1730 Manchester to Milford Haven service

[whole diary]

[Jez]

Anyone know why this service appears to be 2 different services now? The National Rail Enquiries is showing it as a Manchester-Cardiff and Cardiff-Milford Haven service with around a 6 minute connection time in Cardiff. Im booked on this to travel from Manchester to Port Talbot tomorrow and my ticket when I bought it showed a direct train.  Is this to do with engineering work?

[inspector_blakey]

Interesting question that...

It's shown in the printed timetable as a through service, arriving Cardiff 2059 and departing at 2106. But using a different journey planner shows 1V92 1730 MAN-CDF^» (Cardiff - next trains), booked into platform 3A at CDF 2059, then a 2106 departure 1B92 CDF-MFH from platform 7. That's the minimum connection time for Cardiff of 7 minutes.

That train is a bit of an oddity, since it goes round the curve at Landore and doesn't call Swansea (to my knowledge it's the only train each day that misses Swansea, at least in that direction). But I've used it before, admittedly before the new timetable came into force, and it was a through train.

Either way shouldn't be much of a problem for you I suspect - you can check with the staff when you get on, and even if you do need to connect in Cardiff you have the appropriate connection time available.

[Jez]

I can only think they are using a different unit which is why, but it must be a very late change as I booked it less than 2 weeks ago and on the print out of the journey its says at Manchester Pic to get on the Milford Haven train.

Platform 7 is a bit odd too - usually they depart from 3 or 4. Will post when I return what unit it is and why they have changed it.

Yes it is odd for a train to miss out Swansea especially as people will want to travel from Swansea to West Wales.

[Hafren]

I had a quick look earlier and the arrival was showing on live departures as going into platform 7 today - very strange. Nothing showing under alterations. Perhaps some sort of work affecting access to platforms... or maybe one of those errors!

Isn't it the one the hour before that misses Swansea? It overtakes and then waits for the FGW^▸ (First Great Western) Padd-Carmarthen, so journey opportunities to and from Swansea are covered for that hour by the Padd-Carmarthen service. The first Carmarthen-Manchester in the morning also misses Swansea; they also miss out Neath, suggesting that they go via the District Line (like the daytime Fishguards) - probably to allow drivers to retain route knowledge at times when it causes the least inconvenience.

[inspector_blakey]

Nope, 1B92 is definitely shown by NRES^▸ (National Rail Enquiry Service) as running fast Neath to Gowerton, bypassing Swansea. I was wondering if it takes the Swansea district line, seeing as it's booked a massive 44 minutes between the Neath and Gowerton calls, but I think the call at Neath rules that out, doesn't it? I'm a bit puzzled.

You are correct thought that 1V91, the 1630 MAN-MFH, is due to run via Morlais Junc and makes no station calls between Port Talbot and Llanelli - I've almost been caught out by this before when using tickets to west Wales that were split at Swansea, so had to hop on the FGW^▸ (First Great Western) service then make the change in Carmarthen, albeit arriving at my destination at exactly the same time I would have!

_{Edited to add...}
On reflection I suppose a boring answer might be just that for some weird reason the Swansea call is missing from the journey planner, since the paper timetable shows a Swansea call arriving 2207. I can't find any indication of engineering work on the ATW^▸ (Arriva Trains Wales (former TOC^▸ (Train Operating Company))) or NRES websites that would explain why this train would by by-passing Swansea tomorrow.

[inspector_blakey]

Oh dear...after all that it looks like 1V92 was part-cancelled and started short, 17 late from Crewe. I assume this was caused by a delay to the outward working. But it's now showing as a through Crewe-Milford train, with a call at Swansea and has apparently just left Cardiff 6 down. Although I don't suppose that was much use to you, Jez, if you were going to board it in Manchester!

[Jeremy Segrott]

My first post on this forum ...
Noticed a board at Cardiff Central tonight advising of changes to normal platform arrangements until 5th November.  Very unusual to see anything other than Valley Line services and the odd freight using Platform 7 normally.

[Chris from Nailsea]

My first post on this forum ...

... in which case, may I offer you a very warm welcome to the Coffee Shop forum! 

Chris. 

[Jez]

We were advised to board the 1738 service to Crewe - this was the stopping service calling at most stations between Manchester and Crewe. It took what felt like forever!  Then had to wait in Crewe for the 1909 Carmarthen service (which should have formed the 1830 off Manchester) but arrived from South Wales and then terminated and went back to Carmarthen.

Ended up getting back 1 hour 10 mins late. Were told at Crewe the reason was a broken down train in the Cwmbran area and no trains were able to pass for up to 3 hours, so trains were terminated early and cancelled for the Manc-Crewe part of the journey it seems. Luckily staff at Picadilly were able to inform passengers to use Northern Rail services to Crewe.

So what would have been the 1730 left Crewe 17 mins late? Had it not taken so long on the Crewe stopping service I might have got that. It was advertised as Cardiff Central rather than Milford on the departure boards at Picadilly, with cancelled by the side. Maybe its an error as im sure that service runs direct to Milford. Its the 19.30 from Manchester which requires a connection to Carmarthen.

Another thing, is there an issue for some of the 175s - had to change units at Cardiff as they said there was a fault with it. The train going up this morning didnt sound too clever either.

[Jez]

My first post on this forum ...
Noticed a board at Cardiff Central tonight advising of changes to normal platform arrangements until 5th November.  Very unusual to see anything other than Valley Line services and the odd freight using Platform 7 normally.

Welcome to the forum.

The 22xx service from Cardiff to Carmarthen departed from platform 4 tonight.

[inspector_blakey]

Well, at least some small consolation is that you were late enough for a full refund!

[Jez]

Well, at least some small consolation is that you were late enough for a full refund!

Yes thats true! 

[anthony215]

I have been on a few class 175's that have developed faults. Although according to some staff i have spoken to the class 175's do seem to sometimes have trouble starting from stations on the marches line if the rails are slippery although i have noticed that the class 158's are worse.

As for avoiding swansea using the Llandore curve, i do know that the Fishguard - cheltenham service does sometimes work via that route rather than the Swansea district route.

[Jez]

I noticed the 175 was having trouble starting off at certain stations.

Well looking at the departure boards tonight it looks like the 1730 is running up to 45 mins late! I wonder whats going on tonight.

What time does the Fishguard-Cheltenham run?

[inspector_blakey]

1G97, dep FGH 1330, arr CNM^» (Cheltenham Spa - next trains) 1731.