London Midland Trains

[Tony]

Im sure tyseley could have thrown out a 3 car in BR days...with way more seating than todays efforts...in fact they often did

It was an hourly two car from Walsall to Hednesford in those days requiring all of two carriages. The current morning services is 2x4car, 1x3car, 1x2car, a total of 13 or a 650% Increase

[Bob]

Theres photos of 3 cars from those days operating the route. Point being that had they needed one theyd have been able to supply it

[Bob]

Check london midlands twitter account Tony and any comments about the Chase Line. Youd be hard pressed to find a single satisfied passenger

[Kevin]

Check london midlands twitter account Tony and any comments about the Chase Line. Youd be hard pressed to find a single satisfied passenger

Check the trains and see how many of them have tickets

[Sh4318]

Check london midlands twitter accountTony and any comments about the Chase Line. Youd be hard pressed to find a single satisfied passenger

I bet they find it really irritating to have to repeat 'we're using all available diesel stock'

[Tony]

I bet they find it really irritating to have to repeat 'we're using all available diesel stock'

Twitter is there for the angry. The amount of people complaining on there are probably less than 0.1% of users.

In BR days Tyseley would send out whatever would actually work just to get a unit on the line whether it be a two or three car unit, and quite often it didn't work leaving big gaps in the service while Bescot found a driver to rescue it with a loco.

Now, Tyseley has to get 13 carriages out (up from 12 last week as the 07:10 from Rugeley is now booked 4 not 3 as it was until October) and does nearly every day, I think I have suffered two failed to operate this year due to unit failure, and there is a lot more to go wrong, like doors, now. The new Franchise intends to have 16 cars out as soon as possible, but that isn't possible immediately. I have been using the line for 25 years now and the current service is best I have know for actual commuting, although I still miss the through service to Stafford that Central Trains had for a time for my days out.

[Bob]

I honestly dont remember those 1st gen units being that bad ! Certainly more comfortable especially if you got a 115

[windy miller]

   I am beginning to get totally p***ed off with LM the number and variety of excuses and
  tricks is unbelievable at times.. it took me 1hr and 23mins to travel from Euston to New st
  (virgin)   so how long do I need to wait for a cross city line on a weekday?  and from which
platform?  pure guesswork due to the habit of occupying several (if not all)platforms 9-12
with DMU 170 units ditched on arrival and waiting for shunters. The 21.35pm X city to LTV
  is a classic On Thursday it was billed as 11 mins late @platform 7. this increased in increments of 3-4 mins and subsequently arrived at 21.56pm. the 6 car 323 unit was held (As expected) for another 8 mins as LM invariably 'lose' a service if favour of the next one(10.05pm)  Apprx 50 passengers were then shunted to the scheduled platform 9a whereupon
we were met with a static 170 unit which the controllers must have known about..after another 10 mins were were shunted back to platform 6. for a late running 10.05 to LTV
Needless to say the original 6 car 323 left for Lichfield MT stock before the (now) 10.18pm departure.  I for one will be glad to see the back of this company

[markcf83]

I honestly dont remember those 1st gen units being that bad ! Certainly more comfortable especially if you got a 115

First generations DMU's were,so far as I'm concerned,reliable units. Where I grew up it was mostly the Class 117 units with occasionally a Class 119,and also we had the Class 210 units as well. The neighbouring Chiltern line was home to the Class 115 units on which I travelled very rarely unless it was from West Ruislip into Marylebone as an alternative to the Central line. Unbelievable how it's now twenty five years since the old guard was replaced by the Turbo units.

[B61 ANDREW]

Another poor day for L M , their web-site informs us of delays at Ledbury  and advises  customers to use National Express West Midland buses . . . . . .. . . .  :o

[mikestone]

Pretty standard for all TOCs to just cut and paste a standard list of routes in these circumstances, without reference to actual location, time  or day of the week.

[DJ]

Is it just me, or do all the 350s leaving New Street on the Wolverhampton locals announce that the next stop is Birmingham New Street, while they're half way to Smethwick Rolfe Street? Happened on the one I caught just under an hour ago and I remember it happening in the past too.

[mikestone]

They work on GPS, so if the CIS is still set up for the inward working they will make the appropriate announcement for that.

[RW]

Travelled on the northern section of the X city this afternoon. When I left the unit noticed that the coachside 'London Midland' vinyls were missing on at least the last 2 coaches. All that was visible were the outlines of where the vinyls had been. Were they coincidentally missing or had they been deliberately removed in preparation for the new franchise operator branding? Thoughts?

[Dylanbusboy45]

Travelled on the northern section of the X city this afternoon. When I left the unit noticed that the coachside 'London Midland' vinyls were missing on at least the last 2 coaches. All that was visible were the outlines of where the vinyls had been. Were they coincidentally missing or had they been deliberately removed in preparation for the new franchise operator branding? Thoughts?

A lot of them do have the logos missing anyway but as it's not long now till the new franchise they probably have started to remove old logos