Stagecoach maintains stranglehold on trains.

[Annie Bynnol]

Stagecoach has won another extension to its services to London, Liverpool, Nottingham and East Anglia until 4 March 2018.

 

There will be no competition for these routes.

There will be no improvement in speed, spaces or quality of stock.

 

Stagecoach have a monopoly on fare setting of train services from South Yorkshire to London and run 95% of the trains from South Yorkshire to London.

 

No planning is being done for the prospect of a dramatic slow down in journey times to London or lack of 1st class trains to Liverpool and Nottingham.

 

MML continues to be the slowest and have the lowest rate of investment of any mainline into London.

 

link

[ECCOnoob]

Sounds like an extension of the franchise they have now.

 

If people don't want Stagecoach to London they can choose to go from Doncaster instead and use the Virgin East Coast or Hull Trains (First Group) routes running on the East Coast Mainline.

 

Having utilised both routes I personally have no problems with Stagecoach(EMT). Whilst I agree we do have the slowest and least invested route in the mainlines, It is far more civilised than the jam packed and frequently delayed/cancelled ECML services. I find it a very rare occasion to have a MML train delayed by more than a few minutes.

 

At the end of the day the entire rail service is limited to Stagecoach / First / Arriva or Virgin.

 

There have been lots of bright ideas and start ups but they soon end up getting taken over and/or folding altogether. Trains are horrendously expensive to run. They take a lot of staff, rolling stock, supplies and maintenance. It can only really be a big conglomerate that can afford to run such. The only real exception was Merseyrail but even they had to eventually suckle on the teat of Serco.

[smiggs]

Sounds like an extension of the franchise they have now.

 

If people don't want Stagecoach to London they can choose to go from Doncaster instead and use the Virgin East Coast or Hull Trains (First Group) routes running on the East Coast Mainline.

 

Having utilised both routes I personally have no problems with Stagecoach(EMT). Whilst I agree we do have the slowest and least invested route in the mainlines, It is far more civilised than the jam packed and frequently delayed/cancelled ECML services. I find it a very rare occasion to have a MML train delayed by more than a few minutes.

 

At the end of the day the entire rail service is limited to Stagecoach / First / Arriva or Virgin.

 

There have been lots of bright ideas and start ups but they soon end up getting taken over and/or folding altogether. Trains are horrendously expensive to run. They take a lot of staff, rolling stock, supplies and maintenance. It can only really be a big conglomerate that can afford to run such. The only real exception was Merseyrail but even they had to eventually suckle on the teat of Serco.

 

Virgin East Coast is 90% owned by Stagecoach. Although you can also get Grand Central (Arriva) from Doncaster as well.

 

But you're right this is only a 1 year extension of the franchise, my understanding is that they don't want to renew their franchise for the full ten years as the East & West Coast lines are more profitable. This extension to the franchise must be allow time for the government to sort out the future of the line after electricification was "paused".

[Bilge]

Renationalise the railways (and buses and trams), inject a massive investment of funds and create a national network of integrated services worthy of a 21st century European nation.

 

Or, alternatively, trundle along with the shambles we have at present where the bus and train companies are taking us for a ride (as it were).

[Andy C]

Stagecoach has won another extension to its services to London, Liverpool, Nottingham and East Anglia until 4 March 2018.

 

There will be no competition for these routes.

There will be no improvement in speed, spaces or quality of stock.

 

Stagecoach have a monopoly on fare setting of train services from South Yorkshire to London and run 95% of the trains from South Yorkshire to London.

 

No planning is being done for the prospect of a dramatic slow down in journey times to London or lack of 1st class trains to Liverpool and Nottingham.

 

MML continues to be the slowest and have the lowest rate of investment of any mainline into London.

 

link

 

Is there anything wrong with the rolling stock currently used? The Meridian fleet on the London route is modern and comfortable, the class 158 fleet on the Liverpool-Norwich is getting old but refurbished to a high standard. Is there much demand for first class on this route?

 

The London route has had investment with incremental increases in speed - you can now get to London in around 2 hours - not as fast as the proper main lines like the East Coast (which is much straighter) but still pretty good.

 

The Norwich route isn't exactly fast but that is down to the track east of Peterborough - its just a rural branch line and maintained as such. This isn't the fault of Stagecoach though - this is an area the government should be investing with Network Rail.

 

As for competition - some minor rail competition from Grand Central and Hull Trains from Doncaster to London and First Transpennine on the Liverpool line, however the main competition is road travel.

 

This is just a short franchise extension and Stagecoach are offering a few little bits of investment and customer service improvements during that period - more self service ticket machines, information screens and help points, a much improved Saturday service on the Nottingham-Lincoln line and an extension of the refreshment trolley service on Liverpool-Norwich beyond Nottingham to Peterborough.

[Stoatwobbler]

No planning is being done for the prospect of a dramatic slow down in journey times to London or lack of 1st class trains to Liverpool and Nottingham.

 

You can always get the Northern Rail trains to Nottingham.

 

The service EMT run goes between Liverpool and Norwich, with the train reducing to 2 carriages at Nottingham before trundling across the Fens into East Anglia.

[Fudbeer]

Good.

 

In my experience they offer an excellent service to London.

 

Its frequent ,reliable with clean modern trains.

 

And with off peak fares starting at under £10 single dont think its expensive either.

[Tim1]

If only they were building another route to London you know a new faster one LOL

[DnAuK]

If only they were building another route to London you know a new faster one LOL

 

Well said. I know you will invite the whole argument of whether they SHOULD be building HS2 or not. But seeing as they apparently are, it would seem a waste of money to invest too much in the current provision.

 

I use the London route quite a bit for work and it's not a bad service.

[Andy C]

I disagree that HS2 is a reason not to invest in the existing route.

 

A couple of points I would remind on:

 

- HS2 is about longer term planning, upgrades to the existing routes is still a necessary short/medium term investment.

 

- HS2 is about creating extra capacity, moving long distance passenger traffic onto a new high speed line, freeing up capacity on the existing lines for more freight and more local commuter trains - the existing line won't close so still need investment and maintenance.