Introduction
Railfuture Devon and Cornwall believes that the case for sending all former south-west to Glasgow trains to Manchester should be questioned. The West Coast main line serves a much wider geographical area than Manchester does.
We recognise that in the immediate future it would be difficult to completely change the new timetable and the timetable planned for 2009. Instead we consider it would be better for there to be some additional through trains, to provide a high quality through trains service between the south-west and Glasgow.
Due to congested railtracks in the Birmingham area, and plans to rebuild Birmingham New Street station, our suggested trains avoid the West Midlands area.
Via Hereford
The southbound service should be similarly timed to allow connections from the Oban and Fort William direction. The train should have a full buffet and meals service available. The map shows the suggested route of this train in black and the connecting lines which would benefit in purple.
Once a through service is restored passengers are less likely to opt for alternative modes of transport, or even stop travelling to parts of Scotland, North West England, Bristol and Devon and Cornwall altogether. With the through train in place the market can develop and in turn more through services could be run.
Restoration of through trains via Newport and Hereford would benefit other journeys such as Plymouth to South Wales and South Wales to Scotland. We suggest two trains eachway on the Hereford route should be the minimum level of service.
Via Manchester
A further possibility is to extend some South-West to Manchester services on to Preston and Scotland. This would be analagous to the routing of south-west to East Coast main line trains via Leeds, rather than directly via Doncaster. Unlike the Leeds diversion, which adds around 24 minutes, the Manchester diversion is likely to add around 40 minutes. However, this would still be quicker than the extra 2 hours spent on the through south-west to Glasgow via Leeds and Edinburgh train.
The Manchester route would be beneficial to passengers requiring a through train, especially on journeys from Bristol Parkway and Cheltenham, which would not be served by the suggested trains via Hereford.
Full development of the Manchester route is limited by congestion and low line speeds. There are only 2 platforms (13 and 14) available at Manchester Piccadilly for through services. Future plans for rail improvements should take into account extending more south-west to Manchester trains to Preston, Carlsle and Scotland.
Send Us Your SupportPlease email your support for through south-west to Glasgow trains via the West Coast main line to d&c@railfuture-sw.co.uk. Tell us about rail journeys you have made over the last year using the through trains from the south-west of England to or via the West Coast main line stations (Crewe, Warrington, Wignan, Preston, Lancaster, Oxenholme, Penrith, Carlisle and Glasgow). Over the next year please also tell us how you have found your journey, now that it is necessary to change trains at Birmingham or eleswhere to reach the West Coast main line.
We will add edited contributions to this web site, plus your name and address summary
in the way you indicate that they should appear, e.g. Torquay, West Somerset, Carlisle, etc.
Please tell us the first 3 letters of your postcode so that we can map the distribution
of responses. No other use will be made of the information.
Specific complaints about a rail journey should be sent to the rail company concerned.
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