I was reading Modern Railways, June 2000, which had several pages on WCRM (West Coast Route Modernisation).
Here are some of the commitments we should have got by now:-
- 140mph services
- 3 trains per hour to Manchester (we have only 2)
- 4 trains per hour to Birmingham (we have only 2)
- 85% of trains to arrive within 5 mins of being on time.
- 2 more 140mph Open Access paths London-Crewe
- 42 more slow line paths London-Crewe
And here are some options that it was thought could have happened:-
- Flyover for the Northampton line to enable 140mph services to Northampton (The reality: the current 110mph service is to be downgraded to 100mph)
- Silverlink running 2 tph to Birmingham (The reality: None, not even to Rugby! Cut back to Northampton)
- Services from Brighton to be extended from Rugby to Birmingham (The reality: None, cut back to Watford Jn!)
- Northampton/Watford to Colchester/Ipswich services (The reality: Not even thought about it now!)
- Central Trains to increase service frequency (The reality: All trains along the WCML Trent Valley line and even some feeding into the WCML replaced by BUSES!)
- Services from Heathrow to run onto the WCML (The reality: Not even thought about it now!)
Journey times - example
London to Liverpool should now be 1 hour 50 minutes. The reality is 2 hours 30 minutes.
Discuss!
Here are some of the commitments we should have got by now:-
- 140mph services
- 3 trains per hour to Manchester (we have only 2)
- 4 trains per hour to Birmingham (we have only 2)
- 85% of trains to arrive within 5 mins of being on time.
- 2 more 140mph Open Access paths London-Crewe
- 42 more slow line paths London-Crewe
And here are some options that it was thought could have happened:-
- Flyover for the Northampton line to enable 140mph services to Northampton (The reality: the current 110mph service is to be downgraded to 100mph)
- Silverlink running 2 tph to Birmingham (The reality: None, not even to Rugby! Cut back to Northampton)
- Services from Brighton to be extended from Rugby to Birmingham (The reality: None, cut back to Watford Jn!)
- Northampton/Watford to Colchester/Ipswich services (The reality: Not even thought about it now!)
- Central Trains to increase service frequency (The reality: All trains along the WCML Trent Valley line and even some feeding into the WCML replaced by BUSES!)
- Services from Heathrow to run onto the WCML (The reality: Not even thought about it now!)
Journey times - example
London to Liverpool should now be 1 hour 50 minutes. The reality is 2 hours 30 minutes.
Discuss!