davetheguard has beaten me to the response - Worcester has a very good service to Birmingham, with 3tph (off peak) over two routes. The other services are also fairly good, but with the exception of London, there is none for the longer distance traveller. The 1tp2h FGW service is not enough - it is a far slower train than the XC services and is only useful as far as Bristol. The connections are also poor at the Worcester end.
I think when I worked it out in the past, running non-stop (based on the few XC trains that already use that route) it takes 20 mins extra - making that 25 mins once you factor in a stop at Shrub Hill. I guess a stop at Worcestershire Parkway would add 5 mins once you account for braking/stop/accelerating?
Would it not be possible to manipulate the ticketing so people are discouraged from travelling via Worcs Parkway to Birmingham. I am not in the position to decide that it could work, but perhaps something like this could be done:
Code:
Worcester Stns - Birmingham Stns VIA DROITWICH SDR £9.50
Worcester Stns - Birmingham Stns ANY PERMITTED SDR £12.50
It could also apply to people starting at the Parkway station, hence it would be cheaper to use the LM service via Worcester (that wouldn't be for people from Worcester itself), keeping the short distance commuters off the XC services.
Worcester Parkway is a slightly different preposition to stations such as East Mids Parkway - the station is not just to function as an access point to the network, but arguably the ability for people to interchange onto long distance services is more important. Why divert services via Worcester when this is a much better option? Even when I booked a trip to Honiton last year, the journey planners still offered the route via B'ham from Droitwich, despite being far more expensive: the station allows all the stations in Worcestershire direct access to the XC services without spending upto (and over) and hour getting into Birmingham initially.
The new station will offer virtually no benefit to the rest of Worcestershire - any extra space for commuters will be used by Bromsgrove residents. Also the station is not in the most accessible location and is a fair distance from other locations. People in Droitwich would not drive to Bromsgrove for the extra trains, remember the other stations get trains on the Snow Hill lines, which Bromsgrove doesn't get.
Regarding the potential services, that all NOT-CDF services ought to stop and probably the Manchester-South West services also, however it doesn't need the Plymouth-Scotland to stop every time. Perhaps more appropriate would be every other train stopping. Who knows what could happen as services are gradually introduced!?