 1845 SUN EUS-HHD
 
Note that the first down train on a Sunday starts at Stoke! - 5 October

How orange was my valley: 153 327 at Tal-Y-Cafn with the 16.15 Llandudno to Blaenau Ffestiniog on 1 October. (Larry Goddard)

The New Order

Thanks to everyone who has sent in their observations of the first few days of Wales and Borders Trains rule on the North Wales lines. Here's some lines from our note book.

Sunday 28 September saw very little change, except that the loco-hauled Sunday evening double train seems to be a thing of the past: as far as we can tell, both 47 732 Restormel and 47 787 Windsor Castle spent all Sunday slumbering with their trains in the sidings at Holyhead station (Picture by John Lewis.)
 

Virgin Trains continue as before: John Lewis' Sunday shot shows 43 084 and 43 097 powering the 16:12 Virgin service to Euston. John writes:  'At this time of year, photos like the water tower shot seem to involve a game of 'beat the shadows', so it looks like today's may be the last from that viewpoint for this year, unless it happens to be a dull day.'

Alan Crawshaw writes: 'At Bangor on Monday morning 29 September, the trains looked the same, although the loco-hauled diagrams are different;  the announcements were different and platform staff were sporting bright new uniforms. One again I can see a 47 on my way to work, yesterday 47 787 Windsor Castle was in charge of the 07:35 Holyhead to Crewe, which appears like a school special as far as Bangor, picking up pupils across the island and discharging them onto platform 1. '

The picture above shows 787 at lunchtime on the 12:45 Holyhead to Crewe.

.On Tuesday 30 September (above), the 07:35 Holyhead to Crewe emerges from Belmont tunnel behind 47 732 Restormel. Both "school runs" left Bangor on time despite the five intermediate stops.'

Here's 47 787 again, calling at Llanfair PG on 1 October with the 1K57 07:35 Holyhead - Crewe on the next day, 1 October (Rowan Crawshaw)

The same train at Llandudno Junction (Tim J. Rogers). On the Llandudno service, Bevan Price writes: 'On Monday 29 September all of the five units required for the Manchester - Llandudno daytime service were indeed Class 175s - 175 002 / 003 / 004 / 006 / 102 -  is this the first time this has ever happened? The Holyhead - Manchester was, however,  FNW Class 158 756 - on hire to W&B.

Slightly bigger changes are noticeable on the Branch lines, though: the First North Western 153s, four of which were planned to have been transferred to W & B, appear to have been displaced by vehicles of the same class drafted in from the main Cardiff-based W & B fleet, many of which carry all-over touristic vinyl liveries.

153 327 is seen near Llanrwst on the Conwy Valley branch on 1 October (Picture by Larry Goddard)

On 29 September, Alastair Graham reports  153 361 (FNW) and 153 362 (W&B Orange) were on the Wrexham - Bidston line  with a 'robust' service, and by 1 October, 153 362  and 153 321 were working, both W & B units. Alastair writes: 'It appears that the others have been sent to Cardiff to receive some "Proper maintenance" and possibly a re-paint. The W&B ones seem to be able to keep to time and the driver certainly seemed to feel they had a lot more 'poke' than the FNW examples, after all they have had to cope with the Heart of Wales Line.'

The 153s are also appearing on Crewe - Chester shuttles: Ian Bowland's view shows the scene at Crewe on 1 October.

Other points: The trolley refreshment service seems to have temporarily disappeared, presumably because W & B wish to use a different contractor. The North Wales timetables can now be found in Wales & Borders 'Leaflet G' but it seems that a major blunder has been made, as the stops made by Manchester trains at Newton-le-Willows and Earlestown are missing, as these stations do not appear in the tables or on the map, presumably because they are remain operated by First North Western as they are also used by Manchester - Liverpool services. Well, you and I may think it's a blunder, but Bevan Price received the following reply from W & B when he pointed out the problem: 'All North Wales services taken over by Wales and Borders, will not be in our timetables until the next summer edition in January 2004. This is neither an oversight nor omission it was purely a decision made by the Rail Planning department to cover the transitional period.' Pardon? Well, the trains still stop there.

Another criticism of this timetable leaflet is that it does not show arrival times at Chester of trains from the Coast, only departure times, although in the other direction both arrival and departure times are given. We are treated to lots of interesting safety advice about always keeping 'two metres' away from platform edges until trains have stopped, and did you know that you are required to turn off the red rear light of your bicycle while on station platforms? On the other hand, the various bus timetables which were included in the FNW leaflet have all vanished.  Let's hope these can be brought back in later editions; no doubt Arriva, who will be running the company from December and also run many of the buses in North Wales, will be more interested.

Here's a press release by Wales and Borders:

Rail passengers in North Wales and Cheshire will see a change of operator on 28 September when Wales & Borders Trains takes over from current operator First North Western Trains. The change of operator, which includes the transfer of rail services and management of more than 40 stations, is the final piece of plans to improve the rail network by creating an all-Wales franchise. The change to Wales & Borders includes the transfer of rail services between North Wales and Birmingham, Llandudno and Manchester, Llandudno Junction and Blaenau Ffestiniog and Wrexham to Bidston. The process will also involve the transfer of more than 300 staff, 47 stations and traincrew depots at Holyhead, Llandudno Junction and Chester. The Wales & Borders franchise already covers all former Wales & West services in Wales, services from Birmingham to the Cambrian Lines and Chester, as well as major routes to Birmingham, London Waterloo and the South West of England.

Managing Director of Wales & Borders Trains, Peter Strachan said: “As part of our commitment to improve customer service, a local management team has been introduced. Based in Chester, Ben Davies, Area Manager North Wales [same man as before], will be responsible for overseeing the efficient and safe operation of these train services and railway stations. Mark Willcox, Business Development Manager, will be responsible for developing effective customer communication and marketing strategies.”

Ah well, welcome to Wales and Borders Trains! - 2 October

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