Annie Bynnol   596 #985 Posted July 13, 2017 (edited) Up until 10 years ago trains to London from Sheffield took nearly an hour longer. Are you aware of the Sheffield Victoria and Lines that went through it.?? The obsession with such Londoncentric policys such as HS2 will have no value for the North. Restructuring and expanding transport links within the North will.. Sheffield Victoria being part of that.. Why should all roads lead to London... Why not Mcr Leeds Newcastle Sheffield Aberdeen liverpool and glasgow..  Trains in 2007 did not take anywhere near an hour longer.  SA&MR and MS&LR are a clue. The GC railway line from Victoria to London last ran express train in the 1960s a lot of the track as gone. Briefly trains ran from Victoria to London via Retford- no capacity anymore as did other sporadic links caused by other closures. Victoria services to Manchester had to be pathed between slow moving freight. From Victoria northward there were infrequent and slow services along duplicate lines. Why would we reopen Victoria? There are already direct services "...Mcr Leeds Newcastle Sheffield Aberdeen liverpool and glasgow...".  Why reopen a station even further from the city centre?  Many people make connections for further journeys. Trains, tram bus, car park? Edited July 13, 2017 by Annie Bynnol Share this post Link to post Share on other sites Share this content via...
WestTinsley   11 #986 Posted July 13, 2017 (edited) Victoria trains went via woodhead. Trains to London took nearly an 3 quarters of an hour longer for years ..its only recently that journey times are as present. Edited July 13, 2017 by WestTinsley Mistake Share this post Link to post Share on other sites Share this content via...
Annie Bynnol   596 #987 Posted July 13, 2017 Victoria trains went via woodhead. To how many destinations?  Trains to London took 2 hrs 45 plus for years... The fastest trains now take about 40 minutes less- not an hour. ...its only recently that journey times are as present. That's the same everywhere in the world. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites Share this content via...
darylslinn   10 #988 Posted July 13, 2017 It's still quicker to go from the centre of Sheffield to London with a change at Doncaster than it is direct to St.Pancras. Full electrification of the MML would cut some journey times but not all.  The fact that HS2 is not coming directly into Sheffield shows how much the council have shot themselves in the foot again, whilst claiming a victory !  ---------- Post added 13-07-2017 at 19:27 ----------  To how many destinations? The fastest trains now take about 40 minutes less- not an hour.   That's the same everywhere in the world.  Line speeds have been raised (slightly) and acceleration speeds have increased with more up to date rolling stock (HST's aside) Share this post Link to post Share on other sites Share this content via...
Jeffrey Shaw   83 #989 Posted July 13, 2017 Why not wait until the announcement before complaining about what it contains? Share this post Link to post Share on other sites Share this content via...
geared   268 #990 Posted July 13, 2017 To be fair if the council would have done nothing, any route change would be 100% blamed on the government.  Now even if the route is changed for cost saving reasons, the council will still get blamed by the populous. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites Share this content via...
ECCOnoob   980 #991 Posted July 13, 2017 (edited) It's still quicker to go from the centre of Sheffield to London with a change at Doncaster than it is direct to St.Pancras. Full electrification of the MML would cut some journey times but not  Technically yes. Even more so if you live at the right side of the city.  However, that takes a lot of planning and hitting the right timing. Its not so always so quick if you have to travel to Doncaster station first then wait around for a connection, the overall benefit of a quicker run time between Doncaster into London is lost.  Having travelled both routes very often I would also say that the ECML seems to frequently be subject to delays, signal failures and train technical faults much more when compared to the MML. I have no doubt that a good reason for that is because the ECML is much much busier with far more trains running.  However, from my personal experience I have seen far more chaos happening at Kings Cross than I have when travelling through its next door neighbour St Pancras.  I suppose the choice is up to the individual. Personally I can live with a 30 minute extra run time for the convenience of one station, one train and IMO a much more stable and reliable service.  I would fully agree though that electrification of the MML will be most welcome as its long overdue. Edited July 13, 2017 by ECCOnoob Share this post Link to post Share on other sites Share this content via...
Martin C Â Â 81 #992 Posted July 14, 2017 It's still quicker to go from the centre of Sheffield to London with a change at Doncaster than it is direct to St.Pancras. Â This may be true in the early morning but is clearly not the case once the "two hour"(ish) fast trains start running from 07:29 onwards. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites Share this content via...
Cyclone   10 #993 Posted July 14, 2017 It's still quicker to go from the centre of Sheffield to London with a change at Doncaster than it is direct to St.Pancras.  I'm fairly sure that's not true. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites Share this content via...
Annie Bynnol   596 #994 Posted July 14, 2017 I'm fairly sure that's not true.  London Doncaster* about 1hr 35m Doncaster Sheffield about 25m  London Sheffield about 2hr 5m via Derby  If using Meadowhall* the times are even more competitive.  London Doncaster trains will become faster next year London Sheffield trains will become slower. Next year it will be faster via Retford* which is currently 2hr 15m  As both routes into London are effectively owned by Stagecoach who set the fares there is no competition.  *Splitting tickets can make these routes cheaper if advances are bought. If the first train is late then the second leg will be allowed by the same company on the next train as long as the minimum change time was allowed for.  Cheapest walk on fares are via Tamworth. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites Share this content via...
sgtkate   10 #995 Posted July 14, 2017 I'm fairly sure that's not true.  It's pretty close!  2h11 Sheffield to St Pancras 2h18 Sheffield to Donny to Kings Cross  And that's because of a 12 min connection time at Doncaster, so in terms of the time spent on the train it is actually quicker to do the Donny route, but clearly most of us care about total journey time rather than just time on the train. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites Share this content via...
Harrystottle   10 #996 Posted July 14, 2017 HS2 is a bad joke. 80 billion to knock 20 minutes off Leeds to London?  It started off as a Labour vanity project to show we could still do great things aster the 2008 financial crash and was enthusiastically carried on by the Tories as it does what they really like - give billions of public money to private companies.  The line is scheduled to pass through the top of our village and it brings us nothing apart from years of disruption whilst it's built and a lower quality of life when it's finished. It goes right through some beautiful countryside; unlike the Cotswolds, Yorkshire won't get a tunnel to hide this monstrosity.  Around here we had years of the pits and after them open casting; now the countryside has recovered from that we get this bloody thing, and the people in charge of it come over as idiots too, so God knows how much it will finally cost and overrun by. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites Share this content via...