Highest revenue earning route that requires a change

[deltic]

Does anyone know which routes generate the greatest revenue but have no or very limited direct services.

Given the interest in operating them I presume London to Shrewsbury and Blackpool are two of the best earners. But I would imagine other high earning routes include London to Harrogate, Southport, Grimsby/Cleethorpes and perhaps Liverpool to Newcastle that used to have an hourly service at one time and possibly Liverpool to Glasgow or Edinburgh. While Manchester to Cardiff and Leicester could also be contender and was the route to Brighton ever a money spinner?

 

[bb21]

Manchester to Cardiff has an hourly direct service.

 

[LNW-GW Joint]

Heathrow Airport must come high on the list, from everywhere except Paddington.

 

[Simon11]

Won't be long before you can't include Liverpool - Newcastle in your list.

 

[tbtc]

Liverpool to somewhere on the north Wales coast? Or Liverpool to Cardiff? Or Liverpool to Stoke? Liverpool to Lancaster/ Windermere/ Glasgow/ Edinburgh?

Bristol to Hereford/ Shrewsbury?

Swansea to Birmingham/ Bristol?

Ebbw Vale to Newport?

Basingstoke to Old Trafford?

Burnley to Manchester?

Edinburgh to Ayr/ Kilmarnock/ Hamilton/ Cumbernauld/ Oban/ Fort William?

Glasgow to Dunfermline/ Leuchars (one train a day to Kirkcaldy)?

And, given its importance to some, presumably Manchester Airport to anywhere not served by it (inc Birmingham)?

Cardiff Bay to Cardiff Queen Street?

Colne to Skipton?

 

[WatcherZero]

Cardiff/Bristol to Edinburgh/Glasgow?

Anywhere from the south coast to the rest of the country which forces you to change in London?

 

[bb21]

I think silly strings are being pulled.

 

[glbotu]

Cambridge to anywhere west of Cambridge forces you to change in either London or Peterborough (often also at Ely).

 

[Robinson]

I'd imagine a fair few passengers from Helensburgh Central change at Hyndland for Glasgow Central rather than going to Queen Street.

I guess there will be many similar examples where passengers commuting to a city with more than one principal station can conveniently change to access one that isn't served by direct trains from their starting point.

 

[Eagle]

Cardiff/Bristol to Edinburgh/Glasgow?

Bristol has an hourly service to Edinburgh and a two-hourly service to Glasgow. (Granted, most people doing that journey will probably change in Birmingham and/or Manchester as it's quicker.)

Cardiff Bay to Cardiff Queen Street?

Um, 5tph direct?

 

[Harlesden]

I cannot imagine that London-Grimsby/Cleethorpes is a significant high earner. My own experiences suggest that only a dozen or so people change from an East Coast service onto a Grimsby-bound train at either Newark or Doncaster.
Grimsby itself has a roughly hourly TPE service and a roughly hourly EMT service which, unfortunately, appear adequate at this time. Beeching effectively killed off Cleethorpes as an attractive proposition for long distance holidaymakers.
Not sure how they manage in the event of a London football team playing away at Grimsby.

 

[tbtc]

Cardiff Bay to Cardiff Queen Street?

Um, 5tph direct?

Sorry, meant Cardiff Central - I think there's one very early morning service from Central to Cardiff Bay, but no direct daytime services.

You are of course right about the frequent shuttle from Cardiff Bay to Queen Street - apologies!

 

[Eagle]

I'm pretty sure the actual answer will be something wholly within the boundaries of Greater London, like East Croydon to Waterloo.


Simply because (as some northerners conveniently like to forget :P) London and its suburbs account for almost half of all rail journeys in the entire country.

 

[cle]

I'm pretty sure the actual answer will be something wholly within the boundaries of Greater London, like East Croydon to Waterloo.


Simply because (as some northerners conveniently like to forget :P) London and its suburbs account for almost half of all rail journeys in the entire country.

Exactly this.

Something with an easy change at East Croydon, Clapham Junction or London Bridge, probably. Maybe Stratford or Finsbury Park? But yep, that sort of thing.

Brighton/East Croydon to Cannon Street perhaps?

 

[tbtc]

I'm pretty sure the actual answer will be something wholly within the boundaries of Greater London, like East Croydon to Waterloo.

Simply because (as some northerners conveniently like to forget :P) London and its suburbs account for almost half of all rail journeys in the entire country.

True.

I suppose we can't count "Docklands" until Crossrail starts running there (for the purposes of this thread being about National Rail services and not Underground/ Light Rail?), but when it does open then that'll probably be the winner (Docklands to Stratford, Docklands to Croydon, Docklands to Waterloo...)!

 

[MidnightFlyer]

Grimsby itself has ... and a roughly hourly EMT service which, unfortunately, appear adequate at this time.

That's a statement for debate - it currently only gets 8tpd to Lincoln and beyond from EMT, every two hours in effect. They have somewhat of a reputation for being only single 153s even at peak times and on Saturdays (shoppers), which, when serving Market Rasen on route, tends to leave them quite overcrowded. I would have thought there may be a market for an increased EMT service, especially when you consider the size of the North East Lincs conurbation and the fact that Lincoln offers a fair few connections (Gainsborough, Worksop, Sleaford etc)