The Midnight Train...?

[D1537]

There's a 0001 from Euston to Wolverhampton, among others.

AFAIK there hasn't been a later train to Wolverhampton than 23.30 for some years.

 

[Dstock7080]

LU have timetabled trains at 24:00 and 00:00¼

 

[JonathanH]

For ticketing purposes, one day ends at 0429 and the next starts at 0430

Ticket machines sell tickets for the new day from 0000 though.

 

[Steve Harris]

Pedantically, the last train to Brighton isn't at 00.02. Its the first train!

In railway terms it would be one of the last trains of the day.

Indeed @najaB , as Day Return ticketing runs from approx 4am until 4am the following day ! So in that sense, it's (pendantically) the last train of the day.

 

[Shrop]

Unles sperhaps you are taking a trip to visit a friend called Georgia, and happen to be leaving at 00:00?

But that's the point, no trains anywhere in the UK leave at 00.00!

 

[najaB]

But that's the point, no trains anywhere in the UK leave at 00.00!

Well, none are timetabled to depart at 00:00. Of course, the "midnight train" might be one that arrives at 00:00.

 

[Glenn1969]

I guess the 2359 Kings Cross to Cambridge train is a near as we get

 

[Western Sunset]

I'd go for the 00:01, as they tend to close the platform earlier than the booked departure time.

 

[Eloise]

In TPS we plan up to 23:59 and then if the train runs over midnight it becomes +1 00:00½ or +1 00:13:00 etc. I've seen 25:01:00 used on TfL systems.

I've seen many caught out with say a Weds Only 00:02:00 freight departure from origin retimed to leave at 23:55:00 and forgetting it will now become a Tues Only service.

 

[Bletchleyite]

On a Saturday night/Sunday morning the last train from Euston is 0010, 0015 or somewhere between the two (has a habit of varying from timetable to timetable, but never outside that window).

 

[Royston Vasey]

In TPS we plan up to 23:59 and then if the train runs over midnight it becomes +1 00:00½ or +1 00:13:00 etc. I've seen 25:01:00 used on TfL systems.

I was in Japan during the last World Cup, and the bar I was in advertised fixtures as, e.g. Tuesday 27:00 rather than Wednesday 03:00. Makes perfect sense in the same way since like a 1am train, patrons are far more likely to be "still up" than "getting up".

 

[6Gman]

For many years the York Mail used to leave Crewe at 00.01 and - curiously - for some time the Down West Coast Postal was booked to leave at midnight (in pre high tech days this may have been less important). Though since the York Mail tended to use either 1B or 2B and the Postal used 2 there will have been a conflict at North Junction!

 

[BluePenguin]

She took the midnight train going anywhere. Street lights, people. Boy was she such a fool. Then began to feel sick. She woke up at Wick having got drunk, fallen asleep and remembered there are no trains on Sundays

 

[davsarg]

Nothing romantic about Wolverhampton

I once had to spend most of the night on Wolverhampton station after having missed a connecting service, so I couldn't agree more!

 

[Eloise]

For many years the York Mail used to leave Crewe at 00.01 and - curiously - for some time the Down West Coast Postal was booked to leave at midnight (in pre high tech days this may have been less important). Though since the York Mail tended to use either 1B or 2B and the Postal used 2 there will have been a conflict at North Junction!

It's the older legacy systems that are the problem, not the newer ones.

 

[CHAPS2034]

I wish I could remember which was which, but one of the three Paddington-Penzance trains (Postal, News and sleeper) was the Waker and another the Owl.

One of the Postal/News used to run via Bath and Bristol and was known in those parts as the Leisurely as it took so long to complete it journey. Often featured a County up front. Used to see the down service passing my uncle's house in Bath in the early hours

 

[MotCO]

Are there any trains which, based on the previous hour's train's timetable, should arrive at 00.00? If it is scheduled to arrive at 23.59, but arrives late, say at 01.00, then there is a Delay Repay of over an hour. If the train is retimed to arrive at 00.01, then the same train would qualify for less Delay Repay

 

[JRT]

National Express uses 23:59 or 00:01 depending on whether it's classed as part of the previous day or not, when they used to have day returns and for peak day travel considerations, as their day started or finished at midnight this was important to charge the correct fare.

On the other hand, in the 1970s or 1980s:
My local bus service had a midnight special on Friday and Saturday nights, advertised as 24:00.

 

[47827]

The Paddington - Penzance overnight has departed at various times over the years, but was always known (amongst the cranky bashers at least) as the "Down Midnight".
The corresponding Up service had / has a departure time from Plymouth (rather than origin time from Penzance) of shortly after midnight too, so that became the "Up Midnight".
Are these terms still used for these trains?

There had been periods where departure was at 2359 or 0001 too, although the train had actually set off at midnight on the dot too if that ties in with the actual time it was dispatched. Very often it used to be advertised as going earlier than the time that the time the station staff and crew were given to send it out though (e.g 2350). Also recall it having an 0010 booked departure a few times. Mostly from Paddington, but the train did have a few years booked off London Waterloo.

 

[ian1944]

It doesn't do to take things too literally, don't forget all of the milk and fish trains. I always assumed that "let the midnight special shine its light on me" referred to the (approximate) time it passed the prison, and nothing to do with the unknown start place or time.

 

[JKF]

In railway terms it would be one of the last trains of the day.

It is confusing for passengers as post-midnight trains are (or were) listed at the start of the timetable. I remember a sense of panic at Bradford Interchange a few years back thinking I was stranded when I couldn’t find the last train back to Leeds.

 

[Horizon22]

As some have said, a planning colleague told me trains can physically not be timetabled to depart (that includes station calls) at 00:00. Therefore everything is 23:59 or 00:01

 

[Spartacus]

I've seen many caught out with say a Weds Only 00:02:00 freight departure from origin retimed to leave at 23:55:00 and forgetting it will now become a Tues Only service.

If I remember right TrainPlan used to change it for you, as long as it wouldn't lead to an impossible combination of days, such as an SX becoming SUNFSX. That used to confuse people when their say SO freight kept switching to a FO one because they were backtiming it. The FOCs would sometimes query it on their offer too, not having released what had happened. I can't remember what protim used to do.

 

[miami]

The central line working timetable has trains arriving/departing at 2359, 2400 and 2401

https://content.tfl.gov.uk/cen-wtt-70.pdf

Page 52 for example, Westbound M-Th

Depart Epping platform 2 at 23:45.5
Buckhurst Hill at 23:57.25
Woodford platform 2 at 24:00
Leytonstone arrival at 00:07.5

Metropolitan has a 24:00 departure from Chesham too

Page 95 on a Saturday

https://content.tfl.gov.uk/wtt-342-metropolitan-12-september-2021.pdf

Page 93 has a 00:00 1/2 depature from Preston Road, Page 59 00:00 1/2 from Moor Park

 

[ChrisHogan]

I wish I could remember which was which, but one of the three Paddington-Penzance trains (Postal, News and sleeper) was the Waker and another the Owl.

2225 was the TPO; 0030 was the Newspaper Train and the 0005 was the passenger/sleeper. I never heard the last referred to as the "Down Midnight" in the nine years I worked at Paddn. Some staff referred to it as the "Big Sleeper", a term transferred from the 0055 all-sleeping car train that ceased to run in the early 1970s (I think).

 

[Eloise]

Are there any trains which, based on the previous hour's train's timetable, should arrive at 00.00? If it is scheduled to arrive at 23.59, but arrives late, say at 01.00, then there is a Delay Repay of over an hour. If the train is retimed to arrive at 00.01, then the same train would qualify for less Delay Repay

If a train was booked to arrive WTT at 00:00:00 you would always go later to 00:01:00. This is splitting hairs really. If you really wanted to argue the point to the second then there are systems that would show you exact arrival.

If I remember right TrainPlan used to change it for you, as long as it wouldn't lead to an impossible combination of days, such as an SX becoming SUNFSX. That used to confuse people when their say SO freight kept switching to a FO one because they were backtiming it. The FOCs would sometimes query it on their offer too, not having released what had happened. I can't remember what protim used to do.

I can't remember that level of detail in TrainPlan. It took some memory to remember how you locked a reference time in, TPS uses a lock. TrainPlan you put the actual time in and it locked it at a given location. You could also put ?|23:50 and it would calculate your dwell up to 23:50 if you had another reference time. I miss that. "/" in the column was just a passing time.

 

[AndrewE]

The central line working timetable has trains arriving/departing at 2359, 2400 and 2401

https://content.tfl.gov.uk/cen-wtt-70.pdf

Page 52 for example, Westbound M-Th

Depart Epping platform 2 at 23:45.5
Buckhurst Hill at 23:57.25
Woodford platform 2 at 24:00
Leytonstone arrival at 00:07.5

Metropolitan has a 24:00 departure from Chesham too

Page 95 on a Saturday

https://content.tfl.gov.uk/wtt-342-metropolitan-12-september-2021.pdf

Page 93 has a 00:00 1/2 depature from Preston Road, Page 59 00:00 1/2 from Moor Park

The Cook's Continental Timetable used to say explicitly (when the BR timetable was silent on the subject) "Midnight arrivals are shown as 2400 [of the previous day] while departures are shown as 0000."
I thought it was typical that we fudged the issue and patronised people by changing the time away from what was in the WTT, while "they" didn't attempt to hide a time between 2359 and 0001.

The other thing that really annoys me is people using am and pm when talking about 12.00. It's a nonsense and not helpful in any way. 12 am and pm can only be midnight, as it is both before and after noon. Noon is 12 Noon or midday, the other 12 o'clock is 2400 (or 0000) or midnight.

 

[najaB]

It's a nonsense and not helpful in any way. 12 am and pm can only be midnight, as it is both before and after noon.

It might, strictly speaking, be a nonsense however it is a generally accepted convention that 12am is midnight and 12pm is noon. If you want to split hairs like that then the clock should really run from 0 to 11.

 

[Mainline421]

Indeed @najaB , as Day Return ticketing runs from approx 4am until 4am the following day ! So in that sense, it's (pendantically) the last train of the day.

Surpsied to see this hasn't been corrected on this forum, but the railway actually uses 28 hour overlapping days from 00:00 to 04:29. So it's quite legitimate to purchase a day return for tavel on the 00:01 and return in the afternoon. In fact it wouldn't be possible to purchase a ticket for the previous day after midnight, I've done this a couple of times.

 

[Bovverboy]

I once had to spend most of the night on Wolverhampton station after having missed a connecting service, so I couldn't agree more!

Spending most of the night on Widnes* station didn't do Paul Simon any harm.

* Widnes is where the plaque has been placed. In reality, even Paul Simon isn't sure which station he was on.

In TPS we plan up to 23:59 and then if the train runs over midnight it becomes +1 00:00½ or +1 00:13:00 etc. I've seen 25:01:00 used on TfL systems.

The last time I saw a Manchester Metrolink working timetable it referred to post-midnight times as 24.xx, 25.xx, and 26.xx.