DfT advise TOCs that full timetable is to be restored on 6 July

[Jamesrob637]

I don’t know whether I am missing something but looking at the revised timetables for Monday 6th July Northern still do not seem to be improving the service between Sheffield and Leeds via Barnsley. There is still only 1tph which is the slow service via Castleford. I would have thought that at least the semi fast Leeds to Nottingham service ought to be running. There does now seem to be an hourly Sheffield to Nottingham train instead of the replacement bus which has been running in recent weeks. The hourly all stations Sheffield to Lincoln also continues.

The east seems to have fared quite badly so far hence I gave Northern a somewhat generous 4/10

 

[yorksrob]

For me, the current Hallam service is actually pretty good as the fasts didn't stop here most of the time anyway and we're getting 4 carriage 158's as opposed to 2 carriage 150's previously. That said, I could do with the all day long Huddersfield - Cass services coming back, if only to avoid the ludicrous one way system at Leeds !

 

[Jamesrob637]

From today LNR have made further changes to what was brought in on monday.

1tph liverpool - euston, no longer travels any further than birmingham.

1tph crewe - coventry, no longer runs past new street.

1tph crewe - london via trent valley, no longer runs past rugby.

Still the services can barely run despite no trains to london from the west midlands / north west

Still no Stoke to London with LNWR next week as I was looking at cheap slow trains from Manchester.

 

[johnnychips]

On my daily commute from Sheffield to Doncaster, the Northern trains have gone down from three to two a hour, the TPEs have gone from hourly to two hourly, and the XC services don’t run. However, no trains have been cancelled and they are very punctual.

 

[LAX54]

GEML will be SX service from Monday, but with a 20% reduction in the Inter City services.

 

[Scotrail314209]

Scotrail should really look into running later services on their routes.

Right now the vast majority of their services end at about 8pm on most if not all routes. This isn't great particularly for the commuter routes in and around Glasgow. The last train back on my local route is 19:45, which won't do when Scotland enters phase 3 with more things open.

Scotrail have also stated they have no plans to alter the timetable. So we are stuck with the early finish for the foreseeable.

 

[infobleep]

Well I just missed the 7:47 Guildford to Redhill service. The next one 8:31 to Redhill means a wait of 45 minutes at Redhill to get a train to Gatwick Airport. That's 4 minutes longer than it takes to get from Guildford to Gatwick when they run those services! The wait is due to the train getting into Redhill 2 minutes after a train to Gatwick Airport departs.

I can't wait for an improvement in the GWR services, which should be mid July. Now that they know they have more staff than they expected, I don't see why trains to Gatwick Airport won't be able to be resumed.

My trip today was to see people in my support bubble, so that they can watch the Austrian Grand Prix. Given the poor ticket buying experience today, I was tempted not to travel. South Western Railway are still saying no leisure travel at the station.

 

[LNW-GW Joint]

Today's message on the TfW web site:

Remember our services are still only for key workers and essential journeys.

The TfW timetable from July 6 contains a few extras but it is still effectively a Sunday service on many lines.

Covid-19 timetable from 29 March 2021

Transport for Wales | Buy Cheap Train Tickets and Check Train Times

tfwrail.wales

Avanti have increased their service Chester-Crewe but still a very limited Euston-Holyhead service.

 

[yorkie]

@LNW-GW Joint I understand the situation in Wales is different; any decision to change the timetable would be a matter for the Welsh Government. However for travel on TfW services in England, the relevant legislation and guidelines within England applies.

This may mean an unacceptably poor level of service for some TfW users in England, but they are not alone as Northern still have a limited service and are keeping up with the misleading information for one more today, and dropping it from Monday.

I was tempted not to travel.

That's what most franchised operators want.

South Western Railway are still saying no leisure travel at the station.

If this is to be discussed further it needs to be in a separate thread (see links I have provided in an earlier post), but I'll briefly say this: SWR and other unscrupulous train companies can say what they like; it doesn't change the facts that the legislation and Government guidance allow travel for any reason, and no-one is being (nor could be) denied travel on that basis.

 

[Bikeman78]

Today's message on the TfW web site:


The TfW timetable from July 6 contains a few extras but it is still effectively a Sunday service on many lines.

Covid-19 timetable from 29 March 2021

Transport for Wales | Buy Cheap Train Tickets and Check Train Times

tfwrail.wales

Avanti have increased their service Chester-Crewe but still a very limited Euston-Holyhead service.

It's much closer to a weekday timetable from tomorrow.
Maesteg to Gloucester turning round at Gloucester.
Cardiff to Holyhead will start at Shrewsbury.
Manchester to Llandudno will terminate at Chester with a shuttle from LLJ to Llandudno.
Crewe to Chester gets a very bad deal with most Avanti and some TFW not running.
The Valley Lines is a complete rewrite.

 

[PHILIPE]

It's much closer to a weekday timetable from tomorrow.
Maesteg to Gloucester turning round at Gloucester.
Cardiff to Holyhead will start at Shrewsbury.
Manchester to Llandudno will terminate at Chester with a shuttle from LLJ to Llandudno.
Crewe to Chester gets a very bad deal with most Avanti and some TFW not running.
The Valley Lines is a complete rewrite.

The service between Shrewsbury and Birmingham International is actually worse. There was an hourly service until last week but now large gaps during the off peak

 

[Howardh]

E-mail in my inbox from Northern r/e tomorrows extra peak trains, but still no change in the last train (Piccadilly/Bolton) being 2231 until September where it reverts back to normal. That's the whole of summer gone....

 

[mmh]

Today's message on the TfW web site:


The TfW timetable from July 6 contains a few extras but it is still effectively a Sunday service on many lines.

Covid-19 timetable from 29 March 2021

Transport for Wales | Buy Cheap Train Tickets and Check Train Times

tfwrail.wales

Avanti have increased their service Chester-Crewe but still a very limited Euston-Holyhead service.

There's no Euston to Holyhead service from tomorrow. There are a handful of Holyhead to Crewe Avanti services, with TFW running to Shrewsbury rather than Crewe as they been doing.

Manchester to Llandudno will terminate at Chester with a shuttle from LLJ to Llandudno.
Crewe to Chester gets a very bad deal with most Avanti and some TFW not running.

Crewe to Chester is 2tph, its normal service level - alternating TFW and Avanti shuttles, with a small number of the Avanti ones extending along the North Wales coast.

Llandudno reverts to mostly being a shuttle from Llandudno Junction. I'll be sad to see the novel Colwyn Bay to Conwy via Llandudno routing go, although I expect few passengers will miss it. (I should have used it on Friday for the sake of it - instead I got off at Junction and walked to Conwy)

It's a big increase in service along the coast and gets it approaching normal. Some of the connections at Llandudno Junction are very poor, but an hourly service with some extras is welcome after a few months of two hourly with the Llandudno diversion. Losing the direct Crewe service is a return to usual where almost any destination in England other than Manchester involves a Chester change, and returns connections to Wrexham and South Wales via the Marches.

Not as bad as I'd feared, although I genuinely worry for the future of Conwy Station, ironically after it had about a week of its best service in my lifetime.

 

[MDB1images]

I can't remember the exact details of TPE WCML but think it's at least 2 Preston-Glasgows added in the timetable, possibly another Liverpool-Glasgow added and a few of the earlier/later services are extended to Manchester/Airport from Preston.

 

[route101]

I can't remember the exact details of TPE WCML but think it's at least 2 Preston-Glasgows added in the timetable, possibly another Liverpool-Glasgow added and a few of the earlier/later services are extended to Manchester/Airport from Preston.

Why are the TPE starting and finishing at Preston?

 

[Huntergreed]

Why are the TPE starting and finishing at Preston?

I would ask the same of why the London - Scotland via Brum are stopping and starting at Preston, surely these could be extended up to Edinburgh and Central easily enough?

 

[route101]

Scotrail should really look into running later services on their routes.

Right now the vast majority of their services end at about 8pm on most if not all routes. This isn't great particularly for the commuter routes in and around Glasgow. The last train back on my local route is 19:45, which won't do when Scotland enters phase 3 with more things open.

Scotrail have also stated they have no plans to alter the timetable. So we are stuck with the early finish for the foreseeable.

I didnt realise the Edinburgh to Glasgow service dies out after 8 until someone mentioned it on here. Id though they would have hourly service until end of day.

Scotrail arent publishing timetables on the website , just pointing you to a journey planner.

 

[Bikeman78]

The service between Shrewsbury and Birmingham International is actually worse. There was an hourly service until last week but now large gaps during the off peak

I hadn't spotted that. I wonder why that is. I hope the 09:43 is four cars. The 09:33 TFW was the first off peak train and was always very busy.

 

[Bikeman78]

There's no Euston to Holyhead service from tomorrow. There are a handful of Holyhead to Crewe Avanti services, with TFW running to Shrewsbury rather than Crewe as they been doing.

Crewe to Chester is 2tph, its normal service level - alternating TFW and Avanti shuttles, with a small number of the Avanti ones extending along the North Wales coast.

There are some horrible gaps though. From Crewe trains depart at 10:25, 10:47, 12:24, 14:24 and 15:47.

 

[PHILIPE]

I hadn't spotted that. I wonder why that is. I hope the 09:43 is four cars. The 09:33 TFW was the first off peak train and was always very busy.

Judging by TFWs attitude designed to stop people travelling.

 

[Sand_elf]

EMR seem to have removed all timetables from their stations

 

[MDB1images]

Why are the TPE starting and finishing at Preston?

Not sure as not privvy to timetabling plans.
Theirs currently virtually no demand(an average service Manchester to Edinburgh will carry 20 pax top end, 6 bottom end).
Busiest times are currently the middle of the day.

Would have thought amongst other reasons that crewing issues with staff still shielding and staff out of route competence will be a big problem for most TOCs, I suspect the aim is to guarentee what you advertise manages to run.

 

[Bletchleyite]

EMR seem to have removed all timetables from their stations

This probably makes sense given that they'd be inaccurate!

 

[infobleep]

Not sure as not privvy to timetabling plans.
Theirs currently virtually no demand(an average service Manchester to Edinburgh will carry 20 pax top end, 6 bottom end).
Busiest times are currently the middle of the day.

Would have thought amongst other reasons that crewing issues with staff still shielding and staff out of route competence will be a big problem for most TOCs, I suspect the aim is to guarentee what you advertise manages to run.

Perhaps the peak time ticket period needs to shift to the middle of the day!

Joking aside, here is a poster at Redhill Station. Below it is a photograph of it.

Here is what it says:

Timetable changes
6 JULY
We will be introducing a new timetable from Monday 6 July.
Some new services to/from London Bridge will be served by red Gatwick Express branded trains.
Do check before you board as these may not stop at Gatwick Airport
For those customers whose journey is necessary please ensure you plan in advance at nationalrail.co.uk.
For everyone's satety, please tollow social distancing guidelines, avoid peak times and wear a face covering
Southern ThamesLink/ NetworkRail

I wonder how many people will not see such a poster; accidentally get in a Gatwick Express carriage, for a service skipping Gatwick Airport and miss Gatwick Airport itself, which was their destination. It happened in the past so no reason why the new timetable won't cause it to happen again. At least the poster mentions it. I'll leave it there.

 

[ForTheLoveOf]

Perhaps the peak time ticket period needs to shift to the middle of the day!

Joking aside, here is a poster at Redhill Station. Below it is a photograph of it.

Here is what it says:

View attachment 80443
I wonder how many people will not see such a poster; accidentally get in a Gatwick Express carriage, for a service skipping Gatwick Airport and miss Gatwick Airport itself, which was their destination. It happened in the past so no reason why the new timetable won't cause it to happen again. At least the poster mentions it. I'll leave it there.

How hard would it be to cover up/remove the Gatwick Express vinyls for as long as the Gatwick Express isn't running? It would be the obvious thing to do, so that means it won't happen

 

[Bletchleyite]

How hard would it be to cover up/remove the Gatwick Express vinyls for as long as the Gatwick Express isn't running? It would be the obvious thing to do, so that means it won't happen

Or just ensure that the units are allocated only to trains that do stop at Gatwick.

 

[Llandudno]

There's no Euston to Holyhead service from tomorrow. There are a handful of Holyhead to Crewe Avanti services, with TFW running to Shrewsbury rather than Crewe as they been doing.



Crewe to Chester is 2tph, its normal service level - alternating TFW and Avanti shuttles, with a small number of the Avanti ones extending along the North Wales coast.

Llandudno reverts to mostly being a shuttle from Llandudno Junction. I'll be sad to see the novel Colwyn Bay to Conwy via Llandudno routing go, although I expect few passengers will miss it. (I should have used it on Friday for the sake of it - instead I got off at Junction and walked to Conwy)

It's a big increase in service along the coast and gets it approaching normal. Some of the connections at Llandudno Junction are very poor, but an hourly service with some extras is welcome after a few months of two hourly with the Llandudno diversion. Losing the direct Crewe service is a return to usual where almost any destination in England other than Manchester involves a Chester change, and returns connections to Wrexham and South Wales via the Marches.

Not as bad as I'd feared, although I genuinely worry for the future of Conwy Station, ironically after it had about a week of its best service in my lifetime.

Hopefully the lack of trains at Conwy is only a short term issue, not great as the tourism lockdown ends next week though - I wonder if a TfW are providing rail replacement bus shuttles from Llandudno Junction to/from Conwy....some hope!

 

[Jamesrob637]

Not entirely COVID related but it seems that Northern are consistent at Heaton Chapel and Levenshulme on the next few Sundays. Since there is engineering work on the line through Altrincham to Chester, they are stopping an ex-Buxton 20min later than the absent ex-Chester, but only at the hours that the ex-Chester would stop even though Buxton to Manchester is hourly or two-hourly! At least the two stations don't lose out. Mind you the service towards Manchester is, even under normal circumstances. .. a word I will refrain from putting on here. Coming from Manchester it's at least once an hour under normal circumstances (the Buxton train!) so I don't know why all ex-Buxton couldn't stop in future, even at the detriment of the ex-Chester and you change in Stockport and wait for 15-20 minutes if coming from that way.

 

[Scotrail314209]

I didnt realise the Edinburgh to Glasgow service dies out after 8 until someone mentioned it on here. Id though they would have hourly service until end of day.

Scotrail arent publishing timetables on the website , just pointing you to a journey planner.

Yeah. I really have no clue why services die out after 8pm here. Considering other TOC's can run to their near normal last train times, Scotrail running to 8pm on the majority of routes is an issue.

Some stations end up with lengthy 2 hour gaps at that time in the evening. For example out of Glasgow Central High Level there are only 2 or 3 trains departing between 21:00 and 22:00.

21:05 XC to Edinburgh
21:17 SR to Lanark

 

[Jamesrob637]

Yeah. I really have no clue why services die out after 8pm here. Considering other TOC's can run to their near normal last train times, Scotrail running to 8pm on the majority of routes is an issue.

Some stations end up with lengthy 2 hour gaps at that time in the evening. For example out of Glasgow Central High Level there are only 2 or 3 trains departing between 21:00 and 22:00.

21:05 XC to Edinburgh
21:17 SR to Lanark

That is shoddy. Glasgow is a mini South London when it comes to all those circular routes out of Central.