Xenophon PCDGS
Veteran Member
As there are only a couple of weeks left in January 2020, surely a definite station opening date can now be announced.
-
Our booking engine at tickets.railforums.co.uk (powered by TrainSplit) helps support the running of the forum with every ticket purchase! Find out more and ask any questions/give us feedback in this thread!
Worcestershire Parkway station progress
- Thread starter Unixman
- Start date
- Status
As there are only a couple of weeks left in January 2020, surely a definite station opening date can now be announced.
Sponsor Post - registered members do not see these adverts; click here to register, or click here to log in
R
RailUK Forums
I do hope you aren’t standing outside hoping for a train to London!
pdeaves
Established Member
Weekly notice declares that the station will open on 26 January. We'll see!
NewSt
Member
Excellent! Hoping to be on the first XC train from New Street to WOP!
R G NOW.
Member
No just waiting for it to open so I can get from Gloucester to see what it is like.
Looking at the weekday timetable for Real Time Trains it is showing a service from Bristol Temple Meads actually calling at Worcestershire Parkway. This is 1L98, the 06.24 from Temple Meads to Stansted Airport service which stops at 07.36. I thought direct services to/from Bristol were not going to stop at Worcestershire Parkway?
221129
Established Member
The Cardiff - Nottingham 170 services will be. Which this is one of those technically.
swt_passenger
Veteran Member
- Joined
- 7 Apr 2010
- Messages
- 31,426
Isn’t this service effectively a warmed up ECS because XC moved their 170 stabling to Bristol from Cardiff, or something like that? Used to start in service at Gloucester, but as you say it’s a XC-lite train rather than the main South West XC Voyager operated service...
221129
Established Member
Pretty much, the unit used to come from Birmingham I think but now comes off Barton Hill with a Bristol crew
adrock1976
Established Member
While I was going through my list of stations earlier (which I had copied and pasted into a spreadsheet from the Wikipedia page back in 2014/15, and have added new and reopened such as Ilkeston, Warrington West, etc to it), I have 2 proposed ones for Worcester, which are (or were) listed as follows:
1) Worcester (North) Parkway
2) Worcester (Norton) Parkway
Is 2 the present Worcestershire Parkway as per this thread, with 1) being the one between Foregate Street/Shrub Hill and Droitwich Spa (when or if it eventually gets built)?
1) Worcester (North) Parkway
2) Worcester (Norton) Parkway
Is 2 the present Worcestershire Parkway as per this thread, with 1) being the one between Foregate Street/Shrub Hill and Droitwich Spa (when or if it eventually gets built)?
swt_passenger
Veteran Member
- Joined
- 7 Apr 2010
- Messages
- 31,426
Yes, 2 is the one about to open. It is close to the village of Norton, and Norton Junction. I think that “Norton” might have been included in the earliest names that appeared before Worcestershire Parkway was chosen.
As @swt_passenger says Worcestershire Parkway is the second of these. No.1 would be at Fernhill Heath. However there is (or was) a third proposed parkway station to the west of Foregate Street (at Rushwick). If I recall, Fernhill Heath and Rushwick were described as "emerging concepts" around the time that Worcestershire Parkway was given the go-ahead, and I don't know whether they got any further than that.
trentvalley
Member
- Joined
- 30 Jun 2019
- Messages
- 64
R G NOW.
Member
Now we have Worcester parkway, now we need a Gloucester parkway just sited at Haresfield to serve the area south of Gloucester. Quedgeley and Kingsway. This would allow passengers to change for Gloucester on the xc services instead of at Cheltenham.
I think would be a benefit to the southern area of the city which is seeing a large house building programme and people can drive there to get a train for Bristol or London Paddington. The station would be at the haresfield loops so trains can turn off the mainlines to pick up people. The signalling is already there. It would not cost as much as Worcester parkway as you would only need a Bristol parkway but with only two platforms and a footbridge, plus toilets waiting rooms and café and a ticket office. Not forgetting the large carpark to the front. About 60 million.
I think would be a benefit to the southern area of the city which is seeing a large house building programme and people can drive there to get a train for Bristol or London Paddington. The station would be at the haresfield loops so trains can turn off the mainlines to pick up people. The signalling is already there. It would not cost as much as Worcester parkway as you would only need a Bristol parkway but with only two platforms and a footbridge, plus toilets waiting rooms and café and a ticket office. Not forgetting the large carpark to the front. About 60 million.
Last edited:
edwin_m
Veteran Member
There might be local benefit locally but I can't see how this provides better connections into Gloucester, unless XC wants to stop the fast trains (unlikely given their attitude to other stations on the route), GW wants to stop the London trains (more likely) and the two happen to offer good connections between Gloucester and Bristol. It's unlikely Gloucester-Birmingham would be quicker by this route than by changing at Cheltenham, and through tickets probably wouldn't allow it.
R G NOW.
Member
Worcester parkway is about to open and people thought that is a waste of money because it is way from Worcester, but yes xc would stop there and gwr services to Bristol and London making it worth the money, probably more so than Worcester parkway. Just looked at google maps and there is easy access from a nearby road which could just be a traffic light tee junction and two fields can house the carpark and station buildings. There would be nothing on the down charfield line, only a long platform. The station with the loops can also double up as a terminating station for when engineering works take place. There are already crossovers at standish junction, so just a couple of extra signals needed. The area is coming up for resignalling so they can be added.
Last edited:
edwin_m
Veteran Member
Evidence?
R G NOW.
Member
They would be forced to as part of the transport system I suppose.
Anyway lets see Worcester parkway open first and see how that's used.
pdeaves
Established Member
For full correctness, the station is Worcestershire Parkway. It is named for the county.
R G NOW.
Member
Point taken but shortened to make typing easier, sorry.
221129
Established Member
Very very unlikely.
edwin_m
Veteran Member
The usual process for including such a requirement in the franchise specification would be to do a business case to compare the benefits of a stop for local trains against the disbenefits of longer journeys for the longer-distance passengers using the train that stops, some of whom might transfer to car as a result. I can't see that process justifying an extra stop in the fast Birmingham-Bristol service, especially as there is a GWR stopping train that could provide Bristol links instead (though obviously slower). Operators can also insert extra stops for commercial reasons, but they would have to be convinced that the net change in revenue was positive, which essentially replicates the same decision process using slightly different numbers. Finally it's possible lobbying could see stops inserted for essentially political reasons.
I thought the Gloucester Parkway concept was to the Northwest where the line crosses the A40?
Near to a significant amount of housing and industry, and easy (though congested) road access to a large area of Gloucestershire either side of the Severn.
Near to a significant amount of housing and industry, and easy (though congested) road access to a large area of Gloucestershire either side of the Severn.
R G NOW.
Member
Think at one time but seems to have been abandoned. So maybe my suggestion was a better one as it looks like a lot of housing is going in that area and with people trying to park at the present station is a joke, no room at the inn. and more cars into the city. Which I think Worcester city council worried about so I think that's why Worcester parkway was built.
R G NOW.
Member
Have network rail built a turnback facility at Worcestershire parkway for trains to terminate in case of blocked lines towards Cheltenham. I feel they should as there is a set of points at Abottswood junction where trains can cross over.
Just checked the availability of tickets to Worcestershire Parkway from Birmingham New Street and the earliest date Cross Country and the Trainline are selling them is from Sunday 2nd February. So it looks like the possible opening date has been put back a week?
NewSt
Member
The XC services are shown on RTT as ‘service stop unadvertised’ so it looks like maybe GWR will start running there this weekend and XC on 2nd February.
- Status