TFW To Shake Up Rail Timetables

[rich.davies]

Be interesting to see what TFW come up with. Plus it's down to the new rolling stock to be in place also i guess.

"Timetables of all trains run by Transport by Wales are to examined after "massive" changes to travel patterns in the aftermath of Covid.
TfW chief executive James Price told MPs that running old timetables "just isn't working" with people working from home and commuting at weekends.
Mr Price played down the possibility it could mean fewer services.
Meanwhile he admitted services between north and south Wales have performed "incredibly badly".
But he said the route, known as the Welsh Marches line, is the only profitable service the Welsh government-owned organisation has"

Transport for Wales to shake up train timetables

"Massive" changes to travel patterns since Covid prompt summer review, top official says.

www.bbc.co.uk

 

[Bletchleyite]

Certainly the Conwy Valley timetable suits relatively few people. A while back I came up with a version that had one fewer round trip but would actually be more useful, as it paid attention to what the use-cases for each specific journey would be rather than simply blindly running every three hours. I suspect the Heart of Wales is similar, as well as the Pwllheli branch.

 

[adrock1976]

I've mentioned this in one of the earlier Wales specific threads, but a simple timetable change would be for the Cardiff - Holyhead to be broken at Chester, and for the Holyhead - Chester section to run to and from Crewe taking over the shuttle.

On my previous visits to Wales, my observations (albeit unscientific) were as follows:

1) North Wales - I have never met any fellow passengers who are travelling to Cardiff, but to North West Region, Yorkshire, West Midlands, and London.
2) Aberystwyth/Pwllheli - I have never met any fellow passengers who are travelling to Cardiff or Holyhead, but to North West Region, Yorkshire, West Midlands, and London.
3) South/West Wales - I have never met any fellow passengers who are travelling to Holyhead, but to Somerset, West Midlands Region, Wiltshire, Berkshire, and London.

Holyhead - Cardiff is much shorter by road, as it runs diagonally.

 

[tomuk]

Certainly the Conwy Valley timetable suits relatively few people. A while back I came up with a version that had one fewer round trip but would actually be more useful, as it paid attention to what the use-cases for each specific journey would be rather than simply blindly running every three hours. I suspect the Heart of Wales is similar, as well as the Pwllheli branch.

Moves by WG\TFW to offer more services on the HOWL famously backfired as although they added a couple of extra journeys they moved others to a standard pattern disrupting existing commuters\students.

 

[Llandudno]

Perhaps the changes to travel patterns since Covid could be down to:

Poor reliability
Lack of ‘resource availability’
Liverpool - Chester service cut from hourly to around 8 services per day
Wrexham - Bidston service unusable
Loco hauled services regularly cancelled or replaced by 2 car 150 units
Overcrowding on north Wales coast and Marches route owing to 2 car trains running
Single Class 153 operates on occasions on Crewe-Chester shuttle
Industrial action
Lack of on board ticket checks
Class 175s and 230s catching fire
Competition on Chester - Manchester route (Northern’s new 195 trains to Victoria)

I am sure that there are plenty more reasons of TfWs own making….

 

[Techniquest]

This both concerns but intrigues me. There are certainly opportunities for improvements I'd say. @Llandudno makes good points, so I'm going to echo their post. My travel is pretty much always leisure-based, I'm often able to choose suitable alternatives if the railway lets me down. TfW chucking out an overcrowded pair of 153s vice a 67-hauled set of Mark 4s can be enough to lead me to changing plans. I'm having an easy evening indoors tonight for that sort of reason, I've got nothing running tonight of interest.

I won't discuss how frustrated I am that the WMR 196 diagram serving Hereford isn't running properly right now, that's an entirely different set of frustrations!

If TfW can get their fleet running properly, then maybe there would be confidence in travel and people wouldn't have to change their journeys. I'm just glad my commute is on foot, if I had to rely on any train operators I'd not bother and find an alternative job/work from home!

I am looking forward to seeing the proposed new timetable, hoping it'll be one where I can turn up and know what time the train will be due. Clockface timetables seem to have been missing for a long time!

 

[Llanigraham]

I've mentioned this in one of the earlier Wales specific threads, but a simple timetable change would be for the Cardiff - Holyhead to be broken at Chester, and for the Holyhead - Chester section to run to and from Crewe taking over the shuttle.

On my previous visits to Wales, my observations (albeit unscientific) were as follows:

1) North Wales - I have never met any fellow passengers who are travelling to Cardiff, but to North West Region, Yorkshire, West Midlands, and London.
2) Aberystwyth/Pwllheli - I have never met any fellow passengers who are travelling to Cardiff or Holyhead, but to North West Region, Yorkshire, West Midlands, and London.
3) South/West Wales - I have never met any fellow passengers who are travelling to Holyhead, but to Somerset, West Midlands Region, Wiltshire, Berkshire, and London.

Holyhead - Cardiff is much shorter by road, as it runs diagonally.

Just because you haven't met them doesn't mean there aren't any! I certainly know people, especially in 1 and 2 above that travel to Cardiff or elsewhere in South Wales regularly.

 

[LNW-GW Joint]

I should think TfW have only themselves to blame for the poor performance of the Marches route.
The rolling stock situation and consequent cancellations have been damaging.
I wonder how this will affect plans like Liverpool-Chester-Llandudno/Cardiff?
Why start new services when the existing ones are underperforming.
And ultimately, TfW is still running the core timetable set up by ATW in 2004, retuned a few times.
WG/TfW also aren't immune from the subsidy pressure that DfT TOC are facing.
The settlements with the unions have to be funded somehow.

 

[DelW]

Moves by WG\TFW to offer more services on the HOWL famously backfired as although they added a couple of extra journeys they moved others to a standard pattern disrupting existing commuters\students.

That indeed was the case with the 2015 timetable revamp. Though I'm not sure that "standard pattern" quite applied, gaps were variable and there were some long pauses (20+ minutes) awaiting oncoming trains at passing loops.

However a further revamp in December 2022 improved the timetable markedly, reducing gaps with an additional midday / early afternoon service each way. I haven't heard any reports on how passenger numbers have developed. I don't know whether @craigybagel still works the line and might know more?

 

[Caaardiff]

Perhaps the changes to travel patterns since Covid could be down to:

Poor reliability
Lack of ‘resource availability’
Liverpool - Chester service cut from hourly to around 8 services per day
Wrexham - Bidston service unusable
Loco hauled services regularly cancelled or replaced by 2 car 150 units
Overcrowding on north Wales coast and Marches route owing to 2 car trains running
Single Class 153 operates on occasions on Crewe-Chester shuttle
Industrial action
Lack of on board ticket checks
Class 175s and 230s catching fire
Competition on Chester - Manchester route (Northern’s new 195 trains to Victoria)

I am sure that there are plenty more reasons of TfWs own making….

That's a pretty accurate list. TFW are obsessed with trying to run more services rather than actually running a timetable they can achieve with sufficient capacity. Over promise and under deliver is the best way to describe TFW's first 4 years.

The main trunk commuter routes - Valleys lines, Shrewsbury - Birmingham, Chester - Manchester have seen a huge drop in commuter traffic at peak times. There almost isn't a peak time anymore. Flexibility with working patterns has changed how people commute. Monday's and Fridays people may work from home. People may start earlier to finish earlier or vice versa. TFW is getting killed on leisure traffic, mainly North Wales, which could be compounded by Avanti's poor performance, and even more so on the Marches.

There has been no solid plan. The fleet allocations seem completely hap hazard and any train could turn up on any route at any time. The mish mash of fleet doesn't help, especially when you contrast a 3.5 car Mk4 vs a 2 car 153/150 which seems to step in when required. There's no clear backup.

Given the focus required on the Marches line, it may be worth temporarily biting the bullet and cutting some services elsewhere to provide the required capacity. At least if certain services are cancelled well in advance and a consistent bus service is provided then people know where they are.

Potential target routes for cuts
- Early / late HOWL services
- Swanline services, replaced by a bus Port Talbot - Swansea
- Fishguard Harbour services replaced by a bus to Carmarthen (Excluding boat connections)

In the slightly longer term things do look to be improving. North Wales/North West is seeing more and more 197's coming online, with what appears to be more 3 and 4 car services to Manchester. As they keep coming hopefully it will cascade units to other parts of the network for longer trains, then eventually most of the fleet will be 197's.
The mk4 5 car project should be postponed to maximise their usage until the fleet position is in a better place.

 

[Anonymous10]

That's a pretty accurate list. TFW are obsessed with trying to run more services rather than actually running a timetable they can achieve with sufficient capacity. Over promise and under deliver is the best way to describe TFW's first 4 years.

The main trunk commuter routes - Valleys lines, Shrewsbury - Birmingham, Chester - Manchester have seen a huge drop in commuter traffic at peak times. There almost isn't a peak time anymore. Flexibility with working patterns has changed how people commute. Monday's and Fridays people may work from home. People may start earlier to finish earlier or vice versa. TFW is getting killed on leisure traffic, mainly North Wales, which could be compounded by Avanti's poor performance, and even more so on the Marches.

There has been no solid plan. The fleet allocations seem completely hap hazard and any train could turn up on any route at any time. The mish mash of fleet doesn't help, especially when you contrast a 3.5 car Mk4 vs a 2 car 153/150 which seems to step in when required. There's no clear backup.

Given the focus required on the Marches line, it may be worth temporarily biting the bullet and cutting some services elsewhere to provide the required capacity. At least if certain services are cancelled well in advance and a consistent bus service is provided then people know where they are.

Potential target routes for cuts
- Early / late HOWL services
- Swanline services, replaced by a bus Port Talbot - Swansea
- Fishguard Harbour services replaced by a bus to Carmarthen (Excluding boat connections)

In the slightly longer term things do look to be improving. North Wales/North West is seeing more and more 197's coming online, with what appears to be more 3 and 4 car services to Manchester. As they keep coming hopefully it will cascade units to other parts of the network for longer trains, then eventually most of the fleet will be 197's.
The mk4 5 car project should be postponed to maximise their usage until the fleet position is in a better place.

I almost wonder if they'd be better if your doing bus with it going to Haverfordwest or it being a shuttle from all pembrokeshire stations to Carmarthen with well timed connections. Not sure if it would help much though.

 

[AndrewE]

I wonder whether the quotes in post #1 are what was actually said (or meant?) How about
"But he said the route known as the Welsh Marches line is the only profitable service the Welsh government-owned organisation has"

This sounds to me like the Cardiff - Manchester service which is always packed in my experience (not Cardiff-Salop-Chester,) and can't cost much to run as it is always only 2- or 3-car DMUs*! There are a few longer l/h trains, but never when I have been travelling!
note: "he admitted services between north and south Wales have performed "incredibly badly."

*ps (edit) if they bother to run them at all... today's 1549 Cardiff-Manchester didn't even leave "This service was cancelled between Cardiff Central and Manchester Piccadilly due to an error having been made (R5)."

 

[Western 52]

If the TfW review results in timetable cuts, it will further reduce passenger numbers and the cycle of decline sets in.

There are areas where service improvements, if reliably provided, can result in improved patronage of course. Take Swanline as an example. After all the years since the smaller stations were opened, they've never had a decent service! No wonder usage is poor. The potential is there. Look at the increase in numbers at Gowerton since the station was given a much better service.

 

[fishwomp]

Perhaps the changes to travel patterns since Covid could be down to:

Poor reliability
Lack of ‘resource availability’
[..]

Reliability is terrible. TFW are second only to TPE in terms of percentage of cancellations for the not-open-access operators: https://dataportal.orr.gov.uk/media/2215/passenger-rail-performance-cancellations-data-period-3.pdf

Industrial action

Fixed for TFW ages ago (but not for GWR or other connections that would feed or share the tfw business) so am not sure why there are such chronic crew shortages.

 

[markymark2000]

Perhaps the changes to travel patterns since Covid could be down to:

Liverpool - Chester service cut from hourly to around 8 services per day

It's bonkers really as I used this route a number of times and it was always so busy. It's a shame that it was placed with TFW as this standard of service wouldn't be accepted by any other train operator. Mayors keep calling out TPE for their reduced timetable yet they refuse to condemn TFW because it's fully publicly owned and doesn't fit the Labour narrative.

Wrexham - Bidston service unusable

Easy options would be to close Wrexham Central (As when trains do run, they can terminate at General and catch up a few minutes of delay) and they should have kept buses in place all day, every day and tried to improve the bus service rather than forcing the unreliable trains

Industrial action

TFW hasn't done a good enough job at distancing itself from the industrial action in my opinion. Whenever something goes wrong now, all I hear on the ground is 'oh, are they on strike again' and then I tell people that TFW haven't been on strike for a while, it's other train operators who is on strike. They are quite shocked.

Lack of on board ticket checks

To be fair, one thing that I will praise TFW on the Marches is they do ticket checks. The issue is that because of the length of the journey and no guard wants to inconvenience too many people, it becomes a 'any tickets from [last station] and if people don't volunteer their ticket, that's the end of that so many young people get on without tickets and then just sit quiet as the guard goes through.

Competition on Chester - Manchester route (Northern’s new 195 trains to Victoria)

Northern offer advance tickets as well basically up until the train leaves. TFW doesn't. Plus for Chester-Manchester, TFW is about £7 more expensive, can be 10 minutes slower and was historically always overcrowded. Why would you pick this option?


It would be interesting to hear how they judge profitability as well because a number of routes are now being swarmed with stewards (Sword) and security like the railway has never seen before. All of the Sword staff won't be coming cheap and if their cost is pushed onto the specific routes, it's no wonder that there will be a loss at times.

The easy way for TFW to make more money on some routes is reduce the railcards they offer. They have so many railcards which give people money off and then they wonder why they make no money. Valleys student railcards giving most of Treforrest Uni 1/3rd off already cheap travel. Valleys Senior railcard, again giving cheaper travel in an area which already has travel at a reasonable price for commuter rail. If people want discounts, they can use the national schemes. There isn't much difference between the national and local schemes.
Plus you have kids go free. Upto 2 5-10 year olds at any time with a fare paying adult. Upto 2 11-16 year olds travel free outside of peak time with any fare paying adult. That can't be cheap giving away so much free travel.

TFW have not attempted to get any kind of revenue when the bus replacements are on. Yes there is the occasional revenue block but given the Welsh Government already has an agreement with Ticketer (they got loads of machines for various independents so that contactless and tap on/tap off can be a thing), get loads of handheld ticket machines for the valley lines bus replacements and then let drivers or the 300 sword staff that they employ, have them sell tickets (Given the Valleys ticketing seems to be pretty simple anyway) There you go, extra money there.

That is on top of most of what @Llandudno said which is spot on. I dread to think as well about the amount that they spend on rail replacement for various things because either incompetent station staff (I've heard instances of people turning up late, missing their train and so station staff just walk outside and put them on a standby bus and off it goes. The person was late, that's their fault, not the railways, why are the railways paying for that?). TFW has some great days of just asking for shed loads of buses to sit on standby doing nothing. Plus the amount of buses which follow trains. And then you have TFW control who seem to request the most farcical things in the world like sending buses hundreds of miles. I wish I could share some specific stories on this public forum.

 

[Kite159]

Northern offer advance tickets as well basically up until the train leaves. TFW doesn't. Plus for Chester-Manchester, TFW is about £7 more expensive, can be 10 minutes slower and was historically always overcrowded. Why would you pick this option?

And have the big benefit of starting from Chester rather than North Wales so there is a higher chance of getting a seat, and not standing next to the unused Kit Kat Cabinet on a 2 coach 197

Maybe TfW will follow what happened in Scotland with cut-backs to certain routes to cut down on the number of services being run. I.e. Shrewsbury - Crewe shuttle ditched with the stops added onto the Manchester - South Wales trains.

 

[anthony263]

Tfw will definitely get a backlash if they cut services.

People just want a regular reliable service. The proposed hourly swanline service was excellent except lack of a early service into Cardiff before 0700 and last westbound from Cardiff at 205p when ypu have concerts on and even the 2315 from Cardiff now is still well used.

I'm using the 0603 and 0729 trains from Pyle regularly. Theres usually a good 7-10 people waiting for it many using the 0603 to get them to Cardiff to get a GWR service to Bristol TM or the 0640 Nottingham service to Gloucester, Cheltenham or Birmingham.

The 0616 milford Haven gets a regular handful.

The 0713 Manchester service from Pyle had I counted 15 waiting for it at Pyle yesterday. People want a regular hourly service at least. A direct service to pontyclun funnily enough was liked when I spoke to use who regularly use it and need to change at Bridgend.

Running the hourly swanline service to Bristol TM in addition to the 2 GWR services each hour I would think would be extremely popular but could backfire big time as as a 2 carriage 197 wont cope

Sundays need a big ramp up in services certainly much earlier and better frequency with regular clockface timetables

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 19 Jul 2023 ==

And have the big benefit of starting from Chester rather than North Wales so there is a higher chance of getting a seat, and not standing next to the unused Kit Kat Cabinet on a 2 coach 197

Maybe TfW will follow what happened in Scotland with cut-backs to certain routes to cut down on the number of services being run. I.e. Shrewsbury - Crewe shuttle ditched with the stops added onto the Manchester - South Wales trains.

Or better yet pity the northern local service to Crewe couldn't use 769s and run-through to Shrewsbury or get tfw to run the local Shrewsbury to Crewe service hourly

 

[Kite159]

Or better yet pity the northern local service to Crewe couldn't use 769s and run-through to Shrewsbury or get tfw to run the local Shrewsbury to Crewe service hourly

Or hand it over to West Midlands Trains to run as extensions to the Shrewsbury stoppers from Birmingham.

One thing they could potentially cut back is 4tph on the Caerphilly line during off-peak times during weekdays, even turning back one of the Bargoed services at Caerphilly itself.

 

[AndrewE]

Maybe TfW will follow what happened in Scotland with cut-backs to certain routes to cut down on the number of services being run. I.e. Shrewsbury - Crewe shuttle ditched with the stops added onto the Manchester - South Wales trains.

Please... No! That service is one of our (the UK's) few surviving decent inter-regional expresses and is always overcrowded (in my experience.) It shouldn't even stop at Cwmbran, let alone the other places like Nantwich where it does it to fill in a rush-hour gap. Even (some) calling Whitchurch is borderline justifiable, but until there is some sort of a national public transport / connectivity strategy I am afraid all sorts of potential journeys will be ruined and any chance of "letting the train take the strain" will have evaporated. Someone I follow has a footer saying "Scrap the Treasury!" I agree...

 

[anthony263]

Or hand it over to West Midlands Trains to run as extensions to the Shrewsbury stoppers from Birmingham.

One thing they could potentially cut back is 4tph on the Caerphilly line during off-peak times during weekdays, even turning back one of the Bargoed services at Caerphilly itself.

4tph planned to run to Rhymney.


Whats needed is reliable services with enough carriages. Get the bloody 230s to I dont know work properly and the same could be said about the 67s and mk4s. Runn all Manchester West to Swansea changing at Cardiff has lost customers. Pembroke dock to swansea really should be hourly at least Tenby to Swansea. Need the loop at Templeton reinstated though

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 19 Jul 2023 ==

Please... No! That service is one of our (the UK's) few surviving decent inter-regional expresses and is always overcrowded (in my experience.) It shouldn't even stop at Cwmbran, let alone the other places like Nantwich where it does it to fill in a rush-hour gap. Even (some) calling Whitchurch is borderline justifiable, but until there is some sort of a national public transport / connectivity strategy I am afraid all sorts of potential journeys will be ruined and any chance of "letting the train take the strain" will have evaporated. Someone I follow has a footer saying "Scrap the Treasury!" I agree...

Its lost customers on the marches because they were overcrowded covering swanline stations and splitting the service at Cardiff. Really all services should have run to swansea

 

[Dr Day]

It will be interesting to see the objectives of the review, and whether consideration is given to transferring any of the limited financial resources to buses (where these provide a reasonable transport alternative to trains).

 

[Bletchleyite]

It will be interesting to see the objectives of the review, and whether consideration is given to transferring any of the limited financial resources to buses (where these provide a reasonable transport alternative to trains).

It'd be nice to see them pursue true integration in a single fare system, but it's the UK so I doubt it.

 

[tomuk]

Please... No! That service is one of our (the UK's) few surviving decent inter-regional expresses and is always overcrowded (in my experience.) It shouldn't even stop at Cwmbran, let alone the other places like Nantwich where it does it to fill in a rush-hour gap. Even (some) calling Whitchurch is borderline justifiable, but until there is some sort of a national public transport / connectivity strategy I am afraid all sorts of potential journeys will be ruined and any chance of "letting the train take the strain" will have evaporated. Someone I follow has a footer saying "Scrap the Treasury!" I agree...

Completely agree the Marches services should be sped up not slowed down ideally one stop, probably at Whitchurch and the same at Ludlow with Leominster, Church Stretton, Wem and Nantwich served by a stopper.

 

[DLAYKEGER]

Well TFW only need to look at the Wrexham Bidston line to see what their folly of replacement buses taking at least double the time and failing 230s have resulted in.

That line should see no cuts as most of the decline in numbers is caused by their management failings that have been occuring since they took over. I can't rely on their joke of the service, so drive past my local station to the cheaper and mere reliable merseyrail service.

 

[LNW-GW Joint]

James Price said some contradictory things.
The Marches route is on one hand "performing incredibly badly", while on the other it is "our only profitable route, allowing us to cross-subsidise routes elsewhere".

Actually I don't believe any TfW route is profitable, if you include the Network Rail costs and subsidy.
The Marches line has main line costs (with multiple manual signal boxes) with tiny regional trains running on it at 2tph at best.
It might be TfW's best revenue-earner, but that doesn't say a lot.

The forum of today's meeting is interesting: the Welsh Affairs committee of the House of Commons.
You'd expect the Welsh Government and its committees to be on the case in its own back yard, and directing TfW Rail Services policy, but apparently not.

 

[markymark2000]

Well TFW only need to look at the Wrexham Bidston line to see what their folly of replacement buses taking at least double the time

I mean, how do you expect TFW to speed up the buses? Roads don't follow train lines and the roads have lower speed limits than the railway. The only possible way of speeding up the bus is express buses but then as is seen in the valleys, when an express bus is put on, people complain that their station is missed. Like on the Pwllheli branch, coaches spend an extra 30 minutes each way to plod through Tywyn as residents complained that they didn't get the fast bus.

The forum of today's meeting is interesting: the Welsh Affairs committee of the House of Commons.
You'd expect the Welsh Government and its committees to be on the case in its own back yard, and directing TfW Rail Services policy, but apparently not.

By any chance was blame pointed at the UK govt?

 

[Bletchleyite]

James Price said some contradictory things.
The Marches route is on one hand "performing incredibly badly", while on the other it is "our only profitable route, allowing us to cross-subsidise routes elsewhere".

I don't think they are contradictory. By "performing incredibly badly" they mean punctuality, reliability and rolling stock, I'd say. Not the business-speak sense of "performing well" = "is profitable".

 

[Parallel]

I would concur with others - I’m not convinced that all of the decline in numbers will be due to COVID, although that would have definitely have had a large impact on certain routes on certain days/times. Leisure travel seems to be busier than ever on nearby GWR and XC and there seems to be a lot of commuters using GWR midweek, at least.

Unfortunately the performance and customer experience of many TfW routes has really decreased over the last few years in my opinion. Customers must be getting crowded off the 2 car 150 services that are substituting on the Marches. The Maesteg trains seem to have become prone to late running which then causes issues elsewhere on the South Wales Mainline. The current timetable clearly isn’t working for the Wrexham to Bidston line, the 2 car units from Manchester to Llandudno aren’t coping on weekends, the Heart of Wales line seems to have regular curtailments at Llanwrtyd and there are frequent unit swaps at Shrewsbury for services between Holyhead/Aberystwyth/Pwllheli and Birmingham Intl. Not to mention engineering works probably helping to kill off any remaining commuting on some Valleys routes. Splitting half the Manchester - West Wales services at Cardiff, regularly failing to provide advertised first class to North Wales and GWR running more trains to Carmarthen probably also haven’t helped.

I know not all these are TfW’s fault but if passengers have their journeys repeatedly disrupted, it’s more likely going to push them to cars next time.

 

[DLAYKEGER]

Yes buses take more time but their use on the Borderlands is due to management failures to maintain 175 resulting in losing the regular class 150s on the line for the best part of 4months and then using the £30m sicknote 230s on a 2 hrly service that can't last half a day in service. It was March (maybe Feb) when we last saw a service resembling anything like the timetable

 

[craigybagel]

That indeed was the case with the 2015 timetable revamp. Though I'm not sure that "standard pattern" quite applied, gaps were variable and there were some long pauses (20+ minutes) awaiting oncoming trains at passing loops.

However a further revamp in December 2022 improved the timetable markedly, reducing gaps with an additional midday / early afternoon service each way. I haven't heard any reports on how passenger numbers have developed. I don't know whether @craigybagel still works the line and might know more?

Unfortunately I don't work that line any more, though I do miss it greatly. There are a few other staff on here who do work it, perhaps they might chip in.

As for today's news, hopefully it means the plans for speeding up the Marches services will continue, and not be impacted by not running as many services as planned. It'll be interesting to see what proposed changes they come up with.

There's a big market for leisure travel to be won over on a network like TfW's, more so than many other TOCs - so long as a decent reliable service can be provided.