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MML Post Electrification Timetable

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bramling

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It’s both. The consultations are always open to everyone, existing passengers or not.




It is down to COVID, and taking the opportunity to off lease most of the HSTs early.

I thought that might be the case. The DMU fleet doesn’t seem to be being pushed quite to the limits. There’s a lot of 5-car working, Nottingham in particular is almost solid 5-car, which is a contrast to the HSTs.
 
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edwin_m

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I thought that might be the case. The DMU fleet doesn’t seem to be being pushed quite to the limits. There’s a lot of 5-car working, Nottingham in particular is almost solid 5-car, which is a contrast to the HSTs.
I think the stock utilisation was always going to be pushed in the period after withdrawal of the HSTs and before the introduction of the new units. Covid may have rescued them from that particular hole.
 

Merle Haggard

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It’s both. The consultations are always open to everyone, existing passengers or not.
Thanks for that, but IMO there's a difference between being surveyed and a consultation being available.

There have been recent consultations for both WC and MML and these were advertised at the stations involved. I'm not sure that someone not using the rail, but a potential passenger, is in reality likely to be aware of them, and it reinforces my suggestion that the main thrust is with existing passengers.

Surveys also have the advantage that a sample is taken presumably without bias, but respondents to consultation are self-selecting and so not representative. Remember all those passengers on the L.M. Stoke loop...
 

Bald Rick

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Surveys also have the advantage that a sample is taken presumably without bias, but respondents to consultation are self-selecting and so not representative. Remember all those passengers on the L.M. Stoke loop...

I remember all the respondents to the consultation on Briech station closure that lived in England!
 

swt_passenger

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I remember all the respondents to the consultation on Briech station closure that lived in England!
Hopefully people running consultations are able to filter out the long distance objectors to everything, everywhere, and give them an appropriate level of credibility…
 

Bald Rick

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Hopefully people running consultations are able to filter out the long distance objectors to everything, everywhere, and give them an appropriate level of credibility…

Unfortunately, that’s not as simple as it sounds.
 

gaillark

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I'm sure those travelling from stations south of Leicester don't consider their needs irrelevant.

And sometimes because the timetable has become more focused on London and commuters to the city rather than the Home Counties, Midlands or Yorkshire. Journeys to London have largely improved. If you're not travelling to London or Corby the service is generally worse.
I agree with everything you have said @MML

When travelling to the East Midlands or South Yorkshire one of my regular trains that I did catch was 1645 from Nottingham to Luton.
Quite a number of passengers always alighted from this service at Luton (considering its previous stop was Market Harborough).

Luton was an easy place to park the car. I drove from London to Luton as its quicker and more convenient than travelling to St. Pancras as it takes over one hour for me to get to St. Pancras then the journey time to Luton. By driving it saved well over 40 minutes each way in the comfort of my own car.

As MML said hardly anybody is going to bother to use the train from Luton to Derby and Sheffield with three changes and the high fares with the greater inconvenience. With covid and poorer journey options thats why the company has invested in a brand new fleet of company cars. Far more comfort and convenience than the train. The railway has lost out big time.
EMR will surely notice that ticket sales will slump for journeys such as St Albans/Luton/Bedford to Leicester, Derby, Sheffield and further afield.
Time that HM Chancellor of the Exchequer starts to impose cuts railway funding. The railway is not maximising its income. Not many businesses can survive if they don't maximise income opportunities and look after customers.
 

Bald Rick

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As MML said hardly anybody is going to bother to use the train from Luton to Derby and Sheffield with three changes

Two changes (repeatable every half hour, and generally short connections), as opposed to the one that existed before this week (only hourly, often with long waits). With the solitary exception of the 0502 off Derby, there were no direct services from Derby or Sheffield to Luton on weekdays.

Nottingham was different of course.


EMR will surely notice that ticket sales will slump for journeys such as St Albans/Luton/Bedford to Leicester, Derby, Sheffield and further afield.

There won’t be a slump, because the market was small anyway, and the majority of passengers who made the trip were already changing trains.


The railway is not maximising its income.

Actually, it is. The models show there is much more income to be had from an increased frequency for Corby and Kettering, and shorter journey times London to Nottingham, than from providing direct services for Luton / Bedford / Wellingboro to the East Mids cities.
 
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