Timetable changes at Bromsgrove from 30th July

[Shrewbly]

Cross Country have announced that they will no longer call at Bromsgrove from 30th July. This is linked to the start of WMTs extended cross-city service, but there is no direct replacement for these services; WMTs Hereford / Malvern to Birmingham services do not call at Bromsgrove in the peak, so strangely it looks like Bromsgrove will get a worse service in the peak than during the rest of the day.

Also, according to the timetable, all the peak cross-city services that will start at Bromsgrove will now be 3-car. (These services currently start at Longbridge, are very heavily loaded, and I believe some are currently 6-car.)

So from 30th July it looks like WMT will take 132,000* per annum peak Bromsgrove cross-country passengers onto the south end of the cross-city line with no additional services and shortened trains. Please, somebody tell me I've misunderstood this!


* Cross country franchise consultation figures

 

[diffident]

Sounds like the current railways to me!

Seriously though, I wouldn't have determined Bromsgrove as a CrossCountry stop in any case. Similarly with Ashchurch for Tewkesbury.

 

[jhy44]

Cross Country have announced that they will no longer call at Bromsgrove from 30th July. This is linked to the start of WMTs extended cross-city service, but there is no direct replacement for these services; WMTs Hereford / Malvern to Birmingham services do not call at Bromsgrove in the peak, so strangely it looks like Bromsgrove will get a worse service in the peak than during the rest of the day.

Also, according to the timetable, all the peak cross-city services that will start at Bromsgrove will now be 3-car. (These services currently start at Longbridge, are very heavily loaded, and I believe some are currently 6-car.)

So from 30th July it looks like WMT will take 132,000* per annum peak Bromsgrove cross-country passengers onto the south end of the cross-city line with no additional services and shortened trains. Please, somebody tell me I've misunderstood this!


* Cross country franchise consultation figures

I think you’ll find that WMT’s Hereford/Worcester services do stop at Bromsgrove in the peak; they do so all day long. None of these services don’t stop at Bromsgrove.

 

[Shrewbly]

I think you’ll find that WMT’s Hereford/Worcester services do stop at Bromsgrove in the peak; they do so all day long. None of these services don’t stop at Bromsgrove.

Neither the 07:02 from Great Malvern or the 07:09 from Hereford stop at Bromsgrove leaving a 1h20 gap in WMT fast services in the middle of peak - the Bromsgrove stop on both of these was removed a few years ago due to over-crowding or short platforms I forget which - supposedly to be reinstated when the new station opened.

 

[Idon'tKnow]

Consider moving to Droitwich Spa, or look at the positives, instead of worrying about being able to squeeze on a faster albeit busier cross country service you'll get a slower near-guaranteed seat on a cross city service!

 

[geoffk]

Sounds like the current railways to me!

Seriously though, I wouldn't have determined Bromsgrove as a CrossCountry stop in any case. Similarly with Ashchurch for Tewkesbury.

Campaigning for a decent service between Ashchurch and Birmingham has been going on for some time, with a very active user group. Who is to provide such a service, if not Cross-Country? Under the old Wales & West franchise there was a good service, later continued (via Worcester) by Central Trains. Likewise Bromsgrove - it's well served to Birmingham and to Worcester, but no service south on the main line towards Bristol. Cross Country has made it clear that they don't want this traffic and the opening of the new Worcester(shire) Parkway will makes calls at Ashchurch and Bromsgrove even less likely. The only hope is for a semi-fast Bristol TM to Birmingham International service but there's no spare stock for such a service and unlikely to be any paths in the Birmingham area.

Interestingly, Cross Country has been willing to add stops at Chepstow and Lydney to its Cardiff - Nottingham service - the very one which they say cannot call at Ashchurch because of timing. The reason is likely to be an ORCATS raid. Under the rules, XC will get revenue from Arriva Trains Wales even if they pick no-one up at these two stations!

 

[diffident]

Campaigning for a decent service between Ashchurch and Birmingham has been going on for some time, with a very active user group. Who is to provide such a service, if not Cross-Country? Under the old Wales & West franchise there was a good service, later continued (via Worcester) by Central Trains. Likewise Bromsgrove - it's well served to Birmingham and to Worcester, but no service south on the main line towards Bristol. Cross Country has made it clear that they don't want this traffic and the opening of the new Worcester(shire) Parkway will makes calls at Ashchurch and Bromsgrove even less likely. The only hope is for a semi-fast Bristol TM to Birmingham International service but there's no spare stock for such a service and unlikely to be any paths in the Birmingham area.

Interestingly, Cross Country has been willing to add stops at Chepstow and Lydney to its Cardiff - Nottingham service - the very one which they say cannot call at Ashchurch because of timing. The reason is likely to be an ORCATS raid. Under the rules, XC will get revenue from Arriva Trains Wales even if they pick no-one up at these two stations!

XC already stop at Chepstow and Lydney! I'm a regular user of XC services from south of Gloucester.

In my personal opinion, I believe that West Midlands Trains services via Snow Hill should service Worcester, Hereford, Malvern etc. The 170's they operate from New Street should call all shacks after Barnt Green to Gloucester.

 

[geoffk]

XC already stop at Chepstow and Lydney!

Yes but I think these stops have been added in the last few years, and certainly since they refused to call more than an odd train at Ashchurch. I believe XC still set the fares between Ashchurch and Worcester, a route they don't operate, and that the fare is about the same as Ashchurch - Bristol, set by GWR and which is four times the distance.

 

[MidnightFlyer]

Didn't the extra calls between Newport and Gloucester just utilise excess time that would have been in the schedules anyway? They sit at Gloucester for 5~ or so heading north so they may as well put the elongated dwell to better use. Ashchurch is a bit more tricky I believe, pulling up a random schedule (1M94 1045 Cardiff-Nottingham tomorrow), you have just 90 seconds of pathing time between Cheltenham and Birmingham (you don't really want to strip out engineering time). Whilst it looks clear through University, it only has 4 minutes at New St and you have to be out of there as now otherwise you infringe the xx52 Leicester. You could probably recoup the time if you omitted University, but that would surely be a non-starter.

Looks fine southbound mind, nothing around it down to Cheltenham, and you could just eat into the dwell at Gloucester.

 

[Shrewbly]

Consider moving to Droitwich Spa, or look at the positives, instead of worrying about being able to squeeze on a faster albeit busier cross country service you'll get a slower near-guaranteed seat on a cross city service!

It won't affect me too much - I use Droitwich when I need to anyway! It's more the embarrassment of telling my moaning commuter friends about the great new service, that everything will be fine from the start of August, only to find 2 weeks before it starts that in most of their cases it really won't be! (Except for Mrs Shrewbly who will get a seat at Bromsgrove - so that's definitely a positive!). Puzzlingly there doesn't seem to be any benefit for XC in cutting the stops - the timetable itself (including time allowed for the Bromsgrove stops) presumably won't change until May 2019.

Southbound of course is a different matter; having spent nearly 20 years working at Gloucester then Ashchurch there was never any service that came close to allowing me to use the train rather than the car.

 

[Idon'tKnow]

It won't affect me too much - I use Droitwich when I need to anyway! It's more the embarrassment of telling my moaning commuter friends about the great new service, that everything will be fine from the start of August, only to find 2 weeks before it starts that in most of their cases it really won't be! (Except for Mrs Shrewbly who will get a seat at Bromsgrove - so that's definitely a positive!). Puzzlingly there doesn't seem to be any benefit for XC in cutting the stops - the timetable itself (including time allowed for the Bromsgrove stops) presumably won't change until May 2019.

Southbound of course is a different matter; having spent nearly 20 years working at Gloucester then Ashchurch there was never any service that came close to allowing me to use the train rather than the car.

Well, expect your commuter friends to moan a lot more in future! From using the cross city line for the past 5 years, from experience, it seems like anything and everything that can go wrong, goes wrong!

 

[Shrewbly]

In my personal opinion, I believe that West Midlands Trains services via Snow Hill should service Worcester, Hereford, Malvern etc. The 170's they operate from New Street should call all shacks after Barnt Green to Gloucester.

I like that idea, it would certainly provide a lot better journey options southbound.

A different proposal that I saw recently (I think it came from the County Councils) was something along the lines of an hourly Bristol / Gloucester / Worcester stopping service that would extend from Worcester to terminate at either Bromsgrove and/or Kidderminster to provide further interchange possibilities. I'm not sure about the feasibility of that but at least some ideas are being considered!

 

[ChrisHogan]

In my personal opinion, I believe that West Midlands Trains services via Snow Hill should service Worcester, Hereford, Malvern etc. The 170's they operate from New Street should call all shacks after Barnt Green to Gloucester.

Doing that would slow down the service by 20 minutes (40+ to an hour) and this is hardly likely to be popular with longer-distance passengers for Worcester and beyond. There isn't capacity to run fast to Stourbridge or Kidderminster because of the 6 tph service specified by Centro/TfWM; nor is there likely to be seating capacity in the peaks without platform extensions as the Snow Hill lines moves to more 5/6 car formations when the 196s are delivered. There are already 3 tph running from NS towards Cheltenham; diverting WMT's Hereford service to Gloucester would achieve little and significantly downgrade the Worcester/Hereford service.

The stopping of some peak-hour Nottingham-Cardiffs at Bromsgrove came about in CT days when providing sufficient capacity for Bromsgrove was a problem and there was no scope to lengthen Hereford/Worcester services. I am surprised that the stops have lasted for so long since the 2007 remapping.

The stopping of Cardiff-Nottinghams during the day alternating at Chepstow and Lydney came about as a favour to Wales & West that was struggling to serve the stations when CT and Wales & West were both NX franchises. It meant that the start from Cardiff moved back from xx50 to xx45 and made the always fragile turnround at Cardiff (the shunt from 3/4 to 1/2) even more problematic.

 

[Pokelet]

Neither the 07:02 from Great Malvern or the 07:09 from Hereford stop at Bromsgrove leaving a 1h20 gap in WMT fast services in the middle of peak - the Bromsgrove stop on both of these was removed a few years ago due to over-crowding or short platforms I forget which - supposedly to be reinstated when the new station opened.

All southbound stop at Bromsgrove, the 2 northbound mentioned are generally well loaded. The 0709 ex Hfd especially is generally full and standing leaving Worcester. Droitwich then fills any vacated or remaining seats and then it's a cozy ride to New Street. Adding in a Bromsgrove stop is not going to do any one any favours.

 

[DavidGrain]

I was not aware of this thread. I have added to the other thread a note that WMR Cross City trains will provide a full service to Bromsgrove from next week and another post has said that the XC trains to Cardiff will no longer stop at Bromsgrove from then

 

[Class 170101]

Didn't the extra calls between Newport and Gloucester just utilise excess time that would have been in the schedules anyway? They sit at Gloucester for 5~ or so heading north so they may as well put the elongated dwell to better use. Ashchurch is a bit more tricky I believe, pulling up a random schedule (1M94 1045 Cardiff-Nottingham tomorrow), you have just 90 seconds of pathing time between Cheltenham and Birmingham (you don't really want to strip out engineering time). Whilst it looks clear through University, it only has 4 minutes at New St and you have to be out of there as now otherwise you infringe the xx52 Leicester. You could probably recoup the time if you omitted University, but that would surely be a non-starter.

Looks fine southbound mind, nothing around it down to Cheltenham, and you could just eat into the dwell at Gloucester.

The Chepstow and Lydney calls did indeed eat up pathing time between Gloucester and Newport each way. As for calls between Gloucester and New Street I doubt any can be added as you almost certainly need to hit the junctions at those times to avoid other services both in front and behind but also crossing your path - again either before or after your move. Its not just a matter of using pathing time up.

 

[Old Hill Bank]

The news item:-

Commuters at Bromsgrove station will have up to three additional trains per hour to Birmingham from next week, as electrification work on the line is completed.

From Sunday 29 July, West Midlands Railway services on the Cross City line that currently start and terminate at Longbridge will operate to and from Bromsgrove. This will provide additional services at the station throughout the day and a fully electric service between Bromsgrove and Lichfield.

There will be up to five trains per hour to and from Birmingham New Street during the peak and between two and four trains per hour in the off-peak. This represents a major uplift in the number of trains serving Bromsgrove from 45 to 132 on weekdays.

CrossCountry services will no longer be calling at Bromsgrove from Monday 30 July. Previously, two trains in each direction called at the station in both the morning and evening weekday peaks.

Network Rail has invested £100m in installing new track, new signaling and upgraded power to allow the new electric train service to run. The new overhead power lines between Barnt Green and Bromsgrove were switched on in May 2018, when the first trains started test runs on the route. The electrification of the line is part of a £1bn investment in the region and follows the construction of the new Bromsgrove station which opened in July 2016.

Richard Brooks, customer experience director at West Midlands Railway said: "Our customers in Bromsgrove will benefit immensely from these new services – with far more choice of when and where they can travel. Not only are we offering more trains to and from central Birmingham, but also to many other destinations on our network that were previously not served directly from Bromsgrove."

Richard Dugdale, senior sponsor at Network Rail, said: “Bromsgrove passengers are benefiting from more trains to more places as a result of millions of pounds of investment in the railway in the area. Working with our partners, the Railway Upgrade Plan is delivering huge benefits across the country and this is the latest example. With the new station and electric trains, Bromsgrove now has a railway it can be proud of.”

The extra trains to Bromsgrove will support a package of wider improvements to the Cross City line. This includes 100 new carriages, that are due to be delivered under the region’s new rail franchise which is managed by West Midlands Rail Executive - a consortium of local councils, in partnership with government.

Cllr Roger Lawrence, chair of West Midlands Rail Executive and transport lead on the West Midlands Combined Authority, said: “Electrification and the extra trains for Bromsgrove mark the latest stage in a 40-year journey for the Cross City Line during which time our local transport authority has worked tirelessly with partners to transform the route into the region’s busiest commuter line, relied on by thousands of people every day.

“It now means Bromsgrove will get the same sort of high frequency service enjoyed by the rest of the Cross City Line and that’s good for the regional economy as well as for passengers. Together with the new franchise improvements, it shows the value of local investment and of moving responsibility for the regional network from Whitehall to the West Midlands.”

Rail Minister Jo Johnson said: “We are investing in the most significant upgrade of the rail network since Victorian times, delivering more trains, a greater number of services and more comfortable journeys for passengers. The completion of this project demonstrates the benefits of our £1bn investment in the region’s railways, with a significant increase in the number of trains into central Birmingham during peak times.”
https://www.westmidlandsrailway.co.uk/about-us/news-desk/three-extra-trains-hour-bromsgrove

 

[jhy44]

It appears that four trains a day (09:15, 10:33, 12:33, 23:33 from BHM) are still terminating at Longbridge, giving Bromsgrove seemingly-random 40 minute gaps in frequency.

Especially annoying for connections is the fact that the 10:33 and 12:33 are the ones which connect with the Hereford train, meaning anyone from Selly Oak / Bournville / Kings Norton / Northfield / Longbridge heading to Droitwich, Worcester or Hereford miss the connection, and have to travel up to University as before, adding 20 minutes to the journey.

The 23:33 is very annoying for anyone from Bromsgrove as their last train of the evening leaves BHM at a very early 22:53.

Does anyone know the rationale behind these Longbridge terminators?

 

[sufian123]

It appears that four trains a day (09:15, 10:33, 12:33, 23:33 from BHM) are still terminating at Longbridge, giving Bromsgrove seemingly-random 40 minute gaps in frequency.

Especially annoying for connections is the fact that the 10:33 and 12:33 are the ones which connect with the Hereford train, meaning anyone from Selly Oak / Bournville / Kings Norton / Northfield / Longbridge heading to Droitwich, Worcester or Hereford miss the connection, and have to travel up to University as before, adding 20 minutes to the journey.

The 23:33 is very annoying for anyone from Bromsgrove as their last train of the evening leaves BHM at a very early 22:53.

Does anyone know the rationale behind these Longbridge terminators?

Booked to be this way. In the afternoon it changes. All Longbridge extended to Bromsgrove. After 2253 there is 2300 bhm-wos leaves after that.

 

[diffident]

Booked to be this way. In the afternoon it changes. All Longbridge extended to Bromsgrove. After 2253 there is 2300 bhm-wos leaves after that.

A whole extra 7 minutes at the pub!!!! woohoo!!

 

[Tugzrule]

Having travelled from Bromsgrove today on a WMDR I ended up on a 6 car 323 by accident as the connection off the inbound Hereford missed thanks to the usual congestion between Great Malvern and Worcester Foregate St at 11 in the morning

 

[Kite159]

A whole extra 7 minutes at the pub!!!! woohoo!!

And I suspect most Bromsgrove folk would aim for the 23:00 as it will be quicker to Bromsgrove.

 

[Ianno87]

It appears that four trains a day (09:15, 10:33, 12:33, 23:33 from BHM) are still terminating at Longbridge, giving Bromsgrove seemingly-random 40 minute gaps in frequency.

Especially annoying for connections is the fact that the 10:33 and 12:33 are the ones which connect with the Hereford train, meaning anyone from Selly Oak / Bournville / Kings Norton / Northfield / Longbridge heading to Droitwich, Worcester or Hereford miss the connection, and have to travel up to University as before, adding 20 minutes to the journey.

The 23:33 is very annoying for anyone from Bromsgrove as their last train of the evening leaves BHM at a very early 22:53.

Does anyone know the rationale behind these Longbridge terminators?

Theory A: Something to do with a freight path

Theory B: Keeps 6-car formations on the correct diagrams between morning and evening peak.

The 2333 short working may just be to get the stock back to depot before overnight posessions kick in.

 

[The Planner]

It isn't a freight, there is the XC behind it and the Hereford so you're not getting a freight down there I suspect.

 

[Class 170101]

I think there is a freight on the return workings of the 10:33 and 12:33 which was previously discussed.

The 23:33 will be Rules of the Route related and so possession related.

 

[diffident]

It isn't a freight, there is the XC behind it and the Hereford so you're not getting a freight down there I suspect.

That in itself is a very valid point. With more traffic on the lickey, there's very little wiggle room for freight, let alone late running or early running freight.

When I popped down to Bromsgrove station on Sunday morning to see the first train "in service", the one thing that I couldn't get my head around was that - the station has been rebuilt as this shiny new example of a modern railway interchange. It's gone from 2 platforms to 4 platforms. Why?

With the introduction of the Cross City's, there are no XC's stopping, and the Cross City's appear to only use platform 3. There's three spare platforms there for a good chunk of time, and I'm very doubtful there will be many occasions where two trains are calling at or near the same time!!

 

[4141]

That in itself is a very valid point. With more traffic on the lickey, there's very little wiggle room for freight, let alone late running or early running freight.

When I popped down to Bromsgrove station on Sunday morning to see the first train "in service", the one thing that I couldn't get my head around was that - the station has been rebuilt as this shiny new example of a modern railway interchange. It's gone from 2 platforms to 4 platforms. Why?

With the introduction of the Cross City's, there are no XC's stopping, and the Cross City's appear to only use platform 3. There's three spare platforms there for a good chunk of time, and I'm very doubtful there will be many occasions where two trains are calling at or near the same time!!

Future proofing?

 

[jhy44]

That in itself is a very valid point. With more traffic on the lickey, there's very little wiggle room for freight, let alone late running or early running freight.

When I popped down to Bromsgrove station on Sunday morning to see the first train "in service", the one thing that I couldn't get my head around was that - the station has been rebuilt as this shiny new example of a modern railway interchange. It's gone from 2 platforms to 4 platforms. Why?

With the introduction of the Cross City's, there are no XC's stopping, and the Cross City's appear to only use platform 3. There's three spare platforms there for a good chunk of time, and I'm very doubtful there will be many occasions where two trains are calling at or near the same time!!

So, irrespective of services, whilst there are 4 platforms, they're two island platforms, so the cost of the core infrastructure isn't that much greater than two platforms (two lifts, two stairs.
4 physical tracks would have been necessary anyway, so putting platform fronts onto the islands really is a very small extra cost.

As for services, there are still the hourly Herefords, heavy delays aren't uncommon given the capacity constraints of Worcester and the Cross City line, so not having to worry about timing these around Cross City trains is useful.

In the event of serious disruption or engineering work in New Street, XC now have a useful alternative station with spare capacity to call their Bristol/Cardiff bound services at in the event of a Camp Hill diversion, in the past Longbridge was used for this, which only has two platforms and isn't ideal.

 

[Ianno87]

So, irrespective of services, whilst there are 4 platforms, they're two island platforms, so the cost of the core infrastructure isn't that much greater than two platforms (two lifts, two stairs.
4 physical tracks would have been necessary anyway, so putting platform fronts onto the islands really is a very small extra cost.

As for services, there are still the hourly Herefords, heavy delays aren't uncommon given the capacity constraints of Worcester and the Cross City line, so not having to worry about timing these around Cross City trains is useful.

In the event of serious disruption or engineering work in New Street, XC now have a useful alternative station with spare capacity to call their Bristol/Cardiff bound services at in the event of a Camp Hill diversion, in the past Longbridge was used for this, which only has two platforms and isn't ideal.

1) Two turnback platforms possible for Cross-City services (e.g. timetable flexibility/robustness or cover for unit failure) whilst maintaining two through lines
2) Option to overtake calling services at Bromsgrove
3) Option to re-instate XC calls should they have more on-train capacity in future (e.g. through lengthening), or have a second train per hour. The only reason for removal of the calls is due to lack of on-train capacity (and journey time benefit).

 

[linuxlad7]

1) Two turnback platforms possible for Cross-City services (e.g. timetable flexibility/robustness or cover for unit failure) whilst maintaining two through lines
2) Option to overtake calling services at Bromsgrove
3) Option to re-instate XC calls should they have more on-train capacity in future (e.g. through lengthening), or have a second train per hour. The only reason for removal of the calls is due to lack of on-train capacity (and journey time benefit).

shutting down this thread is very premature - given the unique features I would expect it to be a valid read for at least a year...