Passengers travelling between Birmingham and Worcester now have extra capacity on the route after West Midlands Railway took delivery of additional class 153 units on loan from East Midlands Railway.
The 153s entered service on the line last week and are being used to strengthen the capacity on the route in response to customer demand.
In order to increase capacity as soon as possible, the class 153s have not had the usual West Midlands Railway branding applied to them and will run in unfamiliar red and blue colours.
Dependant on any operational factors, the units will be used on the route until further units arrive at the end of the year.
What did the officials say?
Richard Brooks, head of customer experience for West Midlands Railway, said:
“Due to delays in receiving additional carriages in time for our May timetable change, some trains serving Hereford and Worcester in recent months have been shorter than we would like.
“We apologise to our passengers whose journeys have not been as good as they could have been because of this and I am pleased that we have been able to provide these additional carriages.
“In order to get the trains into service as quickly as possible we have foregone the usual branding so passengers may need to get used to unfamiliar colours during this period.
“More good news is on the way as our fleet will soon be boosted with the arrival of four electric 350/4 trains, allowing us to cascade additional units onto the diesel-only Hereford and Worcester line.”
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Good use of the single-car 153s to strengthen 150/156/170 combinations, but BSI couplers limit their use elsewhere.
Then what will happen to the Class 153s after West Midlands Railway have introduced the Class 196 Civity which CAF are manufacturing the Class 196. Will the Class 153 on loan be sent back to East Midlands Railway or cascaded to Northern or ScotRail.