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New London Midland Crewe to London service

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All Line Rover

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It seems that London Midland are running a new Crewe to London service from Monday 10th September.

Leaving Crewe at 05:18, it runs non-stop to Rugeley Trent Valley and arrives in London Euston at 08:11 - taking just 2h 53m (quick by London Midland standards). I'm a little disappointed that it leaves Crewe so early (the first Virgin service is the 05:36, which arrives in London at 07:28). To leave at 05:55 and arrive at 08:48 would have been more reasonable. Anyway, I digress...

At first glance this service appears useful, but it has no Advance tickets available which, even with the LM Only fares, makes it more expensive than many of Virgin Trains' Advance fares.

Does anyone know if this service will be a permanent fixture (perhaps being sped up and departing Crewe a little later when LM start to run services at 110mph that avoid Northampton) and whether Advance tickets will be made available for this service in the future? There is no mention of this service in the timetable, which is a strange omission, and it is not a temporary Olympics service since it starts running after the games have ended.
 
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calc7

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ORCATS raid perhaps?

Any chance of a Crewe service that is desperately needed - one later than the 1829 from Euston?
 

tbtc

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It's a relatively long distance service arriving in London at 08:11 and you're complaining about the lack of advance tickets?

I presume it'll be busy enough with Northampton/ Milton Keynes etc passengers paying full price
 

All Line Rover

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ORCATS raid perhaps?

Any chance of a Crewe service that is desperately needed - one later than the 1829 from Euston?

Personally I would prefer a 20:29 Euston to Crewe service, taking the same time as the 18:29 and arriving in Crewe at 23:27. This would make day trips more feasible and, for me, would be more useful than an extremely early Crewe to London service. The 18:29 is also ridiculously busy, so a 20:29 service would provide some relief. Having said that, the 06:35 Crewe to Euston service (the current first LM service) also gets ridiculously busy from Nuneaton!
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It's a relatively long distance service arriving in London at 08:11 and you're complaining about the lack of advance tickets?

I presume it'll be busy enough with Northampton/ Milton Keynes etc passengers paying full price

The 06:35 Crewe to London and 18:29 London to Crewe are packed but still have extremely good value Advance fares available for long-distance travel (i.e. from stations prior to Rugby to London Euston).

I'm not complaining, by the way. I'm just saying it's not particularly useful for people travelling from Crewe to London.
 
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Comstock

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Two questions which I probably should know the answer to but don't.

1) will this stop at Lichfield Trent Valley?

2) Will the fares be anything even remotely affordable?
 

calc7

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I agree with All Line Rover that a 20.29 service would be splendid. However, it doesn't attract a premium revenue that this early morning service does.

Also, lack of Advance fares could well be an oversight by the staff who deal with them and haven't realise this service has been added or haven't got round to assigning tickets yet.
 

All Line Rover

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Two questions which I probably should know the answer to but don't.

1) will this stop at Lichfield Trent Valley?

2) Will the fares be anything even remotely affordable?

Yes and it's £42 single. It's definitely more attractive if you live in Lichfield, as Virgin provides little competition at that station.
 

MidnightFlyer

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Two questions which I probably should know the answer to but don't.

1) will this stop at Lichfield Trent Valley?

It calls at Rugeley TV, Lichfield TV, Tamworth, Atherstone, Nuneaton, Rugby, Long Buckby, Northampton, Wolverton, MKC and Leighton Buzzard.
 

All Line Rover

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Also, lack of Advance fares could well be an oversight by the staff who deal with them and haven't realise this service has been added or haven't got round to assigning tickets yet.

Or maybe they want to see how busy it gets first?

 

SS4

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Personally I would prefer a 20:29 Euston to Crewe service, taking the same time as the 18:29 and arriving in Crewe at 23:27. This would make day trips more feasible and, for me, would be more useful than an extremely early Crewe to London service. The 18:29 is also ridiculously busy, so a 20:29 service would provide some relief. Having said that, the 06:35 Crewe to Euston service (the current first LM service) also gets ridiculously busy from Nuneaton!

Be careful what you wish for though, at the moment the Super Off Peak is valid on the 1829 by means of an easement, any later service would likely remove said easement.

That said I agree that a later train would be more useful
 

Comstock

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Yes and it's £42 single. It's definitely more attractive if you live in Lichfield, as Virgin provides little competition at that station.

Thank you. Currently live just south of Derby, but the peak time fares from Derby to St P's are horrendous.

Allowing for the fact parking at LTV is much cheaper than at Derby, and it might be worth considering.
 

MidnightFlyer

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Lack of calls at Bletchley and Watford Jct for the branch lines is interesting.

As far as I can see the connection at Bletchley would be roughly 20mins~, or 40mins~ at Watford Jn, plus I suspect it would be suitably loaded before then anyway (TBF it will probably serve a lot of commuters from Long Buckby and Wolverton).
 

All Line Rover

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Be careful what you wish for though, at the moment the Super Off Peak is valid on the 1829 by means of an easement, any later service would likely remove said easement.

That said I agree that a later train would be more useful

I suspect you're right. London Midland may well introduce a later service when 110mph running starts and subsequently decide to remove the easement on the 18:29.
 

323235

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It seems that London Midland are running a new Crewe to London service from Monday 10th September.

Leaving Crewe at 05:18, it runs non-stop to Rugeley Trent Valley and arrives in London Euston at 08:11 - taking just 2h 53m (quick by London Midland standards). I'm a little disappointed that it leaves Crewe so early (the first Virgin service is the 05:36, which arrives in London at 07:28). To leave at 05:55 and arrive at 08:48 would have been more reasonable. Anyway, I digress...


This service itself isn't totally new although the improved journey time is. It was previously two seperate services the 0518 Crewe to Rugby 0647 and 0702 Rugby to London 0849 which they have joined up and retimed removing some of the stops, which have been picked up by a new service from Milton Keynes - London Euston service.
 

al green

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This service itself isn't totally new although the improved journey time is. It was previously two seperate services the 0518 Crewe to Rugby 0647 and 0702 Rugby to London 0849 which they have joined up and retimed removing some of the stops, which have been picked up by a new service from Milton Keynes - London Euston service.

Almost. Its the Crewe to Rugby service mentioned here connected to the existing Nton 0713 which arrives Euston at 0811. They've just filled in the missing Rugby-Nton section and made it a through service.
 

Eagle

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Lack of calls at Bletchley and Watford Jct for the branch lines is interesting.

Although not new for LM; there are many services that omit one, the other or both.

(In fact I don't think Crewe services have ever called Bletchley; it's normally ...NUN–RUG–NMP[attach portion]–MKC–WFJ–EUS).
 

calc7

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Although not new for LM; there are many services that omit one, the other or both.

(In fact I don't think Crewe services have ever called Bletchley; it's normally ...NUN–RUG–NMP[attach portion]–MKC–WFJ–EUS).

Yep, the Crewe service is EUS-WFJ-MKC-NMP-etc, and one of the BHM services is EUS-LBZ-BLY-MKC-etc (off-peak at least). I was just surprised that both of these were omitted in spite of stops at Long Buckby, Wolverton and Leighton Buzzard making it onto the list of calls.
 

Eagle

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Yep, the Crewe service is EUS-WFJ-MKC-NMP-etc, and one of the BHM services is EUS-LBZ-BLY-MKC-etc (off-peak at least). I was just surprised that both of these were omitted in spite of stops at Long Buckby, Wolverton and Leighton Buzzard making it onto the list of calls.

By the time it gets past Rugby it's a morning peak service; normal calling patterns are out the window :P
 

wibble

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Almost. Its the Crewe to Rugby service mentioned here connected to the existing Nton 0713 which arrives Euston at 0811. They've just filled in the missing Rugby-Nton section and made it a through service.

The 0713 is a 12 car from the depot, but LM will probably run 8 cars from the depot and attach the 4 coaches from Crewe at the rear. This train is pretty full from Leighton Buzzard
 

cle

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Recall that LM operate 1 service each day via the Colwich - Manchester line to allow route knowledge to be retained by their drivers.

So it goes via Stoke, but they're not allowed to stop presumably?

Is this the only service to non-stop Stoke then, given that the fast Manchester headline goes via Crewe?
 

calc7

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So it goes via Stoke, but they're not allowed to stop presumably?

Is this the only service to non-stop Stoke then, given that the fast Manchester headline goes via Crewe?

The 0700 MAN-EUS has always gone via Stoke when I've been on it.
 

MidnightFlyer

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Is this the only service to non-stop Stoke then, given that the fast Manchester headline goes via Crewe?

I'd imagine via the WCML and just non-stop at Stafford. The current Manchester headliner runs via Stoke I believe, it's certainly quicker that way.
 

calc7

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IIRC it's a Northbound working only that does Colwich to Stone avoiding Stafford.
 

dk1

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Cannot imagine ever choosing this service from Crewe through to Euston or any other LM service when Virgin rocket down the WCML in as little as 1h35m complete with catering on every train.
 
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