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Should rail replacement bus services be timed to ARRIVE at the same time as the standard timetable?

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flitwickbeds

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Looking ahead to this weekend from my station Flitwick, where I commute every other weekend for shift work into London.

There is engineering work closing the line between Bedford and Luton, and therefore the dreaded rail replacement buses operating. They've allowed 35 minutes journey plus a 10 minute connection for what Google Maps says is a 33 minute car journey (without traffic or pickups). But that's another topic.

What really annoys me is that they have timed the first bus to depart Flitwick at roughly the same time as the first train would have departed Flitwick. The first train on Sundays according to the Thameslink timetable is the 0606, arriving into St Pancras at 0710. This Sunday the first bus departs Flitwick at 0605, arrives Luton at 0640 (it won't, see above!) and provides a connection (if you're lucky) to the 0650 train departure, which is scheduled to arrive at St Pancras at 0740.

Should rail replacement services start earlier, factoring in the extended journey time, so that connection can be made to the first (or last) "normally timetabled" train of the day?
 
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Plethora

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I think the consensus generally will be that leaving early inconveniences more people than arriving late. If services left early then regular users of the service might be caught out. Unfortunately replacement buses are always an imperfect solution since they will rarely be able to keep to train timings given the state of the country's roads.
 

underbank

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Surely you need several buses for each train, so you can have an earlier one and still have one running at the stated departure time. Can't see much point in having a convoy of them all setting off at the same time - surely better to have them there earlier, so the first can leave at a time to arrive at the final destination "on time", and subsequent buses can leave as they fill up throughout the day.
 

Bletchleyite

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Should rail replacement services start earlier, factoring in the extended journey time, so that connection can be made to the first (or last) "normally timetabled" train of the day?

Yes. Rail replacement should be timed to allow arrival at the earliest arrival time on the normal timetable, and for departure at the latest. This will necessarily mean a rather longer operating day.
 

flitwickbeds

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I think the consensus generally will be that leaving early inconveniences more people than arriving late. If services left early then regular users of the service might be caught out. Unfortunately replacement buses are always an imperfect solution since they will rarely be able to keep to train timings given the state of the country's roads.

I think you mis-understood what I meant. In my situation on Sunday I have to be in work at 7:30am. I would be more than happy to leave early (with an extended journey time) on a replacement bus as long as I can still arrive into London at the time I would have done if the normal train service was operating. As it stands, the first replacement bus leaves at the same time (well, 1 minute earlier) as the first timetabled train would have done were it not for the engineering works. However the bus journey duration is at least double, but probably closer to triple, the train journey duration to Luton where I can pick up the train *after* the one I would have done were the normal service running - assuming the connection works (which it won't). That leaves me the only option of arriving at my final destination much later.

My argument is that the buses should connect with the first train time (in this case from Luton) as on the train timetable, and not depart at the same time as the first train would have done.
 

edwin_m

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The ideal solution would be to run two buses, one departing earlier to arrive in time to connect into the scheduled onward service and one departing at the scheduled time and arriving later (which might also be the "early bus" for a later train). But I'm guessing the numbers on a service at 0730 on a Sunday are too small to justify doing that.
 

greatkingrat

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Looking ahead to this weekend from my station Flitwick, where I commute every other weekend for shift work into London.

There is engineering work closing the line between Bedford and Luton, and therefore the dreaded rail replacement buses operating. They've allowed 35 minutes journey plus a 10 minute connection for what Google Maps says is a 33 minute car journey (without traffic or pickups). But that's another topic.

What really annoys me is that they have timed the first bus to depart Flitwick at roughly the same time as the first train would have departed Flitwick. The first train on Sundays according to the Thameslink timetable is the 0606, arriving into St Pancras at 0710. This Sunday the first bus departs Flitwick at 0605, arrives Luton at 0640 (it won't, see above!) and provides a connection (if you're lucky) to the 0650 train departure, which is scheduled to arrive at St Pancras at 0740.

Should rail replacement services start earlier, factoring in the extended journey time, so that connection can be made to the first (or last) "normally timetabled" train of the day?

There is a 0535 bus from Flitwick, arriving Luton 0610.

http://www.realtimetrains.co.uk/bus/X65102/2019/06/23/advanced
 

Aictos

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Looking ahead to this weekend from my station Flitwick, where I commute every other weekend for shift work into London.

In much the same way as some of my colleagues have to commute but it's only for last weekend and this weekend.

There is engineering work closing the line between Bedford and Luton, and therefore the dreaded rail replacement buses operating. They've allowed 35 minutes journey plus a 10 minute connection for what Google Maps says is a 33 minute car journey (without traffic or pickups). But that's another topic.

What you have to remember is the fact that while a car is not limited and can hit 70mph, a bus/coach is limited to 50mph hence it has to be allowed that it will be slower as a example if you drove from St Neots to Peterborough in a car then you would arrive in Peterborough the same time that the rail replacement service would arrive at Huntingdon!

Least there is a service operating, think yourself lucky that you're not having to commute in August when the entire ECML south of Peterborough is shut with nothing running apart from LNER running a shuttle rail replacement service to Bedford.

That is far far worse then what the MML has!

What really annoys me is that they have timed the first bus to depart Flitwick at roughly the same time as the first train would have departed Flitwick. The first train on Sundays according to the Thameslink timetable is the 0606, arriving into St Pancras at 0710. This Sunday the first bus departs Flitwick at 0605, arrives Luton at 0640 (it won't, see above!) and provides a connection (if you're lucky) to the 0650 train departure, which is scheduled to arrive at St Pancras at 0740.

Very wrong as there is a earlier service from Flitwick as proven below:

There is a 0535 bus from Flitwick, arriving Luton 0610.

http://www.realtimetrains.co.uk/bus/X65102/2019/06/23/advanced

Quite correct which connects onto the 06:20 Thameslink from Luton to St Pancras International at 07:10.

http://www.realtimetrains.co.uk/train/G49297/2019/06/23/advanced

Which gets the OP into London a full 30 minutes before the time that the OP says they will get into London...

In my situation on Sunday I have to be in work at 7:30am.

You would be in work on time as there is a earlier service to the one you have stated which has been proven by two members.

Should rail replacement services start earlier, factoring in the extended journey time, so that connection can be made to the first (or last) "normally timetabled" train of the day?

Bearing in mind that rail timetables can be amended during engineering times and do connect with rail replacement services, I don't think there is any need to change the status quo especially as connections are thought of and are put into the timetables during any engineering works.
 
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