Doctor Fegg
Established Member
- Joined
- 9 Nov 2010
- Messages
- 1,847
Birmingham–Manchester is currently reduced to an hourly service (as with much of the CrossCountry network).
Several times in recent weeks on this forum, the idea of a standalone Birmingham-Manchester service has been mooted to restore a half-hourly frequency, perhaps using the surplus 350s for a route that is (after all) under the wires:
As with anything involving New Street, capacity is always an issue (though the station is functioning with one platform out at a time right now, which won't be the case forever).
And terminating further south isn't a free pass either:
So - could it work, and if so, how? Discuss.
Several times in recent weeks on this forum, the idea of a standalone Birmingham-Manchester service has been mooted to restore a half-hourly frequency, perhaps using the surplus 350s for a route that is (after all) under the wires:
Since this is the speculation forum, I’d have an 8-car 350 working Manchester-Birmingham via Stoke, providing a hybrid semi-fast & local commuter service closer in to Manchester & Birmingham. Stations that don’t need an increase in frequency wouldn’t be served. Perhaps we could see:
Piccadilly - Stockport - Cheadle Hulme - Bramhall - Poynton - Macclesfield - Congleton - Stoke - Stafford - Wolverhampton - Coseley - Dudley Port - New Street.
Between Birmingham & Wolverhampton, it’s difficult to say which stations should have stops, as so many of them have a good frequency already. The worst being 2 tph, so it might be better to just call at one additional stop at most between New Street & Wolverhampton.
As with anything involving New Street, capacity is always an issue (though the station is functioning with one platform out at a time right now, which won't be the case forever).
And terminating further south isn't a free pass either:
Have a look at the MD301 graph between New St and International. Presumably the service gets given to LNWR? Doubt there are gaps in the Dec 22 re-write either.
So - could it work, and if so, how? Discuss.