Central Trains - Network

Network

At its greatest extent, Central Trains operated 253 stations and provided services covering 1,534 miles of the UK's railway network, covering most of central England and Mid Wales. In its last years, the company saw 43 million passenger journeys and a total of 930 million miles travelled every year.

Services ranged from rural and local services to flagship express services originally branded as Alphaline and later developed into Central Citylink. In the West Midlands, the company also operated the extensive urban rail service known as Centro and later Network West Midlands under contract to the West Midlands Passenger Transport Executive.

In the late 1990s, Central Trains offered many through services between routes which had previously been shown as self-contained in public timetables. For example, where a train had previously been timetabled to work a Shrewsbury to Birmingham service followed by a Birmingham to Leicester service, the workings were combined and shown as a single direct Shrewsbury - Birmingham - Leicester service in the public timetable. This resulted in some particularly lengthy services such as those from Aberystwyth in Mid Wales to Grimsby on the opposite coast of the UK. This also gave rise to the nickname "The Barmouth to Yarmouth Railway" due to the fact Central Trains operated services in both Mid Wales and East Anglia (certain services were extended from Norwich to Great Yarmouth in the summer).

The period of the franchise saw both additions to and losses from the network: services in Mid Wales were transferred away to Wales and Borders in 2001, but the company also reintroduced direct services to Stansted Airport from the north. Central Trains also inherited some Birmingham to Northampton services from Silverlink.

Central Trains had a major shakeup between 2004-05 to prepare them for the eventual break up of the franchise. The first part of this was done in 2001 when the Birmingham New Street – Chester & Mid Wales and Cambrian Coast Line was transferred into what is now the Arriva Trains Wales franchise. In 2004 services from Leamington Spa to Birmingham Snow Hill & Stratford upon Avon were transferred into Chiltern Railways, although there was no real service improvement and Central, like its successor London Midland maintain a peak hours only service to Leamington Spa. Services on the Snow Hill lines had only one loss, and several gains. The service between Birmingham and Stourbridge was increased to every 10 minutes, and this in turn increased the Kidderminster service. There was little or no improvement on services towards Worcester and the Birmingham New Street to Worcester via Stourbridge was discontinued meaning passenger started changing at Smethwick Galton Bridge to allow them to get to New Street. Liverpool Lime Street to Birmingham New Street services originally ran through and became one service to Stanstead Airport, similar to their service from Liverpool to Norwich via Nottingham (now part of East Midlands Trains). Due to problems with delays the service was spit at Birmingham New Street, the Liverpool service is now part of London Midland and Stansted Airport trains are operated by Cross Country.

Previously Central Trains ran services from Birmingham New Street to Nottingham via Leicester as well as Derby, this service was split, the Leicester to Nottingham service was merged with the hourly Ivanhoe Line service to Loughbourgh and was extended past Nottingham all stations to Lincoln. During 2004 Central’s Trent Valley local services that ran generally from Stafford or Nuneaton (some from Coventry) were discontinued due to a Driver shortage and not restored until over year later, when they were replaced by an electric service from Northampton to Crewe. Another fatality of the ‘lack of Drivers’ was the service between Rugeley Trent Valley and Stafford, services were cut back now to this day only run Birmingham to Rugeley Trent Valley. Coventry to Nottingham via Leicester services were discontinued after engineering work at Nuneaton station made it impossible for trains from Coventry to join the line towards Leicester and no attempt was ever made to rectify this. This service was restored in 2005 as an hourly shuttle to Nuneaton, with passengers requiring changing at Nuneaton for Leicester (and change again at Leicester for Nottingham). Cross Country operated all trains between Birmingham and Nuneaton to Leicester with London Midland operating the shuttle service between Coventry and Nuneaton. Central discontinued their single Northampton service a day which ran to Nottingham and other East Midlands locations via Birmingham once they gained the Birmingham to Northampton route from sister company Silverlink Trains in 2004/05. Two trains per hour from Birmingham New Street – London Euston via Northampton was replaced by one train per hour to Northampton which connected badly with onward services to London Euston, although a few trains a day did run straight through to London from Birmingham. The service started off as an hourly express service until it was merged with the local service to Coventry adding more journey time.

The local service to and from Coventry to Wolverhampton calling all stations was also changed in 2004, it was split at Birmingham New Street as Central Trains starting operating Class 321 EMUs on the service and they were too long to fit into the bay platform 5 at Wolverhampton. A later development was implemented that had trains running express from New Street to Birmingham International (with some stops at Marston Green) then all station to Coventry and services to Walsall were extended to Birmingham International calling all stations, Adderely Park station was cut down to one train per hour shortly after this. This service is now entirely part of London Midland and operates hourly through to London Euston, with three trains per hour between Coventry and Birmingham during a weekday.