Great Western Coffee Shop

Seeing yet more pictures, following on from their 159/1s, of brand new looking refurbished SWT 158s on various railway websites this past week being rolled out from Wabtec works in Doncaster serves only to rub it in even more for FGW passengers who continue to have put up with tatty unrefurbished rolling stock.

Remind me who's new franchise started first FGW's or SWT's ???

We keep hearing about this 'refresh' that the 'West' fleet is going to receive. Is it ever going to happen? Why can one franchise get this sorted out even before their new franchise started yet over a year into it's franchise FGW havent replaced a single seat cover?

However, I have heard in FGW's defence that DaFT may be behind some of this delay with their continued meddling of who gets what stock.

FGW are busy with the HST refresh. Don't expect too much  ;D

^63 Million IIRC goes to High Speed - look how much local gets, ^0!

Well, they are planning to give the local fleet a face lift. When is a different question.

The unit fleet 'refresh' will start very soon, a class 158 will 'go in' mid July and emerge mid August in the new look. The fleet will get 'refreshed' interiours hence vinyling of the 150s has stopped and will only be done when they get the full job. 150261 should be the first 150 to be done in September.....

Well thats something I suppose but im sure you would agree its taking a long time in getting this 'refresh' job underway, almost a year and a half since FGW took over the Wessex franchise. It looks like SWT jumped the queue by getting all the three car 158s and two car 158s into the workshop before taking ownership of them from TPX. By the time the first 'refreshed' FGW set finally rolls out, SWT's fleet of 158s will already be well into service. That was the main reason for posting was the appearance that once again this franchise seems to have less of a priority than others.

Thanks for the update though.

I belive the HST refurbs were booked as soon as FGW got the franchise, o yes, ^63 Million of it, shows how much "Auntie Alison" cares about the local fleet, until she realised that they will HAVE to be done ::)

Oh yes of course they were booked in as soon they won the franchise Jim, probably a bit before that. Didnt stop the first set rolling out almost a year after they won the franchise though did it  ;)

I wonder if Alison has ever had the privilege of travelling on any of her 'West Fleet' just to see how good they really are. I think a trip in a 143 would make a good experience for her. The 7.23 from Warminster to Cardiff would be a good one, especially when it's thrashing along at 75mph under the Severn Tunnel! ;D

She should be shouting "Hellfire"! ;)

The refurb isn't all good mind: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/cornwall/6702869.stm

Not good at all, they sure need to sort that out pretty quick.

This is a "125" rather than "West Fleet" issue, I think?

I happened to be able to travel 1st class to London yesterday and back - just 1.50 extra ... an had a chance to try out the older and the newer trains.   Pictures / comment here (http://www.wellho.net/share/firstclass.html)

In summary, the older train was MUCH more comfortable, and the newly refurbished train had some teething and design problems - a broken recliner already, and power sockets that don't leave spaces for many bigger plugs. But the fac that an entire carriage was taped out of service on the older train does show the need to do something.

Duff link?

The link works ... perhaps I went a bit off topic by going into the technology behind these things and advertising myself.

Note to Lee and Nick (Global Moderators) - if you feel I overstepped the mark, please feel free to delete my adverpost!

Graham

Says I need to login to view and am not an authorised user...I'd find it interesting to see the comparisons, as I've never been first class yet and would love to see the difference between old vs new. ;)
EDIT: I found the working link on the other thread here (http://www.firstgreatwestern.info/coffeeshop/index.php?topic=334.msg838;boardseen#new). A very interesting read!

OK - I know what happened; my slipup (and now fixed).  There's a link that will allow anyone to view in the earlier post .. and you should also get to the comparison from http://www.wellho.net/share/firstclass.html (http://www.wellho.net/share/firstclass.html)

There's a short article about the West Sprinter fleet refresh in the Staff magazine 'The Works' - out today.  Work on the 158s will start at Wabtec Rail in Doncaster at the end of July.  The 150s and 143s will be done by Pullman Rail at Cardiff.  The investment in the fleet will be ^11 million which is more than the franchise commitment :o.  Interiors will include CCTV, new ceiling and wall panels (to reduce noise and vibration levels) and laminated glass.  There will also be technical work to improve reliability.  (Yay - new elastic bands!).

It looks nice (well, it would do, wouldn't it? ;D).  The complete fleet should be finished in 12 months.  Here is an artist's impression of a 153....

(http://www.roymiddleton.btinternet.co.uk/pics/153refresh.jpg)

Great thanks for the update Whistleblower...looks good. I'm not surprised they are spending more than they said they would at the start of the franchise a)because of the delays in getting started and b)the state most of the fleet was in to begin with, particularly the 153s. Still as the saying goes 'All good things come to those who wait' and commuters and staff who travel/work the 'West' fleet sure have had to wait their turn!  ::)

Looks excellent! Unlike the HS stuff.

I take it we will be keeping the original seating?

I also notice the second image there is of a 158.

Good stuff there Sir, looks fairly good as well!

It's all well and good letting the staff know about the work, why oh why can't they let the poor old punter in on what they are going to be getting. Wessex did a good job with the refresh of the 150's with part of their web site dedicated to the fleet and the work and an indication of when the job was likely to be completed, at least we knew something was being done.

First seem to want to keep everything a secret while we all complain about the dreadful state of the stock. Why not advertise this more widely as I for one can now at least look forward to some improvements.

It actually looks better than the mess they are making with High Speed

I belive the it is seat covers as opposed to seats that are new

Any pictures / ideas on the 143 interiors?

I travelled from Swindon to Melksham on one last night and the seats, etc, didn't seem too bad (the ride was very "noddy" though as you would expect from a nodding donkey - especially out of the day in Swindon).

However - the train looked like it has been (ab)used by a drunken crowd since it was last cleaned, with the floor sticky with spilled [something], newspapers and rubbish strewn all over ... I think I'll start a fresh thread on the topic ...

When should the improved 143/150/153/158 be on the tracks?   

A view on this subject from Economy Klaus (link below.)
http://firstlatewestern.blogspot.com/2007/07/to-refurbish-or-not-to-refurbish.html

When will a train be on time!

The 153s are having totally new, higher seats. Class 150s and most the 158 will be same seats with new moquette. First unit to be done is a 158, and will now go to 'works' end of August.

Yet another delay. Was meant to be the end of July that the first unit was going into the works. Glad they are replacing the seats in the dogboxes (153s) The seats in 150s and 158s are fine just need recovering and new carpet in the case of the 158s.

Well its rather hard to release units for refurb, sorry refresh, when there is barely enough working to keep the daily service running....

Exactly what I thought would be the case, especially over the summer months. Problem is we are getting ever closer to December timetable change when FGW lose 12 158's meaning even less stock to keep things going. I hope the bright sparks at Dft are pleased with themselves for insisting on FGW losing 12 of their 158s.

I've seen figures to suggest that FGW actually have too many units on their books at present and that the current problem is the lack of serviceable units. Figures like needing 51 units to run the service and seven spares have been quoted. As they have 70 units at present 12 (158s) are going as they are deemed surplus to requirements. The problem seems to be that at least 10 158s are always out of service leading to the shortages.

Are these figures correct? Does anyone have any inside knowledge that confirms the daily requirement for serviceable units? I've travelled on a number recently that have been running on one engine and several of my journeys have been delayed due to fitter's attention being required. Unless they get their units back into good shape then the FGW fiasco is going to get worse, a lot worse. Remember last December?

This is correct FGW have more units than Wessex!

The December issue of units going off lease is helped by another major timetable change meaning less requirement. Will be like December 2006 over again with service cuts.....

Thats whats worrying but if Dft is insisting they lose these units then what choice have they got but to make further cuts to services and take the blame. Is that why FGW are keeping this next timetable under wraps unlike last year when they published it twice months before it was due to start?

According to the link below.
http://indefenceoffirstgreatwestern.blogspot.com/2007/08/so-tired.html

"I will take this time to answer Lee regarding turbos. There may be some pacers heading our way but nothing is confirmed as of yet. With regards to the turbos, we get to keep all the 165s and 166s from the Reading fleet but we are losing approximately 9 complete 158 sets from the ex-Wessex fleet. Supposedly, we will be getting somehting to replace them (maybe from those 1300 carriages the DfT has ordered) but again, nothing is confirmed. Not much help I know but it's all abit up in the air at the moment."

Friday's (10/08/2007) signalling issues (South Wales / West Drayton) are also explored in the same link.

Surely they could use these 'surplus' units to ensure that I can use a seat when i Travel! Dawlish carnival featured a 2 car unit packed to the rafters!

They could easily make Porstmouth-Cardiff 4 car with so many extra units. Also why they are getting rid of the only decent units that FGW have.

You save more money by getting rid of the most expensive (to lease) units.

Hi I went on a 150 today and noticed they had posters up about the refresh. There were 3 pics aswell. 1 i hadnt seen anywhere else. It also said the refurb had started ;D and should be completed within 12 months. :(

The refurbishement is a rolling program scheduled to be completed in September 2008 - I can confirm that date (from a convesation I had last month with two of the very senior people making the plans) and also that the program ties up a number of units until that point.  These extra units are the 158 units at the moment, and become 142s in December 2007.

Yes I had a good chance to see that poster today too whilst crammed into the vestibule of a 158 coming back from Bristol. Wasnt the best of mornings on services around Bristol with the trains I was using, either cancelled or running short of their destination. Dont know if it got better later in the day. Don't think it was due to lack of rolling stock as there was a couple of 150's and and 153 parked up at BTM...more likely lack of train crew.

Here is an FGW Press Release on this (link below.)
http://www.firstgreatwestern.co.uk/NewsItem.aspx?id=543

Click on the link below (page 3) for a further article and pictures.
http://www.railwayherald.co.uk/BackIssues/Issue102HIGH.pdf

Does anybody know if FGW are trialling different seats on the first refurblished 158's as 158761 and 158762 are different. Any body know about 158748?

I *believe* the seats in 762 are to be put in all the refurbs as 761 was a 'trial'

The seats in 762 were from the ex FSR 158s

They are the same as the FSR ones but are definately new!

That's good as we were not originally going to get new seats.

We weren't even going to get a refurb initially!