GBR Service Types/Designations

[Sorcerer]

So when in the not-too-distant future when Great British Railways becomes the unifying rail brand across the country, there will be different kinds of passenger services depending on the distance, stopping pattern, rolling stock, and on-board facilities. But how many service types should there be and what current operations could be classed as which type? In my personal opinion, commuter rail within cities can be left to the local Passenger Transport Executive (such as Merseyrail), and from then on we should have these types of passenger services on the National Rail network.

• Regional: Services connecting cities, towns and villages in rural areas. Generally short trains with a single class configuration - Examples: Northern, Scotrail.
• Regional Express: Services similar to Regional but stopping at fewer stations. Short to medium length trains with single class configuration - Examples: Scotrail Express, Elizabeth Line (core).
• InterRegional: Semi-fast services to serve as the halfway point between Regional Express and InterCity. Medium to long length trains with multiple class configuration - Examples: TransPenine Express, London Northwestern Railway.
• InterCity: Fast long-distance express trains serving only major calling points (but with some InterRegional stopping patterns at peak times). Long length trains with multiple class configuration - Examples: Avanti West Coast, LNER.
• High-Speed: Fast long-distance InterCity services that run on dedicated high-speed infrastructure for a significant portion of it's journey - Examples: SouthEastern High Speed, Future HS2 services.
• International: Self-explanatory, and only should really be considered an option if we have significant variety in cross-channel passenger trains or if GBR itself decides to dip into the market. - Examples: Eurostar.

For some parts of the network this would require a bit of a restructuring.

The London Northwestern Railway services from London to Crewe and Birmingham to Liverpool would be classed as InterRegional while the services out of Euston such as the Tring stopper or Milton Keynes service would fall under Regional.

ScotRail locals would also fall under Regional while ScotRail Express and Inter7City would be Regional Express (I don't consider Inter7City to be true InterCity cause of the short distances and the train lengths, but I am open to discussion on that one).

CrossCountry would also have it's Turbostar services split up into a Regional while it's Voyager services would probably fall under InterRegional or InterCity. I'd also reclassify Avanti's Birmingham semi-fast as InterRegional.

What do you think? Should GBR have different service types and designations, and if so what would you include or remove? I would be very interested to hear your opinions on this.

 

[The exile]

While it’s “neat and tidy” in theory, there’s only much point if there’s going to be fare differences - which in itself is only justifiable if there’s an adequate “2nd tier” service. Better than the current mess with distinction by operator, though.

 

[Tazi Hupefi]

Along these lines, a recurring theme is more of a return to sectorisation, however some areas will be fully or partially devolved and essentially GBR will need to bid to operate those services, if they want them, but that's some way off, and probably once everything else has happened with GBR first.

The latest I have heard is that the Network Rail regions will be used with Wales potentially separate, rather than in with Western.

Eastern
North West & Central
Scotland
Southern
Wales
Western

Services will be able to run cross country by cooperation between the sectors, including sharing of train and crews.

 

[eldomtom2]

While it’s “neat and tidy” in theory, there’s only much point if there’s going to be fare differences - which in itself is only justifiable if there’s an adequate “2nd tier” service. Better than the current mess with distinction by operator, though.

There are advantages in terms of communication - for example if you're trying to find your train, and you know it's a "Regional" service, you can ignore anything about "InterCity" or "High-Speed" services.

 

[Clarence Yard]

Hendy wants Region/Route with one person in charge of each Region or Route. He is not a fan of Sectorisation.

GBR isn’t bidding to run its own services! It will just run them as it decides!

 

[Tazi Hupefi]

Hendy wants Region/Route with one person in charge of each Region or Route. He is not a fan of Sectorisation.

GBR isn’t bidding to run its own services! It will just run them as it decides!

The question is what are its own services?

Burnham and the rest of them have very different ideas on that point. Services which are wholly within/ or operate very close to the Greater Manchester boundary are likely to eventually follow a concession model if the mayors get their way - and it will be open to any interested bidder, including GBR.

Local mayors are certainly not interested in having a ticketing system imposed on them by GBR, or being made to fit into the GBR fares structure - their argument is that it should happen the other way around, at least in the regions where this occurs.

Agree on the sectors point, I did rather mean regions - although I guess you could categorise a region as a sector, rather than a business operating unit.

 

[Zomboid]

Personally I would be in favour of "metro-isation" of much of the network.
Taking the SWR area as an example, each of the London services (Chessington, Shepperton etc) would be a "line", and they'd probably just have local services. The longer distance routes would also have "lines", such as the Alton Line and Basingstoke Line, with consistant stopping patterns, and any services such as peak time workings which run fast from Woking to London rather than calling at Weybridge & Clapham would be "Basingstoke Line Limited Stop" trains.
There would essentially be "Local", "Limited Stop" and "Express" services which could run on each line.

Services like XC would be Limited and Express, and perhaps there would need to be a "Super Express" or something for the likes of the first stop York ECML services.

 

[Tazi Hupefi]

Poland is a good example of the sort of model which I think will eventually appear, but not for a long time and not in the first model of GBR.

PKP are essentially the GBR - and have responsibility for most/all InterCity, primary routes and international trains.

Polregio which are essentially regional services and owned by the regional authorities, and semi-compete with PKP InterCity, slower but generally cheaper and often more frequent. Previously owned by PKP.

And then each 'metro' style city region has their own branded regional services, some of them privately operated, some of them operated by PKP depending on who won the tender. Concession model, highly specified by the local region, more akin to London Overground or Merseyrail.

Incidentally, given the Merseyrail and London Overground "concessions" are up for renewal - nothing stopping GBR from bidding, (assuming they're set up and running properly in time).