Have these theoretically also replaced other types? 170s etc?
It's all part of the long term plan of fleet commonality, but it's still a way off in the distance. There's still a lot of shuffling of the fleet.
197's have replaced 2x 150's on Bidston & 1x 150 on Blaenau, 2x pairs of 153's on Chester - Liverpool and 1x pair of 153's Chester - Crewe as well as some 15x services in West Wales.
So although with now 47 197's in service, they have replaced around 45 units across the network - 27 175's, 12 170s and 6 15x listed above as well as some in West Wales, which i'm not entirely sure how many units that makes up.
So it's a much broader and slightly more complex fleet movement plan, as the 15x fleet is used to bolster Valleys services, as well as the introduction of Newport - Ebbw Vale.
Cardiff - Ebbw Vale is 3 units
Newport - Ebbw Vale is 2 units.
Maesteg - Cheltenham is 5 units.
So 10 units will be freed up when the 231's eventually move over from Valleys services once the 398 Trams are in service. Currently I think 4 of those 10 are 150's, with the remaining 6 197's.
There's now 17 3 cars in services, vs the 16 175's. With the remaining 3 cars due there should now start being a noticeable difference in capacity in certain routes before the whole fleet is in place where there's be more 4-5 car services. Things are certainly heading in the right direction.
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