Franchise Consultation launched

[whole diary]

[RichardB]

Thanks to Gordon Edwards, tireless Secretary of Travelwatch South West for tipping me (and lots of other people) off.

Here is the DfT^» (Department for Transport - about) Consultation document for the new franchise.  Make sure you have your say!

http://www.dft.gov.uk/consultations/dft-2011-36

[ChrisB]

The consultation background can be found here -

http://www.dft.gov.uk/news/press-releases/dft-news-20111222a

[ChrisB]

99 pages to print out.....bit at a time, methinks!

[Zoe]

Having an extra 2tph to Bristol TM^▸ (Train Manager, or Ticket Machine, or Temple Meads (Bristol), depending on context) via parkway will enable more stops to be axed from Cardiffs.

I wouldn't bank on that.  The Bristol services won't be able to stop at that many places if they are to meet the journey times stated by Phillip Hammond earlier in the year.

The Westbury semi fast service hopefully will enable all Devon/Cornwall trains to have all stops East of Taunton to be axed.

Don't forget Castle Cary, axing all calls on these trains would make journeys from Devon and Cornwall to Weymouth more difficult.  It also would not be a great idea to axe all stops as they still need to stop at Reading for Heathrow.

[anthony215]

I say the new additional Bristol-London trains via parkway should be non stop Parkway - Reading although that would mean the south wales - London services would have to make a call at Swindon.

I will download the document after midnight tonight when I get unlimited downloads.

[Btline]

When I say east of Taunton, I don't mean Reading. My mistake. Pretty much everything should stop at Reading.

Perhaps a mixture of stops can be axed from Bristol/Cardiff, so all trains are only stopping once or twice overall.

Re Weymouth. I think the odd stop at Westbury would be better than Castle Cary for better connexions. But most stops should be axed to get journey times down.

[ChrisB]

One does need to get from Swindon westwards occasionally!

[Chris from Nailsea]

... most stops should be axed to get journey times down.

Doesn't that rather defeat the purpose of passenger trains?  

[Zoe]

Re Weymouth. I think the odd stop at Westbury would be better than Castle Cary

All that's going to do is to force anyone going from Weymouth to Devon/Cornwall to double back and extend journey times.

[devon_metro]

The Westbury semi fast service hopefully will enable all Devon/Cornwall trains to have all stops East of Taunton to be axed.

Have you ever been to Westbury and seen the number of people that change from WOE^▸ (West of England) trains to Cardiff/Pompey trains?

[ChrisB]

It's not just faster trains, but joined-up trains (i.e. connections provided) that is necessary thinking here

[mjones]

...

Lets hope the promised 1 tph^▸ (trains per hour) to Worcester (must be FS not SH) and Cheltenham goes ahead.

..

Curiously, the current service pattern is described as "Hourly services to Worcester with five daily extensions to Hereford"...

[ChrisB]

That's the sort of thing to point out in the consultation....

[mjones]

Is there an optimistic interpretation of this, which is that they've allowed for the possibility of the Oxford to Worcester service becoming fully hourly before the end of the current franchise, if the additional rolling stock permits?

[ChrisB]

THe end of the current franchise is 16 months away. When is that going to happen? Don't forget no major changes during the purdah period also...