Likely Sunday cancellations - Summer 2020

[Cardiff123]

*This is NOT a thread to repeat the arguments about Sunday working. I just want some general advice form anyone 'in the know' on whether Sunday service running is likely to improve this summer.*

Obviously no one has a crystal ball, but I'm planning a trip to Edinburgh this summer, and I'm looking to travel Cardiff --> Paddington and Kings Cross --> Edinburgh on a Sunday in late June or July.

I'm well aware that for the last 2/3 years, Sundays in summer on many TOCs have been dire for cancellations due to 'shortage of train crew', e.g. TOCs not having enough drivers/guards volunteering to work on summer Sundays to run timetabled services. I know GWR has been particularly affected by this over recent summers.

Does anyone know if the situation with timetabled services running on summer Sundays is likely to be any better than it has been in previous years this summer? I'm particularly interested in GWR and LNER as those are the TOCs I'll be using. I know when it was at it's worst, GWR summer Sunday services were cancelled due to crew being on IET training and at one point in 2018 the football world cup was also blamed by GWR for not having enough train crew to run summer Sunday services. Have GWR recruited more guards/drivers now to mitigate this?

If summer Sundays are still going to be a lottery this year just like they have been every summer for the last few years on whether your service will run, I might just forget travelling up on a Sunday in late June or July and go in the week.

Any info/predictions appreciated.

 

[DannyMich2018]

in my opinion Cross Country seem to always run a full Sunday service with rare cancellations. Maybe look at using Cross Country to Edinburgh if you Dont mind Voyagers! The GWR Sunday service too last summer down dawlish looked good with no noticeable cancellations. I think you find more of a problem with engineering works rather than cancellations for some operators winter timetable been worse of course for that.

 

[Weekender]

The Cheltenham to Paddington Route is one to be avoided between April and October, most Sunday’s in the last two summer’s had between 50 and 100 percent cancellations due to shortage of train crew and will be very unlikely to improve this year.
The reason given for this is it’s a complete diagram there and back.
Last Sunday 50 percent of services were cancelled and due to the rugby at Twickenham the trains that did run were totally rammed. With advance ticket sales there’s no doubt that GWR would have known that this would be the case.

 

[Cardiff123]

in my opinion Cross Country seem to always run a full Sunday service with rare cancellations. Maybe look at using Cross Country to Edinburgh if you Dont mind Voyagers! The GWR Sunday service too last summer down dawlish looked good with no noticeable cancellations. I think you find more of a problem with engineering works rather than cancellations for some operators winter timetable been worse of course for that.

I've been to Scotland up the West Coast a couple of times, but I've never been up the East Coast further than York, and the line up to Edinburgh beyond York is supposedly very scenic, so I'd like to go to Edinburgh up the East Coast from Kings Cross if I can.

The Cheltenham to Paddington Route is one to be avoided between April and October, most Sunday’s in the last two summer’s had between 50 and 100 percent cancellations due to shortage of train crew and will be very unlikely to improve this year.
The reason given for this is it’s a complete diagram there and back.
Last Sunday 50 percent of services were cancelled and due to the rugby at Twickenham the trains that did run were totally rammed. With advance ticket sales there’s no doubt that GWR would have known that this would be the case.

The Euro 2020 football tournament is taking place from mid-June to mid-July, so I guess on any Saturdays or Sundays that England are playing, GWR and other TOCs may again roll out that as an excuse for there being not enough train crew to work all timetabled weekend services.