New Open Franchise for East Coast

[whole diary]

[bobm]

Cardiff - Paddington has a Service Level Commitment franchise requirement of half hourly between 0545-1845 Mon-Fri. And in the other direction, half hourly between 0730-1930. So if any open access blocking is being done it is at the behest of the DfT^» (Department for Transport - about). GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) aren't running the half hourly service because they want to. They have to.

Perhaps that's why the 07:15 London Paddington to Cardiff Central is always the first to go when there's a shortage of HSTs^▸ (High Speed Train (Inter City class 43 125 units)).

[Surrey 455]

Todays Metro carried a story about First Group replacing Virgin East Coast in 2019. From what I'm reading here that's not necessarily true. It did seem odd at the time of reading that a franchise that has only been running a year or so would be up for grabs so soon.

As is often the case what you see in the printed Metro newspaper doesn't appear in the online version so I can't provide a link unfortunately.

[ChrisB]

And you misread it....First are the [open access] operator on that route winning rights for 5 trips a day between London & Edinburgh with stops solely at Stevenage, Newcastle & Morpeth. They'be won a 10 year licence, not a franchise

[IndustryInsider]

And you misread it....First are the [open access] operator on that route winning rights for 5 trips a day between London & Edinburgh with stops solely at Stevenage, Newcastle & Morpeth. They'be won a 10 year licence, not a franchise

It was a very badly worded paragraph that said "Train operator First Group has been granted a ten-year deal to run services on the East Coast main line from 2021.  It claims it will offer cheaper fares than Virgin Trains, which currently holds the franchise."

I should imagine most members of the public would read that as Virgin being replaced by First.

[eightf48544]

Re the idea of a Bristol Suburb to London through service. What about Clifton Down to Hampstead Heath. Linking to posh neighbourhoods!

However the problem with any Cross London Service is that Overground have got practically all the paths on the North East South and West London Lines which form the links.

Also there is the stupid arrangement at Highbury and Islington which prevents through services from the Western End of the North London Line to the East London Line. Someone decided raising pantographs in a station was a bad idea. Despite the fact that has ben done millions of times at Farringdon with no problems.

[paul7575]

... Someone decided raising pantographs in a station was a bad idea. Despite the fact that has ben done millions of times at Farringdon with no problems.

That's not the reason AC^▸ (Alternating Current, or can mean Air Conditioning, depending on context. The second meaning is often used in a railway context and more generally)/DC^▸ (Direct Current) changeover isn't done, it is just not required because there is no capacity for through services onto the NLL^▸ (North London line) without reducing the number of through services to Stratford, and eastbound trains from the NLL to the ELL would cause crossing conflicts with westbound trains anyway.  There have been suggestions to alter the track layout to the west to pairing by use, so that the ELL can join the southern pair of tracks, but that presumes that the existing operation with the outer tracks of four being used as long freight loops is unnecessary.

People have also suggested through running from the ELL towards Finsbury Park, which is not possible because of crossing conflicts,  that being solved by flyover junctions - also not possible because there are too many over bridges.

[John R]

It's also the case that Overground has resisted the temptation to run services all the way round, as the performance implications would be considerable. Thus the breaks at H&I and Clapham Jn.  Still, we've digressed from East Coast open access somewhat!