Re: BBC - Meeting over cuts to rail service

On Jul 24, 8:59 pm, grid56...@blueyonder.co.uk wrote:
> On 24 Jul, 09:36, Charlie Hulme <i...@davenportstation.org.uk> wrote:
>
> > I may not be the only person who would choose a Desiro
> > over a Pendolino, given chance, even if the journey
> > were slower.
>
> > Charlie
>
> You most certainly are not the only person Charlie. I look forward to
> the enhanced bendyleano avoidance timetable. I have posted before on
> the subject, I currently prefer to use 323s Manchester to Crewe, 350s
> to New St and either Chiltern or the hauled set back to London.

A fair point. The performance of a pendolino with a driver who knows
how to drive it properly can be exhilorating, alas this does not make
up for the awful ambience inside. I recently travelled 1st class Crewe-
Glasgow and return and found even this to be somewhat cramped. But the
subject of Trent Valley stops is not strictly limited to us enthusiast
types and any pendo avoidance tactics we may have up our sleeves. As I
already said, the biggest problem is public perception of the product
available. Joe average waiting on the platform sees a pendo rush past
at breakneck speed that previously stopped to take him to London, then
a few minutes later his desiro turns up, he simply does not understand
why he no longer is able to catch an express to London, and is
relegated to catching a stopping train (Rugby, Long Buckby (why???),
Northampton, Milton Keynes and Watford). Unlike the OP, I can see the
point of routing via Northampton, a major town that has for far too
long had a reasonable service to London, but awful journeys to
virtually anywhere else in the country. I know, I lived there for a
number of years, and if you wanted to do anything silly like travel to
Stafford, Stoke, Crewe etc, it usually took longer than travelling
from London, with at least 1, if not 2 connections.

Whatever anyone else may think, the journey time is also an issue for
the normals, as well as being charged sky high Virgin fares for a non
Virgin journey. (AIUI, Virgin will still set the fares, regardless of
the fact that they will no longer be prime operator.)

It's probably also a reasonable guess that the local media is also
having a damn good try at whipping the public up into a frenzy about
this, regardless of whether they know all the facts or not.

This whole sorry tale reeks of the dead hand of the DfT interfering,
rather than being entirely the fault of VT. Ooops, sorry, silly me,
the DfT does not interfere with the plans of the TOC's, does it? And
if you believe that one...
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