DEVELOPING
LIVERPOOL-NORWICH
1. Nation-building Liverpool-Norwich trains link cities, towns, regions and
universities across the country, through Manchester, Sheffield, Nottingham and
Peterborough.
2. Recent improvements include
- fewer
cancellations
- 0652
business express from Norwich
- fleet
refurbishment. Each 2-car unit now has brighter decor, cctv,
cleaner toilets and 19 extra seats
- extension
to Norwich of the 1352 from Liverpool, completing hourly service through
the business day while offering a 1634 conference train home from
Nottingham
- 2500
extra seats a day west of Nottingham.
3. Our vision is of reliable, clean and
comfortable trains with high levels of customer service, so we see a need for
- a
"whole route" approach to engineering access as a step towards a
seven-day railway
- a
constant focus on minimising cancellations
- mid-journey
cleaning on all trains travelling the full length of the route
- regular
reviews of the balance between seats and luggage space
- a
system for confining the reservation of seats at tables to three or four
people travelling together, helping business groups and families
- effective
air-conditioning, working even in hot weather.
4. We welcome the provision of catering
between Liverpool and Nottingham or beyond, which must be reliable to be
commercially viable.
5. Our vision is of accurate real-time information for passengers at all times,
so we see a need for:
- better
maintenance and performance of the public address systems on trains
- ensuring
that coach identification gadgets are always correctly used on trains
which divide at Nottingham and adding information to screens and station
announcements west of Nottingham on which coaches come through to Norwich
- making
a Train tracker (or equivalent) available on all mobile phone networks.
6. We should like to
see more trains via Grantham travel between Nottingham and Norwich in a
car-competitive 160 minutes or less.
Spring 2013