It is Sunday, the 28th of July.
It's still raining.
I say still raining,
'cause if there's one tip I could give you
for making transport videos when travelling around,
never go to one place and just make one video
when you can make two, or in this case three.
So this weekend, I've done two Leeds station videos,
and while in the north,
on Northern trains, around Manchester,
I figured it was time to go track down
a Pacer replacement train, the brand new Class 195s.
♪ I will be catching Pokemon in New York City ♪
♪ I wanna live the life ♪
So, there's a 12:48 to Liverpool Lime Street,
and I'm reliably informed that the new trains
are running on the Liverpool route
and also up to the Windermere route.
And it's my hunch that that'll be
one of the Pacer replacers,
and if it's not, then I'll just get out of Warrington
and hang at Warrington until one comes through.
Pacers, you may recall are these very bouncy trains,
(train rattling)
that bounce around like that.
They're old Leyland buses.
They were meant as a short-term, interim solution.
Instead they've become synonymous as the bane of travel
on the rail in the north.
There's loads of Northern.
GWR have some, other operators have some.
They're all going and they've been replaced, by Northern,
by the Classic 195s.
♪ I will be catching Pokemon in New York City ♪
♪ I wanna live the life ♪
Quick change to platform 4a, which is here.
I'm hoping, I'm hoping.
It's a 156 Sprinter.
We'll get it.
I guess we'll go to Warrington and try and get one there.
♪ Come on chill, yo ♪
♪ I can't chill ♪
♪ Come on chill, yo ♪
♪ I can't chill ♪
♪ Come on chill, yo ♪
♪ I can't chill ♪
♪ Come on chill, yo ♪
♪ I can't ♪
Warrington train ran late.
We're doing a diversion down at the moment
down through where Acton Bridge is,
and a lot of stuff is going through Piccadilly.
Piccadilly's a nightmare.
It's rammed, and a lot of services are running late,
but we'll just hang here at Warrington for a bit.
See what happens.
I've gone and got a drink.
There's a nice lady back there.
The guard conductor of this train.
This is now the 14:44, who informs me
that there's no 195s running on the Cheshire,
Manchester, Liverpool lines today.
But I think, I know, that there's one running
on the Windermere lines,
so I've gotta go and pick up a train
that's come from Windermere instead.
(upbeat music)
Jumping out at Oxford Road,
'cause I think it'll be less manic than Piccadilly,
and I'm doing a hunt on real-time trains.
We will find one.
I've come over to, is this platform one or platform four?
'Cause look, it's like it's teasing me.
Manchester just got a new ride.
Travel in comfort in our new trains
with more direct service to Cumbria,
and I got chatting to a member of staff
and that does indeed appear to be the case.
So they are running between Manchester Airport
and Liverpool Lime Street, but not on a Sunday,
when it's raining.
They're only apparently doing airport
to Windermere services today,
so I'm gonna hang around here,
get a tea or coffee.
We'll wait and see if this Cumbria service is one.
If not, I definitely know there's one up
at Windermere right now.
So I will just have to wait here
and catch it on its way down from Windermere to the airport,
and I'll go to the airport from here.
So, it will happen.
It is coming.
(train rumbling)
(upbeat music)
Okay, small update.
It's now 10 past five.
I've been doing this since, well I sort of left at 11,
I got to Piccadilly about midday,
but there's something I haven't told you
and that's that as I arrived at Piccadilly this morning,
like the second I arrived,
before I had a chance to really get my camera out,
I saw 195 leaving north.
What actually happened with today's video
is that it turned up platforms 13 and 14 at Piccadilly
and within 10 seconds a 195 pulled in
and I found one immediately.
I thought, well, that's a good sign.
They're obviously out and running today
and they'll be plentiful,
So, I didn't dash for it.
'Cause I wanted to go down to the airport,
and I then to the airport and then started my video there.
And then I haven't seen one since.
We think, for absolute sure now,
that it's gone up to Windermere this morning.
It's bounced back and forth
between Oxenholme Lake District a few times
and it's on its way back down.
It is 10 past five now.
I'm fairly sure it's gonna be the 5:59 here at Oxford Road
through to the airport
and I'm gonna wait one more hour,
after which I'll have been waiting for six hours
to try to get this.
And I think it's the only one that's out today
on Northern on a Sunday.
And I saw it and I let it go,
thinking that they'd be numerous and plenty,
and they're not.
(upbeat music)
It's 10 to six.
It's still raining.
And finally, after six hours of waiting (laughs)
since when I first saw it,
arriving on platform three,
here's your new Class 195.
♪ I will be catching Pokemon in New York City ♪
♪ I wanna live the life ♪
♪ I will be catching Pokemon in New York City ♪
♪ I wanna live the life ♪
Customers are reminded
to keep all personal belongings with them.
It's twenty past 6.
I didn't film at Oxford Road, 'cause it got really busy.
Everybody got off at Piccadilly,
but then loads more people got on at Piccadilly
and we're now at Manchester Airport.
Now, I've got 10 minutes until it goes back out again,
so there's no time for cutaways.
So we're just gonna do this in one continuous take.
This is the interior of your new Class 195.
This is instead of a Pacer.
This is what you're gonna get.
These seats, quite nice.
There's little lights up here
that actually tell you about seat reservations.
There's luggage ranks there.
The table seats, I quite like the table seats,
because they actually match up with the windows.
So if you're at a table seat, it is perfectly symmetrical.
There, and also here, you've got these really nice screens.
The signs tell you what side
the platforms are gonna be on.
So that's a little bit like the Victoria Line on the tube.
It's like, doors opening on this side.
It also has the date, the time and the temperature,
which I really, really like.
There are plugs, Thameslink style, in the middle.
No USB, but they're just the
three pin standard socket down there,
and I believe that that is at every seat.
(doors beeping)
You've got a flip down seat just here.
Tiny litter bin there.
And then through here,
this will update in a minute to tell us where we're going,
you've got the toilet, which is great.
More flip down seats here.
Accessible area that's great for luggage.
And it's 6:28, with five minutes before it leaves.
Please lock the door. Please lock the door.
Proper handle, proper clunk.
I like it.
So, it's door open, door closed, handle.
And this is a 360, including the mirror shot
of the toilet with baby changing.
Nice.
Remember the incredible thing is that
these are what will replace Pacer trains,
not all Pacer trains.
What I found out, I remember when I was up in Middlesbrough
earlier this year,
the Pacers there, they'll get displaced with 156s.
So where these replace the 156s in Manchester and Liverpool,
they'll then get displaced everywhere.
But everywhere that is now has a Pacer
will no longer have a Pacer train,
but Pacer trains, on some routes,
will just get the direct upgrade to these units,
or the electric ones over towards Leeds, et cetera.
And they are nice new modern DDA compliant trains.
(train engine rumbling)
Yeah, it's forming the 18:33 back to Preston,
which I don't wanna get,
'cause I'm gonna head to Crewe from here.
This is a three car unit.
I'm just gonna get a shot from the end for a thumbnail.
That's my thumbnail.
(upbeat music)
And off it goes.
It's going to Barrow not Preston,
It goes via Preston.
That's the 6:33.
I think it's the only one that was out in service today.
There are more of them out in service during the week,
but on today, this Sunday,
there was just the one.
And I literally saw that at midday this morning
and it's now 6:30.
Bye bye, train.
So I've been in Manchester for like six and a half hours,
and it's rained that entire time.
♪ I will be catching Pokemon in NYC ♪
♪ I wanna live the life ♪