Northern (Arriva Rail North)

[knutstransport]

RE: Northern (Arriva Rail North)

(04/04/2018 11:26)mikestone Wrote:  I've lost track of the LM 150's future - I thought they were supposed to have been replaced by GWR 153s at the franchise change but that didn't happen.
I'm guessing they will come to Northern when the Overground 172s arrive?

WMT have agreed to take on 3 x D-Trains from VivaRail (old London Underground D78s with a new diesel engine) by December to replace the 150s.

The original plan was the old LM franchise would get 6 x 153s and send their 150s to Northern. However, that has complications as platforms on the Marston Vale line can't take trains longer than 40m in length. A more frequent service using single 153s was looked at but it was decided with the infrastructure available the best would be a train every 45 minutes, which was considered not to be a good option. 172s also can't be used on Marston Vale for the same reason, why is why LM kept a small number of 150s in the first place.