Try this simple experiment: to the National Rail online timetable and ask for a train from London to Holyhead on Mondays - Fridays departing at 17:00. You'll be told to catch the 17:30 [Glasgow] train and change at Crewe (19:28 -19:42) arriving in Holyhead at 21:56. Next, try again, but select 'direct trains' using the drop-down menu: it will become clear that the train which arrives at Holyhead at 21:56 is in fact a direct but slightly slower train from London, which departs London at 17:25! Hard-pressed National Rail Enquiries telephone staff, whether based in Newport or Nawabphur, probably won't try this experiment, and will tell people to get the 17:30 and change trains.
Now you and I might think this is no more than a combination of Virgin's odd idea of timetabling and the enquiry software which is obsessed with giving out the fastest journey. But Assembly Member Janet Ryder smells a rat: "At a time when many train operators are trying to cut back on their services due to insufficient passenger numbers it is strange Virgin Trains is simply not telling their customers about certain routes," she told the North Wales Weekly News. "I do hope this is not a ploy to try and cut back on their North Wales routes by purposely not allowing certain trains to be used, thus allowing them to complain that the route is uneconomic to maintain."
A spokesman for Virgin Trains, pulling no punches, commented: "Any suggestion that we are misinforming customers to hide train services is absurd and completely ridiculous. We are determined to sell tickets and fill seats on all of our trains, and our North Wales services are promoted just as any other. This really is a conspiracy theory too far."
These politicians just love to get in the paper, don't they? Thanks to George Jones for spotting this one. - 14 November
I called in at Conwy on 13 November to see 47 786 Roy
Castle
OBE taking the 10:30 from Crewe through to Holyhead.
While I was on the station I was appalled to see the mess near the
up platform shelter.
The whole building was covered in graffiti and the block paving on the platform surface was being systematically torn up and thrown on the track. The track was littered with beer cans and gas canisters. It's not so long ago that one shelter was severely damaged by fire.
This is bad enough but one has to remember that all this is happening, clearly on a regular basis, not a couple of hundred yards from Conwy police station. Meanwhile Mr Brunstrum's Force could be seen with mobile speed cameras at several locations around the area.
Another occurrence while I was at the station involved a "yoof" who walked onto the platform, jumped on the track and walked across to the other side - he never even bothered to look to see if anything was coming. The place is clearly out of control. - 14 November
14 November was a windy kind of day, as the National Rail disruptions page revealed, with its tales of cancellation of Holyhead ferries, and a 'Tree fallen on the railway line near Llanrwst due to high winds' which closed the Conwy Valley line from 11:00 to 12:45. Unspecified 'Emergency engineering works at Newton-le-Willows ' at Newton-le-Willows stopped the Manchester - Llandudno trains for a while at lunchtime. The website is always worth a visit: away from Wales on this day we see 'Suspect package in the Bridlington area - Railway closed' ... 'Trains cannot run between Market Harborough and Leicester. Persons from road traffic accident near railway thrown onto track.' ... and even 'Large inflatable dinghy on the line between Exeter and Newton Abbot.' - 14 November
Larry Goddard writes: 'Abergele & Pensarn is under-going repaint and smartening up as witnessed by last week's picture above. Pity about the broken down spouts and untidy posters. In fact, pity the place isn't doing what it was built to do - sell rail travel!'
From Alec Fuller: 'I had a good day on 12 November with 06:48 off Holyhead, change at Junction to 07:56 to Manchester Piccadilly, both 175/0. On time, and with a Wales and Borders refreshment trolley from Chester. Return 17:20 ex Piccadilly, almost on time. Trolley on board could not get down the train. Late at Chester and about 5 down at Bangor. On time in Holyhead despite slacks for engineering work. I noticed Holyhead station is also being painted. White walls will encourage graffiti writers though; the old scheme appears to be followed. The broken rail on Platform 2 appears to have been repaired, the temporary stop sign has gone. Standing on Platform 13/14 at manchester PIccadilly does make me long for the sort of glass windshield that the LNWR used at Crewe, Colwyn Bay, Rhyl and the Junction. It would, however, hide the view of snarled up rush hour traffic.
'I also did two trips to Manchester by road recently, one to Great
Clowes
Street, and the other to Mancat at Openshaw. I reached both in just
under
2 hours from Holyhead, and about 2 hrs 20 return. Compares with over
3hr
30 by train.' - 14 November
As predicted on the North Wales web site some time ago, Holyhead - Euston trains are being diverted south of Crewe to run over the newly rebuilt and electrified line via Alsager to Kidsgrove. The picture above shows 43 122/153 with 1A39 0921 Holyhead - Euston on a sunny Saturday 11 October. The train is on the single track section between Crewe and Barthomley Junction.
The second photo shows 1A61 14:00 Holyhead - Euston on Sunday 19 October. This is the same location, but taken from the Barthomley Road bridge. The Sunday 11:40 Stoke - Holyhead is, as far as I can see, the only down Virgin passenger service scheduled to use the route; presumably the single track section was a limiting factor when planning the diversions. - 14 November
101 676 waits at Manchester Picadilly with the 08:21 to Marple, 7 November. See "101s in the News", below. (Charlie Hulme)
101s in the News
We can now confirm that the First North Western '101 Farewell' train is confirmed for Sunday 21 December. The train will run from Manchester Piccadilly (11:30), picking up at Stockport and Hazel Grove on the way to Buxton, where it will reverse return via Manchester Piccadilly and Preston to Lancaster, Morecambe, Heysham Port, Carnforth and Barrow-in-Furness before returning to Manchester (arr. 19:30.)
Here are FNW's rather novel instructions on how to get to travel: 'To apply for your special ticket please write to '101's Farewell', First North Western Communications Department, First Floor, Bridgewater House, Whitworth Street, Manchester, M1 6LT. Your application must arrive by 1 December 2003. Please enclose your daytime telephone number and email address and if you are chosen from the draw you will be contacted regarding payment details: the cost of a ticket will be £25. For safety reasons you will need to be in possession of one of the commemorative tickets or you will not be able to travel on this train. Please note no other tickets will be valid on the special service.'
Readers may note in a recent magazine an item about planned 101 workings which bears a remarkable resemblance to a paragraph published here a couple of weeks back: unfortunately, since then, we have published a further report that FNW changed their minds about the use of 101s 7 December's Clitheroe Santa trains which will now be Sprinter units.
For anyone wishing to take a ride on the 101s' normal services, we have compiled a handy chart of all three booked diagrams: note these are Mondays - Fridays only. Sadly, the fleet is now down to five as Caledonian Blue 101 692 has been taken out of traffic following a mechanical failure. - 12 November
47 739 Resourceful failed on 12 November on 1K67 12:45 Holyhead - Crewe at Llandudno Junction when the driver reported a problem with the brakes. After a 15 minute wait, passengers were asked to alight and join the 13:38 Llandudno to Manchester (a single 175/0), which was held at the opposite platform. On 7 November, the 13:20 Holyhead Euston had a problem (at Chester?) and stood at Crewe 16:40 to 17:17 before heading off empty to Manchester Longsight depot.
Although the water cannon train has been making regular leaf-blasting runs down the Coast (37 308 and 37 670 were noted at Rhyl on 11 November) the Conwy Valley line has been suffering from 'railhead conditions' with the service abandoned beyond Llanrwst on at least two mornings recently. A query about this water cannon train: pictures in magaziens show the wagon with three blue tanks aboard, whereas the train as seen on our line has two tanks sandwiching what seems to be a cabin. Why the difference?
The painting team are active at Chester at the moment, the metalwork and woodwork of the footbridge has been done, and the woodwork of the buildings is now being tackled. Brightens things up for sure, but unfortunately the state of the adjoining brickwork of what once were pleasant Georgian-style buildings makes a sorry contrast, as our picture shows. The previous colour schemes seem to being followed on the paintwork, the attractive red/green/pale grey for the passenger areas and pale blue for the outbuildings. We understand this is delayed First North Western investment, and it will be interesting to see if the much needed redecoration of overhead structures and canopies is done. The structural repairs to sections of the roof are still stalled, with contractor's plant just left where it was when work stopped some months ago. Elsewhere the weeds have in the main gone from the trackbed, whether this is due to drought or weedkiller is not known. Change of operator has brought about a small but perceptible improvement on the passenger environment; it will be interesting to see if Arriva are minded to tackle what must still be one of the poorest 'tourist city' stations on the whole network. Their record in the North East seems encouraging.
First North Western 158s continue to appear on Wales and Borders services: 158 759 in the picture is working a Manchester - Llandudno service at Chester on 8 November.
Autumnal Chester again on 8 November: 175 104 shows off its headlight as it arrives with the 13:58 Holyhead - Crewe.
A close-up of the new 'anonymised' Class 175 livery with a vinyl patch covering the place where 'North Western' used to be. Messy.
Speaking of Crewe, remarkable news is that the station information monitors (Customer Information System) are now working again since the end of October, after what seems like months of blank screens It's not a new state of the art system (that would be a bit much to expect perhaps), but at least it works and is legible. That must be worth a little celebration: how long has it taken to replace at this major passenger interchange? A month, at least...
Thanks to Dave Bramley, George Jones, Laurence Wheeler, Colin Meredith, Paul Harley and Mike Stone for reports. - 12 November
Our recent item on Class 67s provoked several responses. We said:
'...about
the visit of 67 010 to Chester on 11 October, we can now say
that
the train ran as 1Z67 11.45 Birmingham International and back via
Shrewsbury,
Wrexham,
Chester, Crewe, Shrewsbury and Cosford. Our correspondence suggests
the last Class 67 between Wrexham and Chester was 67 013 which
powered
the diverted 1M59 Bristol Barton Hill to Warrington Royal Mail Depot
mail
vans on Friday 4 January 2002.'
Not so: Alan Turton writes: 'I was on the returning M.C.R.U.A. special from Minehead to Altrincham and Stockport on Saturday 18 May 2002, when 67 008 took over from 47 733 (which was low on coolant] at Bristol T Meads and worked through to Chester and beyond.I alighted at Cuddington and 67 008 was still at the front. 47 733, as the Newton Abbot thunderbird, had taken over from 47725 on the outward journey after 47725 suffered a traction motor fire between Highbridge and Bridgewater.' Furthermore, Nick Roberts agrees with the above and adds: 'on 10 September 2003 67 025 hauled 1Z67 Cardiff to Chester and return private charter using the Northern Belle stock.'
Speaking of mistakes, our suggestion (straight from the Compiler's warped brain) that the recent Test Train run might be gauging for Pendolinos was decidedly wonky:thanks to Merfyn Jones who writes: 'The recent ultrasonic test train visit is a regular working to test the condition of the rails. This has to be done at regular intervals. Previously the train has been the ex 101 DMU set with a Southern motor coach as the centre car.' - 12 November
47 Pictorial
47 798 Prince William and 47 733 Eastern Star stabled with their trains at Holyhead, Sunday 9 November. Can we have them positioned like this every week, please? Picture by John Lewis.
47 798 Prince William calls at Bangor with the 1K67 12:45 Holyhead - Crewe on 10 November. (Rowan Crawshaw) - 10 November
Arriva has announced that Peter Strachan will be managing director of Arriva Trains Wales/Trenau Arriva Cymru when the company starts operating the business from 7 December 2003. He started his career as a graduate trainee with British Rail. Mr Strachan has been managing director of the National Express operations that have formed the bulk of the new franchise, since April 2003. He has worked for National Express for the last five years including a period as chief operating officer of their train, tram and bus operations in Australia. Prior to his appointment in Australia, Peter was trains director of Midland Mainline, managing the successful introduction of the Midland Mainline Turbostar trains. He has previously served as managing director of North Western Trains and a regional director of Railtrack Plc.
Commenting, Bob Davies, Arriva's chief executive, said: "We are delighted that Peter has agreed to join Arriva. With a career of over 20 years in the UK rail sector he brings a wealth of experience to ensure that our plans for the new franchise are delivered." - 10 November
Here's a selection of recently-received pictures which if nothing else, show that some variety remains on the railway...
Get them while you can... Wales & borders unit 153 320, from Blaenau Ffestiniog, leaves Llandudno Junction at 12.49 on 5 November after connecting with an up Bangor-Crewe working and the Euston-Holyhead HST.
no sooner had the 153 passed through Larry Goddard's camera vewfinder than the Network Rail water-cannon train sped through platform 4 at speed top-n-tailed by 37 503 and 37 675. This was its fourth appearance down the Coast.
We previously reported the Test Train seen at Llandudno Junction on 22 October; thanks to George Westlake for this interesting picture of the event. The consist in full was: 31 190 Griphon; 99666 ex Mk2 FO, ultrasonic test coach; 62482 ex 4-REP motor second; Mk2D vehicles 72630 and 72631 (ex-Gatwick express trailers) and 31 128.
Here's an interesting view by Mark Lloyd Davies of the train at Holyhead later the same evening. What we still don't know is what the train was doing. It certainly seems to be a gauging test: could it conceivably be connected in some way with the proposal to run Pendolino sets along the Coast?
A look at the South Wales valleys by Sion Owen: 37 402Bont Y Bermo at Caerffili on the 1359 Cardiff-Rhymney on 1 November. And here's the sound of the train departing Lisvane (1 MB .wav sound file.)
An oddity from 27 October: 153 361, one of the First North Western cars recently transferred to W & B, finds itself attached to the front of the 08:33 Manchester - Cardiff, seen at Manchester Piccadilly. - 10 November
Dave Sallery's archive spot
Buxton-based locos 37 680 and 37 685 pass Kinmel Bay on the Fridays only Salford - Penmaenmawr roadstone empties, 12 June 1987. Many more like this at www.penmorfa.com. - 9 November