Virgin VHF is go! (plus more)

[devon_metro]

I have found that ALL fares with VT are alot more expensive, especially First Class. They need to get this sorted out! The saturday first class fares now include all of your catering (monday-friday standard)

Virgin don't have to provide cheap First Class fares do they??

Its a premium service, thus you pay more. Simple.

 

[xtradj]

dont forget theres a 6% rise in fares as from next month too..

its starting to become cheaper travelling by car again

 

[Pumbaa]

Mojo - in my experience all LM services run DF/UF from Willesden area late nights. Obviously I rarely go past Hemel to t'north on LM, so I can't comment.

 

[devon_metro]

What a complete cock up...

Delays between Northampton and Rugby expected until 19:30

Start date
15/12/2008

Last updated
15/12/2008 18:00


Route affected
London Euston, Watford Junction, Bletchley, Northampton, Long Buckby, Rugby,Coventry and Birmingham New Street


Description
Because of a signalling problem in the Long Buckby area, journeys may be delayed by up to 30 minutes
London Midland
Buses replace trains between Northampton and Rugby
To find out how this might affect your journey, please use the real time Journey Planner, or call TrainTracker on 0871 200 49 50

 

[xtradj]

What a complete cock up...

Delays between Northampton and Rugby expected until 19:30

Start date
15/12/2008

Last updated
15/12/2008 18:00


Route affected
London Euston, Watford Junction, Bletchley, Northampton, Long Buckby, Rugby,Coventry and Birmingham New Street


Description
Because of a signalling problem in the Long Buckby area, journeys may be delayed by up to 30 minutes
London Midland
Buses replace trains between Northampton and Rugby
To find out how this might affect your journey, please use the real time Journey Planner, or call TrainTracker on 0871 200 49 50

delays this morning too in willesden area.. its been a poor start

 

[Max]

The ECML has been a bit of a farce too:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/7783020.stm

Some fairly shocking delays there!

 

[Chilled Phill]

The ECML has been a bit of a farce too:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/7783020.stm

Some fairly shocking delays there!

Indeed, and yet the BBC decide to use a picture of a HST, which is a diesel.

Last time I checked, power cables were causing the delays...

 

[Max]

Indeed, and yet the BBC decide to use a picture of a HST, which is a diesel.

Last time I checked, power cables were causing the delays...

But all trains were affected. One of the worst delayed trains was a Hull Trains service, which is DMU operated!

 

[LTJ87]

Some people will pay silly money. Some people prefer first class, others travel in the peak.

Cheap, is not important to everyone. Its all about what the market can stand and individual customers needs.

People normally travel on unrestricted first class tickets when someone else is paying, ie their employer or client. At my employer, a very heavy user of WCML, people used book unrestricted first cass tickets without a thought. Not anymore since the downturn. It's standard class, and on restricted tickets where possible. I'm sure its the same elsewhere.

 

[Chilled Phill]

But all trains were affected. One of the worst delayed trains was a Hull Trains service, which is DMU operated!

Ah, there I go again. Typin' before I even think it though. My apologies.

 

[xtradj]

and to make matters worse, 3 hour delays between glasgow and carlisle due to a broken down set!

 

[Bayum]

Ah, there I go again. Typin' before I even think it though. My apologies.

And plus, the NXEC HST is like, NXEC's Logo/Main attraction kinda thing if you get me. They're hardly gonna put the 91 up in the livery, with a rake of MK4's with the white line down the side are they!

 

[Mintona]

and to make matters worse, 3 hour delays between glasgow and carlisle due to a broken down set!

390002 the unit involved. Problems with an axle I believe. Just passed Nuneaton, some 186 minutes late hock:

 

[jopsuk]

And plus, the NXEC HST is like, NXEC's Logo/Main attraction kinda thing if you get me. They're hardly gonna put the 91 up in the livery, with a rake of MK4's with the white line down the side are they!

The BBC have used pictures of 3rd rail tracks and NSE trains to illustate stories about trains in Scotland before...

 

[Snapper]

Here's some VHF stats supplied by Virgin:

So for yesterday’s highlights:

1A34 1235 Manchester-Euston, three intermediate stops 2hr 0min 184 miles 92mph average speed.

1G12 1043 Euston-Birmingham, three intermediate stops 1hr 19m 112 miles 85.06mph average speed.

1M06 0540 Glasgow-Euston, 6 intermediate stops 4hr 25m [Warrington-London non-stop 1hr 45m] 401 miles 90.79mph average speed [182 miles from Warrington 104mph average speed].

1A38 1224 Bangor-Euston, two intermediate stops 2hr 0m from Chester 179 miles 89.5mph average speed.

1F15 1107 Euston-Liverpool, three intermediate stops 2hr 08m 192 miles 90mph average speed .

There are several services which are booked for high average speeds over intermediate sections of routes including London-Stafford 103.6mph average; London-Stoke 104.2mph average; London-Crewe 104.1mph average; London-Preston 104.5mph average. These are all start/stop average speeds and many services, with sustained 125mph running are close to that speed as an average when pass/pass speeds are calculated.

 

[me123]

There's only one delay into Euston at the moment on LIve Departure Boards; 07.35 from Glasgow delayed due to unknown reasons between Motherwell and Carlisle. Otherwise, everything looks to be running up to time.

It's a shame that this hasn't had the best of starts. Not unexpected, but definately a shame. I want the service to go well, personally, because of the increased Scotland service. Journey times to London now are great for us Glaswegians, but they'll be of no use if the services are always disrupted.

Pretty impressive stats, though. Well, for the UK anyway. Hoepfully the service will improve and we'll see the good side of VHF shine through.

 

[87015]

London Midland caping a generous selection of trains again today due to traincrew shortages - and these are on top of the planned cancellations which will not run "until further notice"...

Apsley, Kings Langley, Bushey and Harrow only have an hourly service at the moment, although the latter two do have the DC Lines, which is obviously a huge success in VHF that noone has chosen to report :???:

Whats really nice of London Midland is that they have declined to publish the 'altered timetable' they claim to be running so all the printed timetables are from a complete dreamworld!!!

 

[xtradj]

yeh london midland cancelled 12 lime st - birmingham services yesterday due to the same reason, meaning there was only 1 per hour

 

[me123]

Again, at the moment, Virgin are running fine. There are short (0min) delays from Chester and Holyhead, but nothing else showing up red. Seems to be alright today...

 

[45378]

As a regular Crewe - Euston traveller, I can't help thinking this a retrograde step. There are fewer through fast trains overall, and now only one per hour is a Pendolino. The other is a Super Voyager - which leaving aside the obscenity of running diesels for 158 miles under the wires - and yes I know it's even worse on the Birmingham - Glasgow route - is a very noisy way to get to London. As for the LM semi-fasts - well if I wanted to spend three hours tracing the course of the Trent and revisiting the foolish decision of Northampton that it didn't want the railway back in the 1840's , I'd have taken up rambling. Meanwhile - based on Monday's experience - half-empty Pendolinos blast through the centre roads at Crewe. Not good.

Solution - build more pendolinos, and wire up Crewe to Chester - there aren't many problems with that. But are Virgin sure there are that many punters from Chester and surroundings? At least Crewe is a reasonably accessible railhead.

 

[Guinness]

Apparently there are more Pendolinos been ordered (And rightfully so). IIRC correctly 32 sets are been lengthened to 11 cars, a good move and 4 x 11 Car Sets are been ordered however these won't come into operation until early 2012. TBH I'm suprised that the DfT have actually ordered these, it made far too much common sense.

I thought Crewe had a half hourly Pendolino, one from Manchester (via Wilmslow) and the hourly Liverpool train? That's on top of the Holyhead/Chester and local LM, fair enough it's not a proper London Train as it takes far too long.

 

[45378]

Once VHF is fully introduced the core Crewe - London service will be an hourly Pendolino M/cr - Euston via Wilmslow, and an hourly 2* Super Voyager sets Chester - Crewe - Euston. The core Liverpool service will be Lpl - Runcorn - Stafford - Euston as I understand it - not stopping at Crewe, and the trains going further north on the WCML are omitting Crewe and first stop in the NW at Warrington BQ.

Obviously it's a bit better in the up direction in the early morning and down in the late afternoon from Euston.

Some of the Liverpools have an additional stop at Crewe for the next few weeks as the service beds in. But I still think it's a reduction in quality of service for Crewe - which is still a key interchange for many people and an important railhead for South Cheshire.

Rgds

45378

 

[Guinness]

Cheers for clearing that up. It's a similar situation with my local station at Macclesfield although it's down to CrossCountry rather than Virgin. We used to be served with a half hourly XC service but now we're down to the Hourly Service as XC have stopped calling at Macclesfield for there new Bristol TM Trains.. I have no idea why, 2 minute stop isn't going to cause chaos on the WCML despite Northern now restarting the Stopping 323 service to Stoke..

Some of the Liverpools have an additional stop at Crewe for the next few weeks as the service beds in. But I still think it's a reduction in quality of service for Crewe - which is still a key interchange for many people and an important railhead for South Cheshire.

Agreed!

 

[TDK]

London Midland caping a generous selection of trains again today due to traincrew shortages - and these are on top of the planned cancellations which will not run "until further notice"...

Apsley, Kings Langley, Bushey and Harrow only have an hourly service at the moment, although the latter two do have the DC Lines, which is obviously a huge success in VHF that noone has chosen to report :???:

Whats really nice of London Midland is that they have declined to publish the 'altered timetable' they claim to be running so all the printed timetables are from a complete dreamworld!!!

This could be down to the Flu Bug as us poor safety critical train crew are limited on what prescribed/over the counter remidies we can take

 

[Chilled Phill]

I share the exact same view as Chaz and 45378 if I'm being honest. The fact that Virgin are trying to get less trains to stop at a station they themselves own (I think) seems a little on the brain dead side...

Not only that, but reading a few letters from railway magazines, it would seem people think that the LM's Desrios aren't really suitable for a journey as long as Crewe - Euston. Like I've said before, I hope Virgin soon get some sense back and get at least a train every 2 hours from Liverpool/Scotland to stop at Crewe for people to change there, I mean that's one of the reasons Crewe has become the station it has become today...

 

[Guinness]

Not only that, but reading a few letters from railway magazines, it would seem people think that the LM's Desrios aren't really suitable for a journey as long as Crewe - Euston. Like I've said before, I hope Virgin soon get some sense back and get at least a train every 2 hours from Liverpool/Scotland to stop at Crewe for people to change there, I mean that's one of the reasons Crewe has become the station it has become today...

Yeah but Virgin suddenly think that people on the Scotland trains will want to go to Birmingham New Street instead of Euston..

More Stops = More Passengers this has been lost just for the sake of 2/3 minutes. Granted you can't stop at every Station on the way but Crewe is an important place to make connections.

The Desiro is purely for serving stations along Trent Valley rather than a direct replacement for Virgin Pendolinos.

 

[Chilled Phill]

Indeed, no offence to anybody from Stafford. But how can Virgin justify stopping there and not at Crewe? You can get connections to Stoke-on-Trent from Crewe you know, Virgin.

 

[me123]

Ahh, they're all delayed again Seems like it's not going well as expected

 

[Guinness]

Derailment at Congleton I believe. I presume all will be going via Crewe/Wilmslow although no doubt a few will be cancelled, probably Northern 323s..

 

[me123]

Hmm... well to be fair that couldn't have been avoided really. Just because there's more services running, it just makes things look a lot worse for Virgin.