Expansion of Cross Country services from December

[whole diary]

[IndustryInsider]

To confirm a rare bit of good news concerning the Cross Country franchise (that I think Paul first told us about a few months ago?), Cross Country are extending some of their Reading to Newcastle services to/from Southampton from the timetable change.  This should help even out the loadings on the busy Bournemouth to Manchester services a little as well as reintroducing direct services approximately every two hours between Southampton, Southampton Airport, Winchester and Basingstoke to Derby, Sheffield, Doncaster, York, Darlington, Durham and Newcastle.  The 13:46 from Southampton also reintroduces a once-daily direct service to Scotland (Edinburgh) - though this isn't the case in the reverse direction.

Saturdays are similar, with the one Newcastle service starting back from Bournemouth as it does now - a little early at 06:25!  The Sunday service is a right hotch-potch with engineering work meaning the South Coast services run to Manchester for part of the timetable, and Newcastle for the rest.

To summarise:

Northbound:
08:41 Reading to Newcastle starts Winchester (08:18) - 07:47 from Southampton Central on Saturdays
10:41 Reading to Newcastle starts Southampton Central (09:46)
12:41 Reading to Newcastle starts Southampton Central (11:46)
14:41 Reading to Edinburgh starts Southampton Central (13:46)
16:41 Reading to Newcastle starts Southampton Central (15:47)
18:41 Reading to York starts Southampton Central (17:46)

Southbound:
06:33 Birmingham New Street to Reading extended to Southampton Central (09:17)
06:15 Leeds to Reading extended to Southampton Central (11:16)
07:23 Newcastle to Reading extended to Southampton Central (13:17)
09:35 Newcastle to Reading extended to Southampton Central (15:17)
11:27 Newcastle to Reading extended to Southampton Central (17:17)
13:34 Newcastle to Reading extended to Southampton Central (19:53) - diverted from Basingstoke so takes ages!

[eightf48544]

Do you know if any stop at Tamworth. My cousin travels from his boat to Southampton several times a year using Tamworth. He would be pleased not to have to change at New Street.

[IndustryInsider]

I'm pretty sure they don't.  Stops at Tamworth, Burton-On-Trent and even Chesterfield have gone out of the window, as they are now served by XC^▸ (Cross Country Trains (franchise)) on their other routes from the South West to the North East and the Nottingham to Cardiff services. 

[Zoe]

It seems strange that the longest route (Plymouth to Edinburgh) seems to have the most stops in the Midlands and get routed the slowest way via Leeds.

[readytostart]

This should help even out the loadings on the busy Bournemouth to Manchester services a little as well as reintroducing direct services approximately every two hours between Southampton, Southampton Airport, Winchester and Basingstoke to Derby, Sheffield, Doncaster, York, Darlington, Durham and Newcastle.  The 13:46 from Southampton also reintroduces a once-daily direct service to Scotland (Edinburgh) - though this isn't the case in the reverse direction.

Not all of the extra services will call at WIN or SOA, so double the screens if you're travelling on them.
As you pointed out the 1334 NCL to SOU (1633 from BHM) diverts via Laverstock so arrives at Southampton after the following service from Manchester.

[paul7575]

Weekday Up services are about as random as they can be...

0801 starts Winchester as expected, due to pathing or platforming problems in Southampton in the am peak apparently,
so obviously misses the first two calls.
Of the remaining 5 Southampton starts,
The 0946 misses Winchester
The 1146 calls at all 'normal' stops
The 1346 misses Parkway and Winchester
The 1547 misses Parkway and Winchester
The 1746 misses Parkway

This is really weird - I can't can't see an obvious problem that prevents the missing calls, and the running times between Southampton Central and Basingstoke are all basically the same, 31 or 32 mins throughout the day.  I did think originally these might just be NR^» (Network Rail - home page) timetable glitches, but it seems not.

So can anyone come up with a practical reason for these gaps? 

PS - I doubt it is a revenue issue, as all the down trains call normally, except the via Laverstock one in the early evening...

Paul

[IndustryInsider]

Weekday Up services are about as random as they can be...

I did think originally these might just be NR^» (Network Rail - home page) timetable glitches, but it seems not.

So can anyone come up with a practical reason for these gaps? 

Especially considering they become down services at either Basingstoke or Reading (not sure which!).  I suppose it might be a NR glitch - the timings I got are from the XC^▸ (Cross Country Trains (franchise)) website (another to upload their new schedules nice and early), but there do appear to be some problems with their darker shading for through trains on a number of services indicating that all might not be as it seems!

The only other answer I can come up with is that NR are preventing them from stopping due to pathing issues with northbound Inter-Model trains - no shortage of them these days!

[eightf48544]

"As you pointed out the 1334 NCL to SOU (1633 from BHM) diverts via Laverstock so arrives at Southampton after the following service from Manchester."

Is that going to be regular routing if so will it be the same price to travel from Reading to Southampton?

A bit of track bashing I've not done the Laverstock curve, or Foxhall for that matter something to do after Christmas.

[paul7575]

...but there do appear to be some problems with their darker shading for through trains on a number of services indicating that all might not be as it seems!

The darker shading (in the columns?) is catering availability.    That does seem to be a change for this timetable though...

"As you pointed out the 1334 NCL to SOU (1633 from BHM) diverts via Laverstock so arrives at Southampton after the following service from Manchester."

Is that going to be regular routing if so will it be the same price to travel from Reading to Southampton?

A bit of track bashing I've not done the Laverstock curve, or Foxhall for that matter something to do after Christmas.

Never been a problem when I've done it in earlier timetables. A Sat evening down train and a Sun morning up train went that way in service until a couple of years ago. Routeing wise it's covered by the 'advertised through train' rule - it's just another Reading - Southampton journey.

Paul

[grahame]

Is that going to be regular routing if so will it be the same price to travel from Reading to Southampton?

For 15th December (an example) it comes up as 7.00 advanced purchase / 15.60 anytime single on this train and on those before and after it.   From Birmingham buy-on-the-day is 63 pounds, with a 21 pounds advanced fare ... but an advanced fare of 47.50 on the train before and the train after - so it can be cheaper  

If you put in "Avoid Winchester" from Reading, it becomes the only train offered - looks like the system is well set up.  And if you "avoid Winchester" from Birmingham, you're offered the 16:33 and other trains that are change at Bristol.

[IndustryInsider]

The darker shading (in the columns?) is catering availability.    That does seem to be a change for this timetable though...

Yes, you're right.  That'll be confusing!

[inspector_blakey]

Is that going to be regular routing if so will it be the same price to travel from Reading to Southampton?

As far as the routeing guide's concerned that's a permitted route, since it's on an advertised through train, so all normal fares between Reading and Southampton are available. And since the only possible routes for tickets between RDG^‡(resolve) and SOU are either "any permitted" or "XC^▸ (Cross Country Trains (franchise)) only", any ticket whether walk-up or advance purchase should be valid for that little track bash!