THE NORTH WALES COAST RAILWAY NOTICE
BOARD
Hysbysfwrdd Rheilffordd Arfordir Gogledd Cymru
57 303 at Beeston, 20 February (Stavros Lainas)
This site is dedicated to all our regular contributors and
supporters, and especially the rail staff of North Wales.
09 March 2010
Mid-Cheshire excursion - report by John Oates
The next Mid-Cheshire Rail User's Association railtour is on Saturday 8
May from Manchester Piccadilly, down the Mid-Cheshire Line picking up
at most stations, then Chester (reverse, as a path is not available
from Chester to Wrexham), Crewe to Oxford (the GWR 150 event is on at
Didcot), Bath (also a coach transfer to the East Somerset Railway) and
Bristol. We picked the ESR as many train enthusiasts have not
been there. We found out about the GWR 150 event
afterwards. The layout at Didcot is such that we can't stop there
without reversing, something not feasible given how busy
Didcot is even on Saturdays, but passengers can change at Oxford.
Tracttion is top and tailed Class 67s.
Bookings are best electronically through our website - www.mcrua.org.uk
Wrexham and Shropshire Sunday - report by George Jones
Diversions in operation on 7 March with Wrexham & Shropshire
routing north via Chester & Crewe to gain Wolverhampton. Above,the
retimed 10:47 Marylebone running as 10:39 from Wrexham passing Rossett
with 67 013, 82303 and a
three-car set heading for Chester.
The northbound train due at Wrexham 13:55 was held at Chester in
platform 3 (above, DVT 82301) when seen there at around 13:20 awaiting
a path. Due to a derailment at Wolverhampton, the train was diverted
and ran direct via WCML from Tame Bridge Parkway. It was due to depart
at 13:36 once the ATW 158 unit to Shrewsbury cleared and the southbound
13:14 from Wrexham came through.
The 13:14 from Wrexham comes under the Hoole Road bridge into
Chester with 67 010 hauling
four coaches and DVT in all grey and silver livery running into the
through road where it was held alongside the northbound train in
platform 3.
Briefly 67 010 was posed alongside 67 012 in Chester as the southbound
train was held on the through round whilst the north bound train got
the green to proceed to Wrexham, providing this side by side portrait
of both W&S locos.
The south bound W&S for Marylebone proceeds on the Chester
through road with DVT 82305 on the rear of the now all silver &
grey formation hauled by 67 010 diverted via Crewe and Stafford to
Wolverhampton, derailment permitting. My estimation of the
timekeeping for this sequence proved spot-on; the whole operation being
captured within 15 minutes of my arrival.
Pendolino Saturday 6 March
Gary Thomas writes: 'Three
photos showing 57 303
attaching to the 08:50 from London Euston to Holyhead at Crewe on
Saturday 6 March. I travelled from Euston to Llandudno Junction for the
first time in a couple of years - the 57 really has to work hard down
the coast!
'There were very low loadings on the whole train - even worse on my
10-car Super Voyager back from Chester on the Sunday morning. Apart
from one other passenger I had the carriage to myself!'
Gary's close-up shows the remarkable complexity of the 57 - Pendolino
coupling arrangements.
Abergele (Darren Durrant)
Llanfair PG (Alan Roberts)
Freight happenings
66 624 passes Marion Road,
Prestatyn on 1 March with a Penmaenmawr stone train (Dave Sallery)
The flask train made an appearance on 26 February: here it is ready to
leave Valley with 66 427 and 66 430 in charge (Richard Fleckney)
Rather better weather on 8 March as 66 427 and 66 423 pass Llandudno Junction at
14:58 with 6K41 flask train for Crewe. (Peter
Lloyd)
66 843 on the Carlisle - Chirk
log train, running an hour early at Chester city wall, and so now
(just) photographable using a high film speed (800 ASA in this
case). The Colas 66 has been running right through to Chirk for
over a week now so it seems as if the use of a DRS 57 is over. (Geoff Morris)
The same location, with 'Royal' 67
006 towing 507 014 from
Birkenhead North depot to Doncaster.
The Thames Valley Express, 24 April
Chester Model Railway Club are running an excursion on 24 April from
Hooton, Bache, Chester and Crewe (early in the morning) with a choice
of destinations: Kensington Olympia adjacent to the exhibition centres,
and a short bus or tube ride from the main museums or the West End,
or Windsor and Eton the twin towns astride the Thames, steeped in
history and plenty of sights to see. Full details, a booking
form and an online booking facility are available at www.chestermodelrailwayclub.com/railtours
New book from Middleton Press
The latest volume from Middleton Press in their Western Mainline Series
is now available featuring the Shrewsbury-Chester line, compiled by Vic
Mitchell and Keith Smith.
The new title features their well-established format with the coverage
offering 120 B&W photos of stations and structures along the line.
working north from Shrewsbury, via Wrexham to Chester, mostly
previously unpublished views from the steam age but a couple of modern
image shots to make the contrast in changes.
The photos are supplemented with sections of OS maps from the earlier
years and reproductions of sample tickets and timetables to bring out
details, together with extracts of traffic figures for stations in the
period 1903 - 1933.
All this shows the rise and decline of the line now hopefully arrested
when the frequency of passenger trains today exceeds that provided by
the GWR and BR(W).
As always with this series a good read and lots of detail to ponder
from the good old days. Hardback: price £15.95.
Available to buy online from Transport
Diversions
Emporium.
Arriva (and Aberystwyth) disappointed
As the Shropshire Star
reports: 'A train company which put in a bid to run a direct service
from Shropshire to London has had its application turned down by rail
regulators. Arriva Trains Wales had wanted to operate a service between
Aberystwyth and London Marylebone which would have also called in at
Shrewsbury. But the Office of Rail Regulation has announced it has
rejected the firm’s application to run the two daily direct services to
the capital. The news has been welcomed by an MP who had campaigned
against the track access agreement, which would have rivalled a service
offered by fledgling train company Wrexham & Shropshire. But Arriva
Trains Wales said it was "extremely disappointed" by the decision.'
The long letter from the Regulator to Arriva (read
it
in
full
here) says that the application is being rejected on the
grounds that its business case depends largely on 'abtracting' revenue
from other operators including Wrexham & Shropshire, and not on
generating new business. In their words:
We have assessed the business case put
forward by ATW and remain concerned about the financial viability of
the proposed new service. To generate a profit we consider there would
be two options open to ATW: either to generate additional revenue; or
to increase revenue abstraction. As discussed above, we consider it
extremely unlikely that ATW would be able to generate sufficient new
revenue to cover its forecast operating costs. In order to do this ATW
would need to achieve a generation to abstraction ratio far in excess
of that we have seen with other open access services, or case studies
from the wider transport market. We therefore consider that the only
way that ATW would be able to generate sufficient revenue to cover its
additional operating costs would be to pursue a more abstractive
pricing and marketing strategy than its business plan assumes. Even
without pursuing such a policy, we consider that ATW’s proposed service
would have a generation to abstraction ratio towards the lower end of
that which we have previously approved. Pursing an aggressive
abstraction policy sufficient for ATW to cover its additional operating
costs would therefore reduce the generation to abstraction ratio to
well below that where we have previously approved applications.
A response from Shrewsbury-Aberystwyth Rail Passengers Association
Chairman Gareth Marston: 'The
regulator's response confirms that reform of how the nation’s railways
are organised in order to get the best deal for passengers and for
regional economies is overdue. The whole process showed the stupidity
of so called competition on the rails as the process from start to
finish was primarily about squabbles between Rail Companies, with
passengers pushed to the sidelines. Clearly the solution to restoring
through rail links from Mid Wales to London is co operation not
competition. In the
meantime we look forward to hearing constructive proposals from Arriva
Trains Wales, Department for
Transport and the Welsh Assembly Government on how the resources that
were to be used to run to London can provide much needed additional
capacity on existing services between Shrewsbury and Birmingham and
additional trains west of Shrewsbury at key times.'
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