virgin pulling out of Wrexham

[richardderby]

looks like Virgin are pulling out of Wrexham from December, no sign of any more direct trains.. seems they only wanted to run the service to put Wrexham and Shropshire out of business, counting the days til they hand back the franchise next year..

 

[Mutant Lemming]

There are larger towns and cities without a direct link to London though. Virgin would do far better from a through service to Blackpool or along the East Lancs line.

 

[ainsworth74]

Source?

 

[IanPooleTrains]

looks like Virgin are pulling out of Wrexham from December, no sign of any more direct trains.. seems they only wanted to run the service to put Wrexham and Shropshire out of business, counting the days til they hand back the franchise next year..

AFAIK VT only had two trains a day in and out of Wrexham, Arriva call their all the time and it's Virgin's fault for putting WSMR out of business?

I agree with mutant that there are far bigger town/cities without a direct train to London and VT would be better served either keeping the trains on and trying to get a couple more paths in and out of North Wales or trying to put some more infrastructure into getting the path up to Blackpool/East Lancs

 

[Eagle]

looks like Virgin are pulling out of Wrexham from December, no sign of any more direct trains.. seems they only wanted to run the service to put Wrexham and Shropshire out of business, counting the days til they hand back the franchise next year..

Or just because there is no market for direct trains to Wrexham... :roll:

I'm reminded of FGW's Abergavenny experiment, which had a similar outcome.

 

[IanPooleTrains]

I'm reminded of FGW's Abergavenny experiment, which had a similar outcome.

When was this?

 

[scotsman]

Like ainsworth74 I'm still waiting for confirmation from a source before I discuss this

 

[Greenback]

Yes, I'd like to know where this info was obtained too!

 

[Eagle]

When was this?

In 2008, for two timetable periods, FGW extended some Hereford HSTs across the border. Failed because going via Newport was quicker and more reliable (the Cotswolds HSTs were prone to stopping short at Hereford).

 

[MidnightFlyer]

When was this?

Was it May-December 2008? There was only 1-2 trains each way a day, but it was found that using the Paddington-South Wales trains as far as Newport and changing was far easier.

EDIT - Snap!

 

[IanPooleTrains]

In 2008, for two timetable periods, FGW extended some Hereford HSTs across the border. Failed because going via Newport was quicker and more reliable (the Cotswolds HSTs were prone to stopping short at Hereford).

Was it May-December 2008? There was only 1-2 trains each way a day, but it was found that using the Paddington-South Wales trains as far as Newport and changing was far easier.

EDIT - Snap!

Hmm, learn something new every day

 

[Schnellzug]

Well, The Residents will be pleased, anyway.

 

[richardderby]

direct services no longer showing in the journey planner after december timetable change..

 

[ainsworth74]

Direct services have ended but Virgin don't appear to be withdrawing from Wrexham. The 07:00 Wrexham to Chester (arr 07:16) is a VT service as is the 20:22 Chester to Wrexham service (arr 20:38).

 

[Schnellzug]

Don't they, so they were saying in the thread about the Residents, lay over for a while at Chester and then go on? I expect that's what they'll still be doing, only the system seems to identify it as two separate journies.

journeys? I'm never sure.

 

[All Line Rover]

The booking engines are saying that from Monday 12th December, there is no direct 18:10 service from London Euston to Wrexham General.

However, read the journey details carefully:

• London Euston [18:10] to Chester [20:15] (TOC: Virgin)
• Chester [20:22] to Wrexham General [20:38] (TOC: Virgin!)

Those journey times are identical to the current train - which arrives in Chester at [20:15] and departs at [20:22]. Are Virgin really going to operate a shuttle service? I doubt it, so I suspect that there may be an error in the booking engines.

I spotted this last week, but decided not to mention it since nothing has been confirmed at all. This is pure speculation.

 

[ainsworth74]

Perhaps the morning service is being seen as two different journeys but using the same train but for the evening service (using trains suggested by the journey planner) the Euston to Chester leg is actually part of a Euston to Holyhead service.

 

[OxtedL]

It looks like it could be a data upload error. Look here: http://ojp.nationalrail.co.uk/service/timesandfares/WRX/EUS/060112/0700/dep

The first option shows a Virgin operated Wrexham to Chester, which would make no sense on it's own. (Well, I think anyway ) I'm guessing that it could well be NRE not coping with portion working, or something of that nature.

EDIT: And it looks like lots of other people are coming to the same conclusion.

 

[IanPooleTrains]

direct services no longer showing in the journey planner after december timetable change..

Incorrect information, just checked mine for the 2nd of January next year, 18:10 1D92 leaves as a Wrexham and Holyhead train and splits at Chester to form 1J32 20:22 to Wrexham

EDIT: Has as already been confirmed by about five million others before me

 

[AlterEgo]

Sometimes I really wonder where people get their information from.

I blame pixies.

 

[paul1609]

This happens to the Portsmouth Harbour to Victoria trains every time theres a timetable change, you can guarantee the platform displays at SWT stations will display and announce the train as going to Horsham after a couple of weeks it gets put back to London Victoria

 

[swt_passenger]

This happens to the Portsmouth Harbour to Victoria trains every time theres a timetable change, you can guarantee the platform displays at SWT stations will display and announce the train as going to Horsham after a couple of weeks it gets put back to London Victoria

Same with the Southampton end as well. Regularly happens during random disruption too, because once they are off pattern the person updating TRUST is in a rush and linking the portions usually gets forgotten - or on occasion they'll be announced as splitting northbound or joining southbound, which is probably just a lack of attention to some key detail that has to be input...

 

[merlodlliw]

looks like Virgin are pulling out of Wrexham from December, no sign of any more direct trains.. seems they only wanted to run the service to put Wrexham and Shropshire out of business, counting the days til they hand back the franchise next year..

To put it into perspective, I received the year long Dec 2011 to Dec 2012 consultation timetable in August, it states VT 0700 to Euston & 1810 Return
Euston, split at Chester to Wrexham.
VT have just added stock into North Wales a few weeks ago ,not taking it away.
A lot of confusion radiates around the feeders to these VT trains run by ATW to & from Shrewsbury to Wrexham which VT took over between Wrexham & Chester to get paths into Wrexham.

Bob

 

[EltonRoad]

I'm reminded of FGW's Abergavenny experiment, which had a similar outcome.

Was it May-December 2008? There was only 1-2 trains each way a day, but it was found that using the Paddington-South Wales trains as far as Newport and changing was far easier.

My understanding of this working was that FGW started a couple of Hereford - Paddington HSTs back at Abergavenny in the early morning. As they run empty from Bristol to Hereford anyway, it was easy enough to start them there. I don't think there were any corresponding return workings. As you say they stopped because nobody used them.

 

[merlodlliw]

My understanding of this working was that FGW started a couple of Hereford - Paddington HSTs back at Abergavenny in the early morning. As they run empty from Bristol to Hereford anyway, it was easy enough to start them there. I don't think there were any corresponding return workings. As you say they stopped because nobody used them.

Correct, they ran empty via Abergavenny to Hereford, a lot at Abergavenny were bleating for the service, but few if any used it most days to make it worth while.

 

[Gareth Marston]

Correct, they ran empty via Abergavenny to Hereford, a lot at Abergavenny were bleating for the service, but few if any used it most days to make it worth while.

It was effectively a very early morning ecs from Bristol to Hereford- the v early morning bit was not what the mkt was looking for. (and the late at night return).
You ave to remember the timings play a big factor in success or not.

 

[tbtc]

Correct, they ran empty via Abergavenny to Hereford, a lot at Abergavenny were bleating for the service, but few if any used it most days to make it worth while.

This does kind of spoilt the "my town deserves a direct service to London" argument that some people have.

If the loadings were so threadbare that it was easier for First to run the service non-stop through Abergavenny as an ECS then what can you do? Good on the TOC for innovating and trying to provide a direct service, of course.

 

[87015]

This does kind of spoilt the "my town deserves a direct service to London" argument that some people have.

If the loadings were so threadbare that it was easier for First to run the service non-stop through Abergavenny as an ECS then what can you do? Good on the TOC for innovating and trying to provide a direct service, of course.

A bit harsh, I don't think many places would generate lots of extra traffic with a 04xx departure and 23xx arrival!

 

[dk1]

Not Virgin's style to just get rid of a service without very good reason. Would have gone for other Shropshire routes if WSMR hadnt spat the dummy!!

 

[Gareth Marston]

This does kind of spoilt the "my town deserves a direct service to London" argument that some people have.

If the loadings were so threadbare that it was easier for First to run the service non-stop through Abergavenny as an ECS then what can you do? Good on the TOC for innovating and trying to provide a direct service, of course.

clock the timings though!