Railways on track

They seem to receive a lot of stick but personally speaking I don't have many complaints with Virgin Trains. I took the train home from London when I arrived back from my trip and it was absolutely fine. Near enough on time and comfortable enough aside from facing backwards as did most of the seating in the carriage. Only the alarm from one of the toilets caused by someone pressing the ill-located emergency button rather than the flush button was cause for annoyance. I can't believe this problem still hasn't been solved. Surely someone could have concocted some extra labelling that would dissuade even the most unobservant from pressing the wrong button.

In any case, during my web snooping of the past few days I've unearthed some interested news and facts concerning the rail services to this part of the world. First off, a Department for Transport press release announces improved services on the West Coast Main Line (that's the London to Glasgow route) from the end of 2008. These include:
- 50% increase in frequency in London - Birmingham and London - Manchester services
- A further 30 minutes reduction in London - Glasgow journey times, so that travelling time is around 4 hours 30 minutes.
- London - Liverpool services will be 20 minutes faster than today and there with extra peak time services
- Hourly services all day between London - Liverpool; London - Preston and London - Chester
- Improvement in weekend services

Also of interest is a transfer of services 'between Birmingham - Scotland currently operated by Virgin Cross Country to Virgin West Coast from 11 November 2007. An enhanced timetable will also be put in place on these routes from December 2008 and journey times between Birmingham and Glasgow and Edinburgh via the West Coast line will be 4 hours', the likes of which will pass through Cumbria en route to Scotland.

This all sounds like good news. If the journey time from London to Glasgow is being cut by half an hour then in theory the journey times to Cumbria should become maybe 15 or 20 minutes quicker. Trips to Glasgow and Edinburgh will also be speedier. It's a couple of years away still but it seems to be movements in the right direction.

While browsing information on the local MP, who changed at the last election while I was living down south, I came across some figures for usage of Oxenholme station, given as a response to a parliamentary question by the MP.

Daily average of Cross Country Weekday Return Journeys originating at Oxenholme:
Preston - - - - - - - -60
Birmingham NS - 21
Bristol TM - - - - - 10
Plymouth - - - - - - 2

It's not terribly useful as by far the majority will use West Coast trains to Preston and London. It's intriguing that there's 10 people everyday wanting to go to Bristol.