Virgin VHF is go! (plus more)

[Pumbaa]

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.

From a passengers perspective, on the Scotland runs, almost always has Stafford station been busier than Crewe, particularly going North. Coming back up towards London, Crewe is busier but not so much in FC. Could have something to do with it?

Anyway, the extra 3-5mins shaved off because it doesn't stop at Crewe is a welcome addition!

 

[Metroland]

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..

Trains on a major route are at a standstill after a car got onto the tracks and was struck in Cheshire.

At least one train came off the tracks near Congleton, affecting services between Stockport and Stoke-on-Trent.

Reports from Network Rail and British Transport Police suggest the car was struck by either one or two trains.

There have been no reports of major injuries and emergency services are still at the scene. Services are being diverted via Crewe.

Minor injuries

The car, which is thought to have rolled onto the track at North Road, Congleton after being left without its handbrake on, was unoccupied at the time of the crash.

Network Rail said some passengers on a Northern Rail service from Manchester to Stoke-on-Trent suffered minor injuries.

The other service thought to be involved was a Cross Country service from Bristol to Manchester.

Trains are currently at a standstill along the line.

One passenger, John Lee, 66, travelling to Manchester from London Euston, said his train came to a standstill just north of Stoke-on-Trent at about 1750 GMT.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/7790827.stm

 

[Guinness]

Aye, you heard it here first.

 

[Chilled Phill]

From a passengers perspective, on the Scotland runs, almost always has Stafford station been busier than Crewe, particularly going North. Coming back up towards London, Crewe is busier but not so much in FC. Could have something to do with it?

Anyway, the extra 3-5mins shaved off because it doesn't stop at Crewe is a welcome addition!

Perhaps. But then again you can't really justify shaving off 3-5 minutes off a journey when, iirc, the total journey time is just past the 4 hour mark, no?

 

[Pumbaa]

Yes you can, it's now just 4hr20 rather than 4hr25.

 

[Techniquest]

And inconvieniences everyone travelling to the North West/Scotland with Virgin from my neck of the woods. Just to shave a few minutes off the schedule. Yeah, I'm so grateful!

 

[me123]

I honestly don't see why a stop in Crewe wouldn't have been possible. The time lost is minimal and it's a major station on the WCML. Yes, I want faster times and I agree that cutting stops is good, but that's a pretty crucial stop with a plethora of interchange possibilities.

And Nuneaton as well; I don't see why you couldn't stop the Liverpool trains there. The times to Liverpool are great, and surely you can squeeze in just that one stop an hour? That's all that's needed.

 

[87015]

Its because a faster end-to-end time can make better PR spin than actually providing a network benefit for your passengers.

Oh, London Midland were in a complete mess again today, its been the worse week of service reliability down here since Hatfield. A day or twos 'bedding in' would be forgiveable, but this is just utterly farcical and even the station staff admit it has little chance of improving any time soon.

 

[djw1981]

From a passengers perspective, on the Scotland runs, almost always has Stafford station been busier than Crewe, particularly going North. Coming back up towards London, Crewe is busier but not so much in FC. Could have something to do with it?

Anyway, the extra 3-5mins shaved off because it doesn't stop at Crewe is a welcome addition!

This was often Birmingham/SW passengers, for whom the link Birmingham-Stafford was shorter than Birmingham-Crewe. However, historically Crewe has always been a main interchange and stopping point for crew changes, loco changes (steam days) etc. Having so many routes converge on one point made it great for changes, in a way which Stafford is not.

What is the speed through Crewe now, I know Rugby can now be done at 125mph, thus removing the argument that if one was slowing to 60mph, one may as well stop (from a time perspective).

 

[laseandre]

Plenty of "No Reports" and cancellations for Virgin's Manchester services after the Congleton derailment. Crewe - Cheadle Hulme is now 110 mph, not sure about Crewe Station.

 

[Chilled Phill]

80mph range through the middle two lines through the station, iirc.

 

[me123]

Things are alright at the moment considering the circumstances; we can't hold this current performance against the VHF timetable. It's a shame that this had to happen; things were getting slightly better.

 

[Techniquest]

Removing that Crewe stop on the Glasgow/Carlisle trains has annoyed me endlessly. At least on a 390 you had a good chance of getting a seat on board, on the 221s that chance is much lower. Especially if, like so many people, I'm travelling at the weekend.

I wouldn't mind going up to Birmingham for the 221 from there, except it takes just as long to get to Birmingham (circa 55 miles) as it does to get to Crewe (something like 70 - 75 miles), then you've got the worry of cancelled services from Hereford meaning you'll miss the train you want to get, not to mention finding your way around the mammoth New Street in the crowds then of course you've got to hope that your seat reservation is being honoured (so many times this has not been the case for me) and that you can put your holdall/case on the luggage rack (not such a problem on 390s, massive problem on the 221s).

I now also have longer waits and more changes now if I just want to go to Warrington, Wigan or Preston now too. Yes I can go via Manchester and get on a TPX service to Preston or north of there, but it's no fun cramming into a 3-car 185 going up the slow route (not to mention the boring drag from Crewe to Manchester) with, no doubt, a long wait in Manchester and having to find one's way around there. But Warrington and Wigan are harder to get to now from Crewe, which annoys me considerably.

Not being able to get a 390 from Crewe to Liverpool any more annoys me considerably too. Yes there's London Midland services but it's not the same getting a 350 instead of a 390. It just feels weird to me.

Perhaps it's obvious I'm one very unhappy passenger with Diet VHF, when Full Fat VHF comes into play I'll not be amused.

 

[33056]

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

Nothing to do with any flu bugs, LM just don't have enough traincrew

 

[tbtc]

Whilst a stop may only take a couple of minutes (plus a couple of minutes off the hourney time to slow down/ speed up again), it's another potential for things to go wrong.

The direct Birmingham - Crewe - Carlisle - Glasgow/ Edinburgh service was never anything like hourly pre Virgin (trains often went via Manchester or via Liverpool), so at least this is a relatively new resource to mop up demand at "local" stations whilst the 390s serve longer distance passengers.