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West Coast dilemma Silverlink managing director Charles Belcher gave a positive presentation at the branch meeting in November but he said there was grave concern the West Coast line modernisation scheme threatens to cut Silverlink's fast services and offer no new capacity for new services. Of course, Anglia is hoping to use the West Coast main line to gain access to Milton Keynes over the proposed East-West rail link via Bedford and Bletchley. We told him of our concern over the lack of progress at Wolverton and Bletchley stations and ongoing problems on the Bedford-Bletchley line which cannot now be extended to Milton Keynes because of main line capacity problems. Silverlink however is optimistic about the prospect of running services to Oxford.
Wolverton station The local rail user group met Silverlink again and is hopeful improvements are at last planned. The provisional date for improvements to be completed is 27 March.
Service cuts aheadThe Gatwick-Milton Keynes-Rugby service may be cut back to Watford next year because of the WCML capacity problems.
Reliable speaker Chiltern Railways, which has been providing a generally reliable service, was planning to send its development manager to address our branch meeting on 3 March.
Long waitThames Trains is hoping to acquire class 158 units to run the proposed Bristol-Oxford service. Of course when these trains were new, there was a real chance of Oxford-Bletchley reopening to passengers. We are still waiting 12 years later.
Double-deckerThere are outline plans to develop a new two-tier station at Reading as a way to ease congestion.
Note: contact details (postal and email addresses, along with telephone numbers) in old editions of Railwatch out of date. Click CONTACT US for latest contact details.
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