Services That Really Should Exist...

[MidnightFlyer]

In order:
Walsall
Huddersfield
Middlesbrough
Blackpool
Bolton
West Bromwich - The Hawthorns?
Rotherham
Sutton Coldfield
Blackburn
Oldham - not even a station!
St Helens

In order, all towns in UK with population over 100,000

 

[GingerSte]

In order:
Walsall
Huddersfield
Middlesbrough
Blackpool
Bolton
West Bromwich - The Hawthorns?
Rotherham
Sutton Coldfield
Blackburn
Oldham - not even a station!
St Helens

In order, all towns in UK with population over 100,000

You're not suggesting that as a service are you? :roll:

 

[MidnightFlyer]

You're not suggesting that as a service are you? :roll:

Nope - in reply to Sapphire Blue of largest UK towns with no direct services to London could be interesting though

 

[rail-britain]

Extended Ayr-Stranraer?

There is no point as shortly the ferry terminal will no longer be near the station
Passenger numbers between Ayr and Stranraer are expected to fall by about 30%
By using Ayr, this allow passengers to swap onto a ScotRail service for Girvan, Stranraer (town), Prestwick (airport), Irvine, and other locations in Ayrshire
This would also reinstate the direct service to Dumfries

 

[MidnightFlyer]

There is no point as shortly the ferry terminal will no longer be near the station
Passenger numbers between Ayr and Stranraer are expected to fall by about 30%
By using Ayr, this allow passengers to swap onto a ScotRail service for Girvan, Stranraer (town), Prestwick (airport), Irvine, and other locations in Ayrshire
This would also reinstate the direct service to Dumfries

Aren't there already SR services Newcastle-Carlisle-Dumfries-Kilmarnock-Ayr?

 

[sonic2009]

How about Blackpool to Birmingham/London

Blackpool North
Preston
Wigan
Warrington
Crewe
Wolverhampton
Birmingham New Street
Coventry
Milton Keynes
Watford
London Euston

using 221s

 

[MidnightFlyer]

Lakes-London
Windermere
Kendal
Oxenholme Lake D

Barrow-in-Furness
Ulveston
Grange-over-Sands

Join at Lancaster
Preston
Wigan NW
Warington BQ
Hartford
Winsford
Crewe
Nuneaton
Rugby
Euston

 

[scotsman]

Agree with Liverpool - Edinburgh/Glasgow (there is an open access lot looking at this)

Also:
Aberdeen/Inverness - WCML

Perhaps the Liverpool services could be extended from Edinburgh?

Liverpool
Preston
Lancaster
Carlisle
Lockerbie
Haymarket (SD only)
Edinburgh (Change ends)
Haymarket (PU only)
Inverkeithing / Linlithgow
Kirkcaldy / Falkirk Grahamston
Leuchars / Stirling
Dundee / Dunblane
Arbroath / Gleneagles
Montrose / Perth
Stonehaven / Pitlochry
Aberdeen / Kingussie
//////////// Aviemore
///////////Inverness

 

[Geezertronic]

Blimey, all these extra services via Birmingham New Street mean someone needs to figure out how to double the size of the station and double the amount of lines in and out

 

[sonic2009]

My blackpool service would be an extension of a london to birmingham pendo.

 

[Lampshade]

I'd just send any new service from the North West via the Calder Valley and down the Midland Main Line, after all there are pretty much no services from the North West to the East Midlands and vice versa.

 

[Geezertronic]

My blackpool service would be an extension of a london to birmingham pendo.

You're planning on ordering more 390 sets then?

 

[rail-britain]

Aren't there already SR services Newcastle-Carlisle-Dumfries-Kilmarnock-Ayr?

See the route of my proposal

 

[MidnightFlyer]

You're planning on ordering more 390 sets then?

Or planning to run 390s on unelectrified routes.

 

[thewolf]

I like the idea of some XC services going via the Cross City Line. Perhaps the New Street - Nottinghams could go that way. I've seen on a few Sundays recently, during engineering work, the XC services went that way, calling at Lichfield City (I think?) instead of Tamworth.

Perhaps they could run some Manchesters via Walsall and the Chase Line as well, that would be more for my convenience than anything mind you

Sidetracking slightly for a moment, a while back on the train back from Stoke to Brum, we were diverted due to something happening round about Wolvo, we went down to Nuneaton, then reversed and went into Birmingham via Coleshill. I thought it would've been a lot quicker to have turned off at Rugeley Trent Valley and gone that way through Walsall and so on to Birmingham. I assume its probably due to the route knowledge not being there, but surely it would be a useful diversion to have?

In order:
Walsall
Huddersfield
Middlesbrough
Blackpool
Bolton
West Bromwich - The Hawthorns?
Rotherham
Sutton Coldfield
Blackburn
Oldham - not even a station!
St Helens

In order, all towns in UK with population over 100,000

I'd guess West Brom is kind of served by the services from Tame Bridge - Marylebone (as is Walsall... kind of ) and Sandwell and Dudley to Euston. I think there are a few services from The Hawthorns with Chiltern, although The Hawthorns is in Birmingham, rather than Sandwell

Sutton is just part of Birmingham really, so dunno if you could count that as a direct service as well

 

[sonic2009]

Or planning to run 390s on unelectrified routes.

no a 221 would form these. Send the 390s on the scottish services.
--- old post above --- --- new post below ---
Another service would be this..

Bristol TM
Filton Abbey Wood
Bristol Parkway
Yate
Cam and Dursley
Gloucester
Cheltenham Spa
Ashchurch
Worcester Shrub Hill
Bromsgrove
Birmingham New Street

 

[MidnightFlyer]

no a 221 would form these. Send the 390s on the scottish services.

oh sorry my mistake.

New one - St Pancras-Skegness:
St Pancras
Bedford
East Midlands Parkway
Leicester
Nottingham
Grantham
Sleaford
Boston
Skegness

A good old HST!!!
--- old post above --- --- new post below ---

no a 221 would form these. Send the 390s on the scottish services.
--- old post above --- --- new post below ---
Another service would be this..

Bristol TM
Filton Abbey Wood
Bristol Parkway
Yate
Cam and Dursley
Gloucester
Cheltenham Spa
Ashchurch
Worcester Shrub Hill
Bromsgrove
Birmingham New Street

That's basically a merger of FGW's Bristol-Worcester and LM's Worcester-Bhm N St services . Is actually good to look at new services not involving London

 

[Geezertronic]

no a 221 would form these. Send the 390s on the scottish services.

You can't replace an EBW 390 with a single 221 so it would have to be 2 x 221s which come from where? Plus you'd need extra stock anyway because effectively Birmingham to Blackpool is an extra diagram that needs to be covered somehow

 

[Bittern]

What I don't get is why XC don't operate at least one service to/from Inverness.

 

[Bishopstone]

Brighton - Okehampton via:

Portsmouth & Southsea (reverse)
Eastleigh (avoid Soton)
Salisbury
Westbury (reverse)
Frome
Castle Cary
Taunton
Exeter St Davids (reverse)
Crediton
Okehampton ('West Devon Parkway')

The authorities believe there is no demand for travel between Brighton and west of Southampton, but the twice a day fGW service is well loaded.

There is military traffic to/from Portsmouth, Salisbury, Westbury and Devon. Avoiding Soton gives a time saving and Eastleigh gives good connections.

Plenty of university traffic at Brighton, Chichester, Pompey, Exeter.

Okehampton (National Rail) is hardly used, but could serve as a rail head for a large area otherwise train-less, and terminating there is unlikely to cause problems of platform occupancy!

Keep the rolling stock fairly simple - 156 would be good. No fancy catering, probably no First Class, just good old-fashioned value. No point in having a high-spec, high-cost service as if the price was to high Brighton/Portsmouth people would just go via London and fGW.

 

[rail-britain]

What I don't get is why XC don't operate at least one service to/from Inverness

These are partially historic reasons
The Euston - Inverness service was InterCity West Coast
This was then routed via Birmingham and Edinburgh, transferring to InterCity Cross Country
North of Edinburgh the train was staffed by ScotRail
With sprinterisation this through route ceased, replaced by an Edinburgh - Paddington via Birmingham

 

[MidnightFlyer]

Brighton - Okehampton via:

Portsmouth & Southsea (reverse)
Eastleigh (avoid Soton)
Salisbury
Westbury (reverse)
Frome
Castle Cary
Taunton
Exeter St Davids (reverse)
Crediton
Okehampton ('West Devon Parkway')

Yep, calling pattern could be like:
Brighton
Hove
Shoreham
Worthing
Chichester
Havant
Fratton
Portsmouth & Southsea
Cosham
Fareham
Eastleigh
Salisbury
Westbury
Frome
Castle Cary
Taunton
Tiverton Pkwy
Exeter St Davids
Crediton
Okehampton

Whoa... that's a lot of stops

 

[Bishopstone]

Yep, calling pattern could be like:
Brighton
Hove
Shoreham
Worthing
Chichester
Havant
Fratton
Portsmouth & Southsea
Cosham
Fareham
Eastleigh
Salisbury
Westbury
Frome
Castle Cary
Taunton
Tiverton Pkwy
Exeter St Davids
Crediton
Okehampton

Whoa... that's a lot of stops

Something like that. I would probably delete Fratton and Cosham, but add Romsey, and potentially Warminster (for the military traffic). I might go for Barnham instead of Shoreham - indeed I think the path this train would take from Brighton would require stops at both to avoid catching up a Southern service.

The pressure points in terms of timing would probably be a suitable path in and out of Pompey (believe platform space is not an issue at the low level platforms?), conflicts at Salisbury, and the need to time a 75/90 mph train around HSTs between Westbury and Exeter. However, there would be overtaking opportunities at Frome and Taunton (possibly also Castle Cary, can't remember). Not sure what the paths are like from Exeter to Crediton on the Tarka Line, but might involve a wait at Exeter if we arrived at the 'wrong' time.

 

[MidnightFlyer]

Something like that. I would probably delete Fratton and Cosham, but add Romsey, and potentially Warminster (for the military traffic). I might go for Barnham instead of Shoreham - indeed I think the path this train would take from Brighton would require stops at both to avoid catching up a Southern service.

The pressure points in terms of timing would probably be a suitable path in and out of Pompey (believe platform space is not an issue at the low level platforms?), conflicts at Salisbury, and the need to time a 75/90 mph train around HSTs between Westbury and Exeter. However, there would be overtaking opportunities at Frome and Taunton (possibly also Castle Cary, can't remember). Not sure what the paths are like from Exeter to Crediton on the Tarka Line, but might involve a wait at Exeter if we arrived at the 'wrong' time.

Are the low platforms (the bays) not OOU at Pompey & S?

 

[ashworth]

Nottingham to Glasgow

Nottingham
Alfreton
Chesterfield
Sheffield
Wakefield Wgte
Leeds
Keighley
Skipton
Settle
Appleby
Carlisle
Motherwell
Glasgow Central

Or even:
Nottingham
Alfreton
Chesterfield
Sheffield
Stockport
Manchester
Bolton
Preston
Lancaster
Oxenholme
Penrith
Carlisle
Motherwell
Glasgow

 

[Ivo]

An OA service of my own liking...

XC can run services via Reading to Portsmouth, and at the other end they can run to Liverpool. Also, they can run occasional services between Brighton and Blackpool North, calling at fewer stations than the previous XC service to Brighton (south of Reading, it will call only at Kensington Olympia, East Croydon and Gatwick Airport). Also, Crossrail can introduce a service from Reading to Southend Victoria, calling only at Slough, all stations Paddington to Stratford, and Shenfield. If there is adequate demand, it can also call at Maidenhead and Southend Airport.

 

[sonic2009]

They should bring back the walsall to wellington service...

 

[Simon Poole]

Bring back the Holyhead to Birmingham New Street Via Crewe, Stafford and Wolverhampton?

Crewe to Leeds via Stafford, Rugeley, Lichfield, Burton Upon Trent, Derby, Sheffield and Doncaster
Or Crewe, Stoke, Derby, Sheffield and Doncaster

Stafford To Coventry Via Tamworth and Nuneaton

Stafford to Shrewsbury Via Rugeley, Walsall, Wolverhampton, Wellington

Birmingham New Street to Blackpool North/South

 

[Bishopstone]

Are the low platforms (the bays) not OOU at Pompey & S?

Not sure, you may be correct. They were in use last time I was there, but that was about two years ago. There are still services that terminate at P&S - where/how do they reverse if not in the low level bays?

 

[sonic2009]

The bays at P&S are still in use. Trains terminate there from london vic.and southampton