Crewe-Birmingham - why are the timings so ridiculously close together?

[py_megapixel]

There are 3 trains per hour from Crewe to Birmingham - the stopper via Stoke-on-Trent (which, while slower than the others, isn't ridiculous to use for the full journey - only an additional 20 mins compared to the direct ones), the through service from Liverpool and the Avanti service from Scotland.

The problem is that two of these leave at exactly one minute past each hour, while the other one is only a few minutes earlier. So you have a list of departure times that looks like this:

09:52
10:01 x2
[gap of almost an hour]
10:52
11:01 x2
[another gap of almost an hour]
11:52
12:01 x2
[and so on]

To all intents and purposes, this reduces the frequency to a third of what it could be with the same resources. So why has the prospect of a close to every-20-minute service been thrown away in favour of this nonsense?

(Worse still, if you are coming through from Manchester, the direct CrossCountry arrives at BHM at a very similar time to the faster services from Crewe - removing the option of changing at Crewe to get to Birmingham if the direct services aren't conveniently timed)

 

[Ianno87]

Presumably it’s not helped by the Liverpool-Birmingham service being reduced to 1tph (due to C*v*d). Normally it’s 2tph, spread roughly half-hourly.

 

[JN114]

Well the railway network isn’t built around a given point -

The 0955 Ex Liverpool arrives at New Street at 1051; the 1001 via Stoke arrives 1124; and the 1002 Avanti arrives 1105 - so a broadly 20 minute spread along the corridor between Wolves and New Street (the critical stretch for pathing)

Spread them out at Crewe, and you’ll end up with them bunched together at New Street.

 

[LNW-GW Joint]

The Avanti service also has a strategic wait at Wolverhampton, to link the Scotland-Birmingham and Birmingham-London paths.
Pre-covid, on a good day, you could swap to the following XC service which overtakes the Avanti at Wolves.
There are still quite a few awkward gaps because of the way services have been thinned out during Covid reductions.

 

[setdown]

The second LNR Liverpool to Birmingham service will be missing until at least May 2022. They currently have less drivers than they did in March 2020, and won’t get back to that point until sometime in 2022.

 

[ChrisC]

There are loads of places on the rail network where timetables are like this. Far worse at the moment is the service between the two major cities of Sheffield and Leeds. The spacing out of the departures each hour is unbelievably bad.

There are currently 4 trains per hour which leave Sheffield at the following times:
xx02 - stopping service via Barnsley and Castleford
xx15 - stopping service via Moorthorpe
xx18 - semi fast via Barnsley
xx21 - XC

Arrivals in Sheffield from Leeds all arrive around the same time too.
xx01 - stopping service via Moorthorpe
xx04 - semi fast via Barnsley
xx51 - stopping service via Castleford and Barnsley
xx54 - XC

I occasionally need to do the journey from Leeds to Mansfield and as the Lincoln train departs from Sheffield at xx54 it now means a wait of up to 1 hour in Sheffield. Travelling via Worksop and splitting at Sheffield is by far the cheapest fare for this journey. Hopefully things will improve in December if the second semi fast each hour via Barnsley is restored to the timetable.

 

[paddy1]

Same applies between Stoke on Trent and Manchester at present due to the Avanti and XC services being reduced from half hourly to hourly. Only three trains an hour bunched up instead of five more evenly spread out. You get Manchester bound XC leaving at around xx:44 hrs, Avanti at around xx:50hrs and the Northern stopper at around xx:56hrs, then nothing again for another 50 minutes or so and then it repeats. Ends up with the XC service becoming disproportionately loaded compared to the other two because it's first in the sequence.

 

[D6975]

If you want anothr example. look at the service from St Denys to Southampton. 2tph leaving at the same time or sometimes 1 min apart.

 

[MikeWM]

Ely to Cambridge on Sundays is another example (one that is particularly irritating to me!).

x57 and x03, and then once the XC service wakes up that joins in at x53, giving 3 trains in 10 minutes followed by a 50 minute gap every hour.

 

[route101]

If you want anothr example. look at the service from St Denys to Southampton. 2tph leaving at the same time or sometimes 1 min apart.

Southampton could do with a Transport strategy or PTE.

 

[NSE]

Whitton is like that. It’s the point where the fast catches the slow away from London and where the fast accelerates away towards London. Trains leave at xx:20/23 and xx:50/53 towards London and xx:20/25 and xx:50/55 the other way. Effectively meaning you have a half hourly service with a flurry of activity for five minutes then nothing.

I would point out I’m not complaining, just noting it’s an anomaly that fits this thread.

 

[6Gman]

The second LNR Liverpool to Birmingham service will be missing until at least May 2022. They currently have less drivers than they did in March 2020, and won’t get back to that point until sometime in 2022.

I've been trying to get WMT/LNW to give me a straight answer on that one - still waiting, so thanks for the information.