MattyH said:
From a recent discussion on a rail forum, it would appear that 4tph is achievable between stoke-on-trent and Derby if there was rolling stock available.
I presume this is the thread you're referring to. It's an interesting read (up until about the start of page 4 where it goes off on a tangent
)
I'm of the view that the issue - as you rightly put it - is the lack of rolling stock, combined with the lack of demand outside of the Resort. Railways don't have the capability (for a number of reasons I won't go into here) to run seasonal services in this way on a day-to-day basis.
However the larger issue is that without the associated connecting bus services, there wouldn't be a whole lot of benefit anyway.
The only way I could see it working is if the 32A had an enhanced service meeting each train around park 'peak' hours to the Resort from Uttoxeter - perhaps subsidised by East Midlands Trains and/or the park - a bit like the deal Virgin Trains used to have from Stoke in conjunction with the shuttle bus & entry. I would imagine this would have lower overheads than Towers' own bus services.