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WCML pre-upgrade service patterns

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YesToHS2

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After the WCML was upgraded, am I correct in thinking that some services south of Birmingham were replaced with direct services and that as a reuslt some services from places such as Milton Keynes suffered? I'm not sure where I read it but I'm sure it was suggested.
 
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MidnightFlyer

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Pre-Dec 2008:
2tph to Birmingham (1 extended to Wolves), unsure in the south, but all stations from Covenrty as now.
2tph to Manchester, again unsure, but all stopped at Stoke nad Stockport, with 1 an hour at Macc, services via Wilmslow were 6 times a day only
Chester/North Wales, roughly 7 a day, about 4 through to Holyhead, with 1 train to Landudno and back daily (Wrexham replced Llandudno from December of that year), all services called at Crewe, Chester, Rhyl, Colwyn Bay, Llandudno and Bangor. Pendolino + 57 operation.
Glasgow, trains were: Watford or Milton Keynes, then Rugby, Crewe, Warrington, Wigan, Preston, Lancaster, Oxenholme, Penrith, Carlisle, Motherwell and Glasgow (1tpd to Edinburgh fromm Euston only)
Liverpool, hourly, Nuneaton, Stafford, Crewe and Runcorn.

I could publish a full list later if you like :D

Matt
 

MCR247

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Copied post from another forum:
1tph Liverpool-London Euston, 1 extra peak diagram from Liverpool to Euston in the morning of week days (calling pattern, Runcorn, Stafford, Nuneaton, Milton Keynes Central or Watford Junction, the latter two alternated every hour).
2tph Manchester-London Euston, a few peak extras (calling pattern, Stockport, Macclesfield, Stoke), some went via Birmingham giving them and Manchester 3tph.
2tph Birmingham New Street-London Euston (calling pattern, Birmingham International, Coventry, Rugby, Milton Keynes Central or Watford Junction), same as Manchester, additional workings*
1tph Wolverhampton-London Euston via Birmingham to give them the 2nd train per hour (Calling pattern, Sandwell and Dudley, Birmingham New Street, Birmingham Intl, Coventry, Rugby and Watford Junction).
1tph Preston-London Euston, a few started from Lancaster (calling pattern, Wigan, Warrington, Crewe, Milton Keynes Central). Bank holiday reliefs included*.
1 every 2 hours Glasgow Central-London Euston (calling pattern Motherwell, Lockerbie, Carlisle, Penrith, Oxenholme, Lancaster, Preston, Wigan, Warrington and Crewe).
1 train a day Edinburgh-London Euston via Birmingham.
5 trains per day Holyhead-London Euston (calling pattern, usual shacks along the North Wales Coast, Chester, Crewe).
1 train per day Llandudno-London Euston (calling pattern, same as the above).

*The loco hauled set aka WB64.

Following the misfortune of 390033, VWC reintroduced a loco hauled train to be diagramed as followed;

1R90 0620 Rugby-London Euston via Northampton, this would go empties to London Euston from Wembley to pick up catering crew and supplies then would go ECS Euston-Coventry were it would follow the first Wolverhampton-London Euston to Rugby were it would form 1R90. After this working, WB64 would go empties to Wembley or stay at Euston on hot standby duties were it wasn't uncommon to see the set kicked out into use.

In the afternoon peak, the set worked 1G21 1651 London Euston-Birmingham New Street and 1B05 1900 Birmingham New Street-London Euston. Usually Bank Holiday reliefs saw the set work the usual 1R90 in the morning then do 1T63 1343 London Euston-Preston via the Trent Valley route which worked non stop to Crewe and called at the usual shacks North of Crewe, the return working ran as 1T05 1703 Preston-London Euston via Birmingham New Street were it did pick up it's usual diagram of 1B05 1900 Birmingham New Street-Euston, sorry if this bored you!
 

swt_passenger

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If I understand your question correctly, previously, there were quite a few trains that linked places like Watford Jn, Milton Keynes and Rugby, as shown in the previous post.

When VHF started it became generally impossible to do journeys between these stations, because any individual train would only stop at one of them.

So the problem was more that existing 'direct services' disappeared, eg Rugby to Milton Keynes, Rugby to Watford Jn, and Milton Keynes to Watford Jn, the idea being that for these station pairs you'd get an LM service.

Oh and not quite 'south of Brum' but at the same time Nuneaton basically fell off the VWC map in the offpeaks - so you had to change to get to/from Nuneaton at most times of day, when direct services were previously available.
 
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