I've been on the Glasgow to Edinburgh XC service four times in the last fortnight. It's alway been packed, with numerous people standing. Admittedly, this may be because I travel at the weekend. Perhaps it's quieter during the week, I don't know. The Dundee/Aberdeen services have been the same whenever I've travelled with them
Is this related to the upgrades to infrastructure on the Falkirk High lines?
If they can afford to buy 80xs in the next franchise, why can't they afford to buy them now? According to the International Monterey Fund, we are going to become the fastest G7 growing economy. Now does that mean none of the G7 countries could afford new rolling stock right now for a route such as XC?
The short term boost caused by a massive devaluation of the currency is a one off shot in the arm. It won't last (as inflationary factors start to hit the UK economy, partly caused by the increased cost of imports)
As for the trains - one of the reasons not to get 80xs right now is because everyone else is ordering them. There'll be no space on the production line at Newton Aycliffe until much closer to 2019. Unless you want them built in Japan/ Italy?
In what way is the leasing contract for the XC HSTs "inadequate"? It's a normal dry lease contract. Such leases are commonly used by many TOCs. So is EMT's HST lease also "inadequate" as it is also a dry lease?
Agreed - you wouldn't describe a PAYG mobile as "a perverse incentives to keep the phone out of service".
Motherwell as mentioned, but also for stations in South Glasgow it means one doesn't have to walk across Glasgow potentially with hevay cases and looking at the weather forecast it seems to rain frequently in Glasgow so its a drier option as well.
The XC services does provide an Edinburgh link from Motherwell, and a decent connection to Edinburgh/Newcastle from Ayrshire without having to schlep between stations in Glasgow.
However, whether this needs to be an XC service is a reasonable debate - an hourly/half-hourly Scotrail EMU may be better.
Passengers from Ayrshire have direct Scotrail services from Ayr/ Irvine etc to Waverley though.
Back in my day, Central only had an hourly all stops service via Shotts to Edinburgh. Now, as well as the stopper, there's the semi-fast Shotts service that only takes around 1h10, there are a few Scotrail services via Motherwell too (taking 1h10).
So there's never been less need for the XC service to serve Glasgow during the daytime.
Interesting ideas, and the almost fits with the timing of the franchise extension in that by the time the 2019 end date comes, we should be much clearer what the plan is for the Midland Main Line - hopefully with new electric stock
XC and the MML were linked in BR days (from days of Peaks to getting the HSTs around the same time).
We could well see the same stock ordered for both routes - since it may not be economic to order something specific for each one - I'd be happy if we ordered 80xs for both - based on what we've seen so far - but maybe we'll see bi-modes cascaded onto MML and XC (with pure electric ones on the ECML/ GWML)?
Apologies if mentioned earlier.....
In the run up to privatisation, when BR had Train Operating Units (TOU), Cross Country was lumped with Midland Mainline.
Not sure why Midland Cross Country was split or why together in the first place. I guess it may have been centred on Derby???
Probably because neither was big enough to warrant a position at the top table in its own right - similar stock - both a bit B-list?
