Nottingham to Birmingham reducing to 1 train per hour from April

[Sniffingmoose]

Just found out that Nottingham, Burton on Trent and Tamworth are having severe cut in services to Birmingham untill. I believe this is due to engineering work at Birmingham New Street station that requires platform closures.

As far as I can ascertain, no long distance services are making additional calls at Burton on Trent or Tamworth to compensate for the loss of service.

Not sure if there is still going to be a half hour Crosscountry service Between Derby & Nottingham.

Station staff have told me that this cut in service is untill the end of this year. Hard to believe. Does anyone know what work is required at Birmingham New Street and are there going to be any other cuts in services to Birmingham as well?

 

[DDB]

There is discussion of this in the May timetable thread.
A rolling program of platform closures at Birmingham due to some concrete works.
Other TOCs are apparently also having to make cuts but I think only XC are removing an entire service group.
There will only be an hourly Derby to Nottingham XC services but EMR are finally restoring their half hourly service.

 

[The Planner]

Just found out that Nottingham, Burton on Trent and Tamworth are having severe cut in services to Birmingham untill. I believe this is due to engineering work at Birmingham New Street station that requires platform closures.

As far as I can ascertain, no long distance services are making additional calls at Burton on Trent or Tamworth to compensate for the loss of service.

Not sure if there is still going to be a half hour Crosscountry service Between Derby & Nottingham.

Station staff have told me that this cut in service is untill the end of this year. Hard to believe. Does anyone know what work is required at Birmingham New Street and are there going to be any other cuts in services to Birmingham as well?

Bits of concrete are falling off (spalling) at New St, hence taking out a couple of platforms at a time to deal with it.

 

[Class 170101]

Bits of concrete are falling off (spalling) at New St, hence taking out a couple of platforms at a time to deal with it.

But didn't NR just finish a series of platform closures there in connection with the re-signalling? Was this not a problem then?

 

[Mzzzs]

Will the trains length be increased as the service can be very busy at times?
Will cuts be made to the service such as Beeston and long Eaton ?

 

[The Planner]

But didn't NR just finish a series of platform closures there in connection with the re-signalling? Was this not a problem then?

Yes, but you need no one else around when you are doing this, though it has been delayed.

 

[Llandudno]

Will the trains length be increased as the service can be very busy at times?
Will cuts be made to the service such as Beeston and long Eaton ?

Increasing the train length is the obvious thing to do, so I doubt it will happen!

 

[dk1]

Been covered in depth in another thread. Only temporary and some services still operating ECS to Tyseley.

 

[Class 170101]

Lasting until December TT change as far as I can see in Real Time Trains

 

[Kite159]

Increasing the train length is the obvious thing to do, so I doubt it will happen!

XC will run everything as 2 coach 170/1s, saves money, so what if passengers can't board

 

[Russel]

Bits of concrete are falling off (spalling) at New St, hence taking out a couple of platforms at a time to deal with it.

Concerning, what sort of condition is the rest of the 1960s concrete in?

 

[The Planner]

Concerning, what sort of condition is the rest of the 1960s concrete in?

No idea, but presumably inspections off the back of this have suggssted this remedial work is enough.

 

[Mzzzs]

Increasing the train length is the obvious thing to do, so I doubt it will happen!

Going off the over services they run that's not very obvious for them.

 

[43055]

Increasing the train length is the obvious thing to do, so I doubt it will happen!

Surprisingly the 1052 ex Burton to Birmingham today was a 4 car 170 along with the 1049 ex Birmingham. Good job as well on the former as it was full and standing on arrival at Burton and I don't think there was much room left on the rear set on departure.

Platforms 5 and 6 are the ones currently closed at New Street.

 

[ajp999]

Seems to have been a 50:50 split between 3 and 4 carriage services over the last few days. Not noticed any single 2 carriage 170's on the route yet.

 

[edwin_m]

Surprisingly the 1052 ex Burton to Birmingham today was a 4 car 170 along with the 1049 ex Birmingham. Good job as well on the former as it was full and standing on arrival at Burton and I don't think there was much room left on the rear set on departure.

Platforms 5 and 6 are the ones currently closed at New Street.

I was on that train. It was about 75% full leaving Nottingham, although this was the set nearer the entrance so the other one might have had more space (arrived a bit late so didn't have time to check). With the cancellation of the previous one, this is the first off-peak Nottingham-Birmingham departure. I was expecting it to be getting towards crush load between Tamworth and New Street, but it was only people standing in the vestibules and a few down the aisles.

 

[Sniffingmoose]

Looking at at Crosscountry twitter today the reduction in services is due to what they describe as resourcing issues. I have noticed that Crosscountry can run a 30min service Birmingham to Nottingham on a Saturday.

 

[Man_with_beard]

Cant they extend their Leicester terminators to Nottingham to make up for the loss?

 

[dk1]

Cant they extend their Leicester terminators to Nottingham to make up for the loss?

Would that cause traincrew route learning issues? Doesn’t sound very feasible to me.

 

[ShadowKnight]

The question is rather will the service return to half hourly after the engineering works have finished?

 

[dk1]

The question is rather will the service return to half hourly after the engineering works have finished?

Time will tell but I expect it will.

 

[The Planner]

Cant they extend their Leicester terminators to Nottingham to make up for the loss?

They interwork with Stansted services and the turnaround at Leicester isnt long enough to get to Nottingham and back. You also only serve Nottingham doing that, not Tamworth or Burton so its of limited value.

 

[Russel]

The question is rather will the service return to half hourly after the engineering works have finished?

It needs to, it really needs to, but I to have doubts.

 

[43074]

Would that cause traincrew route learning issues? Doesn’t sound very feasible to me.

A surprising number of XC crew sign Nottingham to Leicester as the units which form the first few services from Nottingham run ECS from Leicester.

The 05:52 from New Street used to run empty from Leicester to Nottingham after arriving at Leicester which suggests both Leicester and Birmingham crew sign it.

 

[dk1]

A surprising number of XC crew sign Nottingham to Leicester as the units which form the first few services from Nottingham run ECS from Leicester.

The 05:52 from New Street used to run empty from Leicester to Nottingham after arriving at Leicester which suggests both Leicester and Birmingham crew sign it.

That makes sense then. Thanks.