Christmas Day public transport in other countries.

So, as usual, the UK has to be different!

No public transport in Christmas Day is understandable (although still surprising there is no TfL in London), but a very limited service on Boxing Day seems ridiculous to me, as well as no service on New Years Day - a day which isn't really special for most people.

The UK is relatively more densely populated than the rest of Europe, so I think many bus routes and train lines would possibly be busier than many of the continental European ones.

Here in New York, the subways, buses and commuter rail services (Long Island Rail Road, Metro-North, NJ Transit), PATH are running a Sunday service (minus the usual engineering works) on Christmas Day.

Christmas Eve and day after Christmas (no Boxing Day holiday for us) trains are runnning on a regular weekday service.

Same pattern applies to New Year's Day and the run up before and after.

Having enjoyed a day with all my family (those who work and those who live a long way away) today which happens about once a year, at Christmas, funnily enough, you'd not get me to sell Christmas Day itself for all the tea in China. Boxing Day I'm less bothered about (I'm volunteering on a steam railway to allow folks to enjoy a ride out and boxing day lunch there as it happens) - provided it allows a sufficiently late start for indulgence on Christmas Day.

LowLevel said:

Having enjoyed a day with all my family (those who work and those who live a long way away) today which happens about once a year, at Christmas, funnily enough, you'd not get me to sell Christmas Day itself for all the tea in China.

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That's why Christmas Day transport is necessary and why it is provided in most countries. So that we can visit our friends and family. I travelled from Amsterdam to Essen and then onto Düsseldorf yesterday and trains, trams and buses were well used.

I was working on Christmas Day, and I too needed public transport (which I had). It was pretty packed, too.

radamfi said:

That's why Christmas Day transport is necessary and why it is provided in most countries. So that we can visit our friends and family. I travelled from Amsterdam to Essen and then onto Düsseldorf yesterday and trains, trams and buses were well used.

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As long as it's not at the cost of someone losing their own day on a compulsory basis that's all fine and dandy. I've often thought, subject to anything else that's going on like engineering work, that if a service based on volunteers can be provided it should be - provided its accepted that it can be pulled at no notice without compensation if anyone hasn't volunteered to fulfil key positions.

I post that as someone who has a 110 mile Christmas Day round trip to visit their family - at 2045 on Christmas Eve I was still at work cleaning vomit off my boots from an overindulged passenger so on Christmas Day I abstained from alcohol for most of the day and drove. I accept this as a necessity for others to enjoy their day and in the mean time I taxi around friends and family on the day as well.

I make my life choices and I make things work around them.

If there is no public transport then private car use shouldn't be allowed either as it requires an increase in police, ambulance and hospital staffing to deal with accidents. There are also breakdown services and traffic management staff required to work.

radamfi said:

If there is no public transport then private car use shouldn't be allowed either as it requires an increase in police, ambulance and hospital staffing to deal with accidents. There are also breakdown services and traffic management staff required to work.

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Again, those who wish to volunteer - crack on. Those of us who don't wish to (bearing in mind the oft quoted saying on here that you should know what you're getting into before you take a job) and have the hallowed 'turns booking on between 0001 and 2359 on the 25th and 26th December shall be booked off duty' in their contracts can carry on enjoying their Christmas in whichever way they see fit, having taken responsibility for sorting out their movements.

This is what I signed up for after all.

LowLevel said:

Again, those who wish to volunteer - crack on. Those of us who don't wish to (bearing in mind the oft quoted saying on here that you should know what you're getting into before you take a job) and have the hallowed 'turns booking on between 0001 and 2359 on the 25th and 26th December shall be booked off duty' in their contracts can carry on enjoying their Christmas in whichever way they see fit, having taken responsibility for sorting out their movements.

This is what I signed up for after all.

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The same applies to our railway. You're entitled to a day off on a public holiday. However if one is rostered on and works said day you are entitled to be paid at a rate of time and a half and get a day off in lieu or you can take double time and not have a day off. Theres a whole bunch of allowances and penalty rates that get paid which is part of the EBA.

I don't think our drivers, OJTs and PDs complained about the money they made christmas day.

In the Netherlands, we have a one-year-on-and-one-year-off kind of thing. Being on duty with Christmas and New Year, and have the days off at Easter and Pentecost, and next year work the Easter and Pentecost holidays and have Christmas and New Year off.
For every holiday that you work, you'll get an extra day off and, besides the regular bonuses an extra bonus for having to work on a holiday.
It has been like that for many years. People with different religions may swap the Christian holidays with the ones of their own religion.

radamfi said:

Just checked Oslo and Helsinki and they are both running the whole day on Christmas Eve with some reductions from 4pm with some smaller towns near Helsinki having no service from then.
Helsinki doesn't start on Christmas Day until 1030 which is quite a shutdown compared to most places. Some small towns have no service.
Is there actually a significant place that has no service in the evening on Christmas Eve?

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Quite a few commuter trains in the Helsinki region and the main and highspeed lines (Riihimäki and Lahti) are running. Bus services are sparse after 6pm on the 24th and until the morning of the 25th. Note that by tradition 6pm on the 24th is the official start of Christmas, at this time Santa will start arriving and people's houses (after the Christmas meal) and deliver, personally, presents to children. The 25th is a quiet day of exhausion and digestion of food where people usually stay at home and visiting is kept to a minimum. People tend to go out walking on the 25th rather than travel somewhere.

Note that there are extra bus services in Helsinki serving the cemetaries.

Here are the commuter rail changes for the 24th and 25th (in Finnish and Swedish - the letters refer to the routes) https://www.hsl.fi/sites/default/files/uploads/joulu_2018_lahijunat.pdf The longer distance commuter trains actually run at regular intervals until late a night.

On the 1st there are additional trains in the morning: https://www.vr.fi/cs/vr/fi/ajankohtaista

Google translate is your friend here, but Finnish isn't that hard really


t.

Ian

My son flew into Manchester from Australia on Christmas Day, and looking at flight tracking web sites the skies were still very busy.
Asia and the Middle East seemed normal, Europe was quieter and mostly dominated by long-distance services to/from all parts.
But still plenty of business at main UK airports, including people like Thomas Cook flying to the Caribbean/USA, and BA running a substantial long-haul timetable.
Ryanair and EasyJet (intra-Europe) didn't seem to be flying.
It seems to me quite incongruous that airports are in full operating mode (if with reduced fights), but the connecting trains are completely absent.
If we can do without trains on Dec 25/26, we can do without them altogether, is one line of thinking.
And all because of BR cost/service reductions in the 1970s, which we seem incapable of reversing.
Meanwhile the other half of the railway (the engineers) are at peak activity, with most major routes manned and operational for them.

A lot of things are in full operating mode on Christmas... I can see why the railway people are trying to keep that privilege, but it's really just that, a privilege. I can't think of any acceptable reason as to why it should go on like that. I learnt here that some TOCs still have things like sundays out and so on, so the 25th Dec thing doesn't surprise me too much, but it's really weird if you think of it!
As a foreigner, it just looks to me like Christmas there is more important than a public service, and, in the end, that trains don't really matter that much.

axlecounter said:

A lot of things are in full operating mode on Christmas... I can see why the railway people are trying to keep that privilege, but it's really just that, a privilege. I can't think of any acceptable reason as to why it should go on like that. I learnt here that some TOCs still have things like sundays out and so on, so the 25th Dec thing doesn't surprise me too much, but it's really weird if you think of it!
As a foreigner, it just looks to me like Christmas there is more important than a public service, and, in the end, that trains don't really matter that much.

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It's not a privilege, it's a contractual right