Does anyone know why there isn't much of a reduction in journey time on the new electric timetable? I was expecting at least ten minutes to be knocked off current journey times.
The timetable might be a lot better if it were like the Island Line, an isolated line which interacts with nowhere else (except a ferry). But this is not the case.
The performance of the trains might now be a fair amount better (probably not quite 10 minutes, especially given the frequent stops and the 350s' notoriously slow doors, but still a good few minutes). But it would take a wholesale rethink of the timetable in order to fit in a faster service - no mean feat given that the low-platform New Street timetable is designed around eking out the most of the limited Stour Valley capacity. All now made much more complicated because of the introduction of direct Rugeley to London via Birmingham services, which split and join there.
In short, I don't think it's going to happen anytime soon unfortunately. The benefit of the electric service is going to be better timekeeping and delay recovery for the existing timetable, as well as more capacity, a nicer train and of course the environmental advantages.
The next major rethink of the region's timetable probably won't be until HS2 services start.