A GROWING NUMBER OF RAILWAY PASSENGERS that use the Cross Country train franchise, which provides services from the Penzance and Plymouth in the South West to Newcastle and Edinburgh in the north, want the Department for Transport to allow the use of High Speed Trains that have recently become available.
Over 500 passengers have already signed a petition calling on the DfT to allow the Cross Country franchise to use 7 coach High Speed Trains known as InterCity125’s. The 125’s have recently become available due the electrification of the Great Western Main Line between London Paddington and Bristol. The InterCity125 trains are currently sat idle and languishing in sidings at Warwickshire and Cambridgeshire.
Currently the vast majority of Cross Country train services are formed of four or five coach units known as Voyagers. With a first class carriage included within each the Voyagers this means that standard class seating is constrained to three and four carriages. The Voyagers are the subject of much complaint largely related to cramped seating conditions and the inability to store or place luggage. Added to these complaints the Voyagers also mean train services on the Cross Country franchise are regularly unreliable in the South West as the trains cannot cope with sea water.
At times of high tides or gales Voyagers are not allowed to run south west of Exeter because the railway skirts the sea at Dawlish and Teignmouth. The recently retired InterCity125 trains, currently languishing in sidings, do not suffer from such problems having operated without issue through the south west all the way to Penzance for over four decades.
Passengers using parts of the Cross Country network are prone to overcrowding, often meaning they cannot get a seat. The routes between Reading, Coventry, Birmingham and Derby are particularly bad as are some services between Bristol and Birmingham.
Using the InterCity125’s could replace four and five coach trains with seven coach trains significantly increasing the available seats while also overcoming the weather related reliability issues in the South West affecting passengers at Newton Abbott, Plymouth and beyond.
The InterCity125’s would need to be fitted with automatic doors and toilet retention tanks to meet increased accessibility and environmental standards. However, several InterCity125’s have already had this work done and are now operating train services between Edinburgh and Aberdeen much to the delight of passengers who have give the refurbished sets the thumbs up. This demonstrates that the re-use of InterCity125’s is a ready made and effective solution to both the problems of overcrowding and unreliability currently experienced by those using Cross Country train services.
For the franchise to be able to use the InterCity125 rolling stock the DfT have to enable it. Despite being asked and requested by a number of organisations, the railway media and individual passengers the DfT remain silent. Consequently, we need as many people as possible to sign this petition to get politicians and the DfT to sit up and listen and moreover act and apply some common sense and improve Cross Country train services by cascading idle InterCity125’s.
If you agree with over the 500 people that have already signed this petition then please add your name to the campaign and lets get a railway that works and responds to the needs of passengers.
You can sign the petition here: Re Use InterCity 125’s to solve overcrowding petition
Still not convinced, then look at the summary of comments that have been left by people that have signed the petition so far… it’s clear that the current situation is not acceptable to fare paying passengers.
Fradgie.com 