davesgcr
Reading books
Very complicated , with lots of issues.
WSMR was "open access" - only taken over by DB as a related company , when the latter acquired Chiltern. No doubt a fabulous service and much praised for all sorts of reasons , not least the service , staff and so. The killer fact is that it's trains had poor paths - (reflecting a very crowded railway approaching London and in the West Midlands , plus , despite paying quite cheap track access rates , it was a failry high cost operation as a result of using chunky , track walloping class 67 locomotives - cost per mile very expensive) low volume trains , serving a niche market with slow end to end times.
When the WCML timetable was scoped back in the early 2000.s - efforts were made to give Wrexham good connections via Chester into what is now an hourly Virgin service. The latter has done really well , with excellent loadings picked up over the last 2 years in particular - note the level of services via Wrexham has improved massivly over the last decade or less , with much better through links to Cardiff and Birmingham via Shrewsbury.
DB are in effect a state nationalised international operator - but like all business (especially here , where there was no operating subsidy bar some funding to pay for "depot" facilities) - has a duty to minimise losses in all its activities. Much like BR did.
Its very sad to see it going - but with a HS2 link in the future (nimbies and Wolmer like critics permitting) - there will be good options for a reborn service with good , fast paths into Euston via Salop say - giving a genuine fast , direct service.
WSMR was "open access" - only taken over by DB as a related company , when the latter acquired Chiltern. No doubt a fabulous service and much praised for all sorts of reasons , not least the service , staff and so. The killer fact is that it's trains had poor paths - (reflecting a very crowded railway approaching London and in the West Midlands , plus , despite paying quite cheap track access rates , it was a failry high cost operation as a result of using chunky , track walloping class 67 locomotives - cost per mile very expensive) low volume trains , serving a niche market with slow end to end times.
When the WCML timetable was scoped back in the early 2000.s - efforts were made to give Wrexham good connections via Chester into what is now an hourly Virgin service. The latter has done really well , with excellent loadings picked up over the last 2 years in particular - note the level of services via Wrexham has improved massivly over the last decade or less , with much better through links to Cardiff and Birmingham via Shrewsbury.
DB are in effect a state nationalised international operator - but like all business (especially here , where there was no operating subsidy bar some funding to pay for "depot" facilities) - has a duty to minimise losses in all its activities. Much like BR did.
Its very sad to see it going - but with a HS2 link in the future (nimbies and Wolmer like critics permitting) - there will be good options for a reborn service with good , fast paths into Euston via Salop say - giving a genuine fast , direct service.
flippin hell, they are not that bad, lol! its only an hour and 10 to brum from euston isn't it? and last time i did it the ticket was only £10.50 there, and £12 back!
