LHR-MME was one of the routes dropped by BD in 2009 along with INV, JER, and LBA. Probably has more to do with office politics, with LH calling the shots.
Yes, but since then BA have restored LBA. Any suggestion they will bring MME back?
And if the proposal was for LHR, there would be connectivity to the world. Give it a chance, one has to start somewhere!
Of course there would, but join the queue behind INV, the offshores, and even DND is a FAR bigger city than CAX.
Population of "wider" CAX = 100, Cumbria 500k, a few more in D&G. Yet there is also little evidence of serious yield generators, plus the fact all these other places don't have a realistic train alternative.
Granted, 3h25 isn't lightning fast, but most Marseille-Paris trains take that sort of time, and the train still has 75%+ of that (far larger) market.
Forget about HS2, it's unlikely to be built, and even if it is, it's going nowhere near Carlisle or Glasgow.
I was just painting a scenario in which the route might work. Remove the train service, and Carlisle becomes a much more viable route.
If HS2 does get built as planned, come 2026, the new "classic compatible" trains will be slower than the Pendolini above Lichfield. Thus there will be huge pressure to cut stops, especially given the claim that the train will take 81% of the Scotland market!
That is obviously way into the future. In the meantime, don't be surprised to see more Lake District region stops being removed. Yet even if this does happen, and an hourly Carlisle stop becomes two hourly, the train still wins on frequency.