Intercity Express Programme (IEP) - ongoing discussion

[whole diary]

[didcotdean]

Seems the Swansea - London services are non stopping between Newport & Reading.

Which leaves Swindon (and connections into Swindon) to Cardiff as hourly, verses half hourly currently. 

Didcot has no direct trains to Bristol Parkway & onwards for five hours from half threeish to half eightish in the evening. Know a few people who do this journey who wouldn't be pleased at that (and the lack of a direct service in the morning before 9:30 too).

The peak service to & from London is given at about half the current frequency. Some of the current stops could be considered as capacity driven but a half-hour frequency is a bit sparse as a commuter service - the off peak service is double this. Maybe the idea would be for the Oxfords to stop in this period ...

No wonder there are the caveats about stopping pattern & frequency on the title page.

[grahame]

And doesn't leaving stops out of a service gobble up paths too?  Shouldn't we be looking at a service every 10 minutes - London, Reading, Didcot, Swindon?  Fast acceleration;  extra to leave 5 minutes after the the regular pattern,  express to Reading then 1 on to Worcester or there abouts, 1 to Penzance, 1 to Newbury Bedwyn Westbury, 1 to Oxford, 1 to Taunton or Weymouth (alternating?) via Trowbridge and 1 to Cheltenham?

[Network SouthEast]

I should caution people against thinking these workings are set in stone.

A reminder of the first page of the document:

The train frequencies, journey times and calling patterns in this file should therefore not be regarded as a aspirations or proposals.

In addition, the fleet deployment shown in this file is only one option, and Franchise bidders will be free to propose alternatives.


I can't find it right now (maybe IndustryInsider can help?), but I've read a DfT^» (Department for Transport - about) document that suggests when IEP^▸ (Intercity Express Program / Project.) is introduced there will be three fast trains per hour from Paddington to Oxford, the IEP document above seems to not acknowledge this.

[didcotdean]

The above are the caveats I referred to.

Still having suffered through one silly DfT^» (Department for Transport - about) 'inspired' timetable at the last franchise start that took the best part of two years to recover from, seeing another even as an illustration doesn't inspire much confidence.

[aleph_0]

Hmm. Not convinced on the Reading-Newport non-stop. but I suppose compromises have to be made somewhere, and this is just an indicative plan. In particular, if you turn up at a random time at Cardiff, for 50 minutes in the hour, the amount of time before you get to London hasn't really changed. Which doesn't seem like a huge improvement.

I guess it depends so much on the rest of the new GW^▸ (Great Western) timetable. Cardiff-Bristol Parkway is useful for onwards travel to north of Bristol by car, and CrossCountry connections to the North. A service from (say) Cardiff to meet the xx18 fast BPW^» (Bristol Parkway - next trains)-PAD^» (Paddington (London) - next trains) would give Cardiff and Newport something nearer to an effective half-hourly fast service both to Bristol Parkway, and to London. But maybe it would be better to improve the Cardiff-Birmingham via. Gloucester route instead (in frequency and/or reliability).

[IndustryInsider]

I can't find it right now (maybe IndustryInsider can help?), but I've read a DfT^» (Department for Transport - about) document that suggests when IEP^▸ (Intercity Express Program / Project.) is introduced there will be three fast trains per hour from Paddington to Oxford, the IEP document above seems to not acknowledge this.

I can't remember seeing any reference to 3tph to be honest.  Thanks to 'anthony215' for posting those documents though as they provide an interesting insight - but (as others have said) please don't expect the final timetable and diagrams to look anything like that - I can't see 9 daily direct trains from Hereford to Paddington making the final cut for example.

[Network SouthEast]

I can't find it right now (maybe IndustryInsider can help?), but I've read a DfT^» (Department for Transport - about) document that suggests when IEP^▸ (Intercity Express Program / Project.) is introduced there will be three fast trains per hour from Paddington to Oxford, the IEP document above seems to not acknowledge this.

I can't remember seeing any reference to 3tph to be honest. 

Found it - page 106 of the Great Western RUS^▸ (Route Utilisation Strategy). Although a couple of years old, it says:

4.3.3.2 Main line services (Great Western Main Line)
IEP trains will begin to replace the current eight-car High Speed Trains across much of the GWML^▸ (Great Western Main Line) network including the Oxford/ Cotswold corridor. Projected growth in demand is expected to be catered for by a substantial increase in capacity of the new train formations which will be capable of working in electric or bi-mode formations.

In addition to the higher capacity of the new trains themselves, an increase in frequency from two trains per hour to three trains per hour is currently proposed for the Oxford corridor, with through working to the Cotswold Line (from Oxford to Worcester, Great Malvern and Hereford) at standard hourly intervals.

[ChrisB]

Poh, hourly intervals in the Cotswold Line.....but that doc has been superceded by the south-east RUS2 hasn't it?

[paul7575]

I don't think it's really superseded as such, the London and SE RUS^▸ (Route Utilisation Strategy) definitely fine tunes certain stuff about the inner GWML^▸ (Great Western Main Line), and discusses the possible service changes affecting Reading to London capacity at great length, but it doesn't seem to mention the Cotswolds at all.

I'd suggest it is more a case of one adds more info to the other...

Paul

[IndustryInsider]

I can see the introduction of IEP^▸ (Intercity Express Program / Project.)'s as being the ideal time to introduce the much heralded hourly off-peak Cotswold Line service, and the padding has been largely removed in that sample timetable that 'anthony215' posted yesterday to give some pretty impressive running times.  But whatever happens it won't end up being the timetable that we finally see as it has trains departing Evesham every hour bound for Worcester as a train the other way has only just departed Pershore on the single line!   

[didcotdean]

The Great Western RUS^▸ (Route Utilisation Strategy) as well as suggesting a three-times-an-hour Oxford service also had an hourly fast 'shuttle' service from London terminating at Didcot, sometimes extended to Swindon. This was 'compensation' for the removal of all Didcot stops on the South Wales services.

[gwr2006]

A mock up timetable produced by the DFT^▸ (Department for Transport) has appeared on  the Wnxx forum which will interest a few members on here.

Whereabouts on the WNXX^▸ (Stored Unserviceable, Mainline Locos HQ All Classes) forum? Thanks

[anthony215]

There was a thread started about the toc's pushing for them to be allowed to order their own rolling stock that is  where these timetables were posted originally when the thread turned into a bit of an IEP^▸ (Intercity Express Program / Project.) bashing

[Red Squirrel]

Can anyone explain how the Class 800 will shave 22 mins off London - Temple Meads, but only 10 mins off London - South GloucestershireBristol Parkway?

Great Western

London Paddington to	Typical journey time today from / to London Paddington	Journey time on class 800 series from / to London Paddington	Time saving
Reading	25	23	2
Oxford	58	53	5
Worcester Shrub Hill	139	120	19
Cheltenham Spa	135	112	23
Bristol Parkway	81	71	10
Bath Spa	87	79	8
Bristol Temple Meads	105	83	22
Cardiff	121	104	17
Swansea	178	159	19

Source: DFT^▸ (Department for Transport)

       

[DidcotPunter]

If I recall correctly, the original service outlined by the DfT^» (Department for Transport - about) for IEP^▸ (Intercity Express Program / Project.) included 4 trains per hour from Bristol TM^‡(resolve) to Padd and vice versa. Two of these were to run via Bath and two via Bristol Parkway, one of which was to be non-stop throughout.  I guess that this would give rise to the claimed 22 minute saving while the other trains from Parkway would be stopping at Swindon and Reading.

No doubt more detail will emerge in due course.