Jack Taylor wrote:
MIG wrote:
And weekend trains to Birmingham at Virgin's weekday prices that take
longer than Chiltern.

Not the best time to have posted that, really! The other weekend the
resignalling of the South Midlands and the repositioning of the junctions at
Tyseley (to allow higher speeds for non-stop services) commenced. As a
result, weekend Chiltern services are only running (alternately) to Dorridge
and to Coventry, hourly, on Saturdays and to Dorridge and to Birmingham New
Street (via Coventry) on Sundays until the end of the autumn.

That notwithstanding, the journey times (even with the change at
Banbury, Leamington Spa or Coventry onto VT services) are *still*
comparable with Chiltern's normal timings.

Weekday Off-Peak: 2 hours 15 minutes (average)
Headline Time (18:00 ex-MYB): 1 hour 59 minutes

Saturday: 2 hours 15 minutes (average)

Sunday: 2 hours 19 minutes (average)

At present, we have the following:

Saturday (change at Coventry): 2 hours 29 minutes

Sunday (direct to New Street): 2 hours 39 minutes

So that's around 10 minutes slower on Saturdays and 20 on Sundays,
mostly (I suspect) due to the single track section between Leamington
Spa and Coventry.

Cheers,

Barry