Grand union Cardiff to Edinburgh open access proposal

[anthony263]

I've contacted Grand Union Trains about their plans for a Cardiff to Edinburgh route and the omission of a Worcestershire Parkway stop. Pathing restrictions is a familiar excuse used by TOC's so far as WOP is concerned and Grand Union is no exception. However, they are yet to submit all their final proposals to the ORR and would welcome correspondence from potential stakeholders and other interested parties to use as part of their developing business case. So get emailing.

I'm still waiting for the Carmarthen to London service

 

[TT-ONR-NRN]

Cardiff as you say is well connected to the North West, and has two trains per hour to Birmingham.

Since when?!! First I’ve heard of that in the 2.5 years of living here!

 

[The Prisoner]

The obvious win is a South West - Glasgow service via the WCML:

Glasgow token connectivity (1 service per day? skim read XC timetable) to the XC network (635k population)
Cumbria/Preston/Wigan/Warrington/Crewe* no connectivity to XC network without changing @ BHM/Wolves or Manchester depending on location (*does Crewe still have 1 train per day or whatever it was?)
North Wales/Cheshire/Liverpool - 1/2 changes typically needed to access the south west via IC routes (Marches route and change at Newport is slow)
Same in reverse for Cheltenham/Bristol/Somerset/Cornwall

No need for a Cardiff - Glasgow service as this can be achieved changing at Crewe (although note that the Avanti TV directs skip Crewe thus making that journey harder than it should be.....)

 

[irish_rail]

The obvious win is a South West - Glasgow service via the WCML:

Glasgow token connectivity (1 service per day? skim read XC timetable) to the XC network (635k population)
Cumbria/Preston/Wigan/Warrington/Crewe* no connectivity to XC network without changing @ BHM/Wolves or Manchester depending on location (*does Crewe still have 1 train per day or whatever it was?)
North Wales/Cheshire/Liverpool - 1/2 changes typically needed to access the south west via IC routes (Marches route and change at Newport is slow)
Same in reverse for Cheltenham/Bristol/Somerset/Cornwall

No need for a Cardiff - Glasgow service as this can be achieved changing at Crewe (although note that the Avanti TV directs skip Crewe thus making that journey harder than it should be.....)

My thoughts exactly. It's such a shame XC can't go back to the way it was before 2006ish when it actually connected up the country, not just about what is operationally convenient for the railway .

 

[Justin Smith]

my favorite of the lot, a 180, and I'm not joking I do genuinely like these trains

They are comfy, relatively quiet, and with bags of leg room. The 175s are so as well.
It is a big pity their reliability was )apparently ? ) their Achilles heel. I'd have loved to see more of them built.

 

[IanXC]

I've contacted Grand Union Trains about their plans for a Cardiff to Edinburgh route and the omission of a Worcestershire Parkway stop. Pathing restrictions is a familiar excuse used by TOC's so far as WOP is concerned and Grand Union is no exception. However, they are yet to submit all their final proposals to the ORR and would welcome correspondence from potential stakeholders and other interested parties to use as part of their developing business case. So get emailing.

Rotherham Central would seem to be another that might be worthwhile considering, particularly as per Worcestershire Parkway, in terms of local stakeholder advocacy.