London Midland Trains

[T840MAK]

This is from a press release i received earlier

"The recent historic West Midlands Devolution Agreement means:
·         A new, directly elected Mayor for the West Midlands.
·         Devolution of powers over adult skills, employment and transport launching the competition for the new West Midlands rail franchise, which will incentivise bidders to deliver better services and enhanced capacity, along with better stations and access, both in the West Midlands and on commuter routes into London. The next franchisee will also be required to work with West Midlands Rail to prepare for the journey towards full devolution of rail services to the West Midlands. West Midlands Rail and DfT will jointly launch a public consultation in December."

so you never know?!

So I shall ask where the extra capacity will come from. No other TOC can afford to lose any more carriages and the only "new" carriages coming onto the market are the D-Train class 230(?) - which isn't yet in "production" properly with the prototype not yet being a full set afaik.

[Liberator9]

The one positive is that when the Rugeley Valley line is finally electrified in 2017, it will free up diesels to use elsewhere on the West Midlands network hopefully. The other thing to note is that the Gospel Oak line in London should be electrifed by 2017 - that will free up 8 Class 172s. It would make sense for either Chiltern or London Midland to have them considering the few operators with them.

Just out of interest, didn't London Midland have an option to purchase another 26 Class 172 vehicles?

[Tony]

London Midland are going to be even shorter of stock after another class 172 engine fire this morning

http://solihullobserver.co.uk/news/breaking-fire-lapworth-railway-station/

[T840MAK]

I think at this stage Bombardier ought to be getting involved to try and find the cause of the fires and make the necessary modifications if required to the London Overground and Chiltern ones along with the LM ones so that another fire doesn't happen.

[Liberator9]

Glad to hear all passengers/crew are fine.

Sure Bombardier probably are involved; very strange why this is happening. Pain for London Midland - already have 172338 running round as a two car. Think it was at the time of 338's fire that as soon as 338 returned as a two car set, that another unit had to be pulled from service to graffiti damage...

[Stuharris 6360]

Would be interesting to see what happens if they were to ground the whole fleet, like they did with the class 155s al; those years ago. These days there just isn't any stock that could be begged or borrowed to try and keep a service running!

[B61 ANDREW]

Not sure if it was last year or earlier, but it seems that during a previous "shortage of rolling stock". London Midland had actually got some of its own units on hire to another TOC at the time.   :-\

[Ossie]

Pain for London Midland - already have 172338 running round as a two car.

Weird coincidence: according to a poster on the RailUK forum, the Lapworth unit affected was 333 (one of the driving cars) - and 338 was running as a 2-car on the back of it .....

[D10]

London Midland are going to be even shorter of stock after another class 172 engine fire this morning

http://solihullobserver.co.uk/news/breaking-fire-lapworth-railway-station/

Yes, this afternoon the 1509 (Worcs), 1519 (SJ) and 1529 (Kidder) from Moor Street were all 2 carriage trains.

[Westy]

The one positive is that when the Rugeley Valley line is finally electrified in 2017, it will free up diesels to use elsewhere on the West Midlands network hopefully.

Does this means a regular Sunday service on the line finally, or does this mean rail replacements continue?

[Tony]

Franchise extension

https://www.gov.uk/government/speeches/rail-franchising-west-midlands

[PM]

Franchise extension

https://www.gov.uk/government/speeches/rail-franchising-west-midlands

Sounds promising, free WiFi especially on longer routes (CrossCountry on their long services don't offer that luxury...) but really is tweaking around the edges, ie extra evening and Sunday capacity. I can't help feeling what's really needed is upping the peak capacity of certain routes. LM really aren't bad, it's service delivery that seems to have been the issue, hopefully more staff/apprentices should go some way to address that longer term.

[Sh4318]

Franchise extension

https://www.gov.uk/government/speeches/rail-franchising-west-midlands

The new Sunday services to Stratford and Dorridge interest me the most, currently the last services from Moor St are just after 6

[Trident 4194]

Does the 150 still operate 10:49 ex Bhm for Hereford?

[Tony]

First signs of electrification work on the Hednesford line, several mast bases have now been put in