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New CrossCountry Service between Edinburgh and Cardiff to Start December 16th/18th it split at Gloucester with one Voyager going to Cardiff and the other Plymouth will run one Train in each direction. So the Birmingham Cardiff route has one additional Train and it will be a Voyager/Super Voyager. CrossCountry are at least doubling up the Train between Edinburgh and Gloucester so the ECML Route and MM stations to Brum shouldn't be as crowded being 8/9/10 Car services.

Unfortunately, that's not true.  The 1307 service from Edinburgh currently runs as an 8-car train from Edinburgh to Gloucester where it splits, with 4 cars continuing to Plymouth and the other 4 cars returning ecs to Central Rivers.  From December, that 4 car unit will continue in service to Cardiff Central where it will stable overnight.  This replaces the 1707 Nottingham to Cardiff Class 170 service which will be truncated to terminate at Gloucester with the unit running ecs back to Birmingham New Street.

The following morning, this 4-car unit will form the 0945 departure from Cardiff Central replacing the current 0945 Cardiff Central to Nottingham Class 170 service which will start at New Street at 1149.  It arrives at New Street at 1145 and the 0628 Penzance to Edinburgh service will attach to the back of it when it arrives at 1156, thus forming an 8-car service north of Birmingham.  However, at present, the 0628 service leaves Penzance as a 4-car unit but is attached to another 4-car unit at Plymouth making an 8-car train from Plymouth to Edinburgh.  This means that the station calls from Plymouth to Bristol Parkway will be made by a 4-car train rather than an 8-car train.

In mid July, I travelled back from Newcastle to New Street on a Sunday morning on board an 8-car unit.  I deliberately used the rear coach L which wasn't more than half full throughout the journey.  However, from Leeds onwards, the Train Manager was asking passengers to move to the rear of the train where seats were available.  At New Street, this service is split in platform 11 with the front four coaches forming the 1312 to Plymouth and the rear four coaches the 1342 to Bristol Temple Meads.  As my next journey was to Wolverhampton on the 1330 from platform 10, I remained on the platform.  The 1312 service did not depart until 1320 as station staff tried to shoe horn passengers onto the train which left with three coaches dangerously full and the fourth (1^st Class) almost empty.
 
At the beginning of September, I was in Devon.  On the Saturday afternoon, I travelled from Newton Abbot to Plymouth on board a 4-car Class 220.  It was dangerously full on arrival at Newton Abbot and, although a lot of people got off to travel to Torbay, it was still full and standing to Plymouth.  The following morning, I caught a Paignton to Manchester Class 220 from Newton Abbot to Dawlish.  This train was dangerously overcrowded throughout both the seating and the vestibule areas and was held at Newton Abbot for over five minutes while station staff attempted to get people on board.  When I arrived at Dawlish, the number attempting to board far exceeded the number who alighted.
 
Not only are higher capacity trains needed but the percentage of first class seats needs to be reduced as well (for instance, a 7 coach train should only have 1 or 1½ first class coaches).

The Cardiff to Portsmouth service isn't run by them, but by Great Western. The trains should be the equivalent of a 125, namely two first class coaches and the rest standard class.

I didn't say it did.  Cardiff to Portsmouth is an example of a long distance service that suffers from overcrowding and which would benefit from larger trains such as cascaded Voyagers.

The 7 car 222s from EMT would be good for Cross Country when they are released next year

I agree that these would help but it would still mean diesel trains running under the wires for long distances.

The sooner they're are asked to order more and longer trains the better. They're approaching 25 years old now.

I couldn't agree more.  Hopefully, the creation of Great British Railways will result in a more co-ordinated approach when ordering new trains.  A new fleet of bi-mode units with at least 7 coaches for Cross Country services on the Edinburgh/Newcastle to Plymouth/Reading and Manchester to Bristol/Bournemouth services would be beneficial all round.  As well as providing the capacity needed on these services, they would also operate in electric mode over large parts of the routes (Edinburgh–York/Doncaster and Manchester-Birmingham/Coventry).  In addition, it would allow the Voyagers to be cascaded to increase capacity on other routes such as Cardiff to Nottingham, Birmingham to Stansted, Cardiff to Portsmouth etc.

Thought there is plans to redo Rowley Regis to enable turnbacks there during disruption.

The West Midlands Rail Investment Strategy has plans for a new turnback platform at Rowley Regis but probably not before 2031.  I think it's part of Midlands Connect's plans to reinstate platform 4 at Snow Hill. 

On the subject of WMR route knowledge the two trains booked to do Galton-Smethwick West are both diverted via Camp Hill in December - XC trains routed that way appear unchanged.

However, these two services will still operate to/from Snow Hill via the Stourbridge line when the Albion have an evening home fixture.

762 - WN 15/16

433 on WN8 

Banned from holding an operator's licence for 5 years.
https://www.bristolpost.co.uk/news/bristol-news/director-bus-firm-banned-after-9503441

Yeah I don't know why they swapped the Transport for wales and West Midlands railway to Shrewsbury but a lot of people at Sandwell and Dudley use the service to go to wales so maybe that's why.

The December 2022 had the TfW service departing New Street at xx22 followed by passive provision for a second Shrewsbury service departing at xx26.  Had the TfW service continued to serve Galton Bridge with the Shrewsbury service serving Sandwell & Dudley, the Shrewsbury service would have been delayed by the TfW service when it stopped at Galton Bridge.  Thus the stopping patterns were swapped.  Since then, the second Shrewsbury service has been introduced at xx26 but runs via Tame Bridge Parkway so there is a case for the TfW service stopping pattern to be changed. 

Do you know what changes were proposed? 2tph would be a great benefit for all stops served

All I can say is that the changes were purely cosmetic with an hourly service supplemented by extra rush hour services.  The proposed changes would have created a more clockface timetable.   

Take real train times with a pinch of salt, 2D07 Kidderminster to Stratford doesn't show yet it's return working 2V24 shows.

Doubt six trains per hour will return just yet, railway runs on overtime and it's rare for a full day to occur without booked cancellations.

If anything would go back to six trains and hour, it would be cross city first

There is no plan to increase Snow Hill line services to 6 tph in the short term.

When the 2-tph stopping service from New Street to Kings Norton via the Camp Hill line is introduced, it will mean that increasing the Cross City line to 6-tph will probably be dependent on infrastructure changes at Kings Norton.  

I also notice that the New Street to Hereford services is unchanged from December according to RTT.  There were plans to change this timetable so either the proposed changes have been shelved or RTT is not showing correct information.

No. They can't

Does anyone know if the class 196s and class 172 can actually be joined up?

No they can't.

For starters, it won't be long before the Liverpool services are handed over to 5-car Class 730/2 operation.  

Secondly, Galton Bridge is an interchange station which allows passengers from both ends of the Snow Hill lines to change onto a Liverpool service without having to walk across Birmingham City Centre.

Thirdly, the major timetable changes introduced in December 2022 had passive provision for a different stopping pattern for Liverpool services between New Street and Wolverhampton which could come into force next year.  I'm not going to elaborate on that.