Replace new trains with old trains.

[hstudent]

Many train companies seem to have done that.

Class 142s were sent to the north of England to replace Cornwall bound 150s, as the 142s were deemed unsuitable for the Cornish railway lines, though the 142s have finished up being used on routes around the Pennines instead!

Some class 142s were then sent to Cardiff in exchange for 150s so Arriva Trains Northern did not have to use 142s on long distance routes.

Class 175s were removed from the former First North Western franchisee to the former Wales and Borders franchisee. While this corresponded with the Manchester to North Wales route being run by Wales and Borders instead of First North Western, the number of vehicles transferred exceeded the number used on the Manchester to North Wales services. Initially this was under agreement that First North Western could still use some of the 3 carriage 175s for their most busy journeys such as early morning Chester to Manchester via Altrincham services. However, when the Northern rail franchisee was formed the agreement dissolved and resulted in those journeys being run by 2 carriage 142s instead.

Central Trains replaced 158s with 170s. The 158s went to the Transpennine Express franchisee (which had previously used Arriva Trains Northern’s 156s and then First North Western’s 158s to cope with a shortage of trains) even though Central still have 150s in use. The 158s have since been replaced by 185s and 170s and the 158s are expected to go to Northern to replace some 142s.

Transpennine Express were running 175s on the Manchester Airport to Blackpool/Lake District routes and 158s on other routes. They then obtained enough 185s to run all but one of their routes. The route that did get the 185s was ironically the route where they were first used; Manchester Piccadilly to Hull. Rather than using trains they already had on this route they opted to obtain some 170s, with the remaining 175s being transferred to Arriva Wales.

[martin adamson]

In my opinon this isn;t really the TOCs fault. I bet through the years there has been less funding for TOCs and as a result had to swap units. If they have less funding and there are increased leasing charges they would have no choice but to swap.

[GWR9600]

Originally Posted by David A Hicks

In my opinon this isn;t really the TOCs fault. I bet through the years there has been less funding for TOCs and as a result had to swap units. If they have less funding and there are increased leasing charges they would have no choice but to swap.

What the franchises are getting millions of subsidy to fatten their profits not improve the service. The penalty minutes is so bad that trains are often terminated before their scheduled station so they dont loose too many minutes.

[hstudent]

Originally Posted by GWR9600

What the franchises are getting millions of subsidy to fatten their profits not improve the service. The penalty minutes is so bad that trains are often terminated before their scheduled station so they dont loose too many minutes.

They always timetable the trains so if they start on time and don't get held up anywhere they arrive at their final destination up to 10 minutes early and are sometimes left waiting around for a free platform.

Terminating the trains early depends on the route for Transpennine Express trains going from Newcastle to Manchester Airport, for instance, it's easy to terminate the train at Manchester Piccadilly if it's very late as it wouldn't leave passengers stranded and the driver has to change end at Piccadilly to take the train to the Airport anyway.