I'm currently on the 07:55 from Crewe to Euston, enjoying a 10 minute timetabled wait at Rugby. So far we've enjoyed a 5 minute wait at Rugeley Trent Valley (timetabled for 9 minutes), and (going by station clocks) a 3 minute wait at Lichfield TV, where one would have sufficed.
Now I'm not too fussy and it doesn't bother me all that much. But it strikes me that without these long dwell times we'd be at Euston about 20 minutes earlier, making the overall journey over 10% quicker. And it seems to negate a lot of the hype London Midland made about having 110mph trains.
What's the reason for these lengthy dwell times on this train? Is it a pathing thing to constantly to let thing overtake us? Is the train simply quicker than what it's been planned for? Or is it to allow sufficient padding in the timetable to make up for potential delays (indeed we were delayed leaving Crewe)?
Now I'm not too fussy and it doesn't bother me all that much. But it strikes me that without these long dwell times we'd be at Euston about 20 minutes earlier, making the overall journey over 10% quicker. And it seems to negate a lot of the hype London Midland made about having 110mph trains.
What's the reason for these lengthy dwell times on this train? Is it a pathing thing to constantly to let thing overtake us? Is the train simply quicker than what it's been planned for? Or is it to allow sufficient padding in the timetable to make up for potential delays (indeed we were delayed leaving Crewe)?