Bletchleyite
Veteran Member
I think there is a fundamental misunderstanding of the situation at play here. That situation is a result of sqaushing two services together to offer another service to Scotland.
True; the intention of that squashing together is to make things better for those making intermediate journeys, which it does, very well. It also makes better use of rolling stock than the former situation. It was an absolute masterstroke - to me, the best decision VT made during their tenure in timetabling terms (OK, maybe I'd give their decision to go all-day clockface, near enough, more credence ).
If Advances are cheaper, well, that's why they're cheaper
The reason for it, though, is that the paths don't line up.
While I dont disagree SBB run substantially fewer trains under a very different operating framework. Is there a swiss example of the mixed traffic chaos of wcml south?
Is there one anywhere else in the world? That said, the "fixed" LNR timetable does include "dropping back" a path at New St to allow for enough slack to make the Liverpool through services punctual, and some wait at Northampton for a while.
SBB's operating model of very long trains on a half hourly base would work very well in other parts of the UK, though, most notably the web-like network in the North where connections are vastly more important than the South East as there's not one obvious big destination to send everything to.