Resureccting an old discussion about services at Nuneaton, Tamworth and Lichfield that somehow found themselves in a topic about East Coast!
I agree that the Trent Valley stations should have a better service. From a non-experts view it seems a bit over-the-top to have an hourly Chester service throughout the day (occasionally continuing to either Bangor or Holyhead) which stops at Milton Keynes and Crewe only, operated by a Voyager. When I saw a lunchtime service at Milton Keynes the other month it was probably less than a third full - perhaps a stop at Nuneaton should be considered for these trains? I know pathing is tight, but Nuneaton now has a much worse service than it used to.
If a second hourly off-peak service was introduced for Liverpool (with Manchester and Birmingham now getting 3tph, you could argue 2tph to Liverpool would be suitable for a city of its size) then perhaps a stop at Nuneaton could indeed be added on an hourly basis. That could then allow an alternate stop at Tamworth and Lichfield on the Chester services to give a two-hourly fast London service from those stations too.
It's about getting a balance, and I think Virgin have swayed a little to far towards the 'fast train' side of the argument, as Btline has said, and have neglected certain mid-sized towns in the Trent Valley area. The population for Nuneaton, Tamworth and Lichfield combined is getting on for 200k and all three offer connectional opportunities onto local regional services. The changes I've outlined above would help to readdress the balance - without compromising the fast services now being enjoyed by the larger settlements.
Well, although Virgin are showing few signs of adopting my suggestion above, it does appear that Tamworth, Lichfield and Nuneaton (as well as a whole host of other stations) are possibly going to get a much better service through to London, with track access applications submitted from both Grand Central and Alliance Trains to stop at those stations from 2012/13. Alliance trains using the new Chinese 'Polaris' units and Grand Central looking at Class 67's Mk 3's and a DVT‡ (presumably scheduled for the DVT's maximum speed of 110mph?).
Good to see that with London Midland getting approval to run their Class 350s at 110mph and juggling around their timetable so that their London Euston to Crewe service no longer goes via Northampton, the result is a much better off-peak service along the Trent Valley from the December timetable change.
Off-peak journey times from London to Nuneaton (99 miles) reduce from
90 to
67 minutes, Tamworth (111 miles) from
105 to
85 minutes and Lichfield (117 miles) from
111 to
91 minutes. A few minutes are added to journeys the other way, but are still pretty quick. Very reasonable advance fares are available, for example on Thursday 13th December, ^6 advance singles are available on the afternoon trains from Nuneaton to Euston. All three station also continue to benefit from the very speedy Pendolino services in the peak hours - at a slightly higher price.
Sadly there are a few losers though (as usual!), with northbound connections from/to NUN/TAM/
LTV▸ from places like Liverpool, Manchester and Glasgow being generally a little worse than they were. Still, good work from London Midland. Let's hope they have some drivers to drive these new services!
