Spare unit

[whole diary]

[Chris from Nailsea]

Now I know btline and I don't always see eye to eye...

Don't we?

Even if we were to consider (just for a moment!) the possibility that you don't - I'm delighted that you can 'agree to disagree' in such a gentlemanly way.

Thank you - it does make the job of us moderators so much less stressful! 

[Doctor Gideon Ceefax]

And they ran express, rather than effectively an extension of the Birmingham - Coventry Centro local stopper.

Virgin Trains run expresses!

(now every 20 mins).

LM^▸ (London Midland - recent franchise) have added more places to the direct London route - an improvement.

Fares are also low.

Silverlink had low fares. Anyway is there any real point in giving suburban birmingham / coventry stations a direct service to London? It just slows the service down. Most people up that way would be more interested in a two hourly all stations local stopper between Coventry and Wolverhampton on the hour and half hour, rather than these random stop skip patterns.

[Btline]

It takes pressure off New Street.

It increases property prices, having a direct service.

People like direct trains.

How does it slow the service down? there are 3 expresses and hour. THe trains calling at the local stops would be slow anyway! I don't see what your problem with it is...

Did Silverlink have ^5 fares?

[Btline]

No, the stopping patterns vary - so everyone gets a quicker train service to B'ham with a direct London connexion thrown in!

[willc]

All I say is that to sing LM^▸ (London Midland - recent franchise) praises is not to good and idea, plus if a similar route in London was to axed the money would be found to keep it open as would the unit. The entire thing to me is con on behalf of so called higher powers.

But as I pointed out, in withdrawing the Wolverhampton-Walsall service, LM was only following orders from DafT, who didn't like it because it was consuming vast amounts of subsidy.

And frankly, without a Willenhall stop the service had limited value, as serving this community was a key part of the argument for operating it in the first place, but no-one ever came up with the money for a station. After Dudley, Willenhall is pretty much the largest community in the West Midlands without a rail or Metro service. Even with a change at Walsall, it would beat a bus into Birmingham hands down.

[Btline]

Example for the National Rail Timetable:

Adderley Park: Hourly service, with some trains every 2 hours? (I suppose they could bus it into Birmingham and use New Street?)

Services are no faster than they were under operation of 321 units on the Coventry line, yes there newer. Birmingham International & Coventry have better services, but this mainly down to Arriva Trains Wales. The London Midland service is very irregular, varying between every 25 mins to hourly depending on the stations not everyone wants to go to Birmingham or London. The point I am making for some it has got so much worse.

Adderly Park is not a good example. It is so near the city centre, it is probably quicker and cheaper to take a bus!

Before the timetable change, it was hourly. You say it is now sometimes 2 hourly. From Wikipedia, the station was due to close, but was reprieved. As well from Wikipedia, passenger numbers declined between 2005 and 2007 WHEN THERE WAS NO SERVICE CUT. So it is obvious that people are not seeing this station as important. So a slight service cut is ok.

And I doubt there is a lot of local traffic between small stations. Suburban / commuter lines take people to and from the cities / airport, traffic flows which the new timetable does well.