Debatable. Doncaster is an important interchange station, with quite a large catchment area (Lincolnshire and Humberside, as well as parts of South Yorkshire). Also, while Doncaster does have Scottish services already, these are very infrequent, with only 8tpd continuing beyond Newcastle, and only 3 services between 9am and 5 pm.
Also re-read my earlier post in this topic. In the current timetable, while there is 2tph from Doncaster to Newcastle, they depart within 10 minutes of each other.
FYI, the time penalty for XC service going via Leeds and not Doncaster is roughly 20 minutes.
I haven't got that much experience of travelling north of Edinburgh, but from the few services I have used, I can agree with your comments.
I'm not sure about your comment that people from the Midlands need to get to Newcastle though. If the North East XC services are swapped round, so the NESW goes via Doncaster instead, for the Sheffield - Leeds - York passengers, there will be a simple same platform, or at worst, cross platform change at York
Is there not? As quite a lot of the members on the forum are not railway staff, we don't get access to a detailed breakdown of what tickets are actually sold. All we can go on is anecdotal evidence and personal experiences, as well as the station usage reports.
Again, re-read my comments about Doncaster - Edinburgh. I do not call 8tpd between the 2 as frequent, especially when there is on 3 services between 9am and 5pm. Also, taking all XC services away from Doncaster is a regressive step, as it will half the number of services from there to Newcastle.
That plan is simply daft! Let me pick a lot of holes in your plan ....
London - Newcastle - Scotland. That is a big market for East Coast, you according to your plan, it's not needed, so instead you truncate it at Newcastle and reduce the frequency to 1tph
Leeds - Newcastle - Scotland. 4tph Leeds - Newcastle? Is there really that much demand? With the proposed timetable, it goes to 3tph anyway
XC Birmingham - Newcastle. No demand for passengers to go to Doncaster, and the surrounding catchment area?
Newcastle - Scotland. Only 1 (semi) fast tph? Another reduction in frequency ....
Also, is there the demand for a full length train every hour between Aberdeen and Edinburgh?
What about the Inverness and Scarborough services?
Seeing as you haven't mention them, I'm assuming the KX - Leeds services will stay as they are.
Basically, in your "perfect plan", Only Leeds/York - Newcastle - Edinburgh is worth bothering about, sod everyone else that wants to get anywhere using East Coast ....
Ok, re-read this and then reply
I support an hourly London-Edinburgh service with a calling pattern of Peterborough, Doncaster, York, Darlington, Durham, Newcastle, Morpeth, Alnmouth, Berwick & Dunbar
I support an additional service every other hour from London-Aberdeen calling York, Newcastle, Edinburgh, Haymarket, Kirkcaldy, Leuchars, Dundee, Arbroath, Montrose & Aberdeen.
This would give Doncaster an hourly service to Edinburgh, which is a perfectly good service for interchange from north Lincolnshire & Humberside (though a lot of East Yorkshire changes at York not Doncaster).
I also support a second hourly service to Newcastle calling Stevenage, Peterborough, Grantham, Newark, Retford, Doncaster, York, Northallerton, Darlington & Durham.
This would give doncaster a half-hourly connection to Newcastle, which is definitely enough for 'North Lincolnshire and Humberside' which has a collective population of about 750k, as opposed to Greater Leeds' 3 million.
There is a 20 minute time penalty for Leeds, but given the loadings you get at Leeds that is very obviously worth it, especially given the ease of interchange for Rotherham & the Dearne Valley towns at Doncaster.
As for your last bit the only explanation I could see is that you cannot read. What I proposed would give
London-Newcastle: 2tph
London-Scotland: 3tp2h
Newcastle-Edinburgh: 3tph
I've assumed Inverness & Scarborough would keep their services as under the SQ, but not necessarily-they could be replaced.
Lastly, for trains to Doncaster from the midlands. I think there probably is a market here, but given you can already use EC services to York, it would seem most sensible to route any XC trains either to Cleethorpes or to Hull. Personally I prefer Hull as a destination as it's much less well served and much more in need of good connections than Middlesbrough.
And wait....what's this.....if you cut XC services from going to Scotland, you can run a 3rd XC service along the core, to Hull via Doncaster, Thorne North & Goole to supplement the fast Hull-Sheffield and Hull-London services.
As for Middlesbrough, I'd also support (post wiring) its addition to the EC map with an hourly service calling Peterborough, Grantham, Newark/Retford, Doncaster, York, Northallerton & Thornaby.
EDIT:
Have just checked timetables, and there is no 'Twenty minute time penalty' for running via Leeds, the difference is
6 MINUTES. Sheffield-York via Doncaster:
59 minutes, Sheffield-York via Leeds:
65 minutes.
So yeah, 2tph via Leeds is not a problem.
