Id like to see a TOC centered around Cambridge

[paulmch]

Moderator note: split from

Central Trains to East Midlands Trains/CrossCountry

When the Central Trains franchise was split into a number of different operators (London Midland, East Midlands Trains, CrossCountry and to a degree Arriva Trains Wales), why were the Liverpool - Norwich services given to East Midlands Trains and the Birmingham - Standsted Airport and Birmingam...

www.railforums.co.uk

Somewhat off topic but if I had my way I'd make a TOC (or an operating unit or whatever the divisions of GBR become) centred on Cambridge that combined a lot of the ex-Central stuff into one unit with similar traction.

You'd need depots at the west of the route obviously, but I'd have the Birmingham-Stansted, Liverpool-Norwich, Norwich-Stansted and Oxford-Cambridge routes all under one roof.

A neat solution that would serve the economic powerhouse of Cambridge much better than the current arrangement!

 

[dk1]

Somewhat off topic but if I had my way I'd make a TOC (or an operating unit or whatever the divisions of GBR become) centred on Cambridge that combined a lot of the ex-Central stuff into one unit with similar traction. You'd need depots at the west of the route obviously, but I'd have the Birmingham-Stansted, Liverpool-Norwich, Norwich-Stansted and Oxford-Cambridge routes all under one roof. A neat solution that would serve the economic powerhouse of Cambridge much better than the current arrangement!

You’d now end up with at least five separate groups of drivers all on very differing terms, conditions & salaries. Would be extremely complex.

Many moons ago a large Regional traincrew depot was proposed at Ely but never got beyond that stage.

 

[paulmch]

You’d now end up with at least five separate groups of drivers all on very differing terms, conditions & salaries. Would be extremely complex.

Many moons ago a large Regional traincrew depot was proposed at Ely but never got beyond that stage.

Oh I know it'll never happen unless we get a national harmonisation, but from a purely selfish standpoint I'd quite like to sign more than just one route!

 

[dk1]

Oh I know it'll never happen unless we get a national harmonisation, but from a purely selfish standpoint I'd quite like to sign more than just one route!

Don’t blame you. I just look at our franchise which has changed twice since 2004 yet here we are with three separate drivers T&Cs over 21 years later and the famous H word has been thrown out twice and one managing director even refused to talk about it.

 

[Magdalia]

Somewhat off topic but if I had my way I'd make a TOC (or an operating unit or whatever the divisions of GBR become) centred on Cambridge that combined a lot of the ex-Central stuff into one unit with similar traction. You'd need depots at the west of the route obviously, but I'd have the Birmingham-Stansted, Liverpool-Norwich, Norwich-Stansted and Oxford-Cambridge routes all under one roof. A neat solution that would serve the economic powerhouse of Cambridge much better than the current arrangement!

You are right that Cambridge is an economic powerhouse but the current arrangements serve it very poorly.

In particular the current arrangements leave the existing east/west routes managed by people far away who don't regard them as a priority.

My favoured solution is to break both at Peterborough and put the East Anglian bits into Greater Anglia.

But running the east/west routes managed from East Anglia with depots further west could also work. It is worth noting that historically they were managed from East Anglia extending westwards: trains like the Harwich-Manchester/Liverpool, Lowestoft-York and Yarmouth-Birmingham were East Anglian trains.

The above discussion illustrates that there are challenges in making changes, but railway domestics shouldn't be allowed to get in the way of delivering what is best for Cambridge.

 

[transportphoto]

Somewhat off topic but if I had my way I'd make a TOC (or an operating unit or whatever the divisions of GBR become) centred on Cambridge that combined a lot of the ex-Central stuff into one unit with similar traction. You'd need depots at the west of the route obviously, but I'd have the Birmingham-Stansted, Liverpool-Norwich, Norwich-Stansted and Oxford-Cambridge routes all under one roof. A neat solution that would serve the economic powerhouse of Cambridge much better than the current arrangement!

Oh I know it'll never happen unless we get a national harmonisation, but from a purely selfish standpoint I'd quite like to sign more than just one route!

How would you sensibly crew Norwich-Liverpool from Cambridge, if that’s what you’re trying to imply?

 

[paulmch]

How would you sensibly crew Norwich-Liverpool from Cambridge, if that’s what you’re trying to imply?

Clearly there would need to be traincrew depots at various locations along the route just as there are today, but the arrival of EWR in East Anglia would maybe present an opportunity to reorganise who signs what and make an operating unit focused on all the regional east-west links in the middle part of England.

As I said it's not a serious proposal. It was just a throwaway off topic comment in another discussion and I'm not really sure that it deserves its own thread!