Jorge Da Silva
Established Member
Some alterations are needed to the proposals.
- Current 1645 Nottingham HST service to St. Pancras deposits a large number of passengers getting off the train at Luton Town station. This service will need to be retained. I use it often. There will be a need for some direct through service throughout the day. Perhaps call on alternative hours at either Luton Parkway or Bedford.
- The prospect of having to change at KETTERING and again at LEICESTER is unattractive and unviable for many passengers . One change may work with cross platform interchange but two won't. At Kettering passengers will have to walk up flights of stairs over the bridge and down again. Not very user friendly for disabled and elderly people or with prams and luggage even with a lift when it works. I can't see EMR timetabling the fast Nottingham service to call on platform 2 on the slow at Kettering northbound behind the Corby stopper for passenger convenience and P1 southbound.
- What is despartely needed is a through train to Manchester Piccadilly from places such as Luton, Kettering, Leicester and Derby preferably direct avoiding Sheffield . Connectvity from Leicester to Manchester is very poor and there is untapped demand for such a service even if it had to reverse at Sheffield. (During the west coast route modernisation under Project Rio the direct service carried a very healthy number of through passengers).
Is a Manchester train more important than a direct service to Leeds?
and there are plans for a third fast train per hour between Manchester and Sheffield when the hope valley line upgrade is complete.