Interestingly the ECML seems busier than the WCML at weekends in my limited experience.
The WCML does have more long distance trains per hour to spread demand across (9 per hour vs 5-6 per hour)
Interestingly the ECML seems busier than the WCML at weekends in my limited experience.
Yikes. Does appear they're running the Statford-Stortford service through to Cambridge, will help a bitSpotted notices up at Cambridge station today; due to the expected busy-ness of trains, Greater Anglia are permitting only folding bikes on their services on 24/25th August.
Will grab the popcorn to watch the inevitable arguments unfold...
Teams of staff giving out leaflets at Stevenage station last night.
They really need to do this at weekends for the next 2 weeks - normal Monday-Friday commuters won't be affected by this. Overheard a couple of regular commuters talking on the train who said they knew nothing about the works, despite banners and posters being displayed at the station for the last couple of weeks.
I haven't heard any station announcements like we were bombarded with before the May 18 timetable changes or any onboard announcements (like the Geoff Marshall onces for the Brighton Mainline works). Both major omissions in my opinion.
It probably doesn't matter how much publicity there is, being a weekend (and a bank holiday one at that) it's pretty much guaranteed that hoards of people will present themselves at the stations for their family day-out to London/the beach/whatever, with slogans like "you'd think they'd do it some other time" or "we weren't told". Perhaps the best hope is that the weather is naff, which based on the rest of this summer is highly likely.
It probably doesn't matter how much publicity there is, being a weekend (and a bank holiday one at that) it's pretty much guaranteed that hoards of people will present themselves at the stations for their family day-out to London/the beach/whatever, with slogans like "you'd think they'd do it some other time" or "we weren't told". Perhaps the best hope is that the weather is naff, which based on the rest of this summer is highly likely.
Couldn’t agree more.
Like the people with a double buggy, + toddler in tow, causing chaos, delay and much annoyance on the packed rush hour service I was driving just after 0800 this morning...
I have no idea what the purpose of their journey was but I’ll bet they could have planned it better, in order to avoid the rush hour!
Couldn’t agree more.
Like the people with a double buggy, + toddler in tow, causing chaos, delay and much annoyance on the packed rush hour service I was driving just after 0800 this morning...
I have no idea what the purpose of their journey was but I’ll bet they could have planned it better, in order to avoid the rush hour!
There seems to be something in the water at this time of year!
Most parts of the line are due to re-open for the Monday - with a reduced service (but that’s normal for Bank hol Mons).Oh yes. Who needs a calendar? Can guarantee it’s weekend/bank holiday/school holiday just by getting handles pulled for family groups separated. As if that’s not bad enough, they then have the nerve to complain that it’s someone else’s fault (in other words normally the driver) that they chose to entrain whilst the doors were closing. Grr!
A good reason why I nowadays try to avoid discretionary rail travel at weekends if at all possible, except for journeys at highly obscure times.
Personally this work is a pain. No holiday for me on the Monday (not that I’d want it anyway, it’s bad enough when my holiday unavoidably clashes with a BH), so I’ll have to drive in. But being a BH this means a guaranteed hold-up as it passes a retail park. Still, better than screaming kids I suppose <sigh>.
Most parts of the line are due to re-open for the Monday - with a reduced service (but that’s normal for Bank hol Mons).
If you look at the data you'll find the majority of ECML passengers are actually GTR users and this is discussed in the first few pages of the thread.If you got out the usage statistics for the ECML over the whole year, I struggle to believe that the quietest period you can find for the London-Edinburgh railway is the August Bank Holiday, do Network Rail do this kind of route analysis before planning works? With the festival it's possibly the busiest weekend of the year. A random weekend in September, or possibly 2 days midweek in July when there would be fewer Scottish business travelers would seem obvious candidates.
If you got out the usage statistics for the ECML over the whole year, I struggle to believe that the quietest period you can find for the London-Edinburgh railway is the August Bank Holiday, do Network Rail do this kind of route analysis before planning works? With the festival it's possibly the busiest weekend of the year. A random weekend in September, or possibly 2 days midweek in July when there would be fewer Scottish business travelers would seem obvious candidates.
Noticed a banner up at peterborough announcing the closure of the drop off/pick up car park for a week
that is going to be chaos
I'm assuming one reason to do the works this particular Saturday and Sunday is in case there are any problems (let's face it, overrunning engineering work has been common even for more routine work on the ECML south of Peterborough this year) and services are disrupted on the bank holiday Monday.
I don’t think so, there’s going to be a lot more coaches needed so they need the space to pick up and drop off.
I know they have the bus/coach park to stable but unless they send passengers there instead they will need to use whatever space by the station.
they are moving drop off/pick up into the pay car park so what will happen is dozens of cars will try and pick up or drop off on the roundabout blocking it up as happens sometimes at the moment the other week it all got stuck for 10 minutes because 3 cars did just that and nothing could get in or out !! don't forget there are dozens of PH cars out there driven by individuals who have no respect for anyone and ignore the rules they will not think twice about blocking it all up
I see it most days
The 2002 EMT service from St.Pancras on Saturdays usually goes to Leeds but on 24th August it is terminating short at Sheffield.
The EMT site quotes 'Engineering work on the ECML' but I can't see how this would affect Sheffield-Leeds. It seems illogical not to run it through to Leeds on a Saturday evening when the ECML is closed.
Maybe so, but on the flipside an additional HST would provide some relief to the inevitably crush loaded XC services so it's just passing the problem to another TOC.
It probably doesn't matter how much publicity there is, being a weekend (and a bank holiday one at that) it's pretty much guaranteed that hoards of people will present themselves at the stations for their family day-out to London/the beach/whatever, with slogans like "you'd think they'd do it some other time" or "we weren't told". Perhaps the best hope is that the weather is naff, which based on the rest of this summer is highly likely.
Yep. That’s exactly what’ll happen.
Couldn’t agree more.
Like the people with a double buggy, + toddler in tow, causing chaos, delay and much annoyance on the packed rush hour service I was driving just after 0800 this morning...
I have no idea what the purpose of their journey was but I’ll bet they could have planned it better, in order to avoid the rush hour!
There seems to be something in the water at this time of year!
https://twitter.com/LNER/status/1162265307609620481?s=19LNER on Twitter (@LNER) said:#LNERUpdate Please be aware that our services are expected to be extremely busy today. A special ticket check will be in operation at #KingsCross and customers with reservations will be given priority for boarding. Customers with open tickets may be required to stand.
https://twitter.com/LNER/status/1162342151197548545?s=19LNER on Twitter (@LNER) said:We do expect services to be busy all weekend due to the Fringe. ^AB
Nothing "in the water", just the start of the biggest arts festival in Europe. And judging by LNER's Twitter feed, surprise surprise, it's been unmanaged chaos!
https://twitter.com/LNER/status/1162265307609620481?s=19
https://twitter.com/LNER/status/1162342151197548545?s=19
This suggests to me that they knew perfectly well that, on the first weekend of the Edinburgh Festival, their services would be significantly busier than usual but judging by the comments on their Twitter account, they have utterly failed to manage the demand effectively. But of course, on the weekend that the Fringe finishes and Newcastle Utd are playing Spurs away, everything will be just fine and dandy. Perfect time to close the line because demand will clearly be lower than usual and LNER have an effective, watertight, idiot-proof plan to manage passenger flow that won't fall apart in minutes. Obviously.
Indeed, to the point it might be worth keeping the 91/Mark4s to run extras to Edinburgh in August, if it is a quiet time for commuters they could reduce the number of commuter services to free up paths.
There is a thread on here somewhere that the 3rd bore closest to Kings Cross is being re-opened as part of the Kings Cross Re-modelling.I've two questions about the work being done at Kings Cross:
- Is it possible and would there be a benefit in reopening/reusing the 3rd Copenhagen Tunnel too?
- Has this work replaced the partial closure (link below) due to start in early 2020? https://www.railmagazine.com/news/network/plans-unveiled-for-237m-king-s-cross-remodelling
I've two questions about the work being done at Kings Cross:
- Is it possible and would there be a benefit in reopening/reusing the 3rd Copenhagen Tunnel too?
- Has this work replaced the partial closure (link below) due to start in early 2020? https://www.railmagazine.com/news/network/plans-unveiled-for-237m-king-s-cross-remodelling