Inspired by this thread, I thought I'd start a new one about 24 hour train services on lines that themselves couldn't actually accommodate them.
In that thread, it was clear that many late night and early morning trains are very busy. And those people on the late trains may not have travelled if they didn't exist.
But what about after around 1200-0100 when most services end, and until 0400-0500 when they start again (in the week at least, add an hour or two on a Sunday)?
Has any TOC ever considered running buses to offer a 24 hour service when trains can't run, due to overnight possessions?
And if not a TOC, then the DfT?
I can already imagine all the reasons not to run them, but how many are just excuses? And wouldn't there be many benefits for doing so? For shift workers, for those who want to stay out that bit later, for those who have a particularly early start (for a flight etc) and so on?
The numbers may be low, but how many people would otherwise not travel at all (driving, getting a taxi etc) and wouldn't that just mean you could run an hourly bus without much fear of overcrowding (and if that becomes an issue, what's the problem? You've now got the demand you wanted).
Ideally we'd seek to run trains through the night, but I doubt that's possible for a lot of places so this seems like an idea that could at least be trialled somewhere - but probably only if the DfT wanted to make it so.
In that thread, it was clear that many late night and early morning trains are very busy. And those people on the late trains may not have travelled if they didn't exist.
But what about after around 1200-0100 when most services end, and until 0400-0500 when they start again (in the week at least, add an hour or two on a Sunday)?
Has any TOC ever considered running buses to offer a 24 hour service when trains can't run, due to overnight possessions?
And if not a TOC, then the DfT?
I can already imagine all the reasons not to run them, but how many are just excuses? And wouldn't there be many benefits for doing so? For shift workers, for those who want to stay out that bit later, for those who have a particularly early start (for a flight etc) and so on?
The numbers may be low, but how many people would otherwise not travel at all (driving, getting a taxi etc) and wouldn't that just mean you could run an hourly bus without much fear of overcrowding (and if that becomes an issue, what's the problem? You've now got the demand you wanted).
Ideally we'd seek to run trains through the night, but I doubt that's possible for a lot of places so this seems like an idea that could at least be trialled somewhere - but probably only if the DfT wanted to make it so.
