NOTTINGHAM-NORWICH TIMES
1. Many
factors influence the choice of travel mode, including the weather,
company policy, whether the traveller lives close to the station or in
a distant suburb, congestion on the roads, crowding on the trains,
parking issues at the station or the destination, and cost. Key
factors include reliability, frequency and journey time.
2. Reducing the number of cancellations at the
extremities of the route was probably the most important action that
could have been taken to secure Liverpool-Norwich development.
3.
The 1352 from Liverpool terminates at Nottingham. Both local
authorities and voluntary groups are convinced that extending this
train to Norwich is essential if we are to grow business travel and
accommodate increasing numbers of leisure travellers.
4. The AA quotes off-peak driving times of
- Nottingham to Norwich in 173 minutes
- Nottingham to Peterborough in 75 minutes
- Peterborough to Norwich in 114 minutes
As passengers have to get to the station, we have set "user group target" train times of:
- Nottingham to Norwich in 155 to 160 minutes
- Nottingham to Peterborough in 60 minutes
- Peterborough to Norwich in 95 minutes
in line with work by Notts CC further west.
A train which achieves our Nottingham-Norwich target time normally also achieves our Peterborough-Norwich local target time.
5.
One Monday to Friday train travels between Nottingham and Norwich in
155 minutes, another 17 in 159 minutes. As well as serving the core
stations of Grantham, Peterborough, Ely and Thetford, one of these
trains stops at March, another at Wymondham. Our target time is clearly
achievable.
6. Other trains take
- 166 or 171 minutes, due to pathing issues
- from
163 to 168 minutes, having between two and eight stops at non core
stations. Some of those stops might usefully be transferred to other
services.
On
Saturdays, the slowest train via Grantham becomes the fastest, in
just 153 minutes, while Sunday trains take between 153 and 172
minutes.
We should like no train via Grantham to take more than 160 minutes.
7.
The rail industry still has long term aspirations for getting from
Liverpool to Norwich in five hours, and thus from Nottingham to Norwich
in 150 minutes. If coupled with hourly frequency, excellent customer
service and very high levels of reliability this would further enhance
rail's position in the market place.
8. These observations do not imply any lack of interest in longer-distance travel or connections.
9. SUMMARY OF OBJECTIVES
- high levels of reliability
- hourly service
- all trains via Grantham to travel between Nottingham and Norwich in 160 minutes or less
Autumn 2008
Updated December 2009