I completely agree with all those who have made the point that nowhere in the north can come anywhere near comparing with London at peak times. The hoards of commuters that travel in and out of London each day cannot be compaired with any other city in the uk but only with other world cities.
However, what always amazes me when I’m in London or other parts of the Sourth East are the large numbers of long trains of 8 carriages or more, running around at high frequency off peak, carrying very few passengers. This is not just in the middle of the day but also at weekends, especially Sundays. Long trains are running at such regular intervals to destinations like East Grinstead, Tattenham Corner, Epsom Downs, Caterham etc, carrying fresh air. Even longer distance trains, again of 8 or more carriages, especially around the Kent Coast, I have found very lightly loaded off peak and at weekends outside of the holiday season. I do understand that they need all that capacity at peak times and so the trains are sometimes left in the same formation all day.
Now compare this with services outside of London running between major cities like Sheffield or Leeds to Manchester with only 2 or 3 carriages. It’s unelievable that Cross Country are running between major cities with 4 and 5 carriage trains when even on a Sunday somewhere like East Grinstead get 2tph probably with 8 carriages on each train.
Yes, I agree London and the South East in the peak is so completely different from the north and cannot be compared. However, off peak i think it’s very unfair that on many routes you can almost have a complete carriage to yourself when in the north even off peak we are squashed into 2 or 3 carriages sometimes on quite major routes.
However, what always amazes me when I’m in London or other parts of the Sourth East are the large numbers of long trains of 8 carriages or more, running around at high frequency off peak, carrying very few passengers. This is not just in the middle of the day but also at weekends, especially Sundays. Long trains are running at such regular intervals to destinations like East Grinstead, Tattenham Corner, Epsom Downs, Caterham etc, carrying fresh air. Even longer distance trains, again of 8 or more carriages, especially around the Kent Coast, I have found very lightly loaded off peak and at weekends outside of the holiday season. I do understand that they need all that capacity at peak times and so the trains are sometimes left in the same formation all day.
Now compare this with services outside of London running between major cities like Sheffield or Leeds to Manchester with only 2 or 3 carriages. It’s unelievable that Cross Country are running between major cities with 4 and 5 carriage trains when even on a Sunday somewhere like East Grinstead get 2tph probably with 8 carriages on each train.
Yes, I agree London and the South East in the peak is so completely different from the north and cannot be compared. However, off peak i think it’s very unfair that on many routes you can almost have a complete carriage to yourself when in the north even off peak we are squashed into 2 or 3 carriages sometimes on quite major routes.
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