Birmingham – Tamworth terminating services

[A S Leib]

In the CrossCountry reservation thread, Birmingham – Tamworth's been brought up as a flow where mandatory reservations would be particularly cumbersome. Would it be worth introducing extra Birmingham – Tamworth services, either only between those two stations or as an extension of an existing service (e.g. Hereford or Shrewsbury – not as I think there's lots of demand between the pair, but just to get trains out of the way from New Street)? That would leave more space on Nottingham and Edinburgh services for longer-distance passengers. Tamworth – Birmingham is 170,000 passengers per year against 47,000 for Burton, Derby and Nottingham (and 100,000 for Euston). The problems I can think of are capacity at New Street, especially for terminating services, reliability of a service anywhere through Birmingham, pathing between existing XC services and reversing at Tamworth.

 

[JonathanH]

Tamworth doesn't have the facilities needed to reverse a train from Birmingham (or Derby). Burton needs a train to shunt north of the station to reverse. Before you know it, the train might as well go to Derby.

The question then becomes what is the best way to structure 5tph between Birmingham and Derby, and is there rolling stock available. Some may favour the direct Nottingham via Castle Donington as a solution.

It also might be noted that Tamworth is an interchange and needs services both north and south.

 

[brad465]

A better place to look would be making all XC services through this corridor longer: the Voyager issues are well documented, but 170-run services are even shorter and less capacious so would be the low-hanging fruit to deal with. They are usually only 3 cars long, with the odd service one fewer or one more carriage. If XC were able to receive more rolling stock from somewhere that allowed more 170s to join up, and/or replace 170s on this route while increasing capacity, this would help. The only options for this I can think of are XC getting all 18 ex-Avanti Voyagers instead of just 12 (and then having capacity to diagram a few voyagers on the Birmingham-Nottingham route in addition to 170s), or bringing in soon-to-be redundant 222s and putting them on the route.

 

[The Planner]

In the CrossCountry reservation thread, Birmingham – Tamworth's been brought up as a flow where mandatory reservations would be particularly cumbersome. Would it be worth introducing extra Birmingham – Tamworth services, either only between those two stations or as an extension of an existing service (e.g. Hereford or Shrewsbury – not as I think there's lots of demand between the pair, but just to get trains out of the way from New Street)? That would leave more space on Nottingham and Edinburgh services for longer-distance passengers. Tamworth – Birmingham is 170,000 passengers per year against 47,000 for Burton, Derby and Nottingham (and 100,000 for Euston). The problems I can think of are capacity at New Street, especially for terminating services, reliability of a service anywhere through Birmingham, pathing between existing XC services and reversing at Tamworth.

Needs crossovers and somewhere to get a train out of the way at Tamworth. If the Bordesley chords are built, you would send it to Moor St.

 

[DarloRich]

practically you would have to run it to Derby

I try never to use XC as the service is awful but it would be great if all trains could stop at Tamworth as it offers some good connections north an south.

Could we also rebuild Tamworth station to make it, well, pleasant?

 

[duffield]

Burton-on-Trent has a filled in bay facing the right way, so a commuter shuttle from there to Birmingham stopping at Tamworth Wilnecote and Water Orton (possibly also going round via Coleshill Parkway to allow faster services to overtake) might make sense - if there were paths for it, and platform capacity at New Street, and spare rolling stock and drivers, and if it wouldn't cost an eye-watering amount of money just to reinstate the bay!

Seriously though I can see the theoretical advantage of having one service per hour only going as far as Burton and *not* going through to Derby, to separate out the traffic.

 

[ChrisC]

Burton-on-Trent has a filled in bay facing the right way, so a commuter shuttle from there to Birmingham stopping at Tamworth Wilnecote and Water Orton (possibly also going round via Coleshill Parkway to allow faster services to overtake) might make sense - if there were paths for it, and platform capacity at New Street, and spare rolling stock and drivers, and if it wouldn't cost an eye-watering amount of money just to reinstate the bay!

Seriously though I can see the theoretical advantage of having one service per hour only going as far as Burton and *not* going through to Derby, to separate out the traffic.

I can see the advantages of having a stopping train calling at Water Orton, Coleshill Parkway, Winecote, Tamworth and Burton-on-Trent, but I would have it run through to Derby also calling at Willington. Would Peartree be one stop too many?

The Cardiff-Nottingham train should still run via Derby to provide through journey opportunities from Derby but only call at Tamworth, Burton-on-Trent, Derby and Long Eaton.

Then the current Birmingham-Nottingham train could run via Castle Donington providing a much needed shorter journey time between Birmingham and Nottingham. This train calling at Tamworth, Burton-on-Trent and Beeston.

The main disadvantage would be losing a train between Derby and Nottingham but there would still be 3tph now that EMR are running 2tph.

 

[Bartsimho]

The main disadvantage would be losing a train between Derby and Nottingham but there would still be 3tph now that EMR are running 2tph.

I do think Derby-Nottingham needs 4tph if purely because it is prime railway ground. 2 cities not too far away from each other. Both with good population and poor central parking meaning it can be time competitive as well

 

[A S Leib]

I do think Derby-Nottingham needs 4tph if purely because it is prime railway ground. 2 cities not too far away from each other. Both with good population and poor central parking meaning it can be time competitive as well

Given that the NET comes within ten miles of Derby and that it's a metro area of a million people or so, I think having a dedicated route without having to rely on onward services to Matlock, Newark, Cardiff etc. to get between the two would be best.

 

[cle]

Are you suggesting a route on NET to Derby instead?

 

[A S Leib]

Are you suggesting a route on NET to Derby instead?

I'm suggesting that trams or a metro not heavy rail, should be the main rail route between Nottingham and Derby, but that's getting off-topic from Tamworth.

I try never to use XC as the service is awful but it would be great if all trains could stop at Tamworth as it offers some good connections north an south.

Yes; especially as I don't think the Marston Vale line runs on Sundays, which is the only day when Bedford has a regular direct service to Leicester and north, it's one I've used a few times despite going via London probably being quicker.

Could we also rebuild Tamworth station to make it, well, pleasant?

That would help.

 

[Doctor Fegg]

Burton-on-Trent has a filled in bay facing the right way

Why, yes, so it does. Birmingham–Tamworth–Burton–(reverse)–Swadlincote–Ashby–Coalville?

 

[m0ffy]

Why, yes, so it does. Birmingham–Tamworth–Burton–(reverse)–Swadlincote–Ashby–Coalville?

As this would benefit me enormously, yes please. But as it involves the perma-doomed Leicester-Burton line, I don’t feel optimistic.

 

[Russel]

Until recently, I travelled between Tamworth and Birmingham frequently.

Far too often did a 2 car 170 turn up too full to board, the usual option was to travel up to Lichfield and onto Birmingham via the X-City, but given the frequent bus between Tamworth and Birmingham, £2 each way and only takes 10 minutes more than going via Lichfield, that became my usual choice.

 

[DM352]

My 5c is another unit attached to serve Tamworth and it gets detached at Derby for adding to the next Brum direction service.

This reminds me when the three car 120's were replaced with two car sprinters and there were unhappy boarding customers Tamworth peak time.