My view would be that the service doesn’t need to run. Can’t we have one day in the year where people do not worship at the temple of Mammon! Plus large sections of the network are being worked on over the Christmas period meaning that any service could be badly disrupted.
If a service is required (and I am assuming that staff could be found/incentivised to work) I would suggest a slimmed down service only operating on the main lines. The problem starts in working out who gets a service and who doesn’t. I would limit it to main trunk routes only plus those routes that serve airports and places of interest such as sporting/racing venues and shopping palaces.
So taking the WCML as an example, where do you run services to? Bear in mind these suggestions are wide brush strokes and that I have no knowledge of the costs incurred or staff or unit diagrams involved In running these proposed services. I am also trying to keep the types of unit to a minimum. I am assuming there is no disruptive engineering works. I would suggest a service pattern that gives a first arrival time in London of 0930 and a last departure of 1930. Any advice greatly appreciated.
Starting with LM I would suggest that they run an hourly all stations service from Euston to Birmingham via Northampton. I would suggest omitting stations like Cheddington and Long Buckby as I doubt there would be many passengers. There would be no branch line services or terminating trains anywhere other than Birmingham. IF LO/LU were running I would not make a station call before Watford Junction. In an ideal world I would make all trains 12 car as I doubt it makes much difference to run them at full capacity as opposed to 4 cars. That way if there is a rush or a heavy loading you don’t get caught out and generate any bad PR. However if it is more expensive to run as 12 cars and demand forecasting suggest it would be overkill I would simply run the services as 4 car train to minimise costs.
Turning to Virgin services. What kind of service would be needed? Can you run a Euston – Glasgow service and not loose money? I would be tempted to let LM handle all passengers on the Birmingham route. It would be slower but reduces the number of trains in use and crews needed to man services. I would not run trains along the north Wales coast. I am treating this line as a “branch” line rather than a core service. It also means that Voyagers are not needed. That would leave Liverpool, Manchester and Glasgow services to cover. I would run a train to each location once every other hour trying to make sure they connected with any local services that were running and the LM intermediate services.
Would it be more sensible to run a Birmingham – Glasgow service to allow anyone needing a long distance route to connect with the LM train? I know it would take for ever but you have to pay the price for running a service on a public holiday. Again the aim is to keep the costs down and reduce crewing requirements. This service could sweep up the Crewe – London trade but that would leave Liverpool on a limb. Therefore, I would suggest running Virgin services from Liverpool and Manchester to London. Manchester trains would call at Stockport, Maccelsfield and Stoke and Milton Keynes. Liverpool trains would call at Crewe, Stafford, Tamworth, Nuneaton & Rugby. The Milton Keynes & Rugby services to allow connections to intermediate stations both north and south on the Birmingham route by LM. The Anglo Scottish services would call at Wolverhampton, Crewe, Warrington, Wigan, Preston, Lancaster, Oxenholme ( The Lake District), Penrith (The North Lakes), Carlisle, Motherwell and Glasgow.
That is a first stab at a service pattern on which I would appreciate comments. I have not included any local services because I think the business case to run such services would be limited unless they were to connect with the trunk services to cover a specific demand. However if you start any services on boxing day you may as well run a full Sunday service as everywhere will want a service because of a, perhaps, perceived demand.
