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South Humberside-Stratford Service proposed

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Humberside

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Renaissance Trains (the people with shares in Hull Trains and WSMR) plan to start a South Humberside-Stratford service in summer 2008, operating via Lincoln, Peterborough, Cambridge and Bishop Stortford. Info from the latest Rail magazine

My reaction to this is that it would be very nice but wouldn't work because:

The journey time (from South Humberside) wouldn't be competitive with a TransPennine service to Doncaster and a change onto GNER or Hull Trains, at least for business passengers. Therefore the main market would be leisure passengers - and they dont want to be deposited at Stratford but in Central London.

Maybe it wouldbe popular between Peterborough/Cambridge at Stratford but otherwise I dont think the service would be very successful.
 
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theblackwatch

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It could be argued that people aren't deposited in Central London now - I think the first thing the majority of leisure passengers do when they get to King's Cross is jump on a tube!

Stratford will also be handy for the Channel Tunnel, although for those on the ECML route, St Pancras will be too.
 

Tomnick

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The small issue of reversing at Lincoln doesn't seem to have been considered either! Might be possible in a couple of years following resignalling, but I'm dead sure it's not now.
 

TomBoyRacer

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It's even more of a pity the east lincs is gone along with boston- spalding. could have had a cracking run down south with that!
 

O L Leigh

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Oh Lord.

Sounds like rail companies are getting a wee bit desperate now. Rather than looking at where people might like to go, it seems like they've put the names of all the major UK stations into a hat and drawn them out at random.

"OK lads. How about (rummage) Scunthorpe to (rummage) Stratford?"

one TN
 

yorkie

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"OK lads. How about (rummage) Scunthorpe to (rummage) Stratford?"
It could be like the FA Cup! :D

Seriously though, when St Pancras to Stratford is going to be so quick by these fast, frequent trains we keep getting told about, and given that the walk from King's Cross platform 8 to the domestic platforms at St Pancras will be about 2 minutes, who on earth is going to go the incredibly slow and tedious route via Bishop Stortford?!

It's barmy.

BTW - One TN, is that Moorthorpe in your avatar? if not it's somewhere remarkably similar! I think the long-standing TSR has gone now - but I've not been there for ages so maybe it's back!
 

David

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Oh Lord.

Sounds like rail companies are getting a wee bit desperate now. Rather than looking at where people might like to go, it seems like they've put the names of all the major UK stations into a hat and drawn them out at random.

"OK lads. How about (rummage) Scunthorpe to (rummage) Stratford?"

one TN

It could be like the FA Cup!

Not like that, it couldn't. Scunthorpe seems to be drawn away from home most of the time (check the draw for the first round of this years FA Cup ;) ).

Seriously, a South Humberside - London service would probably be popular (I would use it), but I guess GNER would kick up a right fuss, so it would have a calling pattern like the following (this is a completely random guess)

  • Scunthorpe
  • Doncaster
  • Lincoln
  • Sleaford
  • Peterborough
  • Cambridge
  • Stratford

Good for the milage accumulators I suppose....
 

Max

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This seems rather daft to me. I certainly believe that a Cleethorpes/Lincoln-London service would be used, but only if it can compete in terms of time. The Cambridge line is so slow that all advantage of going direct is completely lost, and frankly terminating at Stratford is daft its hardly a major station at present. And in terms of connections to CTRL, I'm sure there was something fairly recently that said international services may not use Stratford until at least 2009!

But I would have thought that passengers would be interested in a direct service to Kings Cross via the ECML. Mind you, it once again brings up the whole argument about length of trains and wasting paths.
 

David

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International trains will be calling at Stratford as soon as they start running to/from St. Pancras. It's the domestic side that will be quiet until 2009 as there will be no stock ready....

And I've noticed a flaw with my suggested route. Cambridge is very busy already. Will there be room for that service there?
 

O L Leigh

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Nope. South of Broxbourne Junction we're pretty well rammed as it is.

Besides, the route south from Cambridge isn't where the time would get added as, congestion aside, it's not a bad line. The real killer is tying this in with crossing the Fens via Ely.

one TN

**EDIT**

Incidentally my avatar came out of the image bank, so I've no idea where it is.
 

compsci

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Before the Stanstead Express was invented there were some vaguely fast trains on the West Anglia line between Cambridge and Liverpool Street. The Stanstead Express took their paths, so I'd be pretty surprised if there was any room.

Peterborough to Cambridge via Ely is something of a torture, given that it takes two sides of a triangle. It can be driven in about 1/2 and hour (reasonably direct on the A14), but the train takes nearer an hour.
 
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