Virgin Proclaim Shrewsbury success

[Gareth Marston]

Shropshire to London traffic up 19% since VT service introduced 2 years ago and 40% of traffic travelling on VT.

http://www.shropshirestar.com/news/...ct-rail-service-celebrates-first-anniversary/

Worth more trains or not?

Video and pictures: Shropshire to London direct rail service celebrates first anniversary

Perhaps there is not quite the romance that there was in the age of steam, but driving a train is still the stuff that schoolboy’s dreams are made of - Wayne Peach has been living the dream for decades.

And for the past 12 months he has been driving the trains for the new direct Shrewsbury-to-London rail link, which celebrates its first anniversary today.

Seated behind the controls in the hi-tech cabin of the tilting Bombardier Super Voyager, Wayne has been driving the London service since its launch.

A veteran with 36 years’ service under his belt, Wayne says he particularly enjoys the stretch between Wolverhampton and Shrewsbury.

“It’s a nice bit, it is something a bit different, a bit quieter, it makes a change from doing Birmingham to London,” he says.

“I live in Brewood, so it almost goes past my house.”

The 52-year-old followed in the footsteps of his father Fred by taking a job in signalling when he was 16 years old.

...

 

[Bald Rick]

Out of interest, what's been the growth in West Midlands - London and Virgin services generally in the same timeframe?

ie has it outperformed the market significantly?

 

[The Planner]

May give some clout to resurrecting Wolves Shrewsbury line speed improvements. Voyagers would get the benefit way above anything else.

 

[Gareth Marston]

Out of interest, what's been the growth in West Midlands - London and Virgin services generally in the same timeframe?

ie has it outperformed the market significantly?

I doubt it's done 20% in 12 months they'd be calls to bring HS2 forward if it had!

 

[Bald Rick]

I doubt it's done 20% in 12 months they'd be calls to bring HS2 forward if it had!

Agreed - thought you said 2 years though.

Even so, it feels like it's ahead of the rest of the market. From a low base I suspect if the pictures on the train are anything to go by!
--- old post above --- --- new post below ---

May give some clout to resurrecting Wolves Shrewsbury line speed improvements. Voyagers would get the benefit way above anything else.

Doubt it, unless a local authority pays.

 

[Gareth Marston]

Agreed - thought you said 2 years though.

Even so, it feels like it's ahead of the rest of the market. From a low base I suspect if the pictures on the train are anything to go by!

Yes I did - not on the ball and forgot to include some of article sorry mods!

 

[CyrusWuff]

Shropshire to London traffic up 19% since VT service introduced 2 years ago and 40% of traffic travelling on VT.

It would be interesting to see a comparison with Wrexham and Shropshire's figures and how many were lost when W&S closed...

 

[The Planner]

Doubt it, unless a local authority pays.

Probably, but this is one scheme that never gives up and dies.

 

[childwallblues]

Virgins Birmingham-London has big competition from Chiltern Mainline service. Comparisons between the two would be interesting.

 

[The Ham]

According to ORR passenger numbers between West Midlands and London have grown by about 11% in the two years between 2012 and 2014.

Figures taken from:

http://dataportal.orr.gov.uk/displayreport/html/html/cbedb3c6-f390-4769-91d2-5509ce9aa15e

Although not as good as the 19% of the Shrewsbury service a long way ahead of the 5% which the HS2 model predicted for general rail growth. Although it should also be noted that there was an assumed growth rate of closer to 1% per year for Birmingham to London passenger growth.

As such, even without getting to 19% in two years there is going to be a need for HS2 much sooner than the model expected.
--- old post above --- --- new post below ---
Just as an item of clarification, I am aware that the West Midlands is much bigger than just Birmingham, I am also aware that there are more train companies who run services between there and London than just Virgin.

 

[Camden]

Without being able to get the details of the passenger numbers travelling on the particular services, it is impossible for members of the public to determine whether HS2 is required or not.

Given the amount of expenditure involved in this project, I strongly feel that "commercial" considerations should have no bearing on the release of this information, and we should have full, up to date and accurate passenger figures for every service that HS2 is supposedly designed to replace/relieve.

 

[swt_passenger]

Shropshire to London traffic up 19% since VT service introduced 2 years ago and 40% of traffic travelling on VT.

Worth more trains or not?

Don't these services run by sweating units that would otherwise be running from or to the depot, into or out of service?

More trains are academic if there are none to be diagrammed, you'd have to await a new franchise gaining DfT approval to lease more stock for it...

 

[TorqueOfTheDevil]

Well done to Virgin, but I wonder how many other north Shropshire people heading to London drive to Stafford and take one of the hourly non-stop services. The 50-minute drive is more than compensated for by the speed and frequency of the service. I suspect there are also people who go via Crewe for the same reasons.

 

[edwin_m]

Well done to Virgin, but I wonder how many other north Shropshire people heading to London drive to Stafford and take one of the hourly non-stop services. The 50-minute drive is more than compensated for by the speed and frequency of the service. I suspect there are also people who go via Crewe for the same reasons.

I don't know the area but I guess if people have to drive and there are alternative railheads about the same distance/time away then they will choose the one with the better train service. And from a couple of visits I get the impression Shrewsbury station isn't particularly easy to get to by car.

However, the rail market isn't solely made up of people from outside London travelling there. Having a direct train to Shrewsbury makes it more likely that Londoners and others will visit!

 

[TDK]

Shropshire to London traffic up 19% since VT service introduced 2 years ago and 40% of traffic travelling on VT.

http://www.shropshirestar.com/news/...ct-rail-service-celebrates-first-anniversary/

Worth more trains or not?

So you are actually saying 60% of the people travelling by train from Shropshire do not use the direct route that VT provide? Hardly a huge success!

 

[class26]

So you are actually saying 60% of the people travelling by train from Shropshire do not use the direct route that VT provide? Hardly a huge success!

But there are only two departures in each direction which leaves a lot of the day not covered. 40% is pretty good in that case I would have thought !

 

[Gareth Marston]

But there are only two departures in each direction which leaves a lot of the day not covered. 40% is pretty good in that case I would have thought !

Quite, given that you can go to Crewe, Birmingham and the via Salisbury fare is still in the system the % on the other trains is very very small. The Cambrian trains will have the highest loadings for London coming through Shropshire after VT.

 

[The Ham]

But there are only two departures in each direction which leaves a lot of the day not covered. 40% is pretty good in that case I would have thought !

Quite, if 40% of people are travelling on (say) 5% of possible services then that is a good thing.

If it was 40% travelling on 35% or higher services it wouldn't be something to shout about.