Services that were withdrawn that should be reinstated

[adamt958]

Obviously on lines and stations that are still in use

Which services do you think should be reinstated?

My honest opinion is that Virgin used to operate cross country voyager sets from Newcastle or Birmingham New Street to Swansea.

I think they should reinstate thoseervices myself. Or at least extend the crosscountry turbo star services from Nottingham to Cardiff Central through to Swansea with the additional stops at bridgend, port talbot parkway and neath as well as swansea.

Obviously this is unlikely if the half hourly Maesteg service and the Beddau route goes through due to slots free on the South Wales main line.

But which services would you like to see reinstated?

 

[RichW1]

How about regular Intercity's for Edinburgh and Glasgow to Aberdeen. Short distance Intercity's like they used to have but it only really amounts to the same as London to Norwich type distances. The replacement of Intercity's by emu's is wrong just as in the case of Manchester to Edinburgh and Glasgow.

 

[RichmondCommu]

Direct trains from the East Midlands to Glasgow via the S & C using redundant Meridians after the MML is electrified.

 

[VTPreston_Tez]

Glasgow to Bristol or Poole via the WCML. Always well loaded.

 

[55018ballymoss]

Direct trains from the East Midlands to Glasgow via the S & C using redundant Meridians after the MML is electrified.

Obviously I am biased, but I like this idea.

Leeds to Glasgow via the S&C is still faster than Leeds to Glasgow via the ECML even with the 60mph top speed on the S&C.

The only problem would be, which franchise would own the service? East Midlands Trains, Northern, Cross Country or Virgin...
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With the separation of sleepers into a single franchise, and I know others have mentioned his before, maybe it is time to think about restarting the Edinburgh/Glasgow to Bristol/Plymouth sleeper?

 

[Alistair G.]

Night sleeper from London to Scotland via the midland mainline.... It use to be quite popular from what my father tells me.

 

[Gareth Marston]

North and West route being used for direct trains from south west to Manchester

 

[yorksrob]

It's not going to happen, but personally I'd like to see the Saturday fasts from the Kent Coast and Ashford to Charing Cross, going fast to Bearstead, Maidstone East and London. Complete with buffet trolley obviously.

 

[ushawk]

XC services back to Brighton and Portsmouth - were always rather popular.

 

[Peter Mugridge]

The replacement of Intercity's by emu's is wrong.

*Looks at WCML and nods head*


What would I like to see re-instated? The NE-SW and South Coast - Scotland Sleepers.

 

[GatwickDepress]

*Looks at WCML and nods head*


What would I like to see re-instated? The NE-SW and South Coast - Scotland Sleepers.

On that note, there must be a market for an argument to revitalize the Night Ferry sleeper between London and Paris. Perhaps modernizing it by going via the Channel Tunnel instead of a ferry. Businessman finishing a days work in London, board a 373 converted for sleeper use, and pow. In Paris bright and early for a full working day.

 

[12CSVT]

On that note, there must be a market for an argument to revitalize the Night Ferry sleeper between London and Paris. Perhaps modernizing it by going via the Channel Tunnel instead of a ferry. Businessman finishing a days work in London, board a 373 converted for sleeper use, and pow. In Paris bright and early for a full working day.

Unfortunately the 'bean-counters' thought different in 1997, after £ squillions had already been wasted building the Nightstar stock and converting the class 37/6s and Mk3 generator vans.

 

[yorksrob]

Unfortunately the 'bean-counters' thought different in 1997, after £ squillions had already been wasted building the Nightstar stock and converting the class 37/6s and Mk3 generator vans.
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Unfortunately the 'bean-counters' thought differently in 1997, after £ squillions had already been wasted building the Nightstar stock and converting the 37/6s and Mk3 generator vans.

It's a shame really. I understand that an all bells and whistles service might have been uneconomical, but couldn't they have kept a couple of sets and a spare to run a train each way each night between London and Paris.

 

[43074]

I would like to see the the re-instatement of the Lincolnshire - East Midlands - Shropshire services that used to be operated by Central Trains. I think that would be rather useful.

However, as is often the case when considering services for reinstatement, who would operate it? London Midland, Cross Country or East Midlands Trains?

 

[Old Hill Bank]

How about the Stourbridge-Dudley-Walsall services that ended in the sixties then BR shut the line when Merry Hiill Shopping Centre opened, What good thinking that was!!!!!!

 

[edwin_m]

I would like to see the the re-instatement of the Lincolnshire - East Midlands - Shropshire services that used to be operated by Central Trains. I think that would be rather useful.

However, as is often the case when considering services for reinstatement, who would operate it? London Midland, Cross Country or East Midlands Trains?

Leicester to Nuneaton suffered badly in the pruning of Central Trains in the early 2000s, going from four trains per hour down to two. However with congestion around Birmingham I wonder if it would be better to restore the Nottingham-Coventry instead, or some combination of the two. It should still be possible to work between Leicester and Coventry by running through Nuneaton twice, reversing at Abbey Street.

 

[anthony263]

A few services I would like to see:

1.) Nottingham - Cardiff crosscountry service extended to Swansea and something like a refurbished class 220 used with the service also being extended beyond Nottingham.

2.) Bristol - Oxford (perhaps extended to Milton Keynes or to Bedford and Nottingham)

3.) Once the route is fully electrified I wouldnt mind seeing the Portsmouth Harbour/Brighton - Cardiff services extended to Swansea and dual voltage emu's used

4.) A regular Salisbury/Weymouth - Westbury - Swindon service with trains continuing to Oxford.

5.) A regular London Paddington - Worcester service via Swindon which also serves Tewkesbury.

6.) Holyhead/Llandudno - Manchester services extended to North east england perhaps places such as Leeds.

7.) Penzance/Plymouth - scotland sleeper

8.) Direct Cardiff - Liverpool services

 

[The Planner]

. It should still be possible to work between Leicester and Coventry by running through Nuneaton twice, reversing at Abbey Street.

Pain in the arse operationally and very unlikely to happen.

 

[IanXC]

I'd like to see proper services restored on the routes where services were downgraded at the time of a BR Sprinter shortage (as I recall).

An example would be Sheffield to York via Pontefract. Which would allow the opportunity for the Sheffield-York services to take up smaller stops from other services to improve their times and capacities. For example the Hull-York services could take the quicker ECML route from Selby to York if Sherburn calls were taken on by Sheffields. The same applies to Church Fenton and Ulleskelf on the Blackpool North services.

 

[Philip Elliott]

Pain in the arse operationally and very unlikely to happen.

No worse than the wrong line running required for the north chord, just as well that the FOCs can't be bothered to use it...

 

[The Planner]

Running on the north chord doesn't involve stopping a train and changing ends though, planning the chord is a piece of the proverbial if the traffic is there.

 

[30907]

It's a shame really. I understand that an all bells and whistles service might have been uneconomical, but couldn't they have kept a couple of sets and a spare to run a train each way each night between London and Paris.

London-Paris was never an option, it was Plymouth/Swansea/Scotland-Paris IIRC, or possibly London-somewhere further than Paris/Brussels. And that was before RyanJet.
The Night Ferry made sense when day trains took almost as long - but a sleeper these days would be no more viable than on London-Manchester or Leeds (which died around 1980!).

 

[Bevan Price]

London-Paris was never an option, it was Plymouth/Swansea/Scotland-Paris IIRC, or possibly London-somewhere further than Paris/Brussels.

Unfortunately the "immigration" people in the Government made the latter services impracticable - they did not want trains calling at multiple stations in mainland Europe because they thought it would facilitate illegal immigration into UK.

To be worthwhile, something like a London - Hamburg sleeper would have needed to call at places like Lille, Brussels, Aachen, Koln & elsewhere.

 

[RichmondCommu]

Obviously I am biased, but I like this idea.

Leeds to Glasgow via the S&C is still faster than Leeds to Glasgow via the ECML even with the 60mph top speed on the S&C.

The only problem would be, which franchise would own the service? East Midlands Trains, Northern, Cross Country or Virgin...

The proposed line speed increase to 75mph would certainly help.

As to the TOC... I think Cross Country is the best fit with Meridians transferred after the MML electrification. Non stop services to take advantage of the Midland designed route.

And at the same time Garsdale once again becomes a junction station!

 

[Peter Mugridge]

Unfortunately the 'bean-counters' thought different in 1997, after £ squillions had already been wasted building the Nightstar stock and converting the class 37/6s and Mk3 generator vans.

The Nightstar was massively over-specified; it was designed by a committee for 5 Star hogging politicians. A more basic design would have been far lighter and technically simpler.

Also, the bean counters have never tried sitting up all night at St Pancras to catch the 05.40 ( quite a surprising number of people do sit up all night for that working! ) which barely makes the start of the working day in Paris.

Personally I'd be over in Paris twice as often if I could get a cabin bed on a 23.00 or 23.30 departure trundling comfortably down the classic lines to Gare du Nord for an 06.30 or 07.00 arrival...

 

[SeanG]

Or even board at 22.30/23.00 as you say and then use High speed lines and sit around in Gare du Nord/ Sit around in St Pancras and travel via High Speed lines early in the morning

 

[Peter Mugridge]

Wouldn't that cause a problem with the French LGVs being closed overnight for maintenance?

 

[Eagle]

As to the TOC... I think Cross Country is the best fit with Meridians transferred after the MML electrification.

Why is XC a good fit? It isn't just a catchall franchise for long-distance services. It's specifically a Birmingham-centric franchise (the same way that TPE is a Manchester-centric franchise).

 

[swt_passenger]

Unfortunately the "immigration" people in the Government made the latter services impracticable - they did not want trains calling at multiple stations in mainland Europe because they thought it would facilitate illegal immigration into UK.

To be worthwhile, something like a London - Hamburg sleeper would have needed to call at places like Lille, Brussels, Aachen, Koln & elsewhere.

Isn't it usually considered that the prime reason through services never happened was because of the rise of low cost airlines, the Easyjet and Ryanair models.

They were not anticipated when the tunnel was being planned, but if they had never appeared, the potential market for longer distance services would have been completely different.

 

[RichmondCommu]

Why is XC a good fit? It isn't just a catchall franchise for long-distance services. It's specifically a Birmingham-centric franchise (the same way that TPE is a Manchester-centric franchise).

Yes to be fair I don't know what I was thinking of.
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Isn't it usually considered that the prime reason through services never happened was because of the rise of low cost airlines, the Easyjet and Ryanair models.

They were not anticipated when the tunnel was being planned, but if they had never appeared, the potential market for longer distance services would have been completely different.

I'm afraid this is why day time HS services from the UK to Germany are unlikely to be popular. It's not just the journey times, they are also likely to be hammered on ticket prices.

Last summer we looked at the possibility of travelling from London to Nice via Lille but compared to the cost of flying the prices were shocking. Its a shame realy but I don't see things changing anytime soon.