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Scheduled journey times are around 1h45mins, so a fairly similar duration to Norwich to London or Crewe to London which feature catering. Of course a limited stop service might reduce the time slightly

The idea of an actual intercity operator, whether Avanti, XC or an OAA such as Virgin operating directly between Birmingham and Liverpool is interesting. Although the route is operated by a franchised TOC (LNW/WM), it's essentially an extended commuter service at the moment. Introducing limited...

Is your TOC fully staffed such that other than to cover for sickness the normal timetable can be operated by the staff employed, or are significant numbers or drivers and other staff resigning to take roles outside the railway causing the need for recruitment to replace them? The railway always...

It would be interesting to see how well off-peak tickets sell when there is no cheaper advance available compared to when there is. Some people may chose flexibility, but I suspect a large amount simply chose the cheapest ticket offered.

The Super Off Peak restrictions currently are not arriving London before 1117 and not departing London 1459-1859, with additional easements on Fridays and around Christmas and Easter. Code 1K https://www.brfares.com/!faredetail?orig=EDB&dest=KGX&grpd=1072&rte=95&tkt=SSS Now, is the discussion...

The 'all reservation' model is worth considering, but could only really be enforced on journeys to starting or ending at Kings Cross where there is the parallel Thameslink services for commuter services which can service the turn up and go/season ticket market. Potentially York/Leeds terminating...

The challenge with 'semi fast' trains is that they pay little regard to the stops passengers on the train are likely to want to go to. Turning at Hooton would seem the best way to get things back on track and make sure all stops actually in Merseyside were served, but is rarely done unless the...

Surely a fairer comparison would be against a similar modern train, either a class 22x operated by cross country on the same route (which are over 20 years old), or a class 80x operated by lner on the route, about 5 years old. Though the real solution is removing trees which are closer to a...

So the flooding is apparently somewhere between Carlisle and Lockerbie, it will be interesting to see what, if any engineering work Network Rail is planning next summer to reduce the risk of flooding on that section of the track. The weather isn't good today, but it's also not exactly stop the...

If the one thing this does is make TOCs employ enough drivers to operate the regular service without overtime that would be a plus. Though I'm now wondering if 40% of services could involve a lot more than 40% of staff, but with people drinking tea in between, as unless there is an optimised...

Transpennine North has gone from HS3 to non-essential in a month.

I think this thread is showing that it's fundamentally possible to SELL almost all products from a TVM if programmed correctly. Human interaction, or some advanced AI in the future is more useful for the customer service aspects. Journey planning for advance purchase tickets is possible, but...

I'd assume Scotrail ticket machines accept Scottish banknotes, alongside BoE ones, this is probably easier to programme a machine to know than a ticket clerk in Somerset who might not see a Scottish/NI note in years so doesn't have the first idea what they look like. Most of the 'sell' options...

It's not really a service for Edinburgh to Dundee passengers (they'd presumably use the intercity or semifast) it's for passengers from Edinburgh to stations between Rosyth and Glenrothes, then separately those stations to points north. I would imagine very few passengers (who don't post on...

Thinking about this the below pattern would offer at least 2tph from Edinburgh to all stations, keep to 5tph for efficiency of units and paths across the Forth Bridge, and preserve northbound connections for both Kirkcaldy and Dunfermline, the only thing it doesn't offer is direct...

A universal railcard (on the Bahncard model) is useful as it creates a sunk cost for the traveler with the railway, reducing the marginal cost of additional rail journeys. Car owners already have this, once you've bought (or at least committed to lease payments) and insured a car then the...

The roads closed seem to be predominantly in the area covered by the Amber weather warning, i.e. Argyll and Bute, Stiringshire, western parts of Perthshire and southern Highlands. Thus the decision to close the WHL and other routes in that area seems sensible and based on the Met Office warning...

I'm merely assuming a number of train drivers were on shift to drive trains which didn't operate. Had they operated trains on parts of the line which were open (Preston to Carlisle) they would have got some passengers to their destination and others a lot closer reducing the need for road...

Preston to Carlisle is 64mins, Carlisle to Glasgow is 69? Preston to Glasgow is 135mins. It's less time to come back.

They're paid good money to drive a train, provided it's on rolling stock and a route they are qualified to drive and doesn't exceed their contracted hours it shouldn't matter what is diagrammed, unless they were taking wildcat strike action yesterday.