Yeah but the trouble is anyone in the south west going "up country" it is automatically a 3 hour plus journey just to get to Birmingham. If 3 hours isn't a long distance journey I don't know what is. Plymouth to BNS is 3 and a half hours and that's just to Birmingham, most people are travelling further than that (ie Manchester / Liverpool / Leeds. So suddenly thats more like 5 hours. Its very much an intercity route compared with the Reading route.
Again - it's a question of relative passenger numbers. How many people are actually going all the way from Plymouth to BHM/MAN/LIV/LDS?
but there is this thread discussing why people dislike changing trains. Thats why XC do have some very long distance passengers
www.railforums.co.uk
There's always a decent proportion in my experience going at least Plymouth to Birmingham. Thats way too far to stand when a 4 car voyager turns up. Reading to Birmingham on the other hand, at an hour and a half is slightly less bad if standing is required.
Unfortunately the 0825 from Coventry was indeed one of the services that was shortformed. Off the top of my head the 1715 from Reading would usually be an 8 car formation, not sure why it wasn't yesterday, and the 1815 is typically booked a single set during the week, though usually 5 car rather than 4.
I imagine loads of drivers were rostered onto the New St resignalling brief again like last Saturday when they expected the RMT to be on strike. It has to be done unfortunately and with the government refusing to authorise the rest day working agreement this is probably the best way. It's far from ideal but at least there are other options for travellers on the Cardiff-Notts route.
www.globaltenders.com
Looks like a tender for management of rail replacement buses, probably due to a existing contract coming to an end.Seeing all the cross country cancellations, does anyone know why there is government tender for emergency management services of cross country
Select Country Tender
, Select Country Tenders, Government RFPs Global Tenders
5 today, although the previous 15:00 to Birmingham was cancelled due to an issue with the train crew. The 14:00 to Manchester Piccadilly started at Birmingham, once again due to an issue with the train crew.
Yep, can confirm XC01 is only 6 carriages at the minute. Spotted at EXD earlier
I thought this was a result of the WMT RMT industrial action (but I’m probably wrong)
Other services are available.
True, could be worse, but the Voyagers are as busy as ever with many 4 or 5 car sets running around and making the connections into trains to/from the stations not served by the Voyagers adds considerably to the overall journey time and inconvenience.
Alas no. Still majority of XC trains cancelled Birmingham-Cardiff today 9/12. Not on here to moan - although it is frustrating as someone who at the moment is having to visit QE hospital at University from Chepstow several times a week- more seeking to understand why this route was being hit more than others so something specific beyond overtime bans. But from responses it appears not.
It’s simply because it has the most alternatives, so it’s the first one to get the axe.
Nope, no Cardiff depot for XC. So it's all Birmingham and Bristol worked.
