Things are heating up in the north west.
In recent years there have been more and more people needing to get from Manchester to London. The second leg of HS2 was designed to help fix this problem but… well… let’s not dwell on that.
Now that the post-Birmingham HS2 dream is effectively dead, there’s a gap in the market. The people want to get between the country’s major northern and southern hubs, and the train companies have started to take notice.
So far, Lumo and Virgin Trains have both applied to operate the route on open access contracts, meaning they’d be doing so completely independently and without any support from National Rail. Now, however, another competitor has entered the space.
London Northwestern Railway already operates trains between London and Crewe (Cheshire), so instead of applying to create a new route it just wants to add to existing ones. LNWR’s proposal would see increased service between the capital and Manchester, as well as better linking the latter to Rugeley, Lichfield, Tamworth and Atherstone. If approved, the programme would begin next summer.
Ian McConnell, LNWR’s managing director, said he believes that ‘this proposal puts passengers at the heart of the railway and is the common sense solution’ to the demand.
‘With platform space at Euston at a premium, the best way to provide new journey opportunities to Manchester is simply to extend existing services, rather than trying to squeeze more trains onto the congested West Coast Main Line,’ he continued.
Deciding who ends up getting to run the service will be up to the transport regulator the Office of Rail and Road (ORR). It’ll make a decision after reviewing everyone’s applications and deciding which offers the best deal to the general public. That will probably happen sometime later this year. Until then we'll be waiting with bated breath from the sidelines, watching all this juicy train-adjacent drama.
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