Old (I think) but interesting

[Parkey]

In my opinion the grand central concept would be the way to do it, especially as it'd be a lot cheaper than deep tunnels.

The concept is basically a large station that's placed beyond the four track tunnel bottleneck on the eastern approach to New Street. The Moor Street platforms on a higher level would also be part of it. Plenty of platform space, plenty of provision for terminating or reversing trains, and through platforms that continue onward to New Street and beyond.

Sadly it also breaks the great British railway taboo. The horror of "building new".

[Dave]

I think that the best thing to do would be to drop X-City frequency. It's not as well used as the frequency suggests. Trains are never full unless an event takes place (Birmingham uni open day, for example). 4tph between Wolverhampton and Coventry is crap compared to 12tph between Lichfield/Four Oaks and Longbridge/Redditch.

[JamieLei]

Have you tried travelling on the XCity in the rush hour with it's packed. I admit it's not as packed as the Coventry to Birmingham line, but the XCity has a 3+2 hi-density confuguration, as opposed to 2+2 low density. There were standing passengers right between Five Ways and Northfield, with it well loaded all the way to Redditch. There are several park and ride stations along the route, including Northfield, Kings Norton, Selly Oak, Chester Road etc. The XCity frequency is what should define commuter trains.

As proven by XCountry, a doubling in frequency is almost always better than doubling the amount of carriages. And it's only 4 extra movements through New Street. The XC has spare pathing capacity, the Birmingham to Coventry does not.

[Ameecher]

3+2 so called "high density" it is argued, has less capacity than 2+2 "low density" because no one likes sitting between 2 unknown people. The seats are too damn close, the aisle is too narrow for standing. This is why most of the 3+2 seating is being ripped out of SouthEastern trains because when you stand you take up less space. Most new build stuff is 2+2, expect the Desiros for some reason. SWT, Silverlink/Central and First Great Eastern didn't think those through me thinks.

[JamieLei]

2+2 is only better if the seats are as narrow as those 3+2 ones. See image showing why SWT ripped out that 3rd seat. (The grey blocks are legs, showing why noone uses the centre seat)

WIKIPEDIA IS NOT JESUS.png (13.58 KiB) Viewed 290 times

The point I'm getting at is that 2+2 seating is not any more comfortable than 3+2. The seats are _just as_ uncomfortable, there's just more standing space, and same amount of seating.