Services that were withdrawn that should be reinstated

[Drsatan]

Here are a few services which I believe ought to be reinstated, or introduced

To be reinstated

1) Reading to Brighton via Eastleigh and Havant, withdrawn in December 2007. Whenever I traveled on it it was always well loaded.

2) Portsmouth to Blackpool North via Kensington Olympia via Manchester Piccadilly.

3) Brighton to Glasgow Central/Edinburgh (splitting at Carstairs) via Manchester Piccadilly or Wigan

4) A Plymouth to Edinburgh/Glasgow Central sleeper (splitting at Carstairs)

5) The Saturdays-Only service from Brighton to Plymouth or Paignton via Southampton Central (depending on stock availability I'd like to see that service run daily

To be introduced

NB: These are based on areas of the country I know well

1) An hourly semi-fast service from Penzance to Bristol Temple Meads.

2) An hourly all-stations service from Penzance to Plymouth

3) An hourly all-stations service from Plymouth to Exeter, in conjunction with reopening Plympton and South Hams stations.

4) An hourly semi-fast service from London Paddington or Reading to Exeter St Davids

5) A half-hourly all stations service from Romsey to Lymington (replacing the current 'figure of six' service) via Eastleigh

6) If Redbridge Junction to Salisbury is ever electrified, I'd suggest extending the existing hourly Portsmouth & Southsea to Southampton Central all stations service to Salisbury

7) If the Fawley branch is ever reopened and electrified, I'd suggest running a half-hourly or hourly all stations service from Fawley to Winchester.

 

[Voyager 2093]

The Rugby to Brighton service is the one I'd like to see reinstated. Its been altered so many times across the years and has become now very inconvenient. Instead its now the Milton Keynes to South Crooydon service which I don't find very useful as I could always use that train to get to Gatwick Aiport. But I now have to change at Croydon and wait for a through Train and of course buy another ticket.

Would love to see it reinstated with the old stopping pattern.

Rugy, Milton Keynes, Watford Junction, Harrow & Wealdstone, all the WLL stops then, Clapham Junction, East Croydon, Gatwick Airport, Hayward's Heath & Brighton. I think it was.

 

[Fred26]

The Rugby to Brighton service is the one I'd like to see reinstated. Its been altered so many times across the years and has become now very inconvenient. Instead its now the Milton Keynes to South Crooydon service which I don't find very useful as I could always use that train to get to Gatwick Aiport. But I now have to change at Croydon and wait for a through Train and of course buy another ticket.

Would love to see it reinstated with the old stopping pattern.

Rugy, Milton Keynes, Watford Junction, Harrow & Wealdstone, all the WLL stops then, Clapham Junction, East Croydon, Gatwick Airport, Hayward's Heath & Brighton. I think it was.

Why would you have to buy another ticket?

 

[A0]

The Rugby to Brighton service is the one I'd like to see reinstated. Its been altered so many times across the years and has become now very inconvenient. Instead its now the Milton Keynes to South Crooydon service which I don't find very useful as I could always use that train to get to Gatwick Aiport. But I now have to change at Croydon and wait for a through Train and of course buy another ticket.

Would love to see it reinstated with the old stopping pattern.

Rugy, Milton Keynes, Watford Junction, Harrow & Wealdstone, all the WLL stops then, Clapham Junction, East Croydon, Gatwick Airport, Hayward's Heath & Brighton. I think it was.

Agree with this one - it also used to call at Northampton.

The replacement MK - East Croydon service is a much inferior replacement, not least because it makes so many stops along the way that it takes an age to get anywhere.

Just to substantiate this - if you do a search for MKC - Clapham Jnc you get the following:

- Direct service 1h 20m
- via Euston, Victoria line to Victoria and onward Southern service 1h 20m.

I don't know why it can't run fast to Watford Jnc then non-stop to Shepherds Bush, it would make it a much more attractive service to use and that would easily save 15 mins on the existing timings.

 

[dvboy]

Wolverhampton-Walsall direct.

 

[30907]

The replacement MK - East Croydon service is a much inferior replacement, not least because it makes so many stops along the way that it takes an age to get anywhere.

I don't know why it can't run fast to Watford Jnc then non-stop to Shepherds Bush, it would make it a much more attractive service to use and that would easily save 15 mins on the existing timings.

I've not used the service regularly but I suspect TfL would have an opinion on Harrow and Wembley - and as it has to use the slows N of Watford it may be a question of pathing (as things stands, you could only save 5mins or so)

 

[GatwickDepress]

I'm sure TfL quite like Southern supplementing the Overground service on the West London Line with direct trains to Watford Junction.

If they did reinstate the old express...um, I wouldn't honestly want a 377 for that speed and distance. Anything above 60 and they shudder like a nun upon entering Spearmint Rhino.

http://www.1s76.com/ - Hard to believe Cross-Country services to and from Brighton ended as recently as 2008.

 

[speckledjim]

Newby...so be kind!
I have always thought a kings lynn to norwich service would be worth looking into (obviously not via original route!). It's 1hr 45m on the bus - quicker to get to london. Via train you need to change at ely and the journey could be anything between 1h:40m - 2h:30m depending on connections. A direct service with only a stop at ely to change direction and maybe downham market could make it a lot quicker than the bus. Also a fast non stop norwich - ely service would be v attractive for people heading to the midlands/south.
Possible??

 

[RichJF]

I'd like to see the Ashford International; Tonbridge; Charing Cross fast service re-introduced (without calling at all the intermediate stations like Headcorn, Paddock Wood etc) on the SE Mainline.

I remember using it twice before HS1 came onstream & could get from Canterbury to Tonbridge in under 1 hour sometimes!!!

 

[David Goddard]

Hourly Stansted Airport - Birmingham New Street extended to Chester via Wrexham
Hourly Cardiff - Nottingham extended to Lincoln
New Hourly Cardiff - Norwich via Cheltenham, Birmingham New Street and Peterborough
With key time extensions to Swansea, Grimsby or Great Yarmouth as appropriate

 

[yorksrob]

I would also agree with the reinstatement of cross country services to Brighton. A city which should be better connected to the rest of the country.

 

[transmanche]

Direct trains from the East Midlands to Glasgow via the S & C using redundant Meridians after the MML is electrified.

The only problem would be, which franchise would own the service? East Midlands Trains, Northern, Cross Country or Virgin...

Or TPE?

There's no reason they couldn't be a joint service between two TOCs; we already have Northern/Scotrail joint working on Glasgow-Newcastle via Carlisle services.

 

[SussexSpotter]

I would also agree with the reinstatement of cross country services to Brighton. A city which should be better connected to the rest of the country.

I would like to see the Cross Country services back at Eastbourne, like the one's which used to run up until the early 90's.....can't realistically see it happening though

 

[JamesRowden]

I would also agree with the reinstatement of cross country services to Brighton. A city which should be better connected to the rest of the country.

The underpass having been reopened to the east of Reading station means that the old Birmingham-Reading-Guildford-Redhill-Brighton routing could now operate every hour without having to cross the paths of the west-bound Great Western mainline services.

Alternatively, some turbos released by Great Western electrification could possibly be used to extend the Reading-Gatwick services to Brighton.

 

[SussexSpotter]

The underpass having been reopened to the east of Reading station means that the old Birmingham-Reading-Guildford-Redhill-Brighton routing could now operate every hour without having to cross the paths of the west-bound Great Western mainline services.

Alternatively, some turbos released by Great Western electrification could possibly be used to extend the Reading-Gatwick services to Brighton.

Nil chance!.....until they sort the mess out at Redhill that is.

 

[JamesRowden]

Nil chance!.....until they sort the mess out at Redhill that is.

They are building platform '0' at Redhill.

 

[Fred26]

Newby...so be kind!
I have always thought a kings lynn to norwich service would be worth looking into (obviously not via original route!). It's 1hr 45m on the bus - quicker to get to london. Via train you need to change at ely and the journey could be anything between 1h:40m - 2h:30m depending on connections. A direct service with only a stop at ely to change direction and maybe downham market could make it a lot quicker than the bus. Also a fast non stop norwich - ely service would be v attractive for people heading to the midlands/south.
Possible??

What I'd love to see is Ely-Norwich being wired, then an intercity serrvice running from Kings Cross to Norwich, once an hour, calling at Cambridge, Ely, Thetford, Wymondham and Norwich. Possible stops at Stevenage, Royston, Brandon and Attleburgh?

 

[SussexSpotter]

Deleted

 

[dannypye9999]

id like to see the re-introduction of Cross Country summer Friday night holidaymaker trains such as

22:18fo Manchester Picc - Penzance
23:30fo Newcastle - Paignton
23:35fo Leeds - Newquay
00:21so Manchester Picc - Tenby


Also with the recent withdrawal of direct trains between Birmingham and Brighton, it would be nice if the current Brighton/Kensington Olimpia/Milton Keynes services were extended at 2 hour frequencies to Northampton/Rugby/Coventry & Birmingham N st.


Northern rail Manchester - Stoke services could continue to Wolverhampton (unused bay platforms) making better connections to Birmingham.

 

[The Planner]

Also with the recent withdrawal of direct trains between Birmingham and Brighton, it would be nice if the current Brighton/Kensington Olimpia/Milton Keynes services were extended at 2 hour frequencies to Northampton/Rugby/Coventry & Birmingham N st.


Northern rail Manchester - Stoke services could continue to Wolverhampton (unused bay platforms) making better connections to Birmingham.

No paths for either and you cannot use the Wolves bay from the north end without a double shunt.

 

[David Goddard]

The underpass having been reopened to the east of Reading station means that the old Birmingham-Reading-Guildford-Redhill-Brighton routing could now operate every hour without having to cross the paths of the west-bound Great Western mainline services.

Alternatively, some turbos released by Great Western electrification could possibly be used to extend the Reading-Gatwick services to Brighton.

Better off electrifying Wokingham to Ash and Guildford to Reigate and run it with EMUs.
Had Ashford International not been run down so much then I think a bi hourly XC extension from Reading to Ashford would have been worth a try.

 

[Gareth]

8.) Direct Cardiff - Liverpool services

High five, anthony. Some sort of service from Liverpool to North Wales would be nice also. Getting Liverpool back on the CrossCountry network, plus a Scotland connection can be added to the wishlist too.

 

[yorksrob]

I agree very much with this too! The biggest hurdle is finding the paths to run a service like this again though.

I think to counter that, I'd do something leftfield, like divert one of the thameslink services down the mid Sussex line via Dorking. Afterall, there are only so many trains needed between London and Brighton ! Also, I would dispute the idea that every train between the coast and London has to call at Gatwick.

 

[Old Hill Bank]

If your in the West Midlands, have a go at some of these lol

http://www.stourbridgelineusergroup.info/historic timetables.html

 

[swt_passenger]

The underpass having been reopened to the east of Reading station means that the old Birmingham-Reading-Guildford-Redhill-Brighton routing could now operate every hour without having to cross the paths of the west-bound Great Western mainline services.

So how does the work at Reading produce paths between Redhill and Brighton on the Brighton line? That's the reason the XC service was pulled - your reasoning is all wrong, it had nothing to do with paths at Reading.
--- old post above --- --- new post below ---

...it would be nice if the current Brighton/Kensington Olimpia/Milton Keynes services were extended at 2 hour frequencies to Northampton/Rugby/Coventry & Birmingham N st.

They aren't 'current' Brighton services. They were altered to run on the slow lines between Clapham Jn and their terminus at South Croydon because there are no paths available on the fast lines, and to Brighton...

Some sort of XC service to Brighton is a dead end. There are far more important flows to add back if stock was ever available.

 

[JamesRowden]

So how does the work at Reading produce paths between Redhill and Brighton on the Brighton line? That's the reason the XC service was pulled - your reasoning is all wrong, it had nothing to do with paths at Reading.

From what I have heard, the Brighton Mainline capacity limiter is East Croydon (which the Reading-KeningtonOlympia-Brighton pathed Crosscountry services passed through).

 

[swt_passenger]

From what I have heard, the Brighton Mainline capacity limiter is East Croydon (which the Reading-KeningtonOlympia-Brighton pathed Crosscountry services passed through).

So if you heard that, why did you assume that a new underpass at Reading was relevant?

 

[JamesRowden]

So if you heard that, why did you assume that a new underpass at Reading was relevant?

Because I think that both factors contributed to why the former Crosscountry services were not the best use of capacity. There are 11tph on the fast lines from Paddington to Reading during the evening peak. I think that crossing that level of service as well as taking up what was very limited through platform capacity at Reading would have been a reason in itself to withdraw the service.

 

[yorksrob]

Surely if the bottleneck is at East Croydon, it would make sense to route the Cross Country via Guilford (taking in an additional traffic generator as well as Gatwick and Brighton).

 

[Eagle]

Surely if the bottleneck is at East Croydon, it would make sense to route the Cross Country via Guilford (taking in an additional traffic generator as well as Gatwick and Brighton).

But then you still run into the problems at Redhill (reversal, limited capacity) and of course there are still not enough paths south of Gatwick.