FirstGroup Monopoly on northern part of West Coast Mainline: could this have an impact?

[Starmill]

As things stand the entirety of the LNR part of WMT is a regional / regional express operation including that, possibly except the Trent Valleys which on the European type model might be IR (interregional).

This has gone well outside of our scope here, but it is very hard to see why Birmingham to Liverpool is so different from Birmingham to Manchester for the purposes of your special models.

 

[Glenn1969]

To avoid the monopoly maybe Scotrail could run a Carlisle to Glasgow/Edinburgh service and improve the service offer at Lockerbie and Carstairs at the same time?

 

[Bletchleyite]

This has gone well outside of our scope here, but it is very hard to see why Birmingham to Liverpool is so different from Birmingham to Manchester for the purposes of your special models.

Replied in more detail here:
https://www.railforums.co.uk/thread...c-but-liverpool-brum-regional-express.197629/

 

[317 forever]

Could be up to five choices -
A standalone operator of Manchester-Scottish services.
Scotrail run it.
Northern run it.
XC extend over it.
LNR extend over it.

But allowing one firm to set the WCML fares between NW England and Scotland isn't really fair. The ECML / NE England has three operators.

Although both operators from Preston to Edinburgh are mainly First, there is a cheaper Off-peak Return from Manchester to Edinburgh via just Northern & Avanti than valid on any train including TPE.