West Midlands (Centrocard Zone)

New York? Sydney? Bognor Regis? We're spoilt for choice ...
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A2
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West Midlands (Centrocard Zone)

Post by A2 »

http://www.networkwestmidlands.com/trai ... %20Map.asp

This could be interesting, especially given the service frequencies along some of the lines. (some stations are only 1 train an hour)

The stripey part isn't the West Midlands, so can safely be ignored.
Bordesley presents more of a problem as there are literally 4 trains a day (except when Birmingham City are playing at home on Saturdays when there are about 10) so should probably be ignored for sanity reasons.
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Root
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Post by Root »

Rubbish! We don't ignore the Hainault-Woodford stations just because they have a crap service or close at 8PM, do we?

As with Amersham/Chesham, the answer is to start with the low frequency trains to ensure you don't lose too much time on them.
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Post by zeibura »

yeah but every 20 minutes is acceptable, every hour is not. practically all of those lines are one an hour (a select few 2tph). so it'd be pretty tedious!
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Post by gasman »

I'm with Root on this one.
The whole point of tube challenging is that it's a challenge. You don't just shirk away from bits of the network because they're not 'acceptable'... hell, I don't find it particularly 'acceptable' to have to be at Chesham at 5 in the morning, but that doesn't mean it's OK to leave it out!

OK, if you're not going for an official record you're welcome to make up whatever rules you like. But if you're going to invent a challenge, you might as well make it a meaningful one that covers a network in its entirety and not just an "all the bits that I can be bothered to do" challenge.
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Post by Root »

Well said :).
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A2
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Post by A2 »

The 1tph sections can be planned for and aren't a problem.

However I'm going to wait for Bordesley to close or fall down of its own accord (although I think the only cost is scraping the weeds away once a year) before I try it, as otherwise I'd have to get up horribly early in the morning (before 10am fs!) to do it and I'm not even sure if the scheduled trains actually stop there, or only stop on request.
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Post by Root »

On request...?
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Post by gasman »

Yep. If you're on the train and want to get off, you have to ask the conductor. If you're at the station and want to get on, you stick your arm out and wave to the driver.

I'm not kidding.

The local station to where I work, Finstock, was a request stop until a year or two back. These days it's a fully-paid-up station on the Cotswold Line, with a whopping... one train a day! In each direction!
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Post by petermiller36 »

those lines still run by horse n cart are they?
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Post by Root »

I wonder if I could persuade the Virgin Intercity trains to stop at Berkhamsted by sticking my arm out.

What I'm trying to say is: That wouldn't work if the train was travelling at any decent speed, so it must really be crawling if you can wave it down and persuade the driver to stop in time.
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Sillert, V.I.
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Post by Sillert, V.I. »

Have pity on the train driver crawling through Bordesley at walking pace looking out for a stranger wanting to get into their vehicle.

The West Midlands police used to take rather a dim view of that sort of thing!
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Post by editorsfoot »

Sillert, V.I. wrote:Have pity on the train driver crawling through Bordesley at walking pace looking out for a stranger wanting to get into their vehicle.
We used to have a few request stops in Kent a few years ago, the train would pass through at walking speed, so it never really gained any time, seemingly it was something to do saving the brakes, and you felt a bit of a muppet sticking your arm out to stop a train.
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Post by gasman »

Root wrote:I wonder if I could persuade the Virgin Intercity trains to stop at Berkhamsted by sticking my arm out.
Heh... I had exactly that feeling this Thursday morning when I was stuck at Hayes & Harlington having missed the Heathrow Connect by about ten seconds. They dutifully play the announcement "Passengers on platform 2, please stand clear of the platform edge - through train approaching" two minutes before each through train, which gets rather comical as there are through trains every two and a half minutes. I couldn't help but think it would be far less effort for them to periodically make the announcement "Attention all passengers. Nobody cares about your stupid little backwater station, so why don't you be a good little customer and just sit down until your real train arrives, and let the rest of the world get on with their important travel plans."
What I'm trying to say is: That wouldn't work if the train was travelling at any decent speed, so it must really be crawling if you can wave it down and persuade the driver to stop in time.
Indeed. In the case of the Cotswold line, they only do it for the one slowest train of the day, which would be stopping at every other station every two minutes anyway.
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