Introduced to service in late 2023 out of London Euston and April 2024 on the Cross City route, the Class 730/0 are 3 car multiple units capable of reaching 90mph and are now the main traction on the Cross City route as well as taking over Class 319 operated services out of London Euston on the WCML South. WCML South The Class 730 units operate 59 services every weekday between London Euston and Tring, Bletchley & Milton Keynes. These are part of 4 daily diagrams for the units on this route, all of which are worked with 2 units. The units that work these services are occasionally swapped round, with one 6car set heading to Soho LMD whilst another 6car set heads from Soho to their WCML base at Bletchley. Birmingham Cross City The main sphere of operations for the Class 730s is the Cross City line from Bromsgrove/Redditch to Lichfield Trent Valley, as well as services from Wolverhampton to Walsall. The Walsall services would be player drivable between Aston and Birmingham New St, with a stop at Duddeston in both directions. Whilst their is currently only 1 diagram on the Walsall - Wolverhampton route, it is planned that 730s will fully take over this route to allow the Class 350/2s to go off lease, so this timetable will feature the route as a 730 exclusive service. The Cross City route has around 150 daily passenger services, with another 5 to 10 ECS moves to get units in position at the start and end of service. In total, there will be around 230 passenger services that will be player drivable as well as an additional roughly 75 services that are freight/RHTT services, bringing the total number of player drivable services to over 300. There would also be layering of stock from WCMLS and other routes into this timetable, with the Class 350 providing all the LNWR services as well as other local WMR services that run off map, with the Class 390 running all Avanti West Coast services apart from those allocated to Class 221s or 805s. This would add about 170 services a day that are AI controlled through Birmingham New St, making the station feel less empty than it does in the current timetable.
I think this would be a great addition adding another layer of variety to both routes and making New Street look a bit busier.
This is on my Christmas list I hope DTG do release this loco I'm sure players would have some fun with this!
I'd hope that if this was ever made it would come with a separate timetable possibly for the transition between 323s and the 730s. This would offer great variety and maybe even HST and 170 cross country services on the BCC could be represented in unbranded liveries like what is coming up in the GWE remaster. Great suggestion!
I actually wouldn't mind that actually unbranded for the time being but at least we've got more traffic south of the route I hope we can see some Ai too at Lichfield
