The DfT alleged it would give better performance at New Street by removing conflicting moves, they also reckoned that not that many people crossed Birmingham on XC services (hmmm). They also seem to have this desire to standardise service patterns and reduce the number of operators on a given corridor (hence things like Birmingham to Notts now being XC).
I'd also speculate that rolling stock comes into the transfer to West Coast of Glasgow services to give Virgin a load of 221s which they need for Holyhead services and so on. But DfT doesn't micro manage. Or determine who has what stock. Apparently.
jonesy said:
Do you know what the DfT's reason was for ending XC services to Glasgow? The same type of trains are still being used on the same route, but with the afforementioned annoyance and delay of a change at Brum. What is achieved by this?