Centro Rail Area?

Oozells · March 24, 2015, 06:23:49 PM

I was wondering how the line from Landywood to Rugeley Trent Valley ended up in Centro's zone 5?

Why is it just ntrain tickets and not nnetwork? Can the 'One Day' ticket take you to Rugeley?

Why is the concessionary pass only valid at Hednesford - is this only for those who live in the Centro area travelling to/from there, or can people in that district/county use it too?

Does Staffordshire County Council subsidise the zone 5 ntrain use from those stations and the concessionary pass use from Hednesford?

Also, for a station such as Wythall, which is within the Centro area but outside of the county, does Worcestershire County Council pay towards the maintenance or subsidise journeys?

And a random question - Why can't you use an nnetwork zones 1 - 2 on the Metro?

Tony · March 24, 2015, 07:03:16 PM

Quote from: Oozells on March 24, 2015, 06:23:49 PM
I was wondering how the line from Landywood to Rugeley Trent Valley ended up in Centro's zone 5?

Why is it just ntrain tickets and not nnetwork? Can the 'One Day' ticket take you to Rugeley?

Why is the concessionary pass only valid at Hednesford - is this only for those who live in the Centro area travelling to/from there, or can people in that district/county use it too?

Does Staffordshire County Council subsidise the zone 5 ntrain use from those stations and the concessionary pass use from Hednesford?

Also, for a station such as Wythall, which is within the Centro area but outside of the county, does Worcestershire County Council pay towards the maintenance or subsidise journeys?

And a random question - Why can't you use an nnetwork zones 1 - 2 on the Metro?

It is one simple answer to all bar the last question. Centro are allowed to support services up to a certain distance outside of their area (I think it is 20 miles) and they can decide which of their tickets are valid in the extended area. Staffordshire CC concessionary passes have no rail entitlement on them at all

Bob · March 24, 2015, 07:17:36 PM

Pity they dont support bus services that enter the wm as well! An nbus would be extremely handy instead of paying rip off peak fares to get on a train you cant sit down on!

Oozells · March 24, 2015, 09:07:32 PM

Quote from: Tony on March 24, 2015, 07:03:16 PM
It is one simple answer to all bar the last question. Centro are allowed to support services up to a certain distance outside of their area (I think it is 20 miles) and they can decide which of their tickets are valid in the extended area. Staffordshire CC concessionary passes have no rail entitlement on them at all

So, theoretically, they could make the whole Cross City line and the line from Stratford to Worcester (almost) within new zones 6+ and subsidise it all? Isn't that bad for West Midlands tax payers if the people in Rugeley are benefiting from that?

How come just Hednesford was chosen? Random.

When did that extension to zone 5 happen?

Oozells · March 24, 2015, 09:10:34 PM

Quote from: Bob on March 24, 2015, 07:17:36 PM
Pity they dont support bus services that enter the wm as well! An nbus would be extremely handy instead of paying rip off peak fares to get on a train you cant sit down on!

This is why we need a transport authority which covers the whole region or travel to work area. At the moment is would be unfair for West Midlands tax payers to fund a bus service to Tamworth, for example, but only half of it being in the county.

Tony · March 24, 2015, 09:34:49 PM

Quote from: Oozells on March 24, 2015, 09:07:32 PM
So, theoretically, they could make the whole Cross City line and the line from Stratford to Worcester (almost) within new zones 6+ and subsidise it all? Isn't that bad for West Midlands tax payers if the people in Rugeley are benefiting from that?

How come just Hednesford was chosen? Random.

When did that extension to zone 5 happen?

It does work the other way as well. A lot of people who work at Amazon in Rugeley live in the West Midlands, so Centro allowing nTrain to Rugeley is helping those people who pay their Council Tax to Centro

Justin Tyme · March 24, 2015, 10:32:26 PM

Quote from: Oozells on March 24, 2015, 09:10:34 PM
This is why we need a transport authority which covers the whole region or travel to work area. At the moment is would be unfair for West Midlands tax payers to fund a bus service to Tamworth, for example, but only half of it being in the county.

You may be interested to know that Warwickshire County Council considered joining the West Midlands ITA in 2011, but decided against. Reasons included the expectation of Centro area dominating the ITA, the increased cost to Warwickshire, and that Warwickshire has strong links with Coventry but not the rest of the region. It decided on an alliance with Coventry City Council instead.

Bob · March 24, 2015, 11:05:38 PM

Funny you should mention Coventry. Back in the 70s when the new boundaries for the West Midlands counties were being drawn up, Cannock district ( incorporating places like Norton Canes, Heath Hayes etc) was originally supposed to be included in the West Midlands county, but late in the day was thrown out in favour of Coventry being included. Personally id say Cannock has loads more in common with the west midlands than Coventry, our awful YamYam accent for a start lol. In fact ( Tony might know this) in PTE days didnt some staff refer to Coventry as the 'mystic east'?

windy miller · March 25, 2015, 02:57:50 AM

I could never figure out why you can use your travel pass as far as Coventry, Which I believe is in Warwickshire is it not? But I can't use a travel pass to go to Water Orton? Why Not? Because its in Warwickshire that's why.....huh :-\

Gareth · March 25, 2015, 10:53:11 AM

Coventry is in West Midlands. We may not have a county council anymore, but it is still a county.

Justin Tyme · March 25, 2015, 07:18:20 PM

Coventry wasn't a natural fit with the rest of the West Midlands back in 1974. It fitted better as part of a Leicester - Nuneaton - Coventry - Leamington corridor, and even today Coventry looks to both the East and West Midlands. Cannock would have been a better fit then, but I suppose Coventry's politicians were more powerful than Cannock's were.

Bob - you are right - Coventry was known as 'the mystic east' in WMPTE days. To the enthusiast it had a 'Coventry Transport' look for many years after it became part of the PTE.

Bob · March 25, 2015, 07:38:13 PM

Yes I agree places like cannock and possibly burntwood are much much better fits. Maybe the boundaries might change again in future

Oozells · March 25, 2015, 08:19:06 PM

If you search for the Redcliffe-Maud Report there is some interesting information. This is what the West Midlands Metropolitan County was supposed to be "County of West Midlands, excluding Coventry, plus Wyre Forest, Bromsgrove, Redditch, Tamworth, Lichfield, South Staffordshire, Cannock Chase and the area around Stafford."

This is basically the area of the Greater Birmingham and Black Country Local Enterprise Partnerships, so we are almost replicating it today - if only district councils could choose to join a combined authority without having the nod from the county council!

Oozells · March 25, 2015, 08:25:17 PM

Quote from: windy miller on March 25, 2015, 02:57:50 AM
I could never figure out why you can use your travel pass as far as Coventry, Which I believe is in Warwickshire is it not? But I can't use a travel pass to go to Water Orton? Why Not? Because its in Warwickshire that's why.....huh :-\

That's how stupid our boundaries are! Water Orton, Coleshill, Wythall, Perton, etc, are right there on the edge of the conurbation, but for some reason they chose to include Coventry, which has miles of green belt in between it and Birmingham, in the West Midlands county instead.

I suppose it was because it had a large population and it would've dwarfed the towns in Warwickshire - apart from Birmingham, all the West Midlands districts have 200/300k instead of less than 100k. Also, Coventry had a lot in common with industry and it still does today with things like JLR.

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Centro Rail Area?