Brighton services to finish in May

[whole diary]

[paul7575]

According to this badly written local news item, which suggests the train company is being scrapped… 
Not much of a consultation?

Railway service company to be scrapped at Chichester, Worthing and Brighton
A rail company with services to Chichester, Worthing and Brighton will soon be scrapped.
All Great Western Railway (GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway)) services to the Sussex stations will cease from mid-May.
The decision comes as part of a new financial agreement between GWR and the Department for Transport.

https://www.sussexexpress.co.uk/news/people/railway-service-company-to-be-scrapped-at-chichester-worthing-and-brighton-3584763

[grahame]

According to this badly written local news item, which suggests the train company is being scrapped… 
Not much of a consultation?

Railway service company to be scrapped at Chichester, Worthing and Brighton
A rail company with services to Chichester, Worthing and Brighton will soon be scrapped.
All Great Western Railway (GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway)) services to the Sussex stations will cease from mid-May.
The decision comes as part of a new financial agreement between GWR and the Department for Transport.

https://www.sussexexpress.co.uk/news/people/railway-service-company-to-be-scrapped-at-chichester-worthing-and-brighton-3584763

It would not be a surprise if this was one of the services blanked out in the FOI^▸ (Freedom of Information) response we got from the DfT^» (Department for Transport - about) in October when we enquired about their unconsulted culling of the Bristol Temple Meads to Waterloo service. 

There is strong leisure traffic love of this service through from the South Coast east of Portsmouth to and from the Bristol and Bath area - the very sort of traffic that's going to be very much part of the railway's future.  So it would seem perverse to take off these through trains; from experience, though, just because something is perverse does not mean it won't be done.

[grahame]

Real Time Trains for 5th May shows a 13:40 call at Warminster on the way from Great Malvern to Brighton, but for 19th May shows the train terminating at Warminster at that time, and asking for trains all day from Warminster to Brighton reports on the service on 5th May but nothing all day on 19th ...

[Timmer]

Sad but not unexpected. Be interesting to see how this is spun as a good news story.

[CyclingSid]

One assumes that members of the currant administration are unlikely to go on holiday by train, or even for a day out. So not really a future they would see or recognise.

[TaplowGreen]

One assumes that members of the currant administration are unlikely to go on holiday by train, or even for a day out. So not really a future they would see or recognise.

You're raisin an interesting issue there.

[bradshaw]

And on Twitter this morning

   
The GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) services to/from Brighton, after much inevitability, will final meet the axe at the May 2022 timetable change

An extremely handy service for commuters too, it's a huge shame to see it go. It closes a unique era for Brighton

https://twitter.com/coastway_will/status/1496979397420765184?s=21

[Mark A]

There is strong leisure traffic love of this service through from the South Coast east of Portsmouth to and from the Bristol and Bath area - the very sort of traffic that's going to be very much part of the railway's future.  So it would seem perverse to take off these through trains; from experience, though, just because something is perverse does not mean it won't be done.

From the major stations with other services via London there are at least alternatives. But this barbequeues any principle of 'Levelling up' as far as towns are concerned.

Wrong company, but the railway is supposed to be a network, so perhaps we could bear in mind that Sandy C. Gull probably has an interest in this because who hasn't been robbed of an ice cream at one of any number of South Coast towns. If Sandy lives in Trowbridge, I'm sorry on her behalf for the ongoing decline in the provision of rail services from that town.

Mark

[paul7575]

And on Twitter this morning

   
The GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) services to/from Brighton, after much inevitability, will final meet the axe at the May 2022 timetable change

An extremely handy service for commuters too, it's a huge shame to see it go. It closes a unique era for Brighton

https://twitter.com/coastway_will/status/1496979397420765184?s=21

Providing an “extremely handy service for [Brighton] commuters too” is not GWR’s purpose - just as it wasn’t SWR^» (South Western Railway - about)’s purpose in the Bristol area.

I remember years ago a franchise consultation noted there were capacity issues into Brighton in the morning peak, and one solution proposed was for FGW^▸ (First Great Western) to lengthen their inbound service, the one that started short from Fratton back then.  I thought at the time the proper solution was for SN to run a decent sized EMU^▸ (Electric Multiple Unit) service, eg 4, 6 or 8 cars long…

[paul7575]

Suggestions elsewhere the single 158 saved on weekdays will just allow for the loss of the unit written off in November after the Salisbury collision.

Paul

[Electric train]

More these types services will I suspect get the axe as the DfT^» (Department for Transport - about) (aka Treasury) reduce funding, they have the view the services should be self funding from their revenue or Local Authorities should subsides services from their budget.

[Mark A]

In this article in the Bristol Post, several issues conspicuous by their absence. That the DfT^» (Department for Transport - about) used Covid to kill the Bristol to W'l**s. Followed by losing the (again well used) through trains to Brighton in May, a minor impact for some and rather more important for the people who will have relied on them. And has Bristol still no through services to Manchester (and no good connections either)?

Mark

https://www.bristolpost.co.uk/news/uk-world-news/rail-firms-ramp-up-timetables-6725547

[ChrisB]

XC^▸ (Cross Country Trains (franchise)) will need to get back to the 2tph service before Bristol get direct trains to Manchester - just as Oxford getting their Newcastle services back will do. Can’t see it anytime soon unfortunately. The DfT^» (Department for Transport - about) seems to see nothing wrong with changing trains

[Mark A]

Increasingly hypothetical given the russian Putin situation but...
Bristol to Manchester: the first trains of the day (March 16th) the National rail site has the following:

Bristol 7:06 arriving Manchester 11:11 (Via Newport, 15 minute connection there)
Bristol 7:35 arriving Manchester 11:05 (2 changes, Birmingham and Stoke on Trent)
Bristol 7:35 arriving Manchester 11:23 (1 change at Birmingham, 1 hour 1 minute wait at Birmingham)
Bristol 7.42 arriving Manchester 11:23 (2 changes - Gloucester and Birmingham)
Bristol 7:55 arriving Manchester 12:13 (Via Newport, changing there with a 32 minute connection)

Can't recall the pre-Covid times, not particularly brilliant... but an around 10am first arrival?

Fares: all of these involve peak time travel so, anytime return via Newport, £93:60 or via Birmingham £203.00 - the latter being cheeky given the hour's connection time i.e. no provision of a decent service.

Thanks to the poster here who have flagged Megabus (Direct with a stop at Birmingham - 1st of the day from Bristol being 07:00, arriving only ten minutes later than the first train connection of the day and currently selling at £17:20)

Mark

[grahame]

Can't recall the pre-Covid times, not particularly brilliant... but an around 10am first arrival?

07:00 from Bristol Temple Meads, through train scheduled to arrive at Manchester Piccadilly at exactly 10:00
Looks like there was a three minute "fudge" in there as the running time from Stockport is a bit long.

http://www.firstgreatwestern.info/nrtt20/Table%20051.pdf