Who knows? At a time when we are supposed to be promoting sustainable travel, train services around here are about to be cut in half. And given that bus alternatives aren't exactly great, it is pretty much only a matter of time before practically no-one will use either of them. And then there's the road situation that has been argued around here for three decades, so yeah it could be that bad.
I've not travelled round thet area - had to look it up. It is a worry about the slow managed decline. I note with some concern the somewhat piecemeal removal of services in some parts of Northern land. My big concern with it all is the loss of inter connectivity across the network. If your journey involves changing trains, and you are faced with, say, a 90 minute wait then the decision to travel by train becomes much less attractive.
It is a worry, having already lost any hope of HS capability save Manchester, it is now entirely possible that large sections of the area (and others elsewhere) will see large scale cutbacks without any other alternatives offered up.
They're shifting the Lichfield-Bromsgrove around because of the plan for the Camp Hill services apparently, despite not so much as a spade touching the ground for those stations yet.
No major changes anywhere if the open data feed is accurate. For passenger service there's two additions 0632 Swanley - Victoria, 0525 Ashford - Dover Priory and the 0635 Gravesend - Charing X is extended to start from Strood. All the other differences are either headcode changes or minor timing alterations.
I may be wrong here, but I think I read on this forum TfL committed to returning tube services to 100% of pre Covid levels. If they have, it will be interesting to see how much better passenger numbers have recovered on the tube compared to National Rail.
Yes, I believe the plan is 100% of pre-Covid levels. Plus same on the Overground and, eventually, the Elizabeth line in terms of what had been planned pre-Covid.
Camp Hill stations start this year. COVID did get them out of jail with the Cross City and Kings Norton.
Not really; it's just given them an excuse to wave around if anyone asks why the Crosscity stations are getting the worst service they've had since electrification. At the very least, the new timetable should have included provision for moving to (as close as possible to) a quarter hourly service to even out the gaps.
Also no sign of the Bromley South to Victoria trains returning off-peak, evenings and Saturdays, leaving a really poor 30-minute service for a busy inner suburban line (and much worse than all the other South Eastern suburban lines), and the Beckenham to Blackfriars peak trains probably gone for good too?
I wouldn’t have thought so given the full services are running at weekends, eg LBG-BKJ is every 90 minutes weekdays, every 30 minutes weekends. Also meant the reduced Thameslink services which are obviously unrelated to the 455s - eg Wimbledon trains terminating at Blackfriars on weekdays (but running through at weekends)
Pretty much all of the the Thameslink services apart from the peak extra's return to normal from May 22. Even some additional with the Welwyn - Sevenoaks coming in.
No one was going to re-write the West Mids to do that, especially with Dec 22 coming along. Camp Hill with 6tph Cross City wouldn't have worked. Some of the solutions suggested to make it work were "interesting"
Absolutely right. XC are returning only some of their West Country services from Manchester, one of which is 1V45 - the service that used to run through to Newquay on Saturdays, but is only going as far as Bristol. It’s not easy as it is to get to Cornwall from the North West, if the Avanti service is running then you just about don’t make minimum connection time at New Street with the xx12 XC service (thanks to the dwell time at WVH), leaving you for an hour in Birmingham.
On this topic too, the first Avanti service from Preston to Birmingham still doesn’t arrive until after 9am, every single day of the week. Earliest arrival from north of Lancaster? 11:05.
It's the same on Bromley South via Catford Loop too, Orpington's only running in Peaks, so half hourly off peak, Saturdays and Sundays.
Great news, and well done to them!
www.westyorks-ca.gov.uk
welcome to the world of the semi nationalised railway not quite what we expectedWest Yorkshire Mayor isn’t happy.
Anger as local rail services are set to be cut in May
Cuts by local rail operator Northern will see some routes reduced to hourly in Bradford while other areas will have large gaps in service or no service at all.
With more cuts to come. WLL only going to Watford Jnc.
With reduced demand it makes sense to eliminate overlaps with other operators services especially as many of them were rarely just ORCAT raids.
True, but reinstating some of the excessive cuts like making it hourly to Grinstead, every 90 mins to Beck Jnc, 2 hourly uckfield etc would be a nice touch. Rumour is of further cuts in September when the 313s go.
without more stock thats inevitable with the 313's.
Hourly to Oxted would work, ECR doesn't save a set comparend with LBG.
Beckenham is full service from May per RTT.
In this case I would disagree; the direct connection at Milton Keynes offered quite an attractive option for avoiding London, particularly for those with luggage. Arguably it should even have been a FL service stopping only at principal stations between Watford and MK.
