Could Parry People Movers Replace The Class 153s?
On the Stourbridge Town Branch Line, Parry People Movers or Class 139 trains, have replaced a Class 153 train on the short route.
As there are seventy of the Class 153s, how many of these could be replaced by the smaller Class 139s.
I feel that a line like the Felixstowe branch could probably just be covered adequately, by two Class 139s working together. They would start simultaneously at Ipswich and Felixstowe, every thirty minutes. The current Class 153 is scheduled to take twenty-six minutes, which means it would be tight and would probably need a train with a bit higher performance than the current Class 139.
But if you look at this line in a few years, it is likely that it will be electrified for freight reasons and I suspect that passenger trains on the branch will be reorganised and run by a suitable electric train. I do wonder if the Ipswich Cambridge line were to be electrified and given an increased service frequency, that some of these trains should be extended to Felixstowe or Harwich. Extra stations might also be added on the Felixstowe line to both serve the port and new housing developments. The area has lived on scraps and hand-me-down trains for years, but now that the Beccles Loop and the Bacon Factory Curve have been built, the trains are at last generating traffic and running more frequently and reliably.
Looking at where the seventy single coach Class 153 trains are used, quite a few are used on lines a lot longer than the Felixstowe branch. When I took a trip around Wiltshire, a lot of the journey was in a Class 153, but probably the route is too long, fast and busy for the smaller Class 139.
So I would think that some Class 153s and possibly some Class 150s or 156s might be able to be replaced on services by Class 139s or a bigger version, but not many. A specialist version with lots of space for bicycles, wheelchairs and luggage might also have applications in tourist areas like the St. Ives branch.
Another likely source of replacement is some new Class 172s. This has been hinted at by a rail minister and we do have a General Election coming up. If money was no object, all of those rural lines that will probably never be electrified like those in the North of Scotland, Lincolnshire, East Anglia, Wales and the West Country, would be equipped with a new standard train like a Class 172, built to last for the next forty years. Class 172s also have the advantage that they can be lengthened by adding extra coaches in the middle and coupled together to make longer sets. I suspect too, they could also be updated in a decade or so, with an energy-efficient, quieter hybrid power train.
In my view an order for some Class 172s would solve a lot of problems for a long time.
A start has also been made on refurbishing some of the Class 156s and these will probably all be retained for many years. As some of these Class 156s are used on lines that will be electrified, they could be a replacement for Class 153s and 150s, where something better and/or bigger is needed.
The Class 15x trains may all be getting on for thirty years old, but many could linger a good few years. Especially, if engineers keep finding ways of updating them, like these new toilets.
So to answer my original question. Parry People Movers or their larger successors might have a place in some places in the UK, but I can’t see too many running in say ten years time, except under special circumstances like Stourbridge, where a high frequency service is needed over a short distance.
Perhaps some might be used on new services, where a small town or attraction needs to be connected to a main line. One place for example might be to link Yeovil Junction to Yeovil Pen Mill and then possibly to the town centre. The track exists between the two stations, which don’t have any connections and are served by totally different companies and services
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