Railfuture Devon and Cornwall objects to the proposal to exclude the West Coast route from the CrossCountry franchise. We are at a loss to understand why the Department of Transport (DfT) wishes to cut links from Cornwall and Devon to the entire western side of Great Britain. Railfuture Devon and Cornwall is supportive of proposals to route the hourly CrossCountry service from Plymouth to Birmingham onwards to Sheffield and Edinburgh, but this should not be at the expense of losing all through trains to from the South West to Scotland via the North West of England.

There are currently regular services from Penzance, Plymouth and Exeter to Crewe (for North Wales and Ireland), Oxenholme (for Winderemere), Penrith (for Keswick) and Glasgow. We do not believe that these have been running without passenger demand, or that this demand will not continue in the future.

The proposed closure of the South-West to North-West link will not be compensated by connectional possibilities at Birmingham New Street.

Birmingham New Street is a station which passengers find unsuitable as an interchange station because:

• many of the platforms are curved, making access to trains difficult,
• the stairs to the upper concourse are steep and escalators inadequate,
• waiting facilities are minimal.

We see no immediate solution to these problems.

A further consideration is the effect that the withdrawal of the through Penzance to Crewe (Manchester) train, running via the Hereford route, has already had. Since it was withdrawn in December 2005, passenger choice has been reduced. Additionally, the DfT specification for the Greater Western Franchise will see the loss of South-West to South Wales trains from. December 2006, so cutting one change access to Crewe via Newport.

We propose that the withdrawn Penzance to Crewe via Hereford train is re-instated, but with slightly fewer stops for a faster journey time. This train should be extended to Preston, Lancaster, Oxenholme, Penrith, Carlisle and Scotland, if the current service from Penzance to Scotland via Birmingham and the West Coast main line is withdrawn.

Northbound and southbound trains should use the approximate timings of the withdrawn Penzance to Crewe train, as these provide convenient morning departure and no later than early evening arrival times at either end of the journey. Additionally, in Cornwall the train would be running at peak times when there will be demand for commuter travel between East Cornwall and Plymouth.

This proposed train would also restore the essential through service between the South-West and North-West as well as the link to Shrewsbury. If no other South-West to North-West trains are run via Birmingham, then a second or third train should also operate on the Hereford route northbound later in the day, and earlier in the day southbound.

On the core Plymouth to Birmingham and Edinburgh route a minimum of three trains should continue to operate from Cornwall. Some westbound evening trains should call at Ivybridge to help compensate for loss of the Wessex services, which were not specified by the Department of Transport in the Greater Western franchise.

The original ‘Operation Princess’ initiative promised to replace hourly long formation HST trains from Devon, with short formation Voyager trains running twice per hour. This frequency has never been achieved with resulting overcrowding. The problem will be exacerbated when the long distance Alpha Line services inherited by the Greater Western franchise from Wessex are withdrawn in December 2006.

We suggest that all Voyager trains are strengthened from 4 to 5 cars to ease overcrowding, but even that may not be enough. Some trains should be operated by HST with upgraded buffet/restaurant facilities, which at present are inadequate for long distance travel. In addition, some of the proposed Manchester to Bristol services should be extended to Weston-Super-Mare, Taunton, Exeter and main stations to Paignton. This would compensate for the loss of the "Wessex Alphaline" services in December 2006, and reduce overcrowding at Bristol, when passengers changing from the West Coast route (half-hourly) have to join the North-East (hourly) service to Plymouth.

Yours faithfully,

Railfuture Devon and Cornwall.