Great Western Coffee Shop

Needing to be in Chester yesterday afternoon and not being in a particular hurry to get there, I decided to give W&S a try, so drove over to Banbury (where station car parking is now so over-run that Chiltern are leasing two industrial units nearby as overflow).

I was supposed to be on the 11.28 - return of the early working into London - so was surprised to see an empty W&S train sat in the north bay platform. Crew told me it had terminated there earlier due to a suspected technical problem, but all was well for the return and Chiltern had laid on a Turbo to provide the connection from London, which pulled right up to the end of the platform to stop alongside, so it was a quick transfer for a couple of dozen passengers joining the train.

Slightly late away, but that didn't matter as the schedule is padded to an incredible extent, mostly through the West Midlands. With better pathing, you could probably cut out 30 minutes and timings beyond Wolverhampton aren't exactly taxing either. This particular working runs via Birmingham New Street, where we sat at a platform for three or four minutes and were then given the right away by a dispatcher!

If you like chord lines - hot topic elsewhere - and unusual routes, then this service is just for you. Off the Snow Hill line to the Camp Hill route, then swing left on to the line into New Street, then right at Soho junction and off to Perry Barr to join the Walsall line to Bescot then on to Wolverhampton. My return, on the 18.10 from Wrexham, took in the Aston-Stetchford cut-off before being looped at Birmingham International for a while to allow a CrossCountry service to overtake us before we tailed it all the way to Banbury.

On-board service is excellent, with friendly staff, who will bring hot food to any seat in the train - most welcome, as I hadn't eaten, so had soup, followed by sausages and mash, on the way home.

Passengers numbers were respectable for off-peak on a newish service and I was told peak loadings to and from London are pretty good already, so the ability to just add an extra Mk3 to the trains may come in handy, something you wouldn't get with a DMU.

I would definitely recommend the service if you are heading to Shropshire or north-east Wales and aren't in a great hurry, though I gathered the journey times should start to come down from December, largely as a result of smoother passages through the Birmingham area.

The first train will get into London nearer 9am, rather than 9.54 at present, which may well deflect any threat from Virgin's rather cynical plan to suddenly show an interest in Wrexham and run a peak London train via Chester.

Will, it's pleasing to see that from your report here, and from other viewpoints I've heard over the last few months, that WS&M seem to providing an excellent service. With such lax journey times they will always need to be on-the-ball with their customer service and that seems to be the case with passenger loadings to be pleased of given the fact it's been in operation for less than 6 months.

Extending train lengths in the future would be relatively easy given the choice of rolling stock and hopefully journey times can be reduced to really be competitive and it can grow and mature into a really top class service. Good to see co-operation with Chiltern in providing a substitute turbo when a problem arose as well.

I've decided to put off a trip on them myself until the refurbished carriages finally arrive - the only thing that has really gone wrong with the launch so far. Are any of them in service yet?

No sign of refurbished coaches or driving van trailers yet. It was all hired blue-grey Cargo-D Mk3s and top-and-tail Class 67s yesterday.

The W&S website is a bit vague on when their own coaches might now be seen. I get the feeling that it will be towards or at the December timetable change, maybe so they can get some added publicity in conjunction with journey time cuts. And after the long delays Grand Central suffered getting its trains back from Marcroft at Stoke, it may be best to wait until they are actually sitting in the sidings at Wrexham before setting a date.

I don't blame them for getting on with running trains despite the hitch over the refitted coaches. The Cargo-D fleet is well looked after, clean and smart inside and out and a better passenger environment than the DMUs the locals have become used to - ATW's 158 fleet desperately needs a FGW-style refresh - I heard several favourable comments on the trains from people making local trips on the Wrexham-Shrewsbury-Wolverhampton sections of the route.

Yes, it will probably be in December as you say. That's when they are quoting the free wi-fi service will be available - a shame that this refurb has been so delayed as a lack of wi-fi must be impacting on the business market?

W&S say the first refurbished train set is due to enter service in late November, with all four in service from early next year, with 2 standards (72 seats each), a buffet first (30 seats) and a driving van trailer in each. The seats will all line up with windows and there will be wi-fi and power sockets at every seat. DVTs have all been made to work with Class 67s and are getting sanding gear.

DB Regio has now bought enough Mk3s to make each train up to four passenger coaches and add a fifth set to the fleet if necessary.

There's a short video of a W&S staff on a visit to Marcroft at Stoke to see the work on the coaches, gives some idea of the amount of wortk, with little but the shells of the coaches remaining. Go to http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=phSoX0_LiI0 (http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=phSoX0_LiI0)

The first DVT is going into service any day now. Was sent on a test run to Marylebone yesterday, pictures at http://geoff-plumb.fotopic.net/p54180963.html (http://geoff-plumb.fotopic.net/p54180963.html)

DVTs are go! First turn was on Saturday.

See http://www.nwrail.org.uk/ (http://www.nwrail.org.uk/) and click on Noticeboard: News and Views, then scroll down for a report and picture of the train stabled the previous night at Wrexham.

If you're at Paddington on Sunday, it may be worth keeping an eye out for a DVT, as W&S and Chiltern services will be running there again this weekend, due to engineering work outside Marylebone.