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TPE Expanding? Virgin back to Poole & Pompey?

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Coxster

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Not sure if there is any truth in this but I found this on another forum:

TPE

TPE will soon be replacing Virgins cross country services to Glasgow and starting from Manchester Airport, and probably run to Chester also.

VIRGIN

Axe services completely from Dronfield, Chester-le-Street, Northampton, somewhere in Scotland, Llandudno and Newquay. Also the Holyhead to Birmingham New Street and vice versa route (one a day each way at like 2am exists still)

Axe services to more limited ones at Tiverton Parkway, Leeds, Wakefield Westgate, towards Penzance? and between Edinburgh and Newcastle.

Increase service frequency between Chester and London by having services once an hour, and every 2 hours these services will continue onto Holyhead.

Bournemouth services will be extended to Poole

Cardiff Central services will be extended to Swansea, calling at Neath, Port Talbot Parkway and Bridgend

Increase services to Gloucester, Weston super Mare, Doncaster, Macclesfield, Congleton (why I do not know) Bolton, Liverpool Lime Street, Runcorn, Stockport and inevitably New Street and Crewe

New routes will include
1. Liverpool to Brighton and Portsmouth Harbour, making Manchester - Brighton obselete
2. An extra branch from Preston to Blackpool North
3. Gloucester to Swindon will exist
4. Manchester will be a through station and provide more services for Bolton, Macclesfield, Congleton and Stoke

Services towards Leamington Spa/Oxford/Banbury etc and further south will call additionally at Solihull

Possibly increased services between London Euston and Liverpool Lime Street/Manchester Piccadilly departing every half hour, and Manchester Piccadilly every 20 minutes

A new service from Southampton Central to Aberdeen via Manchester Piccadilly and WCML towards Edinburgh
 
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Guinness

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Under Plans XC Refranchise plans, Manchester - Glasgow will go to Transpennie Express with 185s.

Horray for more services to Macclesfield. Congleton needs an hourly service IMO rather than the 2 hourly service at the moment.

I think it will be a wait and see matter though.
 

Jim

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1/2 of that is what they abandoned after the start of the Voyagers though!
 

Guinness

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Jim said:
1/2 of that is what they abandoned after the start of the Voyagers though!

And apparently it won't be. Which is quite HELLFIRE for XC and is HELLFIRE for Pompey and other places.
 

Oracle

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Poole was abandoned vice Bournemouth I thought because of delays that can snowball to and from Reading? I assume that Pompey would be served from Guildford, calling at Havant, Fratton, P & S and then Harbour? Have they got the space at Harbour?
 

yorkie

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Where are the 185s going to come from? What is the logic in upgrading a line to 125mph tilt, but moving 125mph tilting trains off it and replacing them with 100mph stock?

The DfT is just a joke. Hopefully ORR will, again, come to the rescue and over-rule them ;)
 

Guinness

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yorkie said:
Where are the 185s going to come from? What is the logic in upgrading a line to 125mph tilt, but moving 125mph tilting trains off it and replacing them with 100mph stock?

The DfT is just a joke. Hopefully ORR will, again, come to the rescue and over-rule them ;)

The Manchester - Glasgow Route is apparently timed at 125mph non-tilt.
 

Lewisham2221

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Chaz said:
Under Plans XC Refranchise plans, Manchester - Glasgow will go to Transpennie Express with 185s.

Horray for more services to Macclesfield. Congleton needs an hourly service IMO rather than the 2 hourly service at the moment.

I think it will be a wait and see matter though.
I'm not too keen on the way that the XC network is being 'expanded' by serving additional (often quite minor) stations, and in many cases replacing local journeys.

Wedgewood, Barlaston, Stone and Norton Bridge stations have had bustitution since the WCML between Colwich and Stockport was closed, with Stoke-Stafford services being provided only by VXC services. There are now rumours that Norton Bridge, Barlaston and Wedgewood will be permantly closed, but Stone will remain open. This would suggest a possible extra XC stop at Stone.

As mentioned by Chaz, Congleton (A Northern Rail station) is served every 2 hours by XC, but only twice daily in each direction by Northern.

An average Manc Picc - Reading XC service stops roughly every 16½ minutes, which isn't an ideal situation for an 'Intercity' operator. I daresay that the Manc Picc-Brum services would average out at even less time between stops, as most of the longer gaps between stops occur South of Brum. Surely some sort of regular (electric) semi-fast service between Brum and Manc would be more beneficial to all? The same could be said for WCML semi-fast services (like the CT/Silverlink Crewe-Euston services, which would surely be better overall than intermittent semi-fast services and occasional 'fast' services?
 

paul1609

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Automotivehistorian said:
Poole was abandoned vice Bournemouth I thought because of delays that can snowball to and from Reading? I assume that Pompey would be served from Guildford, calling at Havant, Fratton, P & S and then Harbour? Have they got the space at Harbour?

Yes, nothing replaced the virgin departure and SWT have since cut back the stopping southampton service back to Portsmouth and Southsea.
Portsmouth would be a better final destination than the Bournemouth Branch with the wait to be overtaken at Brockenhurst imho.
[EDIT]
Chaz said:
The Manchester - Glasgow Route is apparently timed at 125mph non-tilt.

I dont think there are actually that many places where 125 is permitted at all.
I suspect 100 mph stock would probably have minimal effect on journeytimes.

The 185s are probably better used on the WCML than transpennine proper as they are so heavy they are subject to the lower speed limits on the latter line.
 

Guinness

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Lewisham2221 said:
As mentioned by Chaz, Congleton (A Northern Rail station) is served every 2 hours by XC, but only twice daily in each direction by Northern.

Congleton is a tough choice though, as it has passenger numbers to easily demand a hourly service. Perhaps only stops with the New Street - Manchester shuttles will suffice rather than having Bournemouth and Brighton trains stopping at similar stations like these.

Northern Rail stops at Congleton for the reason to keep Congleton a Northern station due to Virgin CrossCountry not owning or operating any stations themselves. If Northern did stop it's peak time services then I guess the operating decision would fall into West Coast where it could have a couple of Peak Time Stops a day or something similar.

It's still not decided on where Birmingham New Street - Manchester will be ran by 350s yet. If it is then we could see more local stops as you say like Stone, Penkbridge etc.
 

devon_metro

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Cutting the Newquay services...Why there are not enough services there anyway, And the amount of people that use those services i understand is quite high. How are fGW 150s going to cope with the increased numbers-a whole HST in reality.
 

metrocammel

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Chaz said:
The Manchester - Glasgow Route is apparently timed at 125mph non-tilt.

Jet boosted 185's is it then?

Putting a 3 car unit with no buffet on a near enough 3 hour + journey is ridiculous. Bring back 47's (&86's) + mk2s or at least a HST's!!
 

clagmonster

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Coxster said:
Also the Holyhead to Birmingham New Street and vice versa route (one a day each way at like 2am exists still)
Presumably this is to get a voyager to Central Rivers for maintenance. It also connects with a ferry to/from Ireland. If the service is withdrawn, I would imagine a Euston-Brum NS service will become a voyager.
Axe services to more limited ones at Tiverton Parkway, Leeds, Wakefield Westgate, towards Penzance? and between Edinburgh and Newcastle.
Leeds and Wakefield are certainly deserving of an hourly service, as is Doncaster. Edinburgh-Newcastle I do believe is over-served though, and for long distance passengers the West Coast is a better option to go up to Scotland. The only driect service that would really be lost is Derby/Sheffield-Edinburgh.

Liam, I agree, certainly during the summer months Newquay is deserving of a service, as is Llandudno. Saying that, one of the runs is ecs Neville Hill-Bristol TM anyway, unlike in BR days. This probably makes the finances look worse than they could be.
 

Guinness

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clagmonster said:
I would imagine a Euston-Brum NS service will become a voyager.

Ah so forget 53 9 Car Electric Pendolinos and so VT will convert the service to a 5 Car Voyager.....
 

clagmonster

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Chaz said:
Ah so forget 53 9 Car Electric Pendolinos and so VT will convert the service to a 5 Car Voyager.....
No, I mean 1 service per day to get voyagers to Central Rivers, as Brum NS is the nearest West Coast station. I'm assuming the Brum-Holyhead service ceases to run, as suggested in the original post.
 

Guinness

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clagmonster said:
No, I mean 1 service per day to get voyagers to Central Rivers, as Brum NS is the nearest West Coast station. I'm assuming the Brum-Holyhead service ceases to run, as suggested in the original post.

Hmm I see your point. According to another forum during the Summer it's used a lot so I don't see the point in Axing the service if people use it.
 

clagmonster

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No neither do I. Like I said before, it provides a connection with a ferry service, and certainly in the days of locohaulage it was very well used. At one stage it had to become a double set with a pair of syphons!
 

yorkie

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First ScotRail said:
TPE are currently trying to get 5 super voyagers from VT in exchange for their 170's ex SWT
Source?

And what route would they be for?
 

David

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From what I have read and heard elsewhere in the past few months, the Manchester - Scotland services are going to TPE, and the 180s are moving from FGW to TPE as well to cover the Manchester - Scotland route.
 
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That was right and they were meant to go into a shared pool in scotland for FSR to use as well however the voyager plan is a better option supposedly now
 

Turbostar

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I think you will find there are plans afoot to transfer some, if not all, the Adelante's to Scotland, but this won't be happening until next year at the earliest anyway. There was talk of transferring them this year once the lease runs out at the start of the new winter timetable, but FGW have decided to hold onto them for a bit longer. Once FGW have received the majority of their refurbished & re-engined HST sets, they will look into transferring them then, possibly next summer when the new summer timetable will start. Btw, they'll be using them on the Glasgow Queen Street/Edinburgh-Aberdeen/Inverness routes, freeing up some of the 170's so they can use them on other routes.

Mart
 
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That was the origional plan however ive heard that it has been axed as the dft said no, and according to mary dickson she says fsr currently has NO plans to recieve class 180 units from fgw
 

Guinness

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If the 180s aren't going up to Scotland then it would be a good idea to give them TPE for the Manchester - Glasgow Service.
 

devon_metro

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I can't remember who iwas discussing this with but fGW could put them on PHH>CDF and free up some 158s and generally increase capactiy and i suppose allow faster running meaning shorter journey times.
 

Turbostar

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Ok, the Adelantes are staying with FGW until December 2007, where after they will go off lease, & it's not known if they will go elsewhere after that. This is from an enquiry with a Customer Service Advisor at FGW.

Mart
 

Bonemaster

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Not wanting to be a bearer of bad news but many of the points in the orginal quote are directly against the route utilisation strategy, and nor are they mentioned in the document for the refranchising of Cross Country indeed, it states that service levels will remain as our except for the Machester - Glasgows which it is implied more of these services may run
 
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