Nottingham to Rugby shuttle on Great Central route

[RT4038]

Nice idea, but I think it would also have required late C20th/C21st patterns of commuting to make it work. Beyond Aylesbury/Oxford was really not London commuterbelt in the 60s, or even in the 80s, it took the M40 (among other things) to change that.

What would have been the point? The section from Rugby to Aylesbury went through open countryside, and only one small town (Brackley). Nottingham/Loughborough/Leicester/Rugby to London were all catered for by alternative routes with plenty of capacity on them in the mid-sixties. Nottingham-Oxford (and beyond) could have been served Nottingham-Loughborough-Leicester-Market Harborough-Northampton-Bletchley -Oxford, serving Northampton (a much bigger town than Rugby) and still close the GC main line over its entire length. But only one daytime GC train used the Woodford-Banbury link, so clearly not much traffic in '66

 

[fitz]

I was living in Loughborough in the 1960’s and enjoyed several trips on the G.C. upto and including the 3rd Sept. 1966. In June 1968 just before I left Loughborough I had two last runs on what was left of the line . Arkwright St. was a dismal place and little if anything had been done to smarten it up . Rugby Central was slightly better . The trains I caught were not well patronised although I didn’t travel during peak hours . All in all a sad experience.

 

[gaymale]

I don't think anyone has mentioned the fact that the Nottingham to Rugby Central service continued to run from Victoria for another year after the line closed south of Rugby in Sep 66.

Indeed, the Mon-Sat trains from Nottingham to Grantham also continued to run from Victoria until July 1967, though what the connection times to the Rugby service were like is anyone's guess.

Victoria was closed on Sundays, even prior to Sep 1966, and the Sunday Grantham service terminated at London Road High Level until January 1965. It then went via the new connection (out at Netherfield) to the Midland station instead, even though it took until July 1967 for the Mon-Sat service to follow suit.

I am one of the select band who travelled on all three of the "last" service trains from Nottingham:

- behind 44984 on the 5:15pm from Victoria (which went through to Marylebone) (3rd Sep 66)
- DMU from Victoria on Sat 2nd Sep 67 (I believe I have the date correct)
- DMU from Arkwright Street Sat 5th May 69

Sadly I had no camera to take photographs of any of these.

I used the service from Arkwright St on quite a few occasions and was annoyed when it closed. The station was right next to Nottingham Midland and ironically gave a better connection south than waiting around at the Midland station! Nobody every checked my ticket, or if they did it didn't get recorded as an income to the service as I had a through ticket.

Prior to the closure of the line south of Rugby I used the GC to visit relatives using the route via Banbury. It took so much longer to get there via alternative routes after Sep 66 and even now I drive to Didcot rather than use the train despite the additional cost of using the car!

 

[nw1]

More generally, Leicester to places west of the MML does seem to be one of those gaps left from Beeching, I can see that a Leicester Rugby link could be useful to allow journeys such as Nottingham-Leicester-Milton Keynes-Oxford-(Reading or Bristol) (if the East West link ever gets fully opened as an inter-city route) completely avoiding the West Midlands area and its congestion, particularly after HS2 has opened and the WCML has more capacity. Doubt they'll ever do it now but the lack of foresight of the Beeching era is unfortunate. There did seem to be a 'close close close' mentality in those days rather than a more creative look at the network and thinking about future inter-city links.

 

[krus_aragon]

There did seem to be a 'close close close' mentality in those days rather than a more creative look at the network and thinking about future inter-city links.

Remember that the inter-city links of the future back then were motorways and airports. Few people would have reason to foretell our current railway network's usage.

 

[Western Lord]

More generally, Leicester to places west of the MML does seem to be one of those gaps left from Beeching, I can see that a Leicester Rugby link could be useful to allow journeys such as Nottingham-Leicester-Milton Keynes-Oxford-(Reading or Bristol) (if the East West link ever gets fully opened as an inter-city route) completely avoiding the West Midlands area and its congestion, particularly after HS2 has opened and the WCML has more capacity. Doubt they'll ever do it now but the lack of foresight of the Beeching era is unfortunate. There did seem to be a 'close close close' mentality in those days rather than a more creative look at the network and thinking about future inter-city links.

Railways were very old hat indeed in the gleaming atomic and supersonic world of the late fifties and early sixties (as portrayed in the Eagle!). As regards the railway network, if some stupendous genius had been allowed to create a joined up railway network at the time of nationalisation, using the best bits of the private companies systems, we would have a better network today, even after any Beeching style reductions.

For example, a connection between the Midland and the Great Central at Loughborough would have seen St. Pancras to Nottingham trains diverted to Nottingham Victoria. The ex GN Nottingham to Derby line would have been the principal route between the two (serving Ilkeston on the way) with a connection into Derby Midland where the lines crossed north of Derby. Services from east of Nottingham could have been diverted into Victoria very easily and the Midland line through Nottingham and down to Trent would have become freight only. A connection from the GN Nottingham-Ilkeston line where it crosses the Erewash valley line would have taken trains from Nottingham Victoria on to Chesterfield and Sheffield. Melton Mowbray to Nottingham could not have easily been accommodated so would have closed earlier than it did. The site of Nottingham Midland could have been redeveloped and it would still have been possible to develop the "air rights" over Nottingham Victoria (although this would have created a New Street style ambience!).

In any case St. Pancras to Sheffield via Nottingham would have been better running via Leicester and easier than the subsequent reversal at Nottingham which was adopted after the Melton Mowbray-Nottingham line closed, and might have become the principal route rather than via Derby. Unfortunately, there was no money available in the post war austerity years and the old companies systems continued to operate as if nationalisation had not happed for many years afterwards.

 

[Taunton]

Railways were very old hat indeed in the gleaming atomic and supersonic world of the late fifties and early sixties

Not so. All that money invested in diesels and dmus from the late 1950s, WCML electrification, Beeching's OTHER reports, the ones that advocated Inter-City, Freightliner, Merry-go-Round (all of which needed substantial capital investment). Modern signalling and CWR spread everywhere. The British Rail new image. As the railway never broke even, all done with government funds.

 

[edwin_m]

The vision in the 60s was that rail was good for intercity travel, commuting into London and a few other major cities, and some high-volume freight flows. This was largely confirmed over the next three decades as these types of traffic mostly thrived but others dwindled. A service between two medium cities (which already had an alternative route) and a couple of large towns didn't really fit the bill.

What has changed since has been the general increase in difficulty of travelling by road, with the building of motorways being offset by (and to some extent causing) the huge increase in traffic and congestion. This has made rail more relevant on many of the rest of the passenger routes, which were known dismissively as "other provincial services" well into the 80s.

 

[Taunton]

I think there are different reasons. Students going daily to college/university are now a substantial flow that didn't really exist a generation ago. Likewise cars have become grossly expensive, compared to the same times, with insurance costs etc for younger drivers. House price issues mean that people are much more likely to commute to jobs than move house nearer their employment, something that was once confined to just London and one or two provincial cities. Also, buses that once were an ever increasing competitive alternative to rail now appear to have gone the other way, and, outside London, be in terminal decline.

I saw a 4 pm departure from Sheffield to Lincoln etc loading up a short while ago, and the bulk of the passengers appeared college students. Probably about 150 of them. Time was when this would have been either a 2-car or 4-car Derby Heavyweight dmu, less than half full. The fact that nowadays a one-car 155 was provided just exacerbated the situation