MPs to meet minister over Worcestershire to London rail services

[whole diary]

[Andy W]

Have I beaten Chris from Nailsea 

From Worcester News

MPs^▸ (Member of Parliament) to meet minister over rail services
By Tom Edwards ^

MPs in Worcestershire have secured a meeting with the Government^s transport minister in a bid to improve the county^s poor train links to London.

Simon Burns has agreed to meet a delegation from the county to discuss the future of the Cotswold Line franchise, which is up for grabs.

As your Worcester News reported in August, the Department for Transport is seeking to award a contract for running the line from 2013 to 2028.

Services from Worcestershire to the capital can take up to three hours ^ despite commuters asking for faster and more frequent trains for years.

In Worcester, the service is slower than in 1910; then it took one hour and 50 minutes to get from the Faithful City to London, compared with more than two hours now.

The notorious Cotswold Line is partly single-track, overcrowded and infrequent for both commuters and tourists.

The MPs will meet Mr Burns on Tuesday, December 4, to discuss the franchise requirements and to see if the Government can specify a better service for the area.

Robin Walker, who represents Worcester, said: ^I am determined to get better and faster rail connections for Worcester.

^This would benefit my constituents and local businesses as well as help the whole county to attract inward investment.^

^It seems crazy that it was quicker to catch a train to Worcester from London 100 years ago than it is today, and we need to see real change fast to improve the situation.^

West Worcestershire MP Harriett Baldwin said: ^The Cotswold Line is a crucial link for businesses and urgently needs improving to help the growth of our local economy.

^At the moment, many of our constituents travel on the West Coast Mainline and to Warwick Parkway to avoid the slow and unreliable service on the Cotswold Line.

^The pause in assessing the West Coast and Great Western bids allows us time to renew our call for an improved service for Herefordshire and Worcestershire commuters and a departmental commitment to invest in the infrastructure.^

Mid-Worcestershire MP Peter Luff said: ^Worcestershire is probably the least well connected county in England when it comes to rail travel ^ but it has the potential to be much better.^

[Chris from Nailsea]

No problem at all, Andy W - thanks for your support in my 'news hound' role! 

[Steve Bray]

I have to say Good Luck to the MP^▸ (Member of Parliament)'s; something needs to be done. I see that from December, yet another service has fallen victim to the 'extended journey time syndrome' that now plagues this line. The current weekday 0535 Hereford to Paddington, will now depart 7 minutes earlier from Hereford, yet still arrive Paddington at 0851. The additional minutes appear to be spent at Shrub Hill, where the service is now scheduled to stand for 15 minutes from 0615-0630.

Bizarrely, if you are travelling from Great Malvern, where the train will depart at 0559, you could now change at Shrub Hill onto the 0626 LM^▸ (London Midland - recent franchise) service to Birmingham New Street arriving at 0706, get yourself a coffee and croissant, and stroll onto the 0730 Virgin train which arrives into London at 0842 - 9 minutes before the FGW^▸ (First Great Western) direct service arrives into the capital.

[IndustryInsider]

That is indeed very disappointing, Steve.  Two minutes have also been added to the journey time of a couple of the other early morning trains I note.  Also, the 21:48 PAD^» (Paddington (London) - next trains)-WOS^» (Worcester Shrub Hill - next trains) service has lost the symbol denoting that it's a Turbo on a Friday night (HST^▸ (High Speed Train) the rest of the week) - I doubt that a HST will be reinstated on a Friday, so that's presumably an error.

[mjones]

This line has turned out to be disappointment heaped upon disappointment hasn't it. Given the weeks of disruption for users during the re-doubling, have, on balance, passengers actually benefited from it?

[stebbo]

Well, of course, if there were a couple of fast trains missing out Pershore, Honeybourne, Long Hanborough and Reading like the old days.......

And, yes, I'll get flak as I have in the past but seriously, if there are people who need to get from Hereford/Worcester in reasonable time then surely it's worth considering. In my trips - albeit not that frequent - not many people get on at Pershore and Honeybourne (there isn't the car parking for one thing). Hanborough could be served by another train reversing at Charlbury.

Right I'll get off the site now and await the usual cat calls.

[IndustryInsider]

not many people get on at Pershore and Honeybourne (there isn't the car parking for one thing).

The Pershore parking situation should be resolved soon.  Does anyone know the exact number of spaces for the new car park?

[RodC]

It seems to me that the "first, early morning" train from Hereford and Worcester is rapidly becoming a complete farce. As I recall, it used to be known as the "6 o'clock from Hereford", it is currently the 6:35, and, from what I gather from recent posts, it will soon be the 6:28. This service used to arrive in Paddington at around 8:44, but, thanks to the totally useless exercise of re-signalling Paddington some years ago, which not only reduced the number of lines in and out of the station, but permanently increased the journey times from Reading into London by up to 10 minutes, that loss of running time has never been recovered.  Even when the excellent, but greatly unappreciated, Class 50's used to be daily diverted onto the slow line between Reading as far as Langley to allow the HST^▸ (High Speed Train)'s to overtake, did the journey from Oxford to Paddington take so long as it does now.

I think that Stebbo has grasped the essence of the issue.  Either the Cotswold Line can provide a rapid service from the Cathedral Cities and the principal stopping points up to London in the early morning, or the former 6 o' clock and 7 o' clock services will just become, as they have done, comfortable "stopping trains".  OK, the days of the Cathedrals Express whisking passengers non-stop from Evesham to Oxford in 40 minutes, and then from Oxford to Paddington in less than an an hour, for commercial reasons may be over, but there has to be a balance, which there currently doesn't seem to be.     

[IndustryInsider]

This service used to arrive in Paddington at around 8:44, but, thanks to the totally useless exercise of re-signalling Paddington some years ago, which not only reduced the number of lines in and out of the station, but permanently increased the journey times from Reading into London by up to 10 minutes, that loss of running time has never been recovered.  Even when the excellent, but greatly unappreciated, Class 50's used to be daily diverted onto the slow line between Reading as far as Langley to allow the HST^▸ (High Speed Train)'s to overtake, did the journey from Oxford to Paddington take so long as it does now.

Hmmm, 10 minutes is a slight exaggeration.  The potential journey time has hardly increased at all, though factors for extra minutes in the time allowed extend well beyond resignalling of Paddington, which has hardly changed except for a 50mph PSR^▸ (Permanent Speed Restriction) from Kensal Green to Royal Oak following the Ladbroke Grove crash.  Things such as drivers now driving more cautiously, being forced to go slower due to the ATP^▸ (Automatic Train Protection) system and its quirks, and extra stops/far more trains (so less chance of a clear run in on greens) have made far more of a difference in my opinion.

Oxford to Paddington trains when in the hands of Class 50s used to typically be allowed 59-60 minutes.  Now the service typically takes 58-60 minutes but that's at a frequency of 2tph rather than 1tph and with an extra stop at Slough.  With most of the services back in the days of Class 47s/50s they only stopped at Reading, and the odd one that did make an extra stop, be it at Didcot or Slough was allowed 65 minutes, so slower than the equivalent today.*

I completely agree that it would be nice to see a much more competitive journey time from Worcester, Malvern and Hereford, as well as 5 minutes shaved off of the typical Oxford-London journey, but can't see much changing until the arrival of IEP^▸ (Intercity Express Program / Project.)'s.

* Source: The BRPTT of 1983/4

[Chris from Nailsea]

Thanks for posting those thought-provoking comments, RodC, and welcome to the Coffee Shop forum! 

[RodC]

Many thanks to Industryinsider for being so courteous as to have overlooked the errors in my post. 6:35 should have course have read 5:35 and 6:28, 5:28.  However, despite these errors, my point remains the same, ie once slack is introduced into the timetable, for whatever reason, it seems to remain there indefinitely.  For example, so far as I can recall, the Paddington Station Re-signalling was undertaken in the early 1990's, some years prior to the tragic Ladbroke Grove crash of 1999, but the additional time allowed between Reading and Paddington remained throughout the 90's.     

[grahame]

Interesting discussion ... for comparison, here's the 1968 timetable for Hereford and Worcester to Paddington trains, Weekday mornings:

[IndustryInsider]

A three hour gap in the morning from Moreton-In-Marsh! 

[bobm]

Are those knives and forks restaurant cars or just a hot buffet?

[JayMac]

Almost certainly designating a restaurant car.