North Downs Line engineering works timetable (31/03/2024 & 06-07/04/2024)

[infobleep]

This Sunday there is engineering works on the North Downs Line.

I've noticed some long waits between buses and trains. There are buses between North Camp and Shalford.

If one was travelling from Reading they would depart at 9:50, get to North Camp at 10:23, wait for 17 minutes and then get the 10:40 bus. This would get to Shalford at 11:15 and then they would have a 28-minute wait for the 11:43 train to Redhill.

Does anyone know why the gaps need to be so long and also why trains cannot run to Gatwick Airport from Shalford?

Are they allowing people to travel via Clapham Junction, as they did during the recent week-long engineering works?

I will be travelling via Clapham Junction myself.

 

[greaterwest]

Worth noting that at each end, the connection will already be waiting. In your example, the train arrives from Redhill at 11:15 too it's not like people will be waiting in the cold on the platform.

At North Camp end the bus will almost certainly waiting outside the front of the station as well.

The GWR website says this about ticket acceptance:

Sunday - All day, trains will be reduced to hourly, and will be replaced by buses between North Camp / Ash, Guildford and Shalford.
Most trains will also not run between Redhill and Gatwick Airport. Passengers should use other operators’ services to travel to / from
Gatwick Airport, on which valid GWR tickets will be accepted

 

[30907]

I presume the rationale is to maintain the normal times either side of the block.

 

[infobleep]

Worth noting that at each end, the connection will already be waiting. In your example, the train arrives from Redhill at 11:15 too it's not like people will be waiting in the cold on the platform.

At North Camp end the bus will almost certainly waiting outside the front of the station as well.

The GWR website says this about ticket acceptance:

I didn't check the arrival times of the trains. At least it won't be peiole out in the cold.

Despite what I said, I am actually tempted to do it, given the train is already in the platform but I might not be able to spare the additonal time it will take vers going via Clapham Junction.

Surprised most trains can't go to Gatwick Airport but its possible some platforms are out of use for engineering works at Gatwick Airport.

I see that they aren't allowing travel via Clapham Junction then, like they did during the week+ long engineering works.

If it is good enough for the week+, why not tomorrow?

 

[CarrotPie]

Surprised the trains can't go to Gatwick Airport but its possible some platforms are out of use for engineering works at Gatwick Airport.

Perhaps it would just about require an extra unit and set of crew, which would sit idle for most of the extra hour.

 

[infobleep]

Perhaps it would just about require an extra unit and set of crew, which would sit idle for most of the extra hour.

They have run trains from Guildford to Gatwick Airport during previous engineering works, stopping at smaller stations too and this train stops at Shalford but I haven't checked if two trains overlapped around Shalford, which might be a problem.

The only train to go to Gatwick Airport is the 23:54. That gets to Redhill 0:30 and Gatwick Airport 0:42.

There are no trains, I could see that don't stop at Redhill but are going south of Gatwick Airport, except for the 0:49 but as that runs 7 minutes later, it isn't a connection you will be presented with.

So one could wonder why the 23:54 goes to Gatwick Airport but no others do.

I will need to check the timetable closely to understand this more.

I know GWR were very keen to run two trains an hour to Gatwick Airport so to be running none, apart from the last one isn't great. I do accept engineering works are needed but still not great for them.

 

[JonathanH]

Looks like the path to get down to Gatwick and back simply doesn't exist. The GWR trains are at Redhill xx16-xx44. There is a Reigate to Tonbridge service which arrives at Redhill at xx20, departing at xx24. There is a Three Bridges to Bedford train which calls at the stations south of Redhill and runs at the time the GWR train would need to run up from Gatwick.

Also, only two units east of the block.

Funnily enough, on 14 April, GWR services run east of Shalford only on completely different timings and do get down to Gatwick and back, again with two units, and a slow line block south of Earlswood.

 

[30907]

Funnily enough, on 14 April, GWR services run east of Shalford only on completely different timings and do get down to Gatwick and back, again with two units, and a slow line block south of Earlswood.

Yes, they are basically adapting the regular Gatwick service - but the bus is only to Guildford not N Camp.

 

[infobleep]

Looks like the path to get down to Gatwick and back simply doesn't exist. The GWR trains are at Redhill xx16-xx44. There is a Reigate to Tonbridge service which arrives at Redhill at xx20, departing at xx24. There is a Three Bridges to Bedford train which calls at the stations south of Redhill and runs at the time the GWR train would need to run up from Gatwick.

Also, only two units east of the block.

Funnily enough, on 14 April, GWR services run east of Shalford only on completely different timings and do get down to Gatwick and back, again with two units, and a slow line block south of Earlswood.

Reflecting on this further, I think the GWR times are the stopping trains times that happen on a regular Sunday.

I guess the time it might take the bus to reach Shalford, might mean they can't run in the usual Guildford path without an even longer delay.

I think there was talk of eventually have two trains an hour to Gatwick Airport on a Sunday. If that ever did occur, would they still have the stopping train terminate at Redhill during engineering work such as this? I'm not even sure what path such a train would be able to use.

At least the wait at Redhill is only 15 minutes. Better than 30 minutes, which I've come across in the past.

I also hadn't noticed that they run Reigate to Tonbridge services.

Yes, they are basically adapting the regular Gatwick service - but the bus is only to Guildford not N Camp.

This also happened earlier this month, if I recall correctly. I can't remember which starting station but the regular Guildford fast slot was used to stop at additional stations on route to Gatwick Airport.

I don't know what work is being done but they are only using one day to close part of the NDL, as opposed to the whole Easter weekend.

So for fun I got the 10 am bus. It departed just under a minute early and we arrived into Shalford 8 minutes early!

So much so I was able to get some photos and still get to the station 5 minutes before the incoming train was due to arrive.

I now intend to relax on the train for 28 minutes prior to it's departure.

Only two of us here so should be fairly quiet. More got off than getting on though.

There is more engineering works this weekend. This time between Guildford and Redhill. The summary document says there are buses between Guildford and Redhill/Gatwick Airport.

However, on the Saturday no buses are showing up and when I do a search on the Sunday, no buses to Gatwick Airport show up, only to Redhill.

I appreciate GWR are on strike on Saturday but South Western Railway are not, so surely there must be people travelling from SWR stations who want to travel to GWR stations along the route. Or from Govia Thameslink Railway stations to stations along the GWR route, or to change onto SWR services.

I bet if SWR ran services from Guildford to Gatwick Airport, the buses would be running. If SWR did and SWR were on strike on Saturday, they would not be.

This comes across to be a silo mentality and silo thinking.

I sent a post, formally known as a tweet, to GWR_help and got the following reply.

Hi Tim. As industrial action is taking place this weekend, I'm afraid there aren't any rail replacement buses scheduled to run.

If you have purchased tickets, you can claim a full refund via this link refunds.gwr.com selecting Service Cancelled/Disrupted as the reason - Alexandra

https://twitter.com/GWRHelp/status/1775228634707444028?t=esNNTRQeDwo0fT48610X_A&s=19

I replied that their train drivers didn't drive the buses.

I do appreciate people cannot get to Reading but there must be a reasonable number of people who rarely venture west of Guildford as that is an interchange with other train companies. I don't often go west but do go east a lot.

I mean GWR are still running trains on the Monday when SWR and GTR are not and if the issue is people thinking they can get to their destination, wouldn't they think that on the Monday as not everyone's destination is on one rail company, in this case GWR.

If someone wants to provide a good reason for why I'm wrong on this matter then please do.