New forum bingo line. There is no confirmation to say that is even going to happen, even if its the blindingly obvious thing to do.
That one's booked for a 5-car set, which doesn't preclude a 4-car turning up when diagrams get mixed about (It's happened one day this week so far).
The DfT has shown its penchant for penny-wise pound-foolish cost cutting time and again; it would be dangerous to assume that Avanti's off-lease 221s will necessarily be taken on by XC.
Maybe, but some of these off pattern minor stops in ‘intercity’ services go back to BR days when it made sense from a passenger carrying perspective to have a bigger train carrying a high volume local flow at a peak time when it happened to be passing. The principles of this shouldn’t have gone away- indeed arguably with a more centrally controlled railway we should be seeing more of this. Ruins takt type timetabling and neat definitions of which TOCs should stop where but more suited to a closer overall matching of supply to demand.
Of the 11 northbound departures from Plymouth on South West - North East services each day, the following have been more than 4-car formations this week:
There aren't many paths now for the Exeter to Manchester services, they used to depart Exeter at around xx52 on the up, these paths every two hours have now been taken by the two hourly Penzance to Cardiff services.
And Brockenhurst isn't just a small stop, it's an important interchange for Lymington and the Isle of Wight via Wightlink. Not only that, it serves a very large sixth form college which has large volumes of traffic from right across Dorset and Hampshire.
Let's hope the ROSCOs have the storage form them (221s) as they come off lease and wait until after the January 2025 GE and see what happens. Still a chance that 175s, ex AWC 221s and Ex EMR 222s all head off for scrap.
Coach B would be vehicle number 60889: 60489 is the first class Coach A on that unit. First class is generally quieter than standard class on Crosscountry services, despite the limited provision.On 29 September 2022 as part of my two month first class Eurailpass, I travelled on the 1453 hours Taunton to Birmingham New Street.
My notes for that day aren't clear when it comes to the consist but I believe 221135 as car E was at the front with car A (in which I travelled) 221139.
From searching the National Rail site, this train doesn't seem to be operating on weekdays as it was then.
I walked through part of the set, and found only six car B seats unoccupied (car number 60489 if correctly recorded). Car A was not full, though busier after Britsol as a total of 11 joined at two stops (Temple Meads and Parkway).
Your patronage was impressive. There were very few poorly patronised trains. Punctuality was better than some assert, with this train a minute late at Taunton but four and a half minutes late at Birmingham New Street on arrival. Hardly disastrous.
Without going OT, this year I have already included Barton on Humber in my itinerary, and at the terminus even though I have a pass I may buy a child's ticket to the next station to bump up the figures by a grand total of one.
Made worse now by the loss of Flybe with no South - North connections from Exeter or Southampton to Manchester or Newcastle.
Birmingham to Manchester has some 125mph running on it.
No. There is only LNER who operate reliably from York northwards. TPE have insufficient electric stock to provide additional services even if they sorted the current mess out.
For most of the time, LNER would provide adequate capacity on their own between York, Newcastle and Edinburgh. However, I concede that there are some times when a half hourly service of 9 car trains might not be enough.
I disagree. LNER north of York is very busy most of the time. In any case why should Edinburgh lose trains to Leeds and Sheffield and Newcastle land Darlington lose trains to Sheffield and Birmingham?
Yes, but the load factors are not 100% most of the time. I agree they are some of time.
It eliminates diesel running on electric routes.
Of course thet are not. But could they absorb a fullish XC service?
Absolutely. Anything that doesn't load to 100% gets cut. The DfT would be delighted.
Absolutely. Anything that doesn't load to 100% gets cut. The DfT would be delighted.
Having said that EMR are replacing their younger Meridians, although that's to make use of the piecemeal electrification on the Midland Mainline. The CrossCountry network already has long stretches of electric running, as well as high speed electric running. Once TRU sees Leeds to York electrified, there will be a 252 mile stretch of electrified track between Edinburgh and South Kirkby Jn, most of which will be at or above 100mph. In addition, bi-mode trains can make use of future electrification on the 40 mile stretch of track from Derby to Sheffield.