A group called 'Midlands Connect' proposes changes to XC services, adding additional stops at Coventry

[ForTheLoveOf]

I will drag this one out from my PC clipboard again, the original plans for 4 tracking the Cov corridor only went from Stechford to Beechwood tunnel, not the whole way.

I don't think total four-tracking is needed to reap most of the benefits of a Crossrail-style intensive local service. You probably only need 20% four-tracking, with perhaps two four-track stretches between adjacent stations, to get 70-80% of the benefits. Of course 100% four-tracking ensures the lowest level of performance risk and 100% of the potential benefits, but that is rarely a strong enough justification for building extra infrastructure!

 

[squizzler]

I was meaning the exact opposite. Midlands Connect IS an already known official body, there should be no need to include “A group called” in the title.

It bings them into line with the naming conventions for other Sub-National Transport Bodies such as So-Called Transport for the North, An Outfit Referring to Themselves as English Economic Heartlands, A Man and his Dog Claiming to be Transport East, etc.

I am all for such devolved powers, as you will see from my suggestion for a roundtable of all these bodies to do the strategic planning at a national level, rather than central government.

 

[David Goddard]

I will drag this one out from my PC clipboard again, the original plans for 4 tracking the Cov corridor only went from Stechford to Beechwood tunnel, not the whole way.

Which should actually suffice on this stretch. Its about ten miles in all so in theory enables fast trains to overtake two others (one each side of International, where they will stop themselves). Only four stations would need rebuilding.

 

[The Planner]

Which should actually suffice on this stretch. Its about ten miles in all so in theory enables fast trains to overtake two others (one each side of International, where they will stop themselves). Only four stations would need rebuilding.

Its all moot anyway as those plans are probably 20 years old and HS2 resolves a lot of it anyway. It won't be 4 tracked any time soon.

 

[Esker-pades]

This will mean that the lovely Newcastle "expresses" (which I note XC states will not be restored until September at the earliest ) will no longer be "expresses".

Just like the current Manchester services, they will no doubt be crowded full of one-stop passengers along the Coventry-Birmingham corridor. Just what is needed!

Coventry-Birmingham needs to be four-tracked (or at the very least a couple of the station-to-station stretches should be) so that an intensive local service can be operated without jamming full long-distance services with local passengers.

All this talk of passengers from Newcastle going to Birmingham Airport because there's a once hourly train that trundles along there in the same time it takes to get to London - utter guff.

Before Covid it had a handful of expensive flights to European business destinations (most of which are better served by Edinburgh, Leeds, Doncaster or Newcastle), along with typical Costa del Sol type cheapo holiday destinations. I very much doubt it's ever going to serve more than that after Covid.

I'm not sure that there's the spare platform capacity at New Street for these new local services between Coventry and Birmingham. One would need to build connections to another Birmingham station to run these new services, or divert existing services, into that station (most likely Moor Street).

If this is a post HS2 discussion, then one should be able to run enough local services per hour to satisfy demand without additional infrastructure work.

 

[ForTheLoveOf]

I'm not sure that there's the spare platform capacity at New Street for these new local services between Coventry and Birmingham. One would need to build connections to another Birmingham station to run these new services, or divert existing services, into that station (most likely Moor Street).

If this is a post HS2 discussion, then one should be able to run enough local services per hour to satisfy demand without additional infrastructure work.

Moor Street will solve most of the platforming constraints so long as the chord into it, and associated works, are sufficiently specced - no silly single lead junctions, and parallel moves will need to be embedded into any remodelled Moor Street throat. There's a lot of railway land with buddleia growing over old trackbed towards there!

I don't think that two-track operation is ever going to be fully compatible with a reliable residual IC service and a sufficiently frequent stopping service (think Crosscity South).

 

[Starmill]

I would anticipate a maximum of one path released by HS2 phase 1 in 2030. This service is a very obvious candidate for it.

Worth noting that currently these services so run via Coventry on Sunday afternoons only. Other than this there's one service early morning from Nottingham than runs through to Birmingham International and Coventry. A key benefit here will be Derby to Coventry, as well as the already noted higher frequency from Leamington Spa, Oxford and Reading.

By 2030 things will be very different on this corridor. Even with no four-tracking HS2 will provide an enormous virtual capacity increase to benefit the two residual West Coast services.

 

[si404]

I would anticipate a maximum of one path released by HS2 phase 1 in 2030. This service is a very obvious candidate for it.

This isn't really a released path, but rather a reworked path that already exists.

Instead of 3 London and 1 South intercity trains on the Coventry corridor, it becomes 2 and 2. The move from a 20-minute cycle to a 30-minute one is what will allow an extra train between Coventry and Birmingham (and, according to TfWM, a couple more between New Street and International).

 

[Starmill]

This isn't really a released path, but rather a reworked path that already exists.

Instead of 3 London and 1 South intercity trains on the Coventry corridor, it becomes 2 and 2. The move from a 20-minute cycle to a 30-minute one is what will allow an extra train between Coventry and Birmingham (and, according to TfWM, a couple more between New Street and International).

I am not sure that we are saying different things. It's worthy of note that Midlands Connect propose additional services to run via Dorridge as a result of this, which would mean Solihull and Warwick Parkway would gain through services to Oxford.

 

[si404]

I am not sure that we are saying different things.

We probably aren't.

My point is that the moving of XC to the Coventry corridor is just a jiggle about of the existing service patterns between Birmingham and Coventry, rather than an additional service. However the recast of the timetable this change is a part of releases new paths that can be used for local services.

It's worthy of note that Midlands Connect propose additional services to run via Dorridge as a result of this

I'm not sure there's room between Banbury and Leamington without upgrades for that service. West Midlands Rail Executive (rather than Midlands Connect, though the overlap is huge) doesn't add Warwick-Oxford services post-HS2, but instead in the 2040s. All HS2 gives is an hourly Stratford service rather than a 2-hourly one and an extra Dorridge terminator (pre-HS2 the 2-hourly Chiltern Leamington stopper becomes an hourly extension of at WMT Dorridge terminator). I can't find it on Midlands Connect.

 

[The Planner]

I'm not sure there's room between Banbury and Leamington without upgrades for that service. West Midlands Rail Executive (rather than Midlands Connect, though the overlap is huge) doesn't add Warwick-Oxford services post-HS2, but instead in the 2040s. All HS2 gives is an hourly Stratford service rather than a 2-hourly one and an extra Dorridge terminator (pre-HS2 the 2-hourly Chiltern Leamington stopper becomes an hourly extension of at WMT Dorridge terminator). I can't find it on Midlands Connect.

There is room, its freight that is difficult along there as it tends to be a race to get it into Fenny on the down and Banbury on the up.

 

[edwin_m]

There is room, its freight that is difficult along there as it tends to be a race to get it into Fenny on the down and Banbury on the up.

If we're talking 2040s then we might have some electrification and electric freight haulage would help with the loop-jumping.

 

[The Planner]

If we're talking 2040s then we might have some electrification and electric freight haulage would help with the loop-jumping.

XC will divert from the very first post HS2 timetable and Id bet the white space that suddenly appears via Solihull would soon be backfilled.