Class 323 makes surprise appearance at Wolverhampton, but has to leave empty as no platform staff are qualified to dispatch it

Wolverhampton passengers wishing to travel on West Midlands Trains 11.18 to Walsall on Sunday morning, were stopped from boarding after station staff said train planners had sent a class 323 instead of the usual class 350 train to the station, where no member of staff had the necessary licence to dispatch it from the platform.

A class 323 last visited the city in passenger service around three years ago, meaning that staff no longer have it on their licence. It departed empty, to start its journey at Coseley – the next station down the line – where the guard is allowed to self dispatch, without any assistance from station staff.

To compound matters, any Wolverhampton passengers wanting to travel to Coseley, Tipton, Dudley Port or Smethwick Rolfe Street had to wait an hour for the next service – trains running hourly on a Sunday, as opposed to the normal half hourly service on other days.

Class 323s, which celebrated their 30th anniversary in service earlier this year, are gradually migrating from the Midlands, with most expected to have left by the end of this year.

Full details of what happened, along with many saucy and shocking incidents!, will appear in the forthcoming book ‘A Funny Thing Happened on the Train to the Midlands’ , of which there are very few unreserved copies remaining. https://www.chimewhistle.co.uk/shop/p/afunnythinghappenedonthetraintothemidlands