Paddington to Bristol Parkway non stop

[Shrop]

We've discussed the Cornish route a fair bit in the context of London, but what about getting to Cornwall from the Midlands / Manchester / Yorkshire? it's well known that the M5 becomes gridlocked in several places on many days of the year due to holiday traffic, so you might think that XC trains would grasp the opportunity to tap into the market of frustrated travellers who take many hours to make the journey by road. From Birmingham a couple of trains stopping only at Exeter and then Plymouth would provide a very welcome means of getting the journey to Cornwall done. The trains wouldn't need to mess about taking ages just for paths as there are several chances to overtake slower trains en route, so Birmingham to Exeter ought to be perfectly possible in not much over two hours, and to Plymouth in three hours flat.

But what do they do? They stop every train EIGHT times between Birmingham and Plymouth, which costs a good half hour and a whole load of shuffling around at every stop. Of course those who love to stop trains at every opportunity will cite that this shuffling about translates into stops needing to be used, but that argument is a bit thin when limited stop trains haven't run for many years, since which time the roads (ie a big potential rail market) have become considerably more congested. Run some limited stop trains for a couple of years (at least) on a trial basis (in addition to the existing services), and only if they load badly, does that then provide a convincing argument that they're not worth providing. It just needs diligent planning, and of course the coaching stock and the train staff.

 

[cle]

Clearly, there is renewed domestic travel demand and appreciation - Devon and Cornwall, through necessity, became newly popular among folks who would previously have gone abroad. And they are already much-loved by others.

The London-Penzance does a lot of local service too. As do many of these types of service far from London. Yes there are stoppers, and talks about a few mainline branch links (Newquay to Falmouth?!) - but to speed up service to London, you'd want something else

Separately the more urban parts of Devon need a better service, and the Midlands/North would like better SW access too. The Lakes are fab, but the swimming and the weather aren't quite comparable

To me, it seems the two-hourly semi-fast London-Exeter should become hourly, and could still have bi-hourly stopping patterns to have a faster hour. This would give Taunton and Tiverton a decent additional service to London and connectivity along the route. Could extend to Paignton at times.

If new stations open in Devon, another hourly regional service (say Bristol to Plymouth) would be useful for the local calls.

London-Penzance is sped up, and XC extends to Penzance, Newquay or sometimes Paignton instead of Plymouth - to allow better services from the NW, but also to cover some local frequency too. Patterns to be debated, especially re Totnes.

 

[Bald Rick]

But what do they do? They stop every train EIGHT times between Birmingham and Plymouth, which costs a good half hour and a whole load of shuffling around at every stop.

If you can produce a timetable that has a few services running non stop Birmingham - Exeter, that retains broadly the same connectivity to intermediate stations, and retains similar journey times for those intermediate flows, I’d be delighted to see it. Also your views on how to sell it to the good folk of Bristol.

 

[185143]

Arguably yes; that's only an average speed of 75mph, Roger Ford wrote an article in Modern Railways in 2012 where he argued average speeds of 80-90mph were needed for rail to be competitive which is a journey time between 1hr18 and 1hr27.

Given the coach journey time is 2.5 hours from Bristol to London that compares unfavourably given where Paddington is (albeit the Elizabeth Line has made Paddington more accessible).

I travelled from Bristol to London by coach a couple of years ago. I'd been on the pop in the City Centre, so the Coach station was by far more convenient than Temple Meads. And my destination? The EasyHotel, by Victoria Coach Station. Not much slower than the train, once you've considered getting to the station, and the tube when in London. And the Coach fare was less than the Underground would have been from Paddington to Victoria!

Done it again since when staying in London, £5.80 return to Bristol when I was staying in Croydon. So again easier to get to the Coach station than Paddington, and I was going for a beer or... err... 12 in Bristol, so appreciated being in the City Centre on arrival+departure!

 

[Shrop]

I'm really not. Cornwall is geographically a fair distance from London with tricky terrain and rail geography. You've decided to focus on one very specific issues of stops, which I am attempting to refute. I don't disagree there are other issues as well.

Sorry, just that your post #102 suggested that it was all about cost.

Back to the original point of S. Wales, it's all about the differential of journey times increased versus the incovenience caused to others. Probably about 10 minutes all in all, and is that really worth it?

I think it would be worth at least trying out a couple of non stop services Newport, or at least to Bristol Parkway each day. I don't think Reading and Swindon would suffer unduly if that happened, especially since they benefit from additional services to Oxford / Gloucester.

It is curious this comes up so often regarding the GWML, but not other locations. Is it really so egregious compared to other parts of the network? It does seem like an open-access operator is best suited to tap that specific demand, a few times a day a la Grand Central or Hull Trains and let GWR concentrate on the core S. Wales service.

My comments about South Wales are simply because the OP was about that route, albeit mentioning Bristol Parkway specifically. However, I do think there is merit in talking about other routes too, which "suffer" from more stops than I would consider essential. XC comes particularly to mind!

 

[Horizon22]

We've discussed the Cornish route a fair bit in the context of London, but what about getting to Cornwall from the Midlands / Manchester / Yorkshire? it's well known that the M5 becomes gridlocked in several places on many days of the year due to holiday traffic, so you might think that XC trains would grasp the opportunity to tap into the market of frustrated travellers who take many hours to make the journey by road. From Birmingham a couple of trains stopping only at Exeter and then Plymouth would provide a very welcome means of getting the journey to Cornwall done. The trains wouldn't need to mess about taking ages just for paths as there are several chances to overtake slower trains en route, so Birmingham to Exeter ought to be perfectly possible in not much over two hours, and to Plymouth in three hours flat.

But what do they do? They stop every train EIGHT times between Birmingham and Plymouth, which costs a good half hour and a whole load of shuffling around at every stop. Of course those who love to stop trains at every opportunity will cite that this shuffling about translates into stops needing to be used, but that argument is a bit thin when limited stop trains haven't run for many years, since which time the roads (ie a big potential rail market) have become considerably more congested. Run some limited stop trains for a couple of years (at least) on a trial basis (in addition to the existing services), and only if they load badly, does that then provide a convincing argument that they're not worth providing. It just needs diligent planning, and of course the coaching stock and the train staff.

There is only so much capacity and time in a day. I'm genuinely curious about what you're planning to provide for all these intermediates otherwise or do you think it's fine if the citizens of such locations have a reduced service?. There is a timetable and certain decisions need to be made; by all means certain discussions are useful and maybe get involved with a local rail user group if it exists (when they aren't directly fighting for contradictory service patterns!) but making everything run "express" is not a viable solution. Again with "shuffling about"; you seem to have some awful luck everywhere you go.

 

[Shrop]

There is only so much capacity and time in a day. I'm genuinely curious about what you're planning to provide for all these intermediates otherwise or do you think it's fine if the citizens of such locations have a reduced service?. There is a timetable and certain decisions need to be made; by all means certain discussions are useful and maybe get involved with a local rail user group if it exists (when they aren't directly fighting for contradictory service patterns!) but making everything run "express" is not a viable solution.

"Making everything run express"? I'm not sure how you translate my comments asking for one or two services to run faster per day, into "everything"!

Again with "shuffling about"; you seem to have some awful luck everywhere you go.

What comes to mind with my "shuffling about" comments, is several years of weekly trips between Southampton and Birmingham on XC, not so long ago. Over a distance that was considerably shorter than London to Warrington or York, which can be done many times each day with no stops, my journey had intermediate stops at Southampton Airport Parkway, Winchester, Basingstoke, Reading, Oxford, Banbury, Leamington Spa, Coventry and Birmingham International. Believe me, that added up to a lot of shuffling about, plenty of chopping and changing of seat reservations, and a lot of additional journey time to make all of those stops. Note that Didcot, which is apparently pretty important for a good few South Wales trains to stop at, didn't have any XC trains stopping there at all!

I often used to think that a small number of fast trains, ie stopping only at Basingstoke and Oxford, would be justified, especially given how overcrowded so many of the trains were that I used. Basingstoke would be useful as a way of linking Portsmouth to the Midlands as it at least has through trains from there. Unlike Reading, which is apparently so vital for every single South Wales train to stop at and many on here have argued that the stops there can't be sacrificed, and yet you can't even travel the route to Reading from Portsmouth, a similar size to Cardiff but well under half the distance from Reading, without changing trains! So yes, use Basingstoke, and omitting Reading would be an excellent way of overtaking other trains, saving on the need to reverse etc. And Oxford, well they benefit from missing out Reading on some trains (even though South Wales apparently can't), so why not give them a better service (one hour flat or maybe slightly under) to Birmingham a couple of times a day too? I could go on ...

 

[Horizon22]

"Making everything run express"? I'm not sure how you translate my comments asking for one or two services to run faster per day, into "everything"!

It's very much a waste of capacity I feel and awkward to path as they may well catch up with a regional or stopping service anyway.

 

[Birmingham]

I travelled from Bristol to London by coach a couple of years ago. I'd been on the pop in the City Centre, so the Coach station was by far more convenient than Temple Meads. And my destination? The EasyHotel, by Victoria Coach Station. Not much slower than the train, once you've considered getting to the station, and the tube when in London. And the Coach fare was less than the Underground would have been from Paddington to Victoria!

Done it again since when staying in London, £5.80 return to Bristol when I was staying in Croydon. So again easier to get to the Coach station than Paddington, and I was going for a beer or... err... 12 in Bristol, so appreciated being in the City Centre on arrival+departure!

It doesn’t sound like anything could convince you to take the train though, and that’s fine. If you like the coach, get the coach and everyone’s happy.

 

[Dai Corner]

I travelled from Bristol to London by coach a couple of years ago. I'd been on the pop in the City Centre, so the Coach station was by far more convenient than Temple Meads. And my destination? The EasyHotel, by Victoria Coach Station. Not much slower than the train, once you've considered getting to the station, and the tube when in London. And the Coach fare was less than the Underground would have been from Paddington to Victoria!

Done it again since when staying in London, £5.80 return to Bristol when I was staying in Croydon. So again easier to get to the Coach station than Paddington, and I was going for a beer or... err... 12 in Bristol, so appreciated being in the City Centre on arrival+departure!

Hearing that there may be people who've drunk 12 pints on board is enough to put me off. At least there's more chance of avoiding them on a 9 coach train.

 

[Shrop]

It's very much a waste of capacity I feel and awkward to path as they may well catch up with a regional or stopping service anyway.

You'll see from my comments above that I've mentioned overtaking opportunities. For the SMALL number of fast trains that I've suggested.

 

[penguin8967]

But what do they do? They stop every train EIGHT times between Birmingham and Plymouth, which costs a good half hour and a whole load of shuffling around at every stop.

Most if not all the stations XC serve are either large towns/cities or major interchange stations, all of which have a fair few people getting on and off. It's also one of the only fast services to Bristol for people in the south west. Removing the stops would make other services more crowded and XC don't have the stock to run additional express services. 4 coaches from Birmingham-Plymouth is bad enough already.

 

[Falcon1200]

Most if not all the stations XC serve are either large towns/cities or major interchange stations, all of which have a fair few people getting on and off.

Indeed, and they already miss some fairly important places as it is, such as Gloucester and Weston-Super-Mare!

Note that Didcot, which is apparently pretty important for a good few South Wales trains to stop at, didn't have any XC trains stopping there at all!

There is no particular market that requires XC trains to stop there (and they can be accessed by changes at Reading or Oxford, on the same platform at the latter).

Regarding 'shuffling about', I don't recall this being a major problem in my regular travels between Oxford and Birmingham, en route to or from Scotland, from 1984 onwards. And of course one can ensure a 'permanent' seat by reserving one.

 

[Shrop]

Most if not all the stations XC serve are either large towns/cities or major interchange stations, all of which have a fair few people getting on and off. It's also one of the only fast services to Bristol for people in the south west. Removing the stops would make other services more crowded and XC don't have the stock to run additional express services. 4 coaches from Birmingham-Plymouth is bad enough already.

That's exactly it, XC are cramming passengers from what used to be 12 coach trains, into 4 coaches. The lack of capacity simply underlines how poor the investment in these services has been. I blame both the rail companies and the Government for this. I suspect that some of the world's more enlightened countries would have noticed that their roads and railways were getting more heavily used and done something about it, including building more tracks.

In the UK we're too good at complaining a lot but doing very little. HS2 should have been conceived properly, it should be operational by now, and we should be getting on with HS3 etc. Instead we've abandoned half of HS2, and we're making a meal of what remains of it with delays and ever increasing costs. We're complaining about crowded trains, crowded roads etc. - for many of us it's the first topic of conversation when we meet people wherever we're going, but we're doing very little about any of it.

Regarding 'shuffling about', I don't recall this being a major problem in my regular travels between Oxford and Birmingham, en route to or from Scotland, from 1984 onwards. And of course one can ensure a 'permanent' seat by reserving one.

Easy when you know in advance the exact time you can travel!

 

[Horizon22]

You'll see from my comments above that I've mentioned overtaking opportunities. For the SMALL number of fast trains that I've suggested.

Where are these "overtaking opportunities"? Again it's not a good use of capacity as you'll have services that do call at the fast trains not far behind / in front of the usual services.

 

[cle]

Come to think of it, these places only exist at Taunton, Exeter SD and Plymouth - correct? Hence why there can be silly trains like Penzance to Cardiff, vs overlapping, tighter services that you might get with more lines and slightly larger stations.

 

[Shrop]

Where are these "overtaking opportunities"? Again it's not a good use of capacity as you'll have services that do call at the fast trains not far behind / in front of the usual services.

Reading for XC trains is an obvious one. Running non stop via Solihull into Birmingham while the stopping train runs via Coventry is another. There are enough lines at Bristol TM and Taunton for much of the time if needed. The South Wales route shouldn't need overtaking, just a couple of fast trains with sensible timing around other trains.

Playing with pathings isn't that hard, it's one of those things that people "in the know" say is hard for others to do when it suits, until you show them your suggestions in detail. And no, I'm not about to dream up all sorts of unpaid scheduling just to prove it. It's too easy for people to say there isn't the market for trains stopping less often, but where is their evidence when they haven't been tried for many years, when passenger numbers were barely half what they are today?

 

[Doctor Fegg]

Oh come on, don’t plead ignorance about a prestige service. It’s not hard to work out that when travelling from A to B, if you can travel non-stop then you feel like you’re getting an excellent service, whereas if you stop several times then the service is much more second rate.

Ok.

With that in mind, can you compare the "prestige" of these two options:

1. a direct Reading–Penzance journey by IET
2. an IET from Reading to Bristol followed by a Voyager from Bristol to Penzance?

Because 2 is what passengers will end up experiencing if you start indiscriminately taking out the stops from south-western services.

That's not a hypothetical, by the way - it's exactly what Cotswold residents now have to undergo day in, day out. GWR took the Reading stop out of the evening peak Cotswold trains, and consequently a direct journey is now a Voyager from Reading to Oxford to pick up the next IET onto the Cotswolds.

 

[The Planner]

Reading for XC trains is an obvious one. Running non stop via Solihull into Birmingham while the stopping train runs via Coventry is another. There are enough lines at Bristol TM and Taunton for much of the time if needed. The South Wales route shouldn't need overtaking, just a couple of fast trains with sensible timing around other trains.

Ironically you chose the example which XC want to get rid of, they want both via Coventry, if the Reading Newcastle ever returns.

 

[Bald Rick]

I often used to think that a small number of fast trains, ie stopping only at Basingstoke and Oxford, would be justified, especially given how overcrowded so many of the trains were that I used

But upthread you mention lots of ‘reshuffling’ of passengers at intermediate stops, which can only mean that the train has heavy use at those stops. Which implies that non-stop trains from Basingstoke - Oxford - Birmingham would be rather empty (which is precisely what the revenue figures say).

Playing with pathings isn't that hard, it's one of those things that people "in the know" say is hard for others to do when it suits, until you show them your suggestions in detail.

Suggestions in detail please! I’ve asked before…
(there’s 700 people in Milton Keynes who might have an issue with your statement).

It's too easy for people to say there isn't the market for trains stopping less often, but where is their evidence when they haven't been tried for many years, when passenger numbers were barely half what they are today?

The evidence is in the detailed revenue and passenger figures (highly confidential), the revenue and passenger models held by the industry (also confidential), and the knowledge gained by the economists and Stakeholder specialists in the TOCs. Obviously, not public.

 

[Shrop]

Suggestions in detail please! I’ve asked before…
(there’s 700 people in Milton Keynes who might have an issue with your statement).

The evidence is in the detailed revenue and passenger figures (highly confidential), the revenue and passenger models held by the industry (also confidential), and the knowledge gained by the economists and Stakeholder specialists in the TOCs. Obviously, not public.

Hmm, so you want me to provide suggestions in detail, whilst withholding most of the information that would be needed to provide those suggestions. Could be tricky. A calculated way to pre-determine that whatever I say is wrong even!

 

[cle]

Aren't/didn't Chiltern plan to run an Oxford-Birmingham service in the near future. Highly likely that would call at Banbury and Leamington (and Solihull) - so it might enable one of the XC's to run non-stop from Oxford to Coventry.

Banbury and Leamington are well enough served, and need London/Birmingham most - which they wouldn't be down on. 1 tph to Reading and to the North/W should be fine.

 

[Grecian 1998]

I'd be intrigued to know where the full length intercity load of Devon and Cornwall passengers to points north / vice versa will come from who currently won't use the train because it stops 8 times between Plymouth and Birmingham will come from...

There has on Sundays often been a 1252 service which runs Plymouth - N Abbot - Exeter St D - Bristol TM - Bristol Parkway - Cheltenham Spa - Birmingham NS, reducing the number of intermediate stops to 5. I've used it several times between Plymouth and Bristol. It's 4 coaches. It's never been busy - I've had a choice of multiple double seats to myself. Given that leisure travel has long been a significant part of XC's custom, this would suggest an accelerated service between Devon and Birmingham is of relatively little interest.

The idea that you could run a significantly accelerated fast service between them seems pretty farcical to anyone who uses the SW axis of XC in any case. You have to thread them amongst services to / from:

Lichfield - Bromsgrove
Nottingham - Cardiff
Cheltenham - Maesteg
Cheltenham - Paddington
Gloucester - Westbury
Paddington - Cardiff / Swansea
Cardiff - Taunton / Penzance
Bristol Parkway - Weston SM
Severn Beach - Bristol TM
Paddington - Penzance
Exmouth - Paignton

Particular pinch points include catching up with the Westbury service between Parkway and Temple Meads, and getting stuck behind a stopper near Weston waiting for the green light to move off the main line.

If anyone thinks they can produce a robust timetable where XC can run superfast services on the SW axis which don't get caught behind or impede any other services (and bear in mind Paddington services inevitably take priority), and which will attract enough custom to justify dropping Bristol as a stop, I'm sure the timetable planners would be delighted to hear from them.

 

[irish_rail]

There seems to be a lot of very defensive attitudes about the current timetables on here which I find strange. We are at a crossroads and need something transformational, not just more of the same. I'm not convinced HS2 is it.

We should be looking at a true Intercity network throughout Britain, which doesn't encompass commuter and local traffic, just fast Intercity type services. Yes it would be a complete timetable re write, and would cost money, but something needs to be done to face upto the environmental crisis and improve rail use.
Trotting out the usual defence of the current timetables on here by some just won't wash forever.

 

[JonathanH]

Yes it would be a complete timetable re write, and would cost money, but something needs to be done to face upto the environmental crisis and improve rail use.

What makes you think that long distance journeys take precedence in improving rail use? Running a balance of local and regional services is more important in reducing car use than making it easier for people to travel long distances.

 

[Horizon22]

Playing with pathings isn't that hard, it's one of those things that people "in the know" say is hard for others to do when it suits, until you show them your suggestions in detail. And no, I'm not about to dream up all sorts of unpaid scheduling just to prove it. It's too easy for people to say there isn't the market for trains stopping less often, but where is their evidence when they haven't been tried for many years, when passenger numbers were barely half what they are today?

Hmm, so you want me to provide suggestions in detail, whilst withholding most of the information that would be needed to provide those suggestions. Could be tricky. A calculated way to pre-determine that whatever I say is wrong even!

I think it was more the blasé statement above that was an issue. There are a lot of competing demands upon the creation and implementation of any long-term timetable hence it takes many months - and indeed over a year - to build with very skilled and experienced planners. By all means, I’m sure people welcome suggestions but within reason and don’t be surprised if those within the know tell you why X isn’t impossible or Y will be incredibly difficult or Z might work but then A/B/C might also be required.

There seems to be a lot of very defensive attitudes about the current timetables on here which I find strange. We are at a crossroads and need something transformational, not just more of the same. I'm not convinced HS2 is it.

We should be looking at a true Intercity network throughout Britain, which doesn't encompass commuter and local traffic, just fast Intercity type services. Yes it would be a complete timetable re write, and would cost money, but something needs to be done to face upto the environmental crisis and improve rail use.
Trotting out the usual defence of the current timetables on here by some just won't wash forever.

I don’t disagree that some of Cornwall & Devon could do with a rewrite to balance local & inter-city needs a bit evenly with a clear cut between the two service groups.

That being said it was only fully rewritten in December 2019 and hasn’t actually had that much of a run in “normal times”. Additionally whatever way you look at it, I don’t think you’ll be getting much time out of a run to Plymouth or Penzance. My gut feeling also would be if you run a consultation on removing stops to S. Wales you’d get a much stronger negative response from Reading / Swindon / N. Bristol residents than you would positive from Newport / Cardiff / Swansea residents.

Not sure when HS2 came from as that’s not been discussed once here.

I'd be intrigued to know where the full length intercity load of Devon and Cornwall passengers to points north / vice versa will come from who currently won't use the train because it stops 8 times between Plymouth and Birmingham will come from...

There has on Sundays often been a 1252 service which runs Plymouth - N Abbot - Exeter St D - Bristol TM - Bristol Parkway - Cheltenham Spa - Birmingham NS, reducing the number of intermediate stops to 5. I've used it several times between Plymouth and Bristol. It's 4 coaches. It's never been busy - I've had a choice of multiple double seats to myself. Given that leisure travel has long been a significant part of XC's custom, this would suggest an accelerated service between Devon and Birmingham is of relatively little interest.

To be fair that’s not the peak time for weekend travel (plus the Sunday element). Would be interesting to see how busy it was if it ran 2-3 hours earlier.

 

[Bald Rick]

Hmm, so you want me to provide suggestions in detail, whilst withholding most of the information that would be needed to provide those suggestions. Could be tricky. A calculated way to pre-determine that whatever I say is wrong even!

oh don’t worry yourself about the economics. Just provide a simple timetable showing how to path a Birmingham - Oxford - Basingstoke, or Birmingham - Exeter non stop could be done without causing significant changes in journey time or connectivity to all the other existing passenger and and freight flows on those lines.

Yes it would be a complete timetable re write, and would cost money, but something needs to be done to face upto the environmental crisis and improve rail use.

But what if it doesn’t improve rail use? What if by putting in various non-stop service around the country it causes journey time extensions / loss of connectivity that reduces rail use?

The only recent example we have is the ‘Norwich in 90’ service. To get this in (to the benefit of a few hundred Norwich / Ipswich passengers) it caused a number of important commuter services to have journey times significantly extended. The modelling demonstrated that this would cause a net loss in passengers and revenue.

There are a lot of competing demands upon the creation and implementation of any long-term timetable hence it takes many months - and indeed over a year

The rewrite of the WCML which goes live in December has been 4 years in the making.

 

[Shrop]

I think it was more the blasé statement above that was an issue. There are a lot of competing demands upon the creation and implementation of any long-term timetable hence it takes many months - and indeed over a year - to build with very skilled and experienced planners. By all means, I’m sure people welcome suggestions but within reason and don’t be surprised if those within the know tell you why X isn’t impossible or Y will be incredibly difficult or Z might work but then A/B/C might also be required.

Yes, my comments are sometimes deliberately provocative. It's motivated by a lifelong interest in railway operations, finding problems that really shouldn't happen, but having attempted solutions dismissed too readily, by those who claim that I don't understand all of the variables.
Of course I can't work miracles and of course there are some situations where a proposal simply isn't workable, but it doesn't help when there sometimes are advancements to be made, to be blandly told "you don't understand". Or expected to magic up a solution from not being told the facts, and then being dismissed when the suggestion doesn't quite work.
So yes, I do provoke when I feel like I'm watching a chess game, when I can see checkmate in 3 moves, but when those who can't blandly claim that it doesn't exist.
The point is, we should all be working together for the betterment of the railways. And no, I don't claim to have a magic wand, but I do think there's a bigger picture which, while I might not immediately see it clearly, others who believe they do might not either.

oh don’t worry yourself about the economics. Just provide a simple timetable showing how to path a Birmingham - Oxford - Basingstoke, or Birmingham - Exeter non stop could be done without causing significant changes in journey time or connectivity to all the other existing passenger and and freight flows on those lines.

If I had the luxury of all of the relevant facts at my fingertips (eg all other rail movements, signalling distances, linespeeds etc) then I'd have a go. But why waste time when so many have already made up their minds that it would be a pointless exercise as the passenger numbers wouldn't be there?
I'm guessing that the pathing exercise could be achieved, but it might require some minor sacrifices and it's likely to be vulnerable to problems with the inevitability that there will sometimes be late running trains around it, which we both know would magnify as soon as we ran tighter against capacity constraints.
True success would depend on investment, and yes we all bang our heads on walls about lack of Government interest for that.

 

[43074]

The rewrite of the WCML which goes live in December has been 4 years in the making.

Part of that though is the NR timetabling by committee and death by risk assessment approach.

 

[Falcon1200]

Running non stop via Solihull into Birmingham while the stopping train runs via Coventry is another.

Running the Newcastle XC services via Solihull was not so they could overtake the Manchester trains but down to pathing issues.

Ironically you chose the example which XC want to get rid of, they want both via Coventry, if the Reading Newcastle ever returns.

I used the Newcastle trains (to and from Oxford) as they were generally quieter than the Manchesters; Which is perhaps why XC want to divert them via Coventry!