Finally, is there anything stopping an operator from running a, lets say, all premium, first class only OA service with 4 coaches? Provided they thought it would make money would the DfT or Network rail have a reason to not allow it?
Are you talking about setting up a company to operate upmarket services that isn’t part of ORCATS and doesn’t accept “regular” tickets (or get any share of any TOC’s “cake”)?
In guess that’s The Jacobite that you could be describing, and it seems to work, despite running from a WHL station to another WHL station without having to avoid anywhere obvious (e.g. Holyrood didn’t insist that it had to provide something that ScotRail weren’t like “a Mallaig to Oban service which didn’t stop at Fort William” to ensure that ScotRail didn’t lose their Mallaig - Fort William income)
But very few lines really justify half a carriage of first class these days, yet alone making them 100% first class, maybe if I were going to look at a market that could justify fully first class train I’d consider something from Thetford to Liverpool Street (non stop from Cambridge to Stratford, yes, Stratford!) on the grounds that…
Whilst Cambridge to London seems a busy and prosperous market , it has done relatively basic trains serving it (okay, not everyone sits all the way on a Thameslink 700, but for various , Cambridge doesn’t have much “fast” running into the capital and therefore gets nothing particularly special in terms of trains, we seem to only put effort into comfort/ quality facilities if a train goes at 125mph. It’s obviously too short a journey for a Restaurant Car but I think that we could offer some “trimmings” that would go down well (a few tourists/ students/ business types with a few quid might prefer to wait for the train where they get “complimentary“ food at their seat (the occasional cream cake might have a crazy profit margin, even if they aren’t as long life as a bag of crisps) and a quieter atmosphere on board than some of the “commuter” trains that run from Cambridge to London with their frequent stops and/or “commuter” feel
Lumo/ GC/ HT are competing with long 125 trains that have great onboard facilities (please no tedious arguments about the seats again, stick them in the Seating Subforum!), whereas Cambridgeshire trains are really just competing with a 387/755 (perfectly decent modern trains, and I know that some people get very excited at using one particular door to enter a FLIRT, but a unit with ends doors and a service offering “freebies” and an upmarket refurb might find a gap in the market
Thetford is just to be seen to offer something that other TOCs currently don’t, without competing for the Norwich money, plus there’s a crossover there, it’s really about the Cambridge to Stansted/ Liverpool Street passengers but Thetford isn’t too far, and I think that you have to be seen to offer something “unique” to have a chance, get a local MP to get that they ought to back you etc. and it means serving Cambridge North too
Stratford? Well, nobody else is doing it from what I can see, plus I’m sure the Cambridge to Canary Wharf market would pick up a market of people who’d pay first class - if those two places aren’t upmarket enough to warrant it then we might as well give up! And Stratford is an increasingly important place in its own right these days, as well as the connections for Southend etc
Non stop from Cambridge to Stratford? Partly because I don’t think there’s anywhere big enough to demand a stop that Greater Anglia doesn’t use for Cambridge services. But mainly because feeling like a non stop service with end doors will set it apart a bit, whereas a first class ticket looks harder to justify on a services where you’re distracted by a dozen intermediate stops over a short distance - even if you get a terrible path on the West Anglia line, the ability to switch off mentally, kick back, enjoy that complimentary food and drink without the stopping/ starting and the frequent announcements and interruptions that so many intermediate stops means… it might be appealing to some (can’t get rid of announcements but a long non stop section means you can give “guests” a break (yeah, call them “guests” rather than “customers”, blow some smoke to their backside)
Now, like the thread about how to serve the Edinburgh “Sub”, I don’t think that what I’m proposing is really a priority, but if I had to find an example of a fully First Class service to suit the OP’s need (like an Apprentice task) then something a bit posher for Cambridge to London than the same EMUs that TSGN/Anglia use on much shorter services seems worth investigating
(the only alternative would be a limited stop train on a scenic/rural route where passengers otherwise have to put up with 1980s DMUs that feel like they stop everywhere, but it’s hard to offer anything particularly unique when the existing TOC serves everywhere already, and single track limits “spare” paths- maybe limited stop from Manchester to Aberystwyth though, in theory, given the students and tourists you should have Year round demand, maybe plus a complimentary connecting bus to portmerion and make a selling point of the lack of disruption caused by tow many minor intermediate stations)
