Great Western Coffee Shop

When are XC planning to reintroduce the Bournemouth-Newcastle direct service? I know that the majority of XC services start at Reading, but it's a shame that they stopped running down to Bournemouth in Covid 19.

Without referring to a previous timetable, I seem to recall Newcastle to Reading services only went as far as Southampton every other hour. The hourly service to Bournemouth being the service from Manchester.

Reading in the railway press that the XC short to medium term future could be less frequent but longer train sets.

National Rail timetables confirm that recollection:

From May 2019 (ran)
http://www.firstgreatwestern.info/nr_timetables/Table%20051.pdf

From December 2019 (ran at first but then cut)
http://www.firstgreatwestern.info/nrtt20/Table%20051.pdf

From May 2020 (overtaken by events)
http://www.firstgreatwestern.info/nrtt20summer/Table%20051.pdf

We took a look in something of a crayonista mode of extending them to the Mayflower Terminal at http://www.passenger.chat/22430 including noting just how many major population centres they serve. Yes, just every 2 hours and just during the day - coming off or going on a cruise, and long distance travel, that would suffice.

Realistically, these are not services I see returning soon after lockdown; that's based on an absence of data rather than anything else - CrossCountry's first step back up will be the Cardiff to Birmingham service going back up to hourly and with it becoming increasingly rare to have the shortest formations on that route.

Used Cross Country on Saturday to go to Southampton. Would have gone further to Brockenhurst, but that stop is now removed, permanently. Not enough passengers. Probably not helped by the Lymington -  Yarmouth ferry suspended during most of Covid.

Caught train to Brockenhurst from Southampton Central and then the Poole stopper to Christchurch and then a very nice cycle along the "prom" from Christchurch to Poole. Fairly busy around Bournemouth Pier, and only one cruise liner parked off shore (down from three on my last trip). Good weather and a very nice day.

Silly question - how could Cross Country passenger numbers ever build up again if the train has been permanently removed?    Looks like it could be an opportunity being taken to "Bring Back Better" but not sure whether it's the passenger's definition of "better", or someone else's.

From a statically insignificant sample of one, faded somewhat by a year of lockdown, I can recall catching a Cross Country service at Brockenhurst with a perfectly reasonable number of passengers joining ... mid morning into Southampton.  Mind, it brings up the old question that keeps coming up with Cross Country - is it there to provide long distance journeys, or fill ins for journeys not involving London?  Some joiners at Brockenhurst that morning had heavy luggage but I suspect most were not going all that far.   Question - what sort of service is Brockehurst and the IOW connection left with - is it appropriate?

Are CrossCountry restoring Winchester calls?

On Saturday on the way down the train did stop at Winchester, which the train manager commented on. So I have no idea what the plans are.

If you have a holiday on the western end of the IoW the Lymington ferry and then Cross Country from Brockenhurst to the Midlands and the North is very convenient.

I am not sure I will be going to IoW this year, the "Summer" timetable doesn't look like they are fighting for tourists.

The WTT shows Brockenhurst calls coming back in May. I think they were removed as part of the big package of Covid changes based on longer trains, so presumably going back to "normal" will be a single siwtch-over too. Of course it may not happen as or when currently timetabled.

From the CrossCountry Trains website:

'Our new timetable commences on Sunday 16 May. We are continuing to operate a special timetable on some routes to keep services running throughout the coronavirus pandemic.

With the continuing need to run fewer but longer trains for the foreseeable future, this year we will not be operating the summer weekend train services to and from Newquay. Or the enhanced Saturday service to and from Paignton.'

Penzance nowadays only has one CrossCountry departure in the morning (compared to three pre-Covid) and only one CrossCountry arrival in the evening (compared to three pre-Covid).