8 replies to this topic

[HP6]

This isn't really an Amersham story, but the laws of supply and demand in action.

http://www.bbc.co.uk...-12284468<br />
They had nice coaches, but not enough people inside them.

[Matthew (Admin/MPJ)]

Unfortunately, they could not compete. They started with 5 trains per day, then cut it down to 4, then from December to 3 to cut costs. This of course makes the service offered less attractive and may mean fewer people would use it. So a downward spiral so typical of rail and bus services. Again, a chicken and egg, people won't use a service unless it is good, but providers won't run a service for long if there is no demand as people won't quickly switch.

I also wonder if Virgin will keep their services to the area introduced after Wrexham and Shropshire started?

[DogChops]

Well, one of their trains broke down last night and caused no end of hassle on the Wycombe line, and their trains are ridiculously loud so you can't hear the announcements etc when one is stood in Marylebone. So good riddance.

Edited by PaulEden, 26 January 2011 - 01:31 PM.

[echinosum]

Well, one of their trains broke down last night and caused no end of hassle on the Wycombe line, and their trains are ridiculously loud so you can't hear the announcements etc when one is stood in Marylebone. So good riddance.

Chiltern are already using some of the loco-hauled stock on Chiltern-branded services, so I suspect we'll see more of that in future.

So, one of the loco-hauled jobs broke down. The DMUs break down too. I don't have any data, but my guess would be that the loco-hauled break down less often than the DMUs.

[PeterC]

If the stock can be transferred to Chiltern (both are owned by DBAG) then that could free up some DMUs from the Birmingham run to improve local services.

[Milton]

I think this is a real shame. Having been spoilt all my life by living in places with good railway connections I'm a big fan of rail travel to less commonly visited places. I also suspect that we won't, as a nation, get out of our cars more unless we get used to having a good, flexible & readily available railway service.

Hopefully Chiltern will benefit from the rolling stock as PeterC suggests. They do have a good reputation for being flexible and forward thinking and hopefully the common ownership will help in that respect.

[echinosum]

{Chiltern} do have a good reputation for being flexible and forward thinking ...

They had such a reputation when owned by Laing. Whether they still deserve it now they are owned by DB remains to be seen.

[PeterC]

Whether they still deserve it now they are owned by DB remains to be seen.

Will depend on how much autonomy Chiltern keeps in the longer term. If they are absorbed into Arriva (another DBAG subsiduary) then I don't have much hope.

[PeterC]

I saw Wrexham and Shropshire coaches at Marylebone this morning. I assume that they were in use by Chiltern as there isn't the capacity to use a platform for storage.