The East Midlands needs regional services
A few weeks ago, I travelled on a line I had not realised still existed - the service across the north of the Midlands between Derby and Stoke. There is one hourly service provided by a single-coach Pacer which goes right past Uttoxeter racecourse through very pleasant countryside. The train, which goes through to Crewe, was pretty full and the conductor was kept busy.
While it was very enjoyable for me to travel on a new line (I am not a track basher but I must have travelled on around 90% of the network, with a few gaps such as Middlesbrough to Whitby, the West Highland Line and a couple of the Cornish branches), this was clearly an example of a railway that was underused because of a lack of investment. The roads between towns in the Midlands are crammed, and often congestion greatly extends journey times. The railway could be a genuine alternative, but not with an hourly service that potters along at 30mph or so, on average.
It is therefore heartening to hear that the umbrella group for the local authorities, East Midlands Councils, is pushing to improve services in the region.
The Invitation to Tender for the East Midlands franchise is expected to be published in the late spring/early summer, and the councils are pushing hard for a stepchange improvement in the regional services. They want regular and faster services between the main four cities - Lincoln (which has a terrible train service at present), Derby, Nottingham and Leicester. This would create a kind of hub and spoke system that would make many parts of the region far more accessible by rail.
Two further crucial aspects are to ensure that the quality of the rolling stock is much improved, and that it is a seven-day railway offering frequent and regular services throughout the day.
The idea is to encourage the franchise bidders to come up with plans to bring this about. This is so often a neglected aspect of our railways. The minor lines are left pretty much to their own devices, but when they do get investment they regain their role as a major part of the local infrastructure.
As I wrote last year ( RAIL 804), I was really struck by how the Avocet line between Exeter and Exmouth, saved by the skin of its teeth from Beeching, is now a vital part of the local infrastructure carrying hundreds of thousands of people annually.
There are dozens of lines like that around the country, and it is essential they are not forgotten in the rush to pour concrete for HS2. They would do far more for regional development than HS2, which will simply make Britain even more London-centric.