Peter Sarf
Established Member
Would it be worth the Highlander going via Birmingham with a pick up at New Street? It would need to leave London half hour or so earlier but I don’t think that would be a problem for most people?
Maybe more difficult southbound with limited paths in the rush hour so perhaps not such a good idea?
Actually I wonder if the Lowlander might be a better bet for going via Birmingham. It is a shorter journey so leaves London later than the Highlander. Therefore adding an extra stop near to London would not make the London departure time too early. Mind you Bald Rick's point below that many Lowlander passengers might be going beyond the central belt to otherwise Highlander destinations might be because they use the Lowlander for its later departure time from London ?.
........
One thing that would be interesting to find out is the proportion of passengers on the lowlander who are actually heading for highland destinations, but couldn’t use the highlander because of availability or perhaps timing. I suspect it’s quite a few given the conversations on my recent lowlander trips. I still think that post HS2 the lowlander will be lucky to survive, however the highlander will still be going strong, and there just might be potential to have 2 highlanders at that point. That would still require oodles of subsidy, as the highlander needs a lot more subsidy than the lowlander.
Last edited: