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XC Direct Award granted to October 2020: What improvements would you like to see?

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KashmireHawker

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That finding til October 2020, has today been confirmed by Transport Minister Chris Heaton-Harris.

https://www.globalrailwayreview.com/news/97153/crosscountry-increased-capacity-trains/

Following a £2.5 million investment from the government, UK rail operating company, CrossCountry, has announced that it will introduce improved trains onto its network from May 2020 which will see an additional 20,000 seats into service.

The UK’s Rail Minister made the announcement, stating that passengers travelling on CrossCountry services from Birmingham to Nottingham, Leicester and Cardiff will see the introduction of longer trains on some services, with over 5,000 seats to be available weekly. The remaining 15,000 extra seats each week are planned to be in place from mid-2021, including to and from Cambridge and Stansted Airport.

Chris Heaton-Harris, the Rail Minister for the UK, said: “Investing in transport is essential to levelling up the country, as we look to modernise our rail network and restructure the industry to put passengers at the heart of the railway. But we want to fund benefits to address pressing needs and improve journeys for passengers in the short-term, as well as in the future. More seats mean more people can travel, increasing access to opportunities and better connecting our regions.”


The funding provided by the UK government was agreed by the Department for Transport and CrossCountry in order to help limit overcrowding on the operator’s services. Work is currently underway for further improvements in the future when more rolling stock will be available, especially for longer distance routes that CrossCountry serves.
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nuneatonmark

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Can anyone confirm where the extra coaches are coming from for May? It seems to be linked to cascaded trains from the West Midlands but they won't get their new trains until next year at the very least? It would be logical for the mid-2021 increase, as stated above, is linked to the new trains but we all know that will get delayed :)
 
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Brissle Girl

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Another announcement which blurs the detail with the meaningless number of seats per week metric. What customers are much more interested in is what it means for length of trains, particularly on peak services.
 
Starmill

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It's also noted there will be "improvements to the reservation system" - I wonder what that means?
 
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Ianno87

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KashmireHawker said:
That finding til October 2020, has today been confirmed by Transport Minister Chris Heaton-Harris.

https://www.globalrailwayreview.com/news/97153/crosscountry-increased-capacity-trains/
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Brissle Girl said:
Another announcement which blurs the detail with the meaningless number of seats per week metric. What customers are much more interested in is what it means for length of trains, particularly on peak services.
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It's just over "2000 seats per day". Taking a nominal carriage capacity of 70 seats, that's 30 or so 'carriage journeys' per day. A typical Birmingham-Leicester/Stansted diagram does about 7 or 8 journeys per day maybe. So we talking maybe 4 lengthened units in total (each by 1 carriage), by my estimation.
 
43074

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nuneatonmark said:
Can anyone confirm where the extra coaches are coming from for May? It seems to be linked to cascaded trains from the West Midlands but they won't get their new trains until next year at the very least? It would be logical for the mid-2021 increase, as stated above, is linked to the new trains but we all know that will get delayed :)
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I suspect May '20 involves using an extra unit from the maintenance allocation in service as the centre cars from 170630 - 635 aren't available until next year as you point out.

Reading between the lines it looks like there's an extra HST diagram from December which tallies with them getting the 2 ex LNER power cars which are currently at Eastleigh.
 
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Mag_seven

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I suspect that in all probability if your current XC train is full and standing, it will still be full and standing. :)
 
krus_aragon

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Starmill said:
Is it just planning another HST in, as they're all out of the works?
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The press statement only mentions the routes currently operated by 170s, so that probably rules out HSTs!

5000 extra seats a week on "Birmingham to Nottingham, Leicester and Cardiff" is only 700~800 seats a day. Using a ballpark figure of 150 seats per unit, that could be just one additional unit operating a diagram of five journies a day. That could be achievable within the current fleet, by optimising diagrams or eating in to maintenance time?

As for the 15,000 (to include Stansted and Cambridge) that are planned for mid-2021, that'll require some additional units. So, assuming no microfleets, who's got 170s going spare next year?
 
pdeaves

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HowardGWR

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krus_aragon said:
The press statement only mentions the routes currently operated by 170s, so that probably rules out HSTs!
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The PR I read quoted Scotland to Penzance in the future, so that would be an extra HST or so, one imagines. When I read £2.5 million, I think 'just and extra carriage or two'. That amount doesn't buy much nowadays does it?
 
cactustwirly

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krus_aragon said:
The press statement only mentions the routes currently operated by 170s, so that probably rules out HSTs!

5000 extra seats a week on "Birmingham to Nottingham, Leicester and Cardiff" is only 700~800 seats a day. Using a ballpark figure of 150 seats per unit, that could be just one additional unit operating a diagram of five journies a day. That could be achievable within the current fleet, by optimising diagrams or eating in to maintenance time?

As for the 15,000 (to include Stansted and Cambridge) that are planned for mid-2021, that'll require some additional units. So, assuming no microfleets, who's got 170s going spare next year?
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They're getting the centre cars from the WMT 170s
 
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Ianno87

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HowardGWR said:
The PR I read quoted Scotland to Penzance in the future, so that would be an extra HST or so, one imagines. When I read £2.5 million, I think 'just and extra carriage or two'. That amount doesn't buy much nowadays does it?
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Not just the cost of the physical carriage, but the cost of running the carriage hundreds of miles up and down the country all day, almost every day, in terms of extra fuel and fleet maintenance requirements, for the duration of the direct award.
 
krus_aragon

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cactustwirly said:
They're getting the centre cars from the WMT 170s
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Ah, bingo!
HowardGWR said:
The PR I read quoted Scotland to Penzance in the future, so that would be an extra HST or so, one imagines.
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Yes, and the extract quoted above says "Work is currently underway for further improvements in the future when more rolling stock will be available, especially for longer distance routes that CrossCountry serves." But I suspect that's vaguely hinting at a Voyager cascade rather than a HST or two, as those are "available" immediately.
 
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ag51ruk

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krus_aragon said:
Ah, bingo!

Yes, and the extract quoted above says "Work is currently underway for further improvements in the future when more rolling stock will be available, especially for longer distance routes that CrossCountry serves." But I suspect that's vaguely hinting at a Voyager cascade rather than a HST or two, as those are "available" immediately.
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The actual DfT press release includes:
More customers are set to benefit as the Department for Transport (DfT) and CrossCountry finalise plans to deliver thousands more seats on long distance routes each week from December 2020. Longer trains will operate on some services on Mondays to Thursdays on the routes from Scotland, the North East and Manchester to the South West and the South Coast.
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https://www.gov.uk/government/news/longer-trains-and-more-seats-for-passengers-across-the-midlands
 
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Mogz

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It’s a bit of publicity that will change nothing on the longer journeys that are always rammed.

The news might as well be a press release telling passengers on the Scotland/North of England to South Coast/ South West services that no
changes are coming soon.
 
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Ianno87

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JonathanH said:
Avanti, changing at Crewe.
LNR / TFW, changing at Crewe.
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And on the XC route via Stoke, there is no section where XC is the sole operator; LM/Avanti south of Stoke, Northern/Avanti north of Stoke. XC is a minor contributor to overall corridor capacity on Manchester-Stoke-Birmingham.
 
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JN114

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JonathanH said:
Avanti, changing at Crewe.
LNR / TFW, changing at Crewe.
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On that basis you have alternative operators for Birmingham to Leicester.

It doesn’t excuse XC and the DfT not making improvements on the heavily overcrowded Manchester route. More kicking the can down the road on a route that hasn’t seen a service improvement in nigh-on 20 years.
 
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