Having seen a few Cardiff-Portsmouths running as five coach trains this week and noting the following from the FGW^▸ (First Great Western) live updates page; is the plan to run most/all trains on this route as five car trains this week presumably using stock from not running longer early morning/late afternoon services in the Bristol area because of people being off work this week?

15:23 Portsmouth Harbour to Cardiff Central due 18:46
This train will be formed of 3 coaches instead of 5 between Portsmouth Harbour and Bristol Temple Meads.
Last Updated: 30/12/2010 16:18

16:26 Cardiff Central to Portsmouth Harbour due 19:54
This train will be formed of 3 coaches instead of 5.
Last Updated: 30/12/2010 16:23

17:26 Cardiff Central to Portsmouth Harbour due 20:54
This train will be formed of 3 coaches instead of 5 between Bristol Temple Meads and Portsmouth Harbour.
Last Updated: 30/12/2010 16:23

18:23 Portsmouth Harbour to Cardiff Central due 21:47
This train will be formed of 3 coaches instead of 5 between Portsmouth Harbour and Bristol Temple Meads.
Last Updated: 30/12/2010 16:21

20:23 Portsmouth Harbour to Cardiff Central due 23:58
This train will be formed of 3 coaches instead of 5 between Portsmouth Harbour and Westbury.
Last Updated: 30/12/2010 16:24

I believe the 15:23 regularly runs as a 5 car, to cope with rush hour traffic between Salisbury and Bristol.  This service is also marked in the timetable as "Reservations Recommended".

Between Cardiff-Bristol-Bath. After that there can't be many places that allow a driver to get the most out of the 158. Possibly between Warminster-Salisbury?

correct they are all timed at 75 mph,what is gained on the 75mph plus sections is mostly lost by the 158 taking longer to accelerate compared to 150.

Can't comment on the likely consists - that'll be luck of the draw I fear!

Same goes for seats. Too late to buy a walk-up ticket online and book a seat - I've just checked.

I would expect loadings to be fairly heavy with leisure passengers either returning home after new year or off shopping, but I think it unlikely you'll have to stand all the way.

Having now vented my spleen on NR^» (Network Rail - home page) elsewhere I can get back to what I was intending to comment on.

So thanks DM for the reminder about the acceleration difference, and the 75MPH timing, silly of me to forget. I assume the Sectional Timings are therefore a compromise to accommodate any possible type of rolling stock that may be called upon to operate the timetable.

Anyway the reason for posting. There have been a couple of comments recently on various threads that made me curious, although I may be putting 2 and 2 together and getting 1300.

The first question was regarding Graham^s comment about the crowding on Portsmouth/Cardiff services on Dec 27th. The route clearly continues to see growth in PAX numbers and as witnessed on the 27th any small perturbations in service can have quite dramatic consequences. Are there official mechanisms in place in the franchise that would compel FGW^▸ (First Great Western)/DfT^» (Department for Transport - about) to get together to address a capacity shortfall, or do FGW just get on with things as best they can and approach DfT adhoc when they need approval to hire in additional stock. I was thinking a trigger point at a %full knowing that they were approaching the leaving people on the platform point again as in 2007, or missing stops altogether. Unless something is done then it^s a deckchair shuffling exercise.

There has been quite a bit of stock movement into the area recently what with Arriva 150^s, 142^s the LHCS^▸ (Locomotive Hauled Coaching Stock) and the SWT^▸ (South West Trains) stuff, quite a few units over and above what was originally envisaged when the franchise was let, which has allowed bolstering of the peak Westbury/Bristol route as well as others. What were once 2 cars are now 3 or even 4.

I also noticed the comment in ^Across the West^ regarding LM^▸ (London Midland - recent franchise) to retain 150^s and FGW to get extra 153^s in lieu. This would seem to make sense as they may be slightly more flexible in strengthening current 3 cars to 4. Having seen a number of 158/153 combo^s recently would it be in FGW thoughts to enhance a number of units permanently on the corridor to 4 car this way. Hence the reason I asked about the 75MPH limit as that^s all the 153^s would allow if this were done.

Also my earlier comment regarding FGW taking more of an interest was a little bit early after noting in the recent RUS^▸ (Route Utilisation Strategy) that they are starting a working group to look at the corridor.

More back on topic I was informed the 5 cars were temporary whilst Reading was closed.

If I remember correctly, 153 units are not allowed past Southampton due to curveture of local stations between Southampton and Fareham!

I may be wrong though!

Timmer

It was a passing comment from the guard a few days later when the extra carriages had been taken off. Added just as a precaution I would guess, as you say the services would have been pretty full anyway without a few diversion PAX thrown in for good measure.

TD/ReWind, now you come to mention it that has been stated before on here, my memory is getting shocking, even so attaching for the Southampton/Westbury to Cardiff stretch at peak times wouldn't do any harm.