European Railroad Discussion > The return of Gerald

Until March last year and the onset of the first Covid lockdown, Transport for Wales (TfW), and before them Arriva Trains Wales (ATW), ran a daily loco hauled service from Holyhead in the north of Wales to Cardiff in the south, a distance (by rail) of 234 miles. Initially known as the WAG (Welsh Assembly Government) Express it was christened The Gerald of Wales / Y Gerallt Gymro in publicity material. Apart from being one of only a few daylight diesel loco hauled services in Britain its other claim to fame was the restaurant car, which was open to both first and standard class passengers serving breakfast on the morning south bound service and dinner on the evening return. Stock was a rake of Mk 3 cars in ATW aquamarine hauled by a DBC class 67. All that came to an end on Thursday March 19th 2020 with the imposition of the Covid timetable. Since then there have been no weekday through services between North and South Wales. 

When TfW took over the Wales and Borders franchise from ATW they were pledged to improve the loco hauled services by re-employing ex-LNER Mk 4 stock and upping the number of loco hauled services each way from one to three. Sadly Covid put paid to that for almost 15 months but last Monday, after a number of test runs, TfW reinstated the single daily service that had been discontinued last March, and so The Gerald is back!

And to wet our appetite TfW have announced they've acquired more ex-LNER Mk4s from the open access operator Grand Central, which they will introduce next year on Swansea (Wales's second city) to Manchester services!

Shots 1 and 3 are the evening 1W96 17:12 Cardiff to Holyhead (arr 21:44) approaching and leaving Abergavenny. Picture 2 is of Wednesday's training run from Crewe to Newport and back and the first appearance of the Alzheimers Society Cymru vinyl wrapped Driving Van Trailer (DVT). TfW has four DVTs and each will be wrapped to publicise a Welsh charity.



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 01/27/22 09:29 by 86235.

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86235 Wrote:
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> Until March last year and the onset of the first
> Covid lockdown, Transport for Wales (TfW), and
> before them Arriva Trains Wales (ATW), ran a daily
> loco hauled service from Holyhead in the north of
> Wales to Cardiff in the south, a distance (by
> rail) of 234 miles. Initially known as the WAG
> (Welsh Assembly Government) Express it was
> christened The Gerald of Wales / Y Gerallt Gymro
> in publicity material. Apart from being one of
> only a few daylight diesel loco hauled services in
> Britain its other claim to fame was the restaurant
> car, which was open to both first and standard
> class passengers serving breakfast on the morning
> south bound service and dinner on the evening
> return. Stock was a rake of Mk 3 cars in ATW
> aquamarine hauled by a DBC class 67. All that came
> to an end on Thursday March 19th 2020 with the
> imposition of the Covid timetable. Since then
> there have been no weekday through services
> between North and South Wales. 
>
> When TfW took over the Wales and Borders franchise
> from ATW they were pledged to improve the loco
> hauled services by re-employing ex-LNER Mk 4 stock
> and upping the number of loco hauled services each
> way from one to three. Sadly Covid put paid to
> that for almost 15 months but last Monday, after a
> number of test runs, TfW reinstated the single
> daily service that had been discontinued last
> March, and so The Gerald is back!
>
> And to wet our appetite TfW have announced they've
> acquired more ex-LNER Mk4s from the open access
> operator Grand Central, which they will introduce
> next year on Swansea (Wale's second city) to
> Manchester services!
>
> Shots 1 and 3 are the evening 1W96 17:12 Cardiff
> to Holyhead (arr 21:44) approaching and leaving
> Abergavenny. Picture 2 is of Wednesday's training
> run from Crewe to Newport and back and the first
> appearance of the Alzheimers Society Cymru vinyl
> wrapped Driving Van Trailer (DVT). TfW has four
> DVTs and each will be wrapped to publicise a Welsh
> charity.

It's nice to see loco-hauled services return to Wales, though the premium nature of the service is rendered rather pointless while TfW have still suspended catering. Hopefully not too long until that returns as well.

Posted from Android

Hexagon789 Wrote:
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>
> It's nice to see loco-hauled services return to
> Wales, though the premium nature of the service is
> rendered rather pointless while TfW have still
> suspended catering. Hopefully not too long until
> that returns as well.
>
> Posted from Android

There is what is described as limited catering on offer, but definitely no hot meals. It's a start I guess.

86235 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Hexagon789 Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> >
> > It's nice to see loco-hauled services return to
> > Wales, though the premium nature of the service
> is
> > rendered rather pointless while TfW have still
> > suspended catering. Hopefully not too long
> until
> > that returns as well.
> >
> > Posted from Android
>
> There is what is described as limited catering on
> offer, but definitely no hot meals. It's a start I
> guess.

Thank you, I had missed that update. Last I'd heard TfW had not yet resumed catering services of any sort.