Taunton- Bristol/Cardiff service

[whole diary]

[smithy]

is it me or are the class 142's now the most reliable?? i suppose they do have the newest engines and they had so many faults at the start of there lifes that the engineers know what to look for

have the newest engines??? all trains get a new engine when it gets to 500k miles,as for being most reliable i dont think they are it is just more 142 spares available than rest of fleet and they do not do the mileage of 150 and 158

[Jez]

Noticed the 1600 Cardiff-Taunton was a 4 car train today  (2 x 143's)

[6 OF 2 redundant adjunct of unimatrix 01]

how are more 142 spares available than other trains... oooo because the design actually worked.... i hate the damn things but admit it cheap to build cheap to run cheap to repair!!

[Jez]

how are more 142 spares available than other trains... oooo because the design actually worked.... i hate the damn things but admit it cheap to build cheap to run cheap to repair!!

Ive managed to avoid travelling on a 142 or 143 - ATW^▸ (Arriva Trains Wales (former Train Operating Company)) tend to use them on valley lines which I dont use.

[willc]

is it me or are the class 142's now the most reliable?

No! All forms of railbus are consistently at the bottom of the fleet performance tables that Modern Railways publishes every year.

Miles per casualty are, I recall, well below 10,000, though there are variations between 142s, 143s and 144s and within the classes, depending on what duties they are on and, it would appear, the maintenance they get from operator to operator. The same variations in reliability also appear from operator to operator with other types of train, eg Silverlink/London Midland 321s get more miles per casualty than NX East Anglia's.

In terms of railbuses, the Devon Metro fleet ought to be good performers.They aren't thrashed up and down steep hills all day - apart from Exeter St David's to Central - unlike many of their Welsh and North of England cousins and I'm guessing most, if not all, the FGW^▸ (First Great Western) sets return home to Exeter depot every night, so the fitters can keep a close eye on them. Some ATW^▸ (Arriva Trains Wales (former Train Operating Company)) sets overnight at the end of the Valley lines and Northern's sets are outbased all over the place, so visits to main depots are less frequent.

[6 OF 2 redundant adjunct of unimatrix 01]

i used to hate the damn things but have developed a softspot 4 em!

[smithy]

how are more 142 spares available than other trains... oooo because the design actually worked.... i hate the damn things but admit it cheap to build cheap to run cheap to repair!!

i dont mean spare parts i mean there are more trains than diagrammes (until october anyway) allowing for failiures to be swapped out.where as the other west fleet has a lot less scope for spare sets.
actually they are not cheap to run as replacement parts are expensive i.e getting through lots more wheelsets than bogie vehicles.

[Jez]

I noticed a few 158's running on the Cardiff-Taunton services today.

[John R]

You do get a few - even 3 car sets. Hopefully there aren't any 2 car sets on the Portsmouth line at those times. 

[devon_metro]

I noticed a few 158's running on the Cardiff-Taunton services today.

All Cardiff - Portsmouths were terminating at Warminster, so 158 availability was obviously higher.

[Jez]

I noticed a few 158's running on the Cardiff-Taunton services today.

All Cardiff - Portsmouths were terminating at Warminster, so 158 availability was obviously higher.

So I saw although 158's would surely have also been needed on the Salisbury to Portsmouth services also?

[Jez]

You do get a few - even 3 car sets. Hopefully there aren't any 2 car sets on the Portsmouth line at those times. 

1630 to Warminster was a 2 car 158 whilst the 1600 to Taunton was a 3 car 158!