Commuters say new Chiltern line is 'misery'

[Cherry_Picker]

The Chiltern units are absolutely, positively 100mph units. They feel quicker to accelerate, but I havent driven one myself so I cant say how much quicker.

 

[swt_passenger]

The Chiltern units are absolutely, positively 100mph units. They feel quicker to accelerate, but I havent driven one myself so I cant say how much quicker.

Yes, I wasn't trying to suggest otherwise, just pointing out my expectation that a usually reliable source will potentially be wrong, and this will confuse people.

 

[RPM]

The Chiltern units are absolutely, positively 100mph units. They feel quicker to accelerate, but I havent driven one myself so I cant say how much quicker.

I've not yet driven one either, but talking to some of the MYB drivers that do sign them I gather the acceleration is very good, better than a 165 and way, way better than a 168. I can also add my weight to the fact that they are *definitely* 100mph units.

 

[dk1]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Class_172

 

[oversteer]

As a passenger, I have been on a Chiltern 172 doing a GPS-verified 99mph.
Whether they do 100mph or not I cannot say for sure

 

[TDK]

The 90mph capability of the FGW 165s would certainly be useful on the Chitern Main Line, and maybe some 165/0s could go to FGW in exchange to work the branches.

Anything running at 90mph on a mainline service will be a huge PPM risk and speaking to FGW drivers the 165 (90mph) versions take a long time to get to 90mph - if Chiltern did this it would also open up a can of worms for any other company wanting an OA service using 90mph units as tried before. The 168's are not ideal as some of them are underpowered and do take a while to get to line speed however I would imagine fleet is on this case to ensure the units are performing to their peak performance.

 

[Jollycam]

Well I've just come off the 1755 ex Moor St and there's a Chiltern customer service manager doing the rounds asking for feedback on their services. As someone who uses Warwick Station, I couldn't really provide any positive feedback as the frequency of the service to both London and Birmingham is now worse since the introduction of Mainline. Also asking why they took over the hourly local stopper from Central Trains a few years ago to only make it every 2 hours now (why bother taking over someone else's service if you're ultimately just going to make it less frequent), and even suggesting that they should give it up to LM if they can't be bothered to improve it so Warwick could potentially have a service at least back to the status-quo of a few years ago (i.e. 1 London-Birmingham tph and 1 Leamington-Birmingham tph).

Obviously I wasn't expecting specific answers to the comments, however, the interesting thing was that he said that they were looking at a 'complete timetable recast in Dec next year' and that he'd take my comments on board without any promises. Now surely the new timetable hasn't had time to bed-in yet to warrant thinking about a total recast, no matter how bad it's perceived to be received! Either that or he meant to use the word 'tweak' instead? Only time will tell I guess.

I'll be honest and say that I do admire Chiltern in their investment on the line over the last 10 years (and in the past I have really praised them as a company you would invest in if you could), and there are obviously stations which now have a much better service than ever before (take Leamington Spa for example), however, I do think that they're chasing the London - Birmingham market to the detriment of what should be their core business. Ultimately passenger demand will dictate their timetable, however, for me, I'd almost prefer the timetable of 10 years ago to what it is now....and that's a shame.

 

[hick]

Well I've just come off the 1755 ex Moor St and there's a Chiltern customer service manager doing the rounds asking for feedback on their services. As someone who uses Warwick Station, I couldn't really provide any positive feedback as the frequency of the service to both London and Birmingham is now worse since the introduction of Mainline. Also asking why they took over the hourly local stopper from Central Trains a few years ago to only make it every 2 hours now (why bother taking over someone else's service if you're ultimately just going to make it less frequent), and even suggesting that they should give it up to LM if they can't be bothered to improve it so Warwick could potentially have a service at least back to the status-quo of a few years ago (i.e. 1 London-Birmingham tph and 1 Leamington-Birmingham tph).

Obviously I wasn't expecting specific answers to the comments, however, the interesting thing was that he said that they were looking at a 'complete timetable recast in Dec next year' and that he'd take my comments on board without any promises. Now surely the new timetable hasn't had time to bed-in yet to warrant thinking about a total recast, no matter how bad it's perceived to be received! Either that or he meant to use the word 'tweak' instead? Only time will tell I guess.

I'll be honest and say that I do admire Chiltern in their investment on the line over the last 10 years (and in the past I have really praised them as a company you would invest in if you could), and there are obviously stations which now have a much better service than ever before (take Leamington Spa for example), however, I do think that they're chasing the London - Birmingham market to the detriment of what should be their core business. Ultimately passenger demand will dictate their timetable, however, for me, I'd almost prefer the timetable of 10 years ago to what it is now....and that's a shame.

The Leamington shuttles were a new service provided by Chiltern in December 2010. They have no connection to any previous service provided by any other TOC. They are there purely to satisfy the franchise PSR requirements of the stations that were removed from some of the Birmingham trains. There is no business case to run this service hourly.

 

[Jollycam]

The Leamington shuttles were a new service provided by Chiltern in December 2010. They have no connection to any previous service provided by any other TOC. They are there purely to satisfy the franchise PSR requirements of the stations that were removed from some of the Birmingham trains. There is no business case to run this service hourly.

I agree that they were introduced essentially to satisfy the franchise PSR of Hatton and Lapworth (after all having London bound trains stopping at these stations does have a time penalty and they have low usage).

Originally, before Chiltern increased the Birmingham trains to 2tph, CT used to extend 1 of the Dorridge stoppers per hour to Leamington (stopping at Lapworth, Hatton, Warwick Parkway(?) and Warwick). When Chiltern increased the frequency of their service to 2tph, CT stopped the extension and Chiltern stopped more at Hatton and Lapworth. Therefore the stopper is similar to the service CT provided but less frequent. The Dec 2010 change being commented as the first stage of the Mainline timetable introduction (hence why I referenced it). My personal view is that the stopper would be better operated by LM as a Dorridge extender as it fits in with their operations in the area better (and you only need 1 train to extend the Dorridge service hourly compared to the 1 train Chiltern probably tie-up to run a bi-hourly shuttle service - though I appreciate it isn't as easy as that).

Chiltern clearly meet their PSR on the provision of the London-Birmingham trains (1tph I believe) and are therefore perfectly free to run additional services as they like, however things have been better in the past before the business model changed.

 

[Cherry_Picker]

There used to be an hourly stopper to Leamington Spa operated by Central Trains so that Lapworth and Hatton would have a service. Chiltern took that over a while ago and every other London train stopped at Lapworth and Hatton. When those stops were knocked off the Londons the shuttle had to run, so essentially it is a direct replacement for the old Central Trains stopper.

The Warwick issue just highlights that you can't please all of the people all of the time. I don't think Chiltern can stop an express train three times in the four miles which separate Warwick Parkway, Warwick and Leamington Spa and of those three stations Warwick is by far the easiest to justify skipping. The people of the town are still better served by the railway than most.