Now that all the 3-car 175's are working for "Arriva Trains Wales" they are publicly advertising that certain peak period workings between Manchester Piccadilly and North Wales will be guaranteed a 3-car train.
That's fine in theory but tonight (14/12) the 175/1 unit scheduled to work the "guaranteed 3-car" 17:16 Manchester Picc-Llandudno failed. The only replacement available was a 2-car 150/2 which also failed before reaching Manchester and eventually the train was cancelled completely. To rub salt in the wounds the next scheduled Manchester Picc - North Wales working (also a "guaranteed 3-car") was only a 175/0 2-car which had to carry all the passengers from what should have been 2 x 3-car trains. You can imagine how overcrowded this working was.
Apparently the 175's are dropping like flies at the moment so perhaps ATW shouldn't be getting rid of their 158's after all?
