24 hour rail service/timetable

[387star]

Edit worth noting swr scrapped such trains as the 0105 Waterloo to Southampton most nights before covid replaced with a bus taking over three hours

 

[30907]

Edit worth noting swr scrapped such trains as the 0105 Waterloo to Southampton most nights before covid replaced with a bus taking over three hours

To allow for allow engineering work - same reason as the overnight Brightons went some years ago.

 

[jamesst]

I guess it’s abit different at the minute due to coronavirus, probably isn’t as many passengers going there etc.

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 17 Nov 2020 ==

I suppose it wouldn’t be a nationwide thing, operators like Hull Trains and Grand Central obviously couldn’t

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 17 Nov 2020 ==

I’m personally surprised the Birmingham lines and Merseyrail aren’t 24 hours

Theres no way you could have a 24hr service round the Merseyrail loop line, the Liverpool underground takes a lot of maintenance.

 

[Horizon22]

I suppose a good number are to connect with other transport hubs. Luton & Gatwick Airport being the connections for Thameslink. I remember late trains to St. Albans being rather well loaded past midnight.

I can't imagine there's too many others although perhaps TfL/Crossrail will consider a Heathrow service in future.

 

[js1000]

TPE are still running a 24 hour service between York and Manchester and Sheffield and Manchester at the moment.

Is this really a 24 hour service though? I live near the Styal Line on the way to Manchester Airport and wouldn't classify it as an hourly "service".

 

[Horizon22]

There are very many fewer reasons to travel at night than there are to travel during the day. Some people work night shifts, some people work and take part in the 'nighttime economy' and other people might want to travel overnight rather than waste the day travelling, other people need to get to airports. That is about it though - you don't go out for travel overnight without a purpose. So whilst many people want to use trains by day, that doesn't automatically translate to a desire to do it overnight.

If you are travelling any distance, a coach is better overnight with the lights off than a train with the lights on. If you are travelling locally, you can hire a taxi. In some places, train use does exist overnight but it is really limited.

Even with night shifts though they are often not travelling at the dead of night - they'll often end/start at 2000/2100 & 0500 or 0600. Some staff may end at 0100/0200 (mainly I can think of public transport drivers/crew), but 0300 for example is one of the most dead times.

 

[Scotrail314209]

I think some overnight services in the future would be introduced on some routes across Central Scotland. I think the main contender for this would be Glasgow - Edinburgh via Falkirk High. You could run it hourly and call it all stations en-route (except maybe not Edinburgh Park) as that means it could serve the Glasgow suburbs, Falkirk as well as Polmont and Linlithgow.

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 18 Nov 2020 ==

Though it does have competition with the 900 service which I believe runs every 30 minutes or hourly all night. But that cuts out everything.

 

[D6975]

There used to be more night buses in Birmingham, but were withdrawn due to lack of demand. Same as Liverpool, Manchester, Leeds, pretty much the only two places to have a decent system are London and Edinburgh.

and Bristol. My normal bus home from the city centre isn't a night bus, but I have the choice of 2 buses that get me to within a short walk from home. (conveniently one leaves at xx00 and the other at xx30)

 

[clagmonster]

I have always maintained in a pre Covid world that the 24 hour services should extend southbound from Three Bridges to Brighton. Brighton had a thriving night economy before the pandemic hit and the last/first trains of the day most nights a week were actually quite well used to get to Haywards Heath / Gatwick / London. Even an hourly service would have sufficed. Not sure how strong the case study would be in the new world but right now it is dead.

North of Three Bridges is quadruple tracked, allowing either the fasts or slows to be closed for engineering access. Three Bridges - Keymer Jn is only double track with no easy diversionary route thus making Brighton harder to provide a 24 hour service for.

 

[Class 170101]

I think some overnight services in the future would be introduced on some routes across Central Scotland. I think the main contender for this would be Glasgow - Edinburgh via Falkirk High. You could run it hourly and call it all stations en-route (except maybe not Edinburgh Park) as that means it could serve the Glasgow suburbs, Falkirk as well as Polmont and Linlithgow.

I'd probably only serve Edinburgh, Haymarket and Glasgow Queen Street to allow it divert over many routes, calling at Polmont, Falkirk High etc limits you to one route, something NR would never accept.

Note that the TPE service only calls at Huddersfield between Leeds and Manchester Piccadilly to allow it to run via Hebden Bridge or via Stalybridge (and some weeknights its replaced by bus between Huddersfield and Brighouse).

 

[Scotrail314209]

I'd probably only serve Edinburgh, Haymarket and Glasgow Queen Street to allow it divert over many routes, calling at Polmont, Falkirk High etc limits you to one route, something NR would never accept.

Note that the TPE service only calls at Huddersfield between Leeds and Manchester Piccadilly to allow it to run via Hebden Bridge or via Stalybridge (and some weeknights its replaced by bus between Huddersfield and Brighouse).

Even if it was to divert, you could still serve Falkirk by calling at Falkirk Grahamston, as what occasionally happens when the e2g has to divert due to problems at Falkirk High

 

[Jamesrob637]

In Germany I had to catch a mid-morning Nürnberg to München ICE a couple of years ago, and I was astonished to see that, on a Sunday, it started in Hamburg at something like 04:30. This might have been a good incentive for Hannover residents to return from a Saturday night in HAM if DB offered cheap Advances. Which they might well have done to fill a few seats as ICE are long! It didn't even serve Düsseldorf or Frankfurt Airport so no airports were served by this train, another reason for my amazement at its schedule. Routing was Hamburg-Hannover-Göttingen-Frankfurt-Würzburg-Nürnberg-München.

 

[Bald Rick]

In Germany I had to catch a mid-morning Nürnberg to München ICE a couple of years ago, and I was astonished to see that, on a Sunday, it started in Hamburg at something like 04:30. This might have been a good incentive for Hannover residents to return from a Saturday night in HAM if DB offered cheap Advances. Which they might well have done to fill a few seats as ICE are long! It didn't even serve Düsseldorf or Frankfurt Airport so no airports were served by this train, another reason for my amazement at its schedule. Routing was Hamburg-Hannover-Göttingen-Frankfurt-Würzburg-Nürnberg-München.

Not dissimilar to catching the 0852 from Reading to Bournemouth

 

[PeterC]

Liverpool Street to Southend used to sustain a 24 hour service (apart from a 134 minute gap) gap but the overnight services were all stations and this is now split between TfL and GA. Of course some of these would have carried mail or newspapers in the guard's compartment and Liverpool Street had to remain open all night for this traffic anyway.

With all stations having platforms on both the Main and Electric Lines I think that the main hindrance to a 24 hour service to Shenfield would be the need to keep Liverpool Street open all night, assuming that services weren't extended through the Crossrail tunnels. I don't know what the platform configurations are on the Great Western side of Crossrail but I can't see an issue about running the whole things to "Night Tube" hours even with some minor stations skipped after midnight.

 

[Jamesrob637]

Not dissimilar to catching the 0852 from Reading to Bournemouth

Why, is Reading a party city in non COVID times?!

 

[Bald Rick]

Why, is Reading a party city in non COVID times?!

In that it starts at Manchester at 0511. Albeit not on Sundays.

 

[Class 170101]

Even if it was to divert, you could still serve Falkirk by calling at Falkirk Grahamston, as what occasionally happens when the e2g has to divert due to problems at Falkirk High

The problem with that is that Polmont and Linlithgow route section would still be open 24hrs with no alternative route.

 

[PTR 444]

I may just be saying this because it’s another four-tracked line through a densely populated region, but has there ever been a proposal to run a 24hr service on the SWML from London to Basingstoke?

 

[Bald Rick]

I may just be saying this because it’s another four-tracked line through a densely populated region, but has there ever been a proposal to run a 24hr service on the SWML from London to Basingstoke?

Not seriously. Although it’s 4 tracked, it’s paired by direction which is less useful for blocking a pair of lines for maintenance.