Cross country from Nuneaton to Leicester

[londonmidland]

Nuneaton itself would make a useful interchange for passengers travelling between Leicester and the North West/Scotland if Avanti stopped more of their services there. I understand once HS2 is up and running, Avanti will be calling at more intermediate stations, more frequently?

Of course XC or whoever it’ll be by then will need to increase capacity quite a bit for this to all work. 1tph between the Eastern counties and 2tph between Leicester and Birmingham just isn’t enough on the best of days. On days of events, such as during the Christmas markets, many passengers get left behind.

 

[Mike99]

The Birmingham-Nuneaton-Leicester route (and onwards towards Peterborough) has got busier for many years. Saturday services are busy all day long with the last departure from Birmingham on Saturday been very busy, it's not unknown for some Birmingham bound Saturday morning services to leave people behind at Hinckley and Nuneaton-Weekends in December can be horrendously crowded too. Fortunately the 7 2 -car 170s don't have many booked services on this route but even 3 car 170 struggle. The tight turnaround at Birmingham doesn't give much buffer for helping arrivals leave on time.

Your quite correct, I lived in Hinckley summer of 2018 till January 2022. Excluding the obvious periods of Covid stay at home rules the XC services were nearly always very busy or rammed, the mid afternoon departures from New Street left close to full and standing and although a fair few got off at Nuneaton a lot more boarded. Travelling towards Leicester the stopping service was often very busy with many alighting at Leicester. As you and other posters have commented the movement of people for commuting and leisure between two major cities of the west and east midlands is huge.

Anyone know why Leicester to Hinckley advance fares are so cheap? You can regularly get same day advance adult singles from between £2.20 to £2.60. Very good for a 15 mile 20 minute rail journey, can give the frequent bus services between Leicester and Hinckley a run for their money. As a comparison on the same route Leicester to Melton Mowbray you wont find for less than £7 for the same journey (2 towns a similar distance either side of Leicester, same route and TOC). Hinckley is mainly served by the Brum-Leicester service whilst Melton is on the Brum-Leicester-Stansted service.

Not complaining about it, just intrigued how its so cheap to Hinckley from Leicester.

It might be that XC see the market from Hinckley to Leicester is something that they can compete against the bus. The bus, although the 158 and X48 are more frequent than the train it takes c60 minutes where the train is a lot lot less time. Both train and bus arrive into the City Centre.

 

[Robertj21a]

Your quite correct, I lived in Hinckley summer of 2018 till January 2022. Excluding the obvious periods of Covid stay at home rules the XC services were nearly always very busy or rammed, the mid afternoon departures from New Street left close to full and standing and although a fair few got off at Nuneaton a lot more boarded. Travelling towards Leicester the stopping service was often very busy with many alighting at Leicester. As you and other posters have commented the movement of people for commuting and leisure between two major cities of the west and east midlands is huge.


It might be that XC see the market from Hinckley to Leicester is something that they can compete against the bus. The bus, although the 158 and X48 are more frequent than the train it takes c60 minutes where the train is a lot lot less time. Both train and bus arrive into the City Centre.

True, though the 2 buses (148/158 together every 15mins) serve a number of city stops and central/west areas. The train station is somewhat to the south, heading out of the city, and may be more suited to the longer distance traveller.
.

 

[Dr Hoo]

There are loads of spare units around the country but unfortunately the roscos are hiding them

Sadly despite the mega promises that the arena would have aregular useful service for events Lindon Midland failed to secure the rolling stock sadly

Which spare diesel units, with compatible speed capability, are you thinking of? Class 175 possibly? I thought that they were going to Great Western.
The Class 175s are hardly a great complement to what XC have at the moment in terms of coupling capability, staff familiarity and so on.
According to Modern Railways magazine XC will be progressively releasing their Class 170 for a refurbishment (alongside and integrated with similar work for East Midlands). That clearly isn’t going to do much for availability either in the short to medium term.

 

[Topological]

Your quite correct, I lived in Hinckley summer of 2018 till January 2022. Excluding the obvious periods of Covid stay at home rules the XC services were nearly always very busy or rammed, the mid afternoon departures from New Street left close to full and standing and although a fair few got off at Nuneaton a lot more boarded. Travelling towards Leicester the stopping service was often very busy with many alighting at Leicester. As you and other posters have commented the movement of people for commuting and leisure between two major cities of the west and east midlands is huge.


It might be that XC see the market from Hinckley to Leicester is something that they can compete against the bus. The bus, although the 158 and X48 are more frequent than the train it takes c60 minutes where the train is a lot lot less time. Both train and bus arrive into the City Centre.

I am not sure Leicester London Road is in the city centre. It is a fair walk before you reach the main shopping areas.

Leicester has never really had a "central" station. Leicester Central was too far west and Leicester Belgrave Road was even worse located.

 

[Horseman]

One change that has happened recently is that Nuneaton has become a connection point for Manchester to Leicester journeys. It may not be a big flow, but with small trains it does not take much to bring the loadings up.

Given the issues with TPE, and regular busyness of the EMR Liverpool trains, it would not surprise me if some have switched to the Nuneaton connection.

Not to stray into speculative, but it often struck me that Nuneaton could be a very useful connection point for more destinations. Perhaps thankfully from a CrossCountry loading perspective there are not many options North and West.

My other half does this exact journey on a regular basis and often comments on how many other there are making the same connection. Still find it surprising there's no direct service to Leicester from anywhere north of Sheffield, particularly to Manchester/Leeds, although I imagine there's a reason.

 

[RailWonderer]

Which spare diesel units, with compatible speed capability, are you thinking of? Class 175 possibly? I thought that they were going to Great Western.
The Class 175s are hardly a great complement to what XC have at the moment in terms of coupling capability, staff familiarity and so on.
According to Modern Railways magazine XC will be progressively releasing their Class 170 for a refurbishment (alongside and integrated with similar work for East Midlands). That clearly isn’t going to do much for availability either in the short to medium term.

Thank God finally. The Voyagers are notorious for their uncleanliness but the 170s are almost as bad, but even worse since some of the seat cushions are out of place and sloped down making them very uncomfortable to sit on.

 

[Spaceship323]

Even in first the adjusters are all broken so you are reclined even if you'd prefer to sit up to eat

 

[duffield]

Even in first the adjusters are all broken so you are reclined even if you'd prefer to sit up to eat

And about half of the fold down tables fold down too far making them near useless. It's pretty poor when what should be routine maintenance is just abandoned, with things like this broken for years on end.