
Purpose of the trip
Today is to pick up the pieces which have gone missing around Birmingham – so some new track and the trams of Birmingham!
The plan for today is:
HeadCode | Dep Time | Route | Arr Time | NRT | Railmiles |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
2V38 | 842 | Sandhurst - Reading (5) | 901 | 11.5 | 11mi 52ch |
1M30 | 910 | Reading (7) - Birmingham New St (6B) | 1051 | 96.5 | 93mi 70ch |
2P23 | 1103 | Birmingham New St (8A) - Lichfield TV | 1147 | 17.5 | 18mi 52ch |
1U31 | 1217 | Lichfield TV - Rugeley TV | 1225 | 8 | 8mi 3ch |
2I52 | 1250 | Rugeley TV (1) -Birmingham New St | 1350 | 26.25 | 26mi 34ch |
1400 | Trams Edgbaston - Wolverhampton | 1530 | |||
1O22 | 1539 | Wolverhampton - Reading | 1740 | 109.5 | 109mi 16ch |
1O81 | 1749 | Reading (5) - Sandhurst | 1808 | 11.5 | 11mi 52ch |
Total (excluding Trams) | 280.75 | 279mi 39ch |
Notes:
As before my thanks to Real Time Trains for the material in the links.
Operations on the Day
Final day of gallivanting around the West Midlands picks up some significant uncovered passenger track – which have been added to national network since my map shows some as freight only. The outward journey is pretty standard and as I have been this way a few times I settle down to do some reading. Oddly I may not have previously travelled from Wolvercote Junction to Aynho Junction before this week – I am in two minds over counting it as new track as I am pretty confident I have been that way before – but after traversing it numerous times this week it is now definitely covered!
On my reference map however the line from Ashton to Lichfield Trent Valley (TV) is new track and indeed my map only shows a passenger service to Lichfield City with the extension to Lichfield TV being re-instated in 1988, although since 1992 only one platform is used. The route continues onward for non-passenger services.
I am a little surprised to find a small café at Lichfield TV station – very busy in the mornings as there is some rush hour traffic into London but at this time of day it is very quiet. I have a cup of coffee in an attempt to keep warm as I have a lengthy wait and the light is too poor to try and photograph trains speeding by on the fast lines.
It is only a few minutes along the line to Redditch Trent Valley (TV) from where I take the Chase Line back into Birmingham. The section from Rugeley TV to Walsall re-opened finally in 1998 but at the time of my map was solely non-passenger. We roll through some pleasant countryside then through the built up areas of Walsall and onwards to Birmingham New Street once again. So that completes the new track on the rail network.
Now it is time to make up for Sunday’s nonsense. I wander out of the station and the first tram to pass is not in passenger service. After a few minutes it is possible to jump aboard the next tram and take the extension to Edgbaston village (which is relatively newly opened in 2022 compared with some of my journeys). I rejoin the tram for the trip to Wolverhampton station which marks the newest extension in 2023. The maps on the trams still show the route to the former terminus at Wolverhampton St George’s, although certainly the timetable makes no reference to it – so whilst still open it is not served! I wonder if it is retained for the intended future expansions which are being constructed.
All zone fare for the trams (off peak) is £5 and amazingly they have a conductor on each service – obviously assisting the passengers as well as taking payments. There are ticket machines at each tram stop but apart from one outside Grand Central all the others I see are sheeted over and not in use. It is not clear to me if that is permanent or not.
At Wolverhampton after a decent wait a Cross Country rolls into the station and I can join it for the trip back to Reading. Once again we are covering known track so I read on the way back and everything runs pretty smoothly to get back once again at a reasonable hour.
Costs / Ticket Checks
National Rail have a somewhat difficult to find page covering Rangers and Rovers and the Heart of England can be found there – there is reference to a map but incredibly no link. A more useful source is railrover.org which is the starting point of my activities. The relevant page has a diagrammatic map of the routes covered.
So a little summary of my week of travelling. A total of 2,108 miles using three main operators – Cross Country, GWR and West Midlands with cameo appearances from SWR, EMR, North Western and TfW. This excludes mileage using trams. The majority of services were running on time with significant late running from TfW suffering from “attachment issues”, Cross Country where I believe an earlier signalling failure had delayed staff and West Midlands which aborted a trip to Lichfield TV.
Direct ticket costs were £129.30 for a season ticket from Sandhurst – Oxford (no railcard discount on that of course) and £95.20 for the Heart of England Rover (after railcard discount), a total of £224.50. Obviously the Sunday trip to Birmingham was just mileage and achieved nothing (but in other circumstances could have done so). However a lot of formerly untravelled lines around Birmingham have now been visited and that can only be good.
Overall therefore 10.66 pence per mile which I reckon is pretty cheap. None of the days were particularly long given that light was going by the end of the afternoon and overall not much waiting around on platforms (about the longest was Lichfield Trent Valley and Reading). Overall pretty successful and a tribute to the railway staff who, by and large, are determined to deliver on time regular operations.
Rolling Stock
West Midlands stock appear to be the dirtiest externally – the windows were never clean. Cross Country was also a little mixed. Heaviest loaded trains definitely Cross Country – but I was not largely travelling in the rush hour. West Midlands frequencies are good – with decent length trains – which in a number of places were longer than the platforms.
Summary
A good way to spend a quiet week in January – travelling over some new track and seeing the current much higher level of service being delivered to railways in the Midlands for not huge sums of money.