Great Western Coffee Shop

...............that I saw a 5 car 158 on the 1300 from Warminster today - then I woke up - but it wasn't a dream ....... it really was a 5 car 158 ! Oh joy, the perfect solution for this line  ! No buffet, but at least the trolley could get through the whole train, as could joining passengers and 4 abreast comfy seats too. Could it be that someone in GWR had finally seen sense ??  Then I fell back into a nightmare again, the 1310 was a solitary 166, Oh gloom !

...And if you are the GWR executive who doesnt know whether you dreamt that someone told you "Portsmouth-Cardiff train planning? Dont worry, we got this!", you now have your answer...

Horrendous legroom on the 158s, otherwise a nice interior.

Dont think any of the rolling stock on Portsmouth to Cardiff has ever been fit for purpose, in the last 40 years. dare I sugest a 5 car 800! at least it could use electric from Bristol to Cardiff. Cross country should run it really of course, but we would then get 3 car 170s. Oh hang on that might be OK in fact.

Well, we’re getting into the reign of the Turbos which was only ever going to be a stop gap.  Probably a ten year stop gap though!

A new design of tri-mode unit might well be one for the future maybe?  A Stadler Flirt with 3rd rail capabilities?  Cardiff to Bath on Over-Head Line Equipment (OHLE), Bath to Southampton on diesel, Southampton to Portsmouth on 3rd rail.


Edit: VickiS - clarifying acronym

Not good, I'll admit, but have you tried SWR's re-hashed 159s ? Much better !

.....or a cascaded ex-Thames Valley/North Downs 769, now approaching 50 year's old.

I had a nightmare.......

Yikes!  :o

However I’ll be surprised if any 769s are around in ten years time.

Yes but if it proved the concept of a tri-mode it might have been well worth it.

Apart from the poor legroom and diesel on electrified routes, I'd say a 5-car 158 is basically perfect for the job. All 3rd rail EMUs built at all recently have had provision for a pantograph to be added later so if SWR had a batch of bi-mode 444s built for Waterloo - Exeter you could just build a follow-on batch and add a pantograph and it'd be a good basis for Cardiff-Portsmouth. Drop the 3rd rail shoes and a coach or two and you have something perfect for the likes of the Cambrian lines too. I hugely resent the massive chasams of standing room found on most post-priviatisation units (even the London-Norwich FLIRTs) when used on anything long-distance - it leads to things like a failure to meet the Rail Delivery Group's best practice on toilet provision.

My dream would be a Crompton (or, better still, a Hymek) and six or seven MkIs