Timetable changes at Bromsgrove from 30th July

[DavidGrain]

On Tuesday 14th August a small group of us had decided to experience the electric trains to Bromsgrove. As some of us had never done the Redditch line we decided to include that in our plans. After a bit of research we found that the best ticket was an offpeak return Birmingham to Redditch via Bromsgrove doing the turnback at Longbridge. This ticket was the same price as the stright Birmingham Redditch return but don't tell anyone or this might not be repeated.

Most of us had bought our tickets in advance so it was a disappointment to find that the trains were not running because, we were told at that time a tree had fallen onto the overhead wires near University station. Wondering what to do we decided to get on to the Great Malvern train to Bromsgrove which we expected to be fully loaded. This train was being diverted via the Camp Hill line missing the University stop. This gave us the chance to travel by that route without having to get on a long distance XC train. It also meant that we missed out on the Redditch leg of our trip but did give us more drinking time in the Ladybird Inn near Bromsgrove station. We then returned on a train that had come from the Worcester direction.

The explanation from WMR is that excess water had caused a land slip which had brought down several trees. We are a little puzzled by this as the rain over the last few weeks has been very little and even in the past few days has not been particularly heavy. There were also no trains on this part of the Cross City Line on Wednesday either. We passed trapped trains at most stations from Longbridge to Kings Norton and presume there were other trapped trains on the Birmingham West Suburban line also.

 

[geoffk]

I was not aware of this thread. I have added to the other thread a note that WMR Cross City trains will provide a full service to Bromsgrove from next week and another post has said that the XC trains to Cardiff will no longer stop at Bromsgrove from then

A big problem with this is that, with no XC calls at Bromsgrove, the option of a "split ticket" to get to Birmingham from Ashchurch will be lost, apparently more than doubling the cost for regular users. Does this amount to the withdrawal of a service? I may be wrong, but I thought that, unless a "parliamentary" service is retained, the procedure for complete withdrawal of a service, without a replacement, is far more complex than just a timetable alteration, involving posters at all stations affected. If this is the case then XC may be in breach of its franchise agreement.

 

[Smethwickian]

A big problem with this is that, with no XC calls at Bromsgrove, the option of a "split ticket" to get to Birmingham from Ashchurch will be lost, apparently more than doubling the cost for regular users. Does this amount to the withdrawal of a service? I may be wrong, but I thought that, unless a "parliamentary" service is retained, the procedure for complete withdrawal of a service, without a replacement, is far more complex than just a timetable alteration, involving posters at all stations affected. If this is the case then XC may be in breach of its franchise agreement.

All parts of the line between Birmingham, Bromsgrove, Ashchurch and Cheltenham still have regular passenger services. The fact that none, individually, stop at the precise combination or sequence of stations you might prefer is not relevant - no line has seen a withdrawal of passenger services so any discussion of 'parliamentary' services is erroneous, irrelevant and misconceived so let us not, please, drag this thread off on a wild goose chase.
And, has been stated on another thread on the Bromsgrove changes, the disappearance of Bromsgrove from the XC map was anticipated and apparently accounted for in the franchise commitment.

 

[geoffk]

All parts of the line between Birmingham, Bromsgrove, Ashchurch and Cheltenham still have regular passenger services. The fact that none, individually, stop at the precise combination or sequence of stations you might prefer is not relevant - no line has seen a withdrawal of passenger services so any discussion of 'parliamentary' services is erroneous, irrelevant and misconceived so let us not, please, drag this thread off on a wild goose chase.
And, has been stated on another thread on the Bromsgrove changes, the disappearance of Bromsgrove from the XC map was anticipated and apparently accounted for in the franchise commitment.

Point taken!

 

[Smethwickian]

Point taken!

But I take your point about removing a potential ticket-splitting opportunity, even if it was on just a couple of trains a day calling at Bromsgrove. Having commuted between Smethwick and Cheltenham daily for nearly four years I know what limited opportunities there are to save on XC's prices!