East-West Rail (EWR): Potential service patterns? Should there be an emphasis on through trains or good connections?

[mr_jrt]

Moderator note: Split from https://www.railforums.co.uk/threads/east-west-rail-ewr-progress-updates-not-speculation.99892/

The horrific mess that is the south London (and I guess, Manchester as well) rail network shows what happens if you try to run direct services from everywhere to everywhere instead of creating good interchanges and overlapping service patterns.

Does Ipswich need a direct service to Oxford?

Or is improving the service between Ipswich and Cambridge and making sure the interchange at Cambridge is as good as it can be better?

You will be able to offer many, many more overall routes if you factor in changing at Cambridge, and if you're planning on interchange, it makes a northern or southern approach for EWR irrelvant to the Ipswich passenger (hell, given the southern approach it'll already be irrelvant to said Ipswich passenger wanting Peterborough, Ely, March, Kings Lynn, Stansted etc.)

EDIT: Having been cast adrift of the original discussion this all seems somewhat contextless. This post was a non-quoted response to https://www.railforums.co.uk/thread...ss-updates-not-speculation.99892/post-5034598 Arguably all of those posts should have been dragged in here as well...

 

[mwmbwls]

You could make the same point about all Cross Country Services - it is the churn that is significant The same seat being re-occupied in numerous occasions. The Liverpool Norwich service used to have significant churn at Manchester, Sheffield and Nottingham. The question is how long can a route be before timetabling becomes unreliable?

 

[Ianno87]

The horrific mess that is the south London (and I guess, Manchester as well) rail network shows what happens if you try to run direct services from everywhere to everywhere instead of creating good interchanges and overlapping service patterns. Does Ipswich need a direct service to Oxford? Or is improving the service between Ipswich and Cambridge and making sure the interchange at Cambridge is as good as it can be better? You will be able to offer many, many more overall routes if you factor in changing at Cambridge, and if you're planning on interchange, it makes a northern or southern approach for EWR irrelvant to the Ipswich passenger (hell, given the southern approach it'll already be irrelvant to said Ipswich passenger wanting Peterborough, Ely, March, Kings Lynn, Stansted etc.)

I think that (say) half-hourly Ipswich-Cambridge connecting into a frequent EWR service onwards is itself aeons better than connectivity today.

 

[mwmbwls]

A half hourly service from Ipswich combined with a half hourly service from Norwich would add up to a four trains an hour service over the the Central and Western Sections. Every 15 minutes is sweet spot timetabling for "turn up ang go" passengers and if everything runs through to Oxford would turn Biscester into a major commuting point when the Chiltern Services overlay is added in.

 

[zwk500]

A half hourly service from Ipswich combined with a half hourly service from Norwich would add up to a four trains an hour service over the the Central and Western Sections. Every 15 minutes is sweet spot timetabling for "turn up ang go" passengers and if everything runs through to Oxford would turn Biscester into a major commuting point when the Chiltern Services overlay is added in.

A north chord would be (and always has been) a separate project.

Any potential service pattern beyond Cambridge is speculation, I think, at this point.

 

[swt_passenger]

Deleted. The quoted section wasnt in this thread since being moved.