Birmingham is not the main commuter flow from Nuneaton - never ever said that it wasn't the main commuter flow, this topic isn't about the cross country service, which is inadequate
but that is, surely, where the focus of service improvement can offer the most benefit. Longer trains get more people using them to get to work in the local economic centre?
WHY must Nuneaton have services at the expense of outer towns ( mainly Milton Keynes and Rugby?) - never, ever said that either in fact I have supported extra services for both as both were affected badly by the VHF timetable
You may not have said that but that is the reality of your position. To serve Nuneaton with more Virgin services mean someone else has to have a slower journey or lose their service. I don't think Nuneaton will generate the revenue to justify that decision.
Why would you bypass a major reveune point in Milton Keynes to offer people of Nuneaton a direct service to London on an hourly basis? Which towns will you deprive of services to fit in your almost pointless calls at Nuneaton outside of peak hours? Perhaps you could list them here with your reasoning? - Never ever said that either, all I have said is a better use of the available paths is to run an extra (or two) 1 25mph service instead of one current 110mph service, one which could run fast to Nuneaton or MK then Nuneaton, then serve the principle TV stations, then on to Liveprool or somewhere else. Or could stop the current Chester services at Nuneaton instead.
but people with better knowledge of how the railway works say that while this may be possible it might not be the best use of that capacity. That means someone must lose out to serve Nuneaton. That is the reality of the situation. The other reality is that those in charge of Virgin have decided that Nuneaton isnt really worth bothering with. They must have knowledge you don't about revenue.
Milton Keynes, yes it has become more important but I am not suggesting bypassing it just serving it in a different way and London will always be many times more important.
I honestly don't know what you are suggesting except an hourly first stop Nuneaton Virgin service. perhaps you could clarify your ideas. There are increasing numbers of commuters from the TV stations to MK. How do you serve them?
I would challenge that, for Nuneaton, London is more important than Milton Keynes. I suspect more people travel to work here than London. Perhaps you have some evidence to back up your claims?
As other posters said we did have an hourly London - Liverpool service stop at Nuneaton plus a few extras before VHF and there were signs even then that after all the disruption along the west coast were service were routinely diverted away from the Trent Valley that use was recovering strongly. Some good points made about connections at Nuneaton, some 600000 interchanges were made at Nuneaton, not insignificant at all.
Do you have any evidence of numbers using these services? I cant believe that Virgin would cut stops that were profitable. The fact they did suggests their data to show that Nuneaton was of less importance to their business than you think it should be.
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Also, on this pathing issue, given that I sat down with someone from the DfT at the time of the 110 project and look at how the pathing worked I'd be surprised he got that wrong, he clearly said you can run 2 125pmh paths where one 110mph path exists, south of Nuneaton, we even went into how many seconds per mile a 125mph train would catch a 110mph train going through Weedon! I'd be surprised if he got that wrong.
But we return to the base point that you think that despite Nuneaton having a good service ( honestly!) you are unhappy that service is offered by scummy units rather than glorious Pendolinos. As if that matters.
My view is that apart outdside of peak hours the trains you want to see would be fairly empty. Remember they would run non stop to Nuneaton. During peak hours those trains would be fairly empty as i suspect the market for travel simply inst there in the numbers you suggest. In an ideal world with lots of trains, seats for all and space on the track you might be able to take a punt and see what happens. We don't live in that world.
For a comparison come and look at trains from MK to London at peak hours. Do you suggest that Nunaeton can match those levels? Really? Because that is the level that the TOC will want to see to persuade them to switch stopping patterns.
