With a total mileage of 80-85 miles, this route would provide you with an opportunity for the first lengthy intercity route based in the UK. Most of the services along this route are provided by Cross Country Class 170’s, 220’s and 221’s, with both Avanti West Coast and Cross Country’s fleet of units being maintained at Central Rivers depot just south of Burton-On-Trent. The Class 170’s of both Cross Country and West Midlands Railway fleet are maintained at Tyseley Depot just a few miles outside of New St alongside the lines that lead to Birmingham Snow Hill. The layers that come from this route could also finally breathe some life into New Street on the Birmingham Cross City route, with the addition of a few Avanti services as well as all the Cross Country services and the New Street to Hereford (Player train as far as Worcester) & Shrewsbury (AI only) services too. The Class 323 would layer into this route rather than be included with it. The Camp Hill freight line would also be included on this route, as in addition to all the freight workings that make use of it, 15 passenger services also traverse this line, with all but 1 of these being Cross Country operated (7 from New St, 7 to New St) Proposed Rolling Stock Class 170 in Cross Country & West Midlands Railway (EMR livery with WMR branding) liveries Forming the fast/semi fast services to Worcester, Great Malvern & Hereford (WMR) as well as Cardiff, Nottingham, Leicester, Cambridge & Stansted Airport (XC), the Class 170’s have been here, there and everywhere on the UK network, with the only TOC’s they haven’t worked for being the likes of GWR & Southeastern. Class 220/221 in Cross Country and Avanti West Coast livery Forming the backbone of services on this route, the Voyagers (220s) and Super Voyagers (221s) are amongst the most disliked units in the country due to their 4 or 5 car formations being wholly unsuitable for intercity services. Nonetheless, these units were introduced from 2002 onwards to replace Virgin Trains’ fleet of Class 47s and HSTs, with the units being split between Cross Country and Virgin (later Avanti West Coast) when the Cross Country franchise changed hands in 2007. Currently, Avanti’s Class 221 fleet are diagrammed for just 18 services through Birmingham New Street, these being the 0530 (starts at New St) and 1715 (Starts at Euston) services to Blackpool North, the 0750 (Starts at Euston), 1010 (Starts at Blackpool), 1150, 1250 & 1310 (Starts at Edinburgh) services to London Euston, as well as the 1950 (Starts at Euston) to Shrewsbury as well as the 2152 from Blackpool (terminates at New St then ECS to Barton) and 1124 and 1222 terminators from Euston. The 2225 Shrewsbury - Barton is also an Avanti 221 and the 0430, 0438 and 0446 ECS services from Barton to New St, Shrewsbury & Crewe are AWC 221s. The Cross Country voyagers also do some unusual services, namely the 0718 (0639) from Derby (Nottingham) to B’ham New St (Reading) and the 1053 & 1253 (0835 & 1035) Derby (Newcastle) to B’ham New St (Banbury) services, with a reversal at New St required for these. Class 43 ‘HST’ in Cross Country livery Usually found in charge of the 0727 and 1031 services from Derby (Leeds & Edinburgh) to Cheltenham (Plymouth), and the 1515 and 1815 from Cheltenham (Plymouth) to Derby (Edinburgh & Leeds), although they have done 2 other diagrams in the past, this being the 1331 Derby (Glasgow Central) to Cheltenham (Plymouth) and 2115 from Cheltenham (Plymouth) to Derby (Leeds) as well as the 1253 Plymouth (1539 from Cheltenham) to New St & the 1642 B’ham New St to Plymouth (both services go via Camp Hill & 1728 arrival at Cheltenham) would be HST operated to allow for more variety on XC services, as well as more double stacking of 220s & 221s.
We'll probably see it in west midlands and avanti West coast livery. Dtg lost the cross country license in tsc and they don't have it in tsw, so it probably won't come at all.
For the section between Birmingham and Worcester are you routing it via Kidderminster or up Lickey Incline by merging your route with Birmingham Cross City Line and Bromsgrove. Alternatively if you run it via Bromsgrove DTG can make the merged bundle Worcester to Derby via Cross City Line. For the price of a single route one can get both Birmingham Cross City Line with Cross country route Derby to Worcester/Cheltenham Spa.
What I am thinking is that you end up combining Cross City line with your route basically having the Class 221 & HST charge the Lickey Incline unassisted. Option 2 you chose to use the Kidderminster route
