Thameslink Services / Timetable from 18 May 2019

Hadders · 25 May 2019

MikeWM said:
So, tomorrow, we should finally get a sensible Saturday service back on the GN side.

Doesn't look like it.

Nationalrail.co.uk

Fewer trains than usual will run between London Kings Cross and Peterborough today.

A number of services will be cancelled between London Kings Cross and Peterborough today due to the temporary unavailability of train crew. All stations will be served so you can travel as usual, but you may need to travel on a different train than originally planned. Your journey may take longer than usual or involve a change.

RailUK Forums

bionic · 25 May 2019

Hadders said:
Doesn't look like it.

Nationalrail.co.uk

Go easy on them, they've only had years to sort this out!

Kite159 · 25 May 2019

At least it looks like some of the Peterborough stopping services are still in the hands of 365s. That will please some.

Ianno87 · 25 May 2019

MikeWM said:
So, tomorrow, we should finally get a sensible Saturday service back on the GN side.

Or, well, mostly. The Ely to KGX will now take about 75 minutes rather than 100. Still, compared to the about 70 minutes it took before last year, that's still a step backwards. It still sits at Cambridge for 9 minutes for no obvious reason.

It gets overtaken by the CrossCountry. It has to depart tight behind the CrossCountry southwards from Cambridge, but can't arrive tight behind as this wouldn't allow time for a Cambridge North stop if following the XC all the way from Ely.

Pre-May 18 this was not necessary with an xx17 departure from Cambridge - now it needs to depart xx14 to get Welwyn to work. That's the difference.

Aictos · 25 May 2019

Kite159 said:
At least it looks like some of the Peterborough stopping services are still in the hands of 365s. That will please some.

Yeah, saw a pair this morning although they were of no use to me as they were heading to the wrong destination for me.

sefton · 25 May 2019

Well the new timetable changes mean a worse service for those using Great Northern to St Neots, Huntingdon, and Peterborough.

It now seems all the evening 'fast' trains to points north now have a stop added at Stevenage. Why? Stevenage now has a fast service every 15 minutes from St Pancras, so why do they need an additional set of services from Kings Cross which duplicates that from St Pancras (and delays those traveling to St Neots, Huntingdon, and Peterborough).

And to top it off the timings have been pushed back slightly so they no longer connect with the bus services at the destination stations. Marvelous.

radamfi · 25 May 2019

sefton said:
And to top it off the timings have been pushed back slightly so they no longer connect with the bus services at the destination stations. Marvelous.

It would make sense for bus timetables to be changed at the same time as train timetables. That happens in several other countries, such as the Netherlands, Belgium and Switzerland. The sheer folly of bus deregulation is a major barrier to this.

sefton · 25 May 2019

radamfi said:
It would make sense for bus timetables to be changed at the same time as train timetables. That happens in several other countries, such as the Netherlands, Belgium and Switzerland. The sheer folly of bus deregulation is a major barrier to this.

Leaving aside my memory of using regulated buses back in the 1970s being far worse than current, it really wouldn't be hard to liaise with the two bus companies involved. But then we are discussing a company who gives so little care for its customers that it got fined £5m for not being able to communicate.

ashkeba · 25 May 2019

sefton said:
Leaving aside my memory of using regulated buses back in the 1970s being far worse than current, it really wouldn't be hard to liaise with the two bus companies involved. But then we are discussing a company who gives so little care for its customers that it got fined £5m for not being able to communicate.

GTR is still GoAhead, isn't it? Who are the two bus companies and is it in their interest to blame GoAhead for a while before retiming?

sefton · 25 May 2019

ashkeba said:
GTR is still GoAhead, isn't it? Who are the two bus companies and is it in their interest to blame GoAhead for a while before retiming?

Go Whippet and Stagecoach.

It isn't that anyone is blaming anyone else. It appears to simply be that GTR hasn't bothered to make contact with the companies to let them know they have changed their timetables.

radamfi · 25 May 2019

sefton said:
Go Whippet and Stagecoach.

It isn't that anyone is blaming anyone else. It appears to simply be that GTR hasn't bothered to make contact with the companies to let them know they have changed their timetables.

Even if GTR don't tell them anything, it is easy enough for the bus companies to look at the train timetables when they go online. They only need 42 days notice to change timetables so there is plenty of time. All companies should be doing this as a matter of routine every spring and autumn.

sefton · 25 May 2019

radamfi said:
Even if GTR don't tell them anything, it is easy enough for the bus companies to look at the train timetables when they go online. They only need 42 days notice to change timetables so there is plenty of time. All companies should be doing this as a matter of routine every spring and autumn.

It isn't the bus companies changing the times, it is the train company.

It would be good customer service for the train company to notify the bus companies, but then expecting good customer service from a train company is being rather optimistic (you know, like actually employing enough drivers to be able to run their service).

radamfi · 25 May 2019

sefton said:
It isn't the bus companies changing the times, it is the train company.

It would be good customer service for the train company to notify the bus companies, but then expecting good customer service from a train company is being rather optimistic (you know, like actually employing enough drivers to be able to run their service).

Ideally, there should be continual consultation between the different operators but the default position should be for the bus companies to be continually reactive to train timetable changes. Train times change twice a year and the timetable change dates are known well in advance. The December timetable change date is even defined by an EU directive.

Steve Harris · 25 May 2019

radamfi said:
Ideally, there should be continual consultation between the different operators but the default position should be for the bus companies to be continually reactive to train timetable changes. Train times change twice a year and the timetable change dates are known well in advance. The December timetable change date is even defined by an EU directive.

But that is joined up public transport !!

That will never catch on you know

whoosh · 25 May 2019

radamfi said:
The December timetable change date is even defined by an EU directive.

Yes, which is why the only trains that run into mainland Europe from the UK changed their timetable last APRIL (which is neither December or May) to start a service from London to Amsterdam.
That to me means there's no reason not to change the timetables at the start of January, after all the Christmas engineering works and holiday alterations are out if the way, rather than have a couple of weeks of a new timetable at the beginning of December, only to throw it all into the air.

ComUtoR · 25 May 2019

I would support a new style of timetable which offered more flexibility by allowing changes at late notice to meet the changing demand through the year.

gingerheid · 25 May 2019

Just to be absolutely clear, would today still have been Network Rail's fault. Yes? :rolleyes:

Steve Harris said:
j****d u* public transport !!

Please! Language! We're British! Children might see that you typed that!

sefton · 25 May 2019

387star · 25 May 2019

Enough drivers at Horsham sign Peterborough now but still just two depot jobs and nothing on weekends

JonathanH · 25 May 2019

387star said:
Enough drivers at Horsham sign Peterborough now but still just two depot jobs and nothing on weekends

Does your message mean that only two weekday jobs from Horsham include work north of Finsbury Park and all the others involve a change of drivers there?

sefton · 25 May 2019

sefton said:
I see GTR are having fun playing with their toy train-set today, moving fresh air around but no actual customers -
http://www.realtimetrains.co.uk/train/G44018/2019/05/25/advanced
http://www.realtimetrains.co.uk/train/G44025/2019/05/25/advanced
http://www.realtimetrains.co.uk/train/G44029/2019/05/25/advanced

That is where they haven't cancelled them due to 'planning errors'
http://www.realtimetrains.co.uk/train/G44039/2019/05/25/advanced
http://www.realtimetrains.co.uk/train/W65594/2019/05/25/advanced
http://www.realtimetrains.co.uk/train/G44049/2019/05/25/advanced
http://www.realtimetrains.co.uk/train/G44057/2019/05/25/advanced
http://www.realtimetrains.co.uk/train/G44054/2019/05/25/advanced
http://www.realtimetrains.co.uk/train/G44063/2019/05/25/advanced

Perhaps they need to put the hat and the whistle back in the toy box and work out how to actually operate a service.

387star · 25 May 2019

JonathanH said:
Does your message mean that only two weekday jobs from Horsham include work north of Finsbury Park and all the others involve a change of drivers there?

No some Peterborough drivers sign Horsham too

Steve Harris · 25 May 2019

deleted

bramling · 25 May 2019

Hadders said:
Doesn't look like it.

Nationalrail.co.uk

Pretty shambolic evening, the departure board for my stations shows no fewer than seven cancellations in the next two hours alone. The only slight consolation is they appear to be spread out, one wonders if this is luck or design!

MikeWM · 25 May 2019

Ianno87 said:
It gets overtaken by the CrossCountry. It has to depart tight behind the CrossCountry southwards from Cambridge, but can't arrive tight behind as this wouldn't allow time for a Cambridge North stop if following the XC all the way from Ely.

Pre-May 18 this was not necessary with an xx17 departure from Cambridge - now it needs to depart xx14 to get Welwyn to work. That's the difference.

Thanks - so poor timetabling is to blame then. (Perhaps that is harsh, and it is a very complicated problem to solve, but I’m not sure what else you can call needing a 9 minute pathing delay on an ‘express’ service, less than 20 minutes into its journey, repeated every hour)

MikeWM · 25 May 2019

Hadders said:
Doesn't look like it.

I very carefully said ‘should’

. I’d have been surprised if they’d actually got it right.

I see their twitter today is continually pumping out the message ‘we have more drivers than ever’ - not sure that is exactly a helpful attitude in the circumstances.

387star · 25 May 2019

There's a new 2311 Horsham to Blackfriars Saturday night service

With London Bridge closed at night and no Peterborough weekend services it terminates there

Skimble19 · 26 May 2019

bramling said:
Pretty shambolic evening, the departure board for my stations shows no fewer than seven cancellations in the next two hours alone. The only slight consolation is they appear to be spread out, one wonders if this is luck or design!

It was planned to be spread out to make sure nowhere was left without a service for too long. Whilst the number of cancellations is far from acceptable it's better to spread them out than 2 hour gaps I suppose.

It does appear there were more cancelled than planned yesterday though so not too sure how well it worked in practice.

Aictos · 26 May 2019

Didn't see much issues with the Bedford to London line though, although was surprised that they put the Class 700/1s on the stopping services to Luton pretty much all day with only one Class 700/0 working to Luton!

JonathanH · 26 May 2019

387star said:
There's a new 2311 Horsham to Blackfriars Saturday night service

With London Bridge closed at night and no Peterborough weekend services it terminates there

About time too - the pattern of service from the South into Redhill on Saturday evenings has been very poor for the last year.

Thameslink Services / Timetable from 18 May 2019

Veteran Member

RailUK Forums

Member

Veteran Member

Veteran Member

Established Member

Member

Established Member

Member

Established Member

Member

Established Member

Member

Established Member

Member

Established Member

Established Member

Established Member

Member

On Moderation

Veteran Member

Member

On Moderation

Member

Veteran Member

Established Member

Established Member

On Moderation

Established Member

Established Member

Veteran Member