The opening of the second phase of HS2 can be expected to lead to widespread changes to the Crosscountry network in any case. I envisage that this will lead to the Crosscountry network being divided into a number of shorter distance regional services, with long distance Crosscountry passengers from the North East to the South West using HS2 services from Edinburgh and Newcastle and then changing onto a regional service on the classic network at Birmingham.
I totally disagree.
So many of the X country trains I see are full, so why sabotage a successful network of routes in this way?
High Speed trains from the North East will stop at very few stations anyway, so your plan won't pick up most of X country's existing passengers.
Those who are not left stranded at the existing stations will see any time saving evaporate by having to change trains at Birmingham.
Passengers will hate having to change trains at Birmingham.
Operationally, you don't want more X country trains to terminate at Birmingham New Street - you want the trains to be through trains so they need less platform dwell time and space.
There are no links planned to enable X country classic trains to run on the new HS line or vice versa.
So your "expectation" is based on what?
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...the potential to attract new passengers by accelerating journey times over sections of the "long haul" journey. .
Where are these "new passengers" going to come from?
From existing long haul journeys such as domestic flights?
- I can't see any time saving being sufficient to make people catch a train instead of a plane from say Newcastle or Scotland to Bristol or the South Coast - and the numbers would not outweigh the numbers of existing passengers you might lose.
From new commuter journeys?
- If you replace the existing cross country paths with more regional commuter paths, which new service patterns are you suggesting?
It would be better to make additional commuter paths available in other ways. In Birmingham for example, the Bordesley and Camp Hill chords could provide 3 new commuter routes into Moor Street with very little if any impact upon the existing X country paths and routes.
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Stopping at Birmingham is an important element of frequent regular interval XC services with each service performing multiple functions. It would be possible for some trains to avoid Birmingham NS now using existing connections (as some summer saturday holiday trains used to do), but none do this.
Spend some time watching the X country trains at Birmingham New Street, and you'll see why no trains by-pass New Street any more. It's the businest station outside London with significant X country passengers getting on and off here. Rail Professionals have tried in the past to identify another station to act as a hub to encourage passengers to change trains elsewhere to relieve the pressure at Birmingham New Street, and have failed.
However using new HS tracks for XC services where the routes run broadly parallel could allow them to bypass congested areas and eventually some intermediate stations, such as Tamworth and Burton on Trent, releasing capacity in those bypassed areas for higher frequency and more reliable local services and freight.
Some XC trains do by-pass Burton-on-Trent and Tamworth, but don't forget Tamworth is a key junction where passengers can change for the West Coast Main line. There are a few other small stations on this route where the additional local services could stop - Willington, Wilnecote and Water Orton - and a new station could be built at the Fort Parkway, but the problem is the lack of capacity at Birmingham New Street. By-passing Tamworth or Burton won't really help - the planned solution was to build a new terminus platform at Tamworth and a chord to send the local trains into Moor Street instead, and leave the existing X country trains virtually unchanged - but the problem is a lack of funding.
As for freight, well the new Electric Spine might actually mean fewer freight paths are needed on this route.
Alternatively the Cross Country Link could be made via Lichfield - Alrewas - Wychnor Jn (note the line could be straightened near Alrewas without encroaching on the National Arboretum site)
Yes I've looked at this too, but not sure what the benefits are.
- and back on topic - is HS1 going to have any impact at all on any of the services on this stretch of line - I think not!