Busy trains between Milton Keynes & Euston

[bILLOO]

Let's face it, five-car Voyagers are not big enough to carry both Chester / N. Wales and MK passengers into London. Maybe some of the high frequency Manchester pendolinos should stop at MK instead (if they don't already?)

For Virgin Trains it's currently 1tph to Birmingham, 1tph to Manchester and 1tph to Chester/North Wales from Milton Keynes off peak, I think...

 

[6Gman]

Let's face it, five-car Voyagers are not big enough to carry both Chester / N. Wales and MK passengers into London. Maybe some of the high frequency Manchester pendolinos should stop at MK instead (if they don't already?)

But nobody's going to pay for empty carriages on a 2 hour journey which only fill for the last 30 minutes!

 

[jaffa]

As a regular traveller to/from North Wales to MKC I would like to argue with this perception that the trains to and from North Wales and Chester are only used between Euston and Crewe or even MKC. On Friday I travelled on the 1510 ex Euston to Chester and it was almost full - certainly wasn't "half empty" anyway. I am aware this was a Friday but it was a mid afternoon train and the direct trains after this to North Wales are always far busier.

Anyone who travels on the Euston to Chester trains know that upon arrival at Chester, a huge amount of passengers get the connecting train to North Wales - there is a massive demand for these trains and this connection! It annoys me that so people think there is no demand for North Wales, and the hourly VT to Chester is always well used.

I think Virgin need to stop more at MKC to even out the traffic - otherwise people wait for the faster Virgin service instead of getting the LM stopper, and this imbalances the passenger load.

If Virgin made better connections at Watford, MKC and Crewe and stopped more of their trains at these places, it would even out the passenger numbers by allowing people to travel to where they actually want to go.