What is TOPE?
I thought that DdT was something we used at one time to kill flies.
I would also ask the question that if the Cotswold Line Timetable is "not fit for purpose", why are passenger numbers growing so fast on the line now?
Let me translate from the Banbury Patoise into a more westerly Cotswold dialect ...
TOPE is what "Trans Pennine Express" with the O represent the bore of tunnels through the pennines
DdT is "Department for Transport"
The question with a service being "not fit for purpose" .... question no. 1 is "what is the purpose?". The purpose at Pilning, and arguably in the past on the TransWilts, has been to meet contractual obligations. rather than boost passenger numbers. And even while it had the wrong purpose ("meet spec") we boosted the TransWilts passenger number by 29% last year. In other words, a service can still have really good growth in passenger numbers even if the timetable isn't designed (or fit for) caring the major flows on the corridor.
Of course, it does help to have a purpose of "carrying lots of passengers" and a timetable that's ft for that purpose. The new TransWilts timetable could have a few small improvements on the existing resource, but it's pretty well tuned for the new purpose. And I would be disappointed not to see 200% growth this year.
