Extend Nuneaton - Leamington service to Stratford-upon-Avon

[option]

Could the Nuneaton-Leamington service be extended through to Stratford?
Reversal required at Leamington.

This would give a connection between Stratford & Coventry, which doesn't currently exist, & a vastly improved service for Leamington<>Stratford, including Claverdon & Bearley.


Also, does anyone know why the Stourbridge-Stratford service skips so many stops (6)?

 

[Whistler40145]

Would paths be available to cross the Chiltern Mainline at Leamington Spa

 

[jimm]

Could the Nuneaton-Leamington service be extended through to Stratford?
Reversal required at Leamington.

This would give a connection between Stratford & Coventry, which doesn't currently exist, & a vastly improved service for Leamington<>Stratford, including Claverdon & Bearley.


Also, does anyone know why the Stourbridge-Stratford service skips so many stops (6)?

It could, in that there are rails between the two places, but the performance risks of crossing two busy main lines, using a long single-line section and reversing en route don't bear thinking about.

There is a route between Stratford and Coventry, it's called the A46 and anyone in a car can cover the distance in less time than a train takes to get between Stratford and Leamington, never mind Coventry.

Not sure what you mean about Stourbridge-Stratford trains. The service is a mix, some trains running via Shirley and Henley-in-Arden, and some running via Solihull and Dorridge and using the north to west curve at Hatton, so calling patterns are inevitably different, depending on the route.

Would paths be available to cross the Chiltern Mainline at Leamington Spa

Or from Hatton to Bearley Junction, which is single track.

 

[Mag_seven]

Would paths be available to cross the Chiltern Mainline at Leamington Spa

There must be loads of opportunities for a crossing move at Leamington.

 

[The Planner]

With the timetable as it is now? not really. Currently the Nuneaton arrives at around xx.55. Needs 5 minutes for a reversal so that is xx.00, the same time as the southbound XC arrives. You have a northbound Chiltern at the same sort of time so you cannot go until 3 minutes after that disappears, and that stops at Warwick and Warwick Parkway so you will be trundling behind that. If you are going to stop at Hatton I doubt you are going to leave there until around xx.13ish so you'll get to the single line just as the Stratford to Stourbridge service comes off it at xx.16 so you have to wait for that. Not as easy as you think.

 

[Railwaysceptic]

The new Chiltern timetable has trains running from Marylebone to Stratford-Upon-Avon. Why it is necessary to supplement the current provision with reversals at Leamington Spa?

 

[Aictos]

It could, in that there are rails between the two places, but the performance risks of crossing two busy main lines, using a long single-line section and reversing en route don't bear thinking about.

There is a route between Stratford and Coventry, it's called the A46 and anyone in a car can cover the distance in less time than a train takes to get between Stratford and Leamington, never mind Coventry.

Not sure what you mean about Stourbridge-Stratford trains. The service is a mix, some trains running via Shirley and Henley-in-Arden, and some running via Solihull and Dorridge and using the north to west curve at Hatton, so calling patterns are inevitably different, depending on the route.



Or from Hatton to Bearley Junction, which is single track.

However if you don’t drive or have access to a car then the A46 isn’t really a good suggestion!

 

[43096]

The new Chiltern timetable has trains running from Marylebone to Stratford-Upon-Avon. Why it is necessary to supplement the current provision with reversals at Leamington Spa?

Only necessary in the sense that there seemingly has to be a direct train from everywhere to everywhere. Utter nonsense of course.

 

[DavidGrain]

The new Chiltern timetable has trains running from Marylebone to Stratford-Upon-Avon. Why it is necessary to supplement the current provision with reversals at Leamington Spa?

I had not seen that in the new Chiltern timetable. That is an improvement as many of the Marylebone to Stratford services were lost, I understand, because the paths for these trains were taken by the start of the Marylebone to Oxford service, The loss of the the direct service from London to Stratford was not good for a major tourist attraction. Also I have know many cases of people being advised to travel to Dorridge and change to a Stratford train from there if there is not a convenient service from Leamington.

As for crossing the Chiltern main line, my recollection is that the Leamington to Stratford shuttle did exactly that as it used the bay platform on the up side of the station.

Personally I think a service from Coventry to Leicester would be a better idea but I cannot think of a way of getting over the reverse at Nuneaton which would have to be done out in the country as I cannot see a way of doing it in the station.

 

[Railwaysceptic]

I had not seen that in the new Chiltern timetable. That is an improvement as many of the Marylebone to Stratford services were lost, I understand, because the paths for these trains were taken by the start of the Marylebone to Oxford service, The loss of the the direct service from London to Stratford was not good for a major tourist attraction. Also I have know many cases of people being advised to travel to Dorridge and change to a Stratford train from there if there is not a convenient service from Leamington.

As for crossing the Chiltern main line, my recollection is that the Leamington to Stratford shuttle did exactly that as it used the bay platform on the up side of the station.

Personally I think a service from Coventry to Leicester would be a better idea but I cannot think of a way of getting over the reverse at Nuneaton which would have to be done out in the country as I cannot see a way of doing it in the station.

I found out about the service only because last week I caught a train to Marylebone where there were notice boards proclaiming it. It seems it's essentially an extension of the service to Banbury so it doesn't take up any additional train paths.

Your recollection of the Leamington/Stratford shuttle is correct. I've witnessed it while waiting on the platform for the train to Marylebone.

 

[option]

The new Chiltern timetable has trains running from Marylebone to Stratford-Upon-Avon. Why it is necessary to supplement the current provision with reversals at Leamington Spa?

Todays times for direct trains, Leamington to Stratford;
06:51
08:08
09:40
11:32
13:32
15:32
18:11
20:26

Even if your willing to do a change, & allow up to 2(!) hours, that's only an additional 9 services.
Is that really a provision?

Also, that's only from Leamington. If your in Coventry, the nearest city to Stratford, with a pop. of 1/3m, there are no train services.

The Nuneaton-Leamington service is hourly, so that would be a regular & useful service for Leamington-Stratford & the stations in-between.

 

[VT 390]

I think instead of trying to introduce more direct services from Stratford-upon-Avon it would be better to try and get an hourly service from Leamington first (not every service would need to stop at every station). I know the single track section may be an issue but if timetabled right I think it would be possible.

 

[Ianno87]

I think instead of trying to introduce more direct services from Stratford-upon-Avon it would be better to try and get an hourly service from Leamington first (not every service would need to stop at every station). I know the single track section may be an issue but if timetabled right I think it would be possible.

Problem is, an hourly shuttle (Say) Stratford-Leamington is hopelessly uneconomical with units; a round trip is about 65-70 minutes with turnrounds etc. You might just squeeze it in under an hour running non-stop in both directions, assuming the entire timetabling universe was planned around the single unit flinging itself back and forth (not realistic, really), and stuffing any kind of meaningful service provision at Claverdon or Bearley, or London-bound Park and Ride opportunities from Stratford Parkway.

 

[30907]

An hourly service would require an extra unit (and crew), whether or not it ran through to Banbury and London. Whether that would pay for itself I don't know.

Handing over Stratford to WMR would, realistically, mean abandoning a London service altogether. If suitable paths could be found, Nuneaton-Stratford could be worked with 3 units, and Chiltern would save one.

I suspect Stratford would prefer its London service, even at 2-hourly!

Meanwhile, the late afternoon timetable gap option highlights could be filled with a 1615 SAV-LMS and 1702 return in the layover time of the current service (rules of the plan and crewing permitting), which might be useful.

 

[option]

Problem is, an hourly shuttle (Say) Stratford-Leamington is hopelessly uneconomical with units; a round trip is about 65-70 minutes with turnrounds etc. You might just squeeze it in under an hour running non-stop in both directions, assuming the entire timetabling universe was planned around the single unit flinging itself back and forth (not realistic, really), and stuffing any kind of meaningful service provision at Claverdon or Bearley, or London-bound Park and Ride opportunities from Stratford Parkway.

Chiltern are taking 33minutes Stratford>Leamington, for a 15mile journey, stopping at all stations.
I assume the issue is the junction speed at Hatton?

If the average speed could get to 40mph for the journey, that cuts it to 23minutes each way.