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West Midlands Trains 25% capacity increase on the Northampton to Euston LNR route (reported in March 2019)

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jfowkes

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With reference to this press release: https://www.londonnorthwesternrailw...fit-more-capacity-and-additional-services-may

Commuters and leisure travellers between Northampton and London Euston will benefit from a range of improvements this May, with the introduction of the new London Northwestern Railway timetable.

The train operator is introducing a range of changes from 19 May, with more peak time services, increased capacity, and earlier and later departures from London Euston throughout the week. The changes will benefit passengers travelling for both work and leisure – including those using rail services during evenings and weekends.

There will be more seats to and from the capital throughout the day with more 12 car trains operating on various routes serving the West Coast Mainline.

Additional services will operate between Watford Junction and London Euston during the morning and evening peaks, with 0856, 0913 and 0937 departures from Watford and additional 1715 and 1815 departures from Euston.

Fast services between London Euston and Milton Keynes (coming from Crewe) will have more services made up of eight carriage trains rather than four carriages. This is due to alterations being made further north on the network to allow these to operate. There will also be earlier morning and later evening services on weekdays and Saturdays. From Monday – Saturday, there will be an additional early 0628 departure from London Euston to Crewe, as well as a later 2149 departure.

There will also be quicker direct journeys from London Euston to a range of long-distance destinations, including Birmingham New Street and Birmingham Airport (three trains per hour daily), Wolverhampton and Liverpool Lime Street. This will bring about more options for affordable leisure travel across the rail network and will include reduced waiting times at Northampton.

On the Marston Vale line between Bedford and Bletchley, the new timetable will be enhanced, so that customers will have an hourly service throughout the day, from Monday – Saturday. A Sunday service is planned to operate on the line from 2021.

Richard Brooks, customer experience director for London Northwestern Railway, said: “The timetable improvements being introduced in May will bring a range of benefits to passengers, with more direct services to destinations across our network and improved capacity on some of our busiest services.

“However, this isn’t the whole story. We will also have a further timetable change in two years time, where passengers will see further benefits from the introduction of new trains onto the network, which when fully operational, will increase capacity by 25%.”

The new timetable will operate from Sunday 19 May. There will be changes to the time and formation of some services, so passengers are advised to check their train times and to plan ahead for the changes. The new timetable is now live on journey planning systems and can be found at www.londonnorthwesternrailway.co.uk

We often talk about the WCML being "the busiest mixed-traffic railway in Europe" or words to that effect. Given that, I'm wonder how they will manage a 25% capacity increase? With just new trains, they're either 25% longer or they're really cramming people in.
 
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Bletchleyite

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A combination of longer trains (as the formations will be 5 or 10, there will be more 10s and I guess no 4s) and longer vehicles (=less wasted space) I reckon.
 

zwk500

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Use of the word capacity rather than seats may well be telling. I desperately hope not though. Although 2 years would be about right for EWR, so maybe LNWR are anticipating that as part of the overall capacity of the timetable.
 

jfowkes

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OK, thanks. What new trains are they referring to anyway? Is it cascaded 350 sets from WMT as the 730s come online?
 

jfowkes

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A large fleet of new 730s (plus retained 350/1, /3 and /4).

Sorry, yes, I meant 730 not 750.

The 730s won't be operating on the WCML though, right? At least not south of Birmingham. The press release seems to be talking about the southern bit.
 

Bletchleyite

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The 730s won't be operating on the WCML though, right? At least not south of Birmingham. The press release seems to be talking about the southern bit.

Yes, they will. There are also 3+2 seated units (basically identical to the GA 720s) which will operate a considerable number of south WCML services.
 

jfowkes

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Ah right, I was somehow under the impression they were all for the West Midlands part of the operation. Thanks!

EDIT: I've discovered the stupid reason why I thought that: the livery for all the 730s on wikipedia is the West Midlands livery.
 
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Ibex

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With reference to this press release: https://www.londonnorthwesternrailw...fit-more-capacity-and-additional-services-may



We often talk about the WCML being "the busiest mixed-traffic railway in Europe" or words to that effect. Given that, I'm wonder how they will manage a 25% capacity increase? With just new trains, they're either 25% longer or they're really cramming people in.

Not sure if you've clocked the date but the article is referencing May 2019 rather than next May!

It was things like extra 12 car 319 diagrams to release 350s to strengthen other services, plus joining routes together such as Euston - Birmingham with Birmingham - Liverpool to be able to say there's now new direct trains to x amount of places etc.

Another trick was three empty stock moves from Euston to Watford which formed peak services back into London, were made into passenger trains - 680 odd seats per service then available for passengers, suddenly there's 2040 more seats provided.
 

cle

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What is the London - Wolverhampton? Merging at Euston and Liverpool services at Birmingham?

And are these net new trains (Watfords, Marston) or just re-instated post-pandemic?
 

swt_passenger

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What is the London - Wolverhampton? Merging at Euston and Liverpool services at Birmingham?

And are these net new trains (Watfords, Marston) or just re-instated post-pandemic?
They were the new trains in May 2019, (Post #9 refers) so definitely nothing to do with today’s pandemic issues at all.
 

Energy

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EDIT: I've discovered the stupid reason why I thought that: the livery for all the 730s on wikipedia is the West Midlands livery.
The 5 car 730 on Wikipedia (and on the WMT wikipedia page) has been WMR for a while, no clue why.
 

jfowkes

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Not sure if you've clocked the date but the article is referencing May 2019 rather than next May!
Yeah but there was a specific bit taking about "two years from now", i.e. May 2021.
 

185

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Yeah but there was a specific bit taking about "two years from now", i.e. May 2021.
A little noticed global pandemic, major change to passenger numbers and state nationalisation will likely amend those 2019 plans.
 
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