A petition to stop Virgin from killing W&S

[whole diary]

[Btline]

I have found this petition campaigning against Virgin Trains putting 50 W&S^▸ (Wrexham and Shropshire (Open Access Operator)) jobs at risk.

The creator makes a good point that VT^▸ (Virgin Trains - former franchises) should perhaps look at other WCML^▸ (West Coast Main Line) places without direct trains. (e.g. Blackpool)

http://petitions.number10.gov.uk/NoVirginTrains/

I have signed, as I feel what VT are doing is unreasonable, and won't benefit the area.

[Btline]

W&S^▸ (Wrexham and Shropshire (Open Access Operator)) are now worried about the plans.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/wales/north_east/7987910.stm

[devon_metro]

Keep up, Virgin have dropped their plans to serve Shrewsbury!

[Btline]

Keep up, Virgin have dropped their plans to serve Shrewsbury!

When?

[devon_metro]

Today.

[plymothian]

Had never heard of W&S^▸ (Wrexham and Shropshire (Open Access Operator)) before today

[Chris from Nailsea]

An understandable comment, in that they don't reach down to our area of the South West - but they are a very credible service provider: see http://www.wrexhamandshropshire.co.uk/ 

[devon_metro]

I am informed by a former forum member that the First class grub is the best meal by miles on a train, and free! FGW^▸ (First Great Western) take note

[thetrout]

I am informed by a former forum member that the First class grub is the best meal by miles on a train, and free! FGW^▸ (First Great Western) take note

About 2 months ago I had the pleasure of sampling the complimentary First Class Meal. An absolute pleasure it was too

They had vegetarian options, food served on proper plates/cutlery, Tea was brought in a teapot and china cup to drink out of.

The only thing about W&S^▸ (Wrexham and Shropshire (Open Access Operator)) i'm not too keen on is that there is no toilet in FC^‡(resolve). A trip through the Buffet Car to STD however solves the problem

[RailCornwall]

Confirmation of Virgin's withdrawal ... BBC^» (British Broadcasting Corporation - home page) News

[Btline]

Confirmation of Virgin's withdrawal ... BBC^» (British Broadcasting Corporation - home page) News

This is excellent news.

Now they must start a campaign to stop ATW^▸ (Arriva Trains Wales (former TOC^▸ (Train Operating Company)))... If Arriva can spare those 158s, they can run an hourly Aber - Shrews service!

[willc]

As the king of publicity stunts, Beardie Branson can recognise bad publicity when he sees it - plus I suspect they were worried that they would be asked by ORR^» (Office of Rail and Road formerly Office of Rail Regulation - about) to drop their competition protection exemption from Birmingham and Wolverhampton in return for approval of these trains. If that protection had three months to run, they might have bitten the bullet, but with three years to run they probably did their sums and decided business as usual would be better financially.

ATW^▸ (Arriva Trains Wales (former TOC^▸ (Train Operating Company)))'s plans simply aren't in the same category. Virgin was proposing a proper high-quality express service - a head-on challenge to W&S^▸ (Wrexham and Shropshire (Open Access Operator)). ATW is offering, er, class 158s. And why shouldn't Aberystwyth, Newtown and Welshpool have a direct London service? Or are they the Hanboroughs of mid-Wales?

[Btline]

Aber, Newton and Welshpool have a 3 tph connexion at Birmingham International onto a train which takes about 1 hour 10 minutes to reach Euston. (and has advance fares at a fiver)

The stock would be better utilised in providing a regular hourly service along the Cambrian main line. The Cambrian Line user group think this as well! This would benefit the stations a lot more than a handful of trains extending to London, mangling up the Chiltern service and steal passengers off W&S^▸ (Wrexham and Shropshire (Open Access Operator)) and CH.

Obviously, there is no reason why W&S shouldn't run trains from London to Aber. That would be fair/ make sense.

Or they could give the 158s to FGW^▸ (First Great Western)!

[Timmer]

Or they could give the 158s to FGW^▸ (First Great Western)!

It would be more likely the case of 'give us our 5 150s back FGW' so they can release the 158s needed to run this service, something I don't think Dft is going to allow to happen bearing in mind that many Cardiff-Portsmouth three car 158s are now full. Going back to 2 carriages is not an option just so ATW^▸ (Arriva Trains Wales (former TOC^▸ (Train Operating Company))) can run a service which is handy but not essential. You also have to ask the question would people be prepared to travel on a 158 all the way from the North Wales coast when you can change for an IC^▸ (Inter City) service from Virgin or W&S^▸ (Wrexham and Shropshire (Open Access Operator)) to get to London.

[willc]

I love the way that you believe Worcester is entitled to some sort of special train service, yet when places that have no direct London service whatever are offered the prospect of one, you're up in arms about it.

And for someone who is obsessed about the smell of toilets on Virgin's trains, why are you so keen on putting the people of Mid-Wales on them?

How is this in any way a threat to Chiltern? A couple of trains a day, set against two or three Chiltern services every hour at the places they are suggesting stopping en route? Just to remind you, you just posted this about West Midlands-London:

VT^▸ (Virgin Trains - former franchises) will be worried, as Chiltern now have built a 30% market share from nothing

Yes, I'm sure poor weak little Chiltern will be quaking in their boots. And it wasn't nothing, as BR^▸ (British Rail(ways)) NSE^▸ (Network South East) was running Turbos to Birmingham from 1993.

As for W&S^▸ (Wrexham and Shropshire (Open Access Operator)), it is half-owned by Chiltern/DB^» (Deutsche Bahn - German State Railway - about), while the brains of the operation, Renaissance Railways, plan thoroughly and I'm sure would have looked at running to the coast, since their key targets were always Shrewsbury and Telford, but instead opted for Wrexham, though their service cuts suggest it's hard to break people's 40-year habit there of travelling via Chester.

But if ATW^▸ (Arriva Trains Wales (former TOC^▸ (Train Operating Company))) want to take a chance on it, then why not? And there are obvious pathing issues on a single-track route - ATW avoid this by running as part of the existing service.

It's got nothing to do with being fair. W&S took a commercial risk. Virgin may have backed off, but they had a bad reputation in Shropshire to start with and were only trying to grab traffic from Shrewsbury and Telford - note they have abandoned the plan in its entirety, all the stuff about Walsall was a sideshow.

The five ATW 150s are for strengthening Valley Lines services. Once ATW has finished 158 overhauls and fitting ETCS^▸ (European Train Control System) for the Cambrian resignalling, they will have enough sets in traffic to run this service. At present a 150 is covering for 158s in works.

And however much you get the hump, if ATW want the 150s back, even DafT would find it very hard to argue against the letter of the leases ATW have on them if they get the courts involved - especially as Arriva's lawyers would turn up with all the pronouncements DafT has come out with about how it has nothing to do with rolling stock allocations!