With a route length of roughly 82 miles, the line between Birmingham New Street and Manchester Piccadilly is traversed fully by an hourly Cross Country service, with services from Stoke to Piccadilly, Euston to Blackpool, Preston, Carlisle and Scotland as well as the LNWR services to Liverpool and Crewe (via Stoke) Proposed Rolling Stock Class 220/221 in Cross Country and Avanti West Coast livery The Cross Country units would be the main feature of this route, with the hourly service in both directions between Manchester and Reading/Bournemouth via New St, as well as providing some extra AI traffic for New St on this route via the services that head to Plymouth, Derby, Sheffield, Leeds, Edinburgh & Banbury (via Tyseley), with both of these sets of workings providing a bulk of services to make New St feel more alive on the Birmingham Cross City route. The Avanti Class 221's would provide about 20 AI and non AI services in total, with around 8 of these being services that the player can drive. Whilst it's by no means a perfect solution for the WCML, it's better than nothing. Class 323 in Northern Trains livery These units are an integral part of the Northern network, with them operating services from Manchester Piccadilly to Stoke (around 46 services a day including ECS moves) as well as trains along the old Woodhead line to Hadfield (around 75 services which would be drivable from Ardwick station into Piccadilly, as well as from the depot at Ardwick). They do also occasionally make appearances on services from Liverpool Lime Street to Manchester Airport, but as this is infrequent at best, these services wouldn't be included. They also run services to Crewe, which including ECS moves also tots up to around 75 services a day although these wouldn't be drivable (ECS moves excluded) which totals up to around 200 services in and out of Piccadilly a day, leaving the station definitely not feeling as empty as Birmingham New Street does on the Cross City currently. ECS moves from Soho to New St and vice versa would also be included in the timetable for owners of the Cross City route which totals up to roughly 14 services in total every day Class 350 in London North Western Railway livery The 87 Class 350 units all ply their trade working services from New Street out to Walsall (AI only as well as extra layer for X City as far as Aston), Wolverhampton, Liverpool (via WCML core between Crewe and Stafford) and Crewe (via WCML Stoke Branch). Most of the fleet are stored at a few locations across the LNWR operating area such as Northampton, Camden, Coventry and Crewe. Although 3 units do run into Soho during the day, after which they'll sit around for a few hours before heading back out to New St late on in the day on an ECS for 2 different workings the next day. In total, these units would add between 200 and 300 services to the route (although half of these won't be drivable, simply AI at New St
The one issue is XC licensing. As discussed hundreds of times these past few weeks there not getting a train any time soon - As for the other operators however - Well only time will tell I suppose,
Way round it stick fictional name on for example [Removed - Alex - Offensive Language] railway job done
Only thing may be their contract is up in October this year so if it was renationalised or picked up by another company who are willing to licence it
Excellent idea and if you want to merge this with Cross City might as well make the common origin point being Birmingham New Street. That way it avoids the issue of Köln Koblenz Koblenz Frankfurt am Main not being able to merge with each other and train simulator classic due to different points of origin Matt was asked about this almost 3 months ago and with in the game all routes do have a common origin point
not via New St no, the services from New St that are Avanti operated terminate at either Wolverhampton, Blackpool or Edinburgh (diversions excluded)
Now, I thought it would be interesting if I did a follow up path showing what I'd expect to be in the Scenario Editor for this route, so here goes Scenario Planner Paths Birmingham New Street Platform 4/6 to Manchester Piccadilly Platform 3/4 calling at: Wolverhampton P2, Stafford P5, Stoke On Trent P2, Macclesfield P1 & Stockport P4 Birmingham New St P4c to Wolverhampton P4/5 calling at: Smethwick Rolfe St P1, Smethwick Galton Bridge P3, Sandwell & Dudley P2, Dudley Port P2, Tipton P2 & Coseley P2 Birmingham New St P7 to Stafford P5 calling at Sandwell & Dudley P2 & Wolverhampton P1 Birmingham New St P8/12 to Soho L.M.D (2 siding options) Wolverhampton P2 to Kidsgrove P4 calling at Penkridge P1, Stafford P5, Stone P2, Stoke-On-Trent P2 & Longport P1 Stoke-On-Trent P3 to Manchester Piccadilly P5 calling at Longport P1, Kidsgrove P2, Congleton P1, Macclesfield P1, Prestbury P1, Adlington P1, Poynton P1, Bramhall P1, Cheadle Hulme P3, Stockport P4, Heaton Chapel P2 & Levenshulme P2 Stockport P3 to Manchester Piccadilly P9/11/12 (Fast Line) Ardwick TMD (4 siding options) to Manchester Piccadilly P1/2/5/6 Longsight Car M.D (5 siding options) to Manchester Piccadilly P3/4/7/8/9 Manchester Piccadilly P4/3/2/1 to Ardwick TMD (4 different siding options) Manchester Piccadilly P3/4/6/7 to Longsight Car M.D (4 siding options) Manchester Piccadilly P9/11/12 to Stockport P2 (Fast Line) Manchester Piccadilly P3/4 to Birmingham New St P1/2 calling at Stockport P1, Macclesfield P2, Stoke-On-Trent P1, Stafford P4 & Wolverhampton P1 Kidsgrove P3 to Wolverhampton P1 calling at Longport P2, Stoke-On-Trent P1, Stone P1, Stafford P4 & Penkridge P2 Stafford P4 to Birmingham New St P1 calling at Wolverhampton P1 & Sandwell & Dudley P1 Soho L.M.D (4 siding options) to Birmingham New Street P12/10/8/4C/2