Birmingham Curzon Street - Is It Under Utilised?

[Purple Orange]

I’m interested in hearing people’s views on how services in to Birmingham should grow after HS2 is complete. It is a 7 platform station and currently is due to see 9 trains per hour. Euston’s 10 platforms are set to facilitate 17 trains per hour and Piccadilly could be as high as 15 trains per hour with 6 platforms. Clearly Curzon Street could accommodate more.

Given the concept of the Midlands Engine, which could use New Street too, and the possibility of a south-west link in years to come, how could services increase and what services should they be?

 

[cle]

Obvious ones are to flight onto HS2 up to Crewe, and then peel off to wherever. Liverpool seems easiest, then Preston/Blackpool/Cumbria slower patterns (may be covered by whatever XC is in those dates though) - and then Wilmslow route - followed last by Chester and North Wales by virtue of not being wired. But WCML focused. Might Toton routing services be useful? Not much is wired that way as yet.

The Andy Street Midlands pop-off I think should be New St and maybe even Moor St, depending on the works that get done.

 

[Ianno87]

I’m interested in hearing people’s views on how services in to Birmingham should grow after HS2 is complete. It is a 7 platform station and currently is due to see 9 trains per hour. Euston’s 10 platforms are set to facilitate 17 trains per hour and Piccadilly could be as high as 15 trains per hour with 6 platforms. Clearly Curzon Street could accommodate more.

Given the concept of the Midlands Engine, which could use New Street too, and the possibility of a south-west link in years to come, how could services increase and what services should they be?

I imagine with Euston so intensively utilised, it will be necessary to "under utilise" Curzon Street slightly to avoid having two timetabling hard points. In otherwise, fix the timetable at Euston, then Curzon Street "gets what its given", which means less efficient turnround times and platform occupancy.

 

[Purple Orange]

Obvious ones are to flight onto HS2 up to Crewe, and then peel off to wherever. Liverpool seems easiest, then Preston/Blackpool/Cumbria slower patterns (may be covered by whatever XC is in those dates though) - and then Wilmslow route - followed last by Chester and North Wales by virtue of not being wired. But WCML focused. Might Toton routing services be useful? Not much is wired that way as yet.

The Andy Street Midlands pop-off I think should be New St and maybe even Moor St, depending on the works that get done.

Liverpool, yes - especially if there is an NPR line going to Lime Street. I wouldn’t send anything to Wilmslow, any service that ends up in Manchester from Curzon Street should purely be on HS2.