XC Bournemouth Service

[Schnellzug]

I think the point of XC was that it could co-ordinate all the long cross-coutnry routes that in BR days were "inter-regional", so no one really had overall responsibility for them. Breaking it up and allocating it to the various regions once again (which is what the franchises basically are) would seem to remove that co-ordination, I'd have thought.

 

[tbtc]

Er... or even LM, FGW,SWT etc?

Yeah, that.

If you can use a fairly normal type of traction (rather than the specialist Voyagers which manage 125mph but still have fast acceleration, have the ability to tilt etc) for "Cross Country" services then do you need a specialist TOC?

(for Aberdeen/Edinburgh - Plymouth/Penzance, maybe you do, but for Manchester - Bournemouth you're talking a route a lot shorter than some Intercity ones so a modern EMU might work okay after the CP5 work is done)

 

[David Goddard]

So if Basingstoke - Bournemouth is to be converted from DC to AC, what will that mean for the Southern 377's on the London/Brighton - Southampton services. There arn't many 377/2's with the pantograph's and they are mainly used on the East Croydon - Milton Keynes services. Southern will need to get some additional 377's with pantograph's or convert some current 377's to have pantograph's otherwise I don't see how the service could opperate?

I would expect that the third rail would remain into Southampton Central to serve trains from the Fareham route, so the removal would effectively be between some point west of Basingstoke station as far as St Denys. The island platform at Eastleigh would keep its juice rails too.
There are short stretches elsewhere that are dual powered and I think that St Denys to Southampton could join them, to avoid a change of power being needed.