Aberystwyth to Grimsby Town by Central Trains

[thenorthern]

Someone the other day told me that there was once a direct train from Aberystwyth to Grimsby Town operated by Central Trains.

Is this true and does anyone know anything about it such as when it ran and which route it took. Cheers to anyone who can help.

 

[Gareth Marston]

Someone the other day told me that there was once a direct train from Aberystwyth to Grimsby Town operated by Central Trains.

Is this true and does anyone know anything about it such as when it ran and which route it took. Cheers to anyone who can help.

The 1045 ish through newtown was definitely a Pwllheli to Grimsby turn with a 156 in the late 90's. one of the earlier Trains was Aberystwyth to Stanstead Airport. Calling patterns west of Birmingham New St would be same as today, arrival time in New St would have been around 1225. Departure at Pwllheli would be around 0730 having come up from Machynlleth just after 0500 it would have been attached to another unit and double crewed with the other unit detaching at Barmouth. It connected with a 0930 ish departure from Aberystwyth at Machynlleth and latterly joined up with it.this would have been back in late 90's a 153 which would have worked the 0815 Machynlleth to Averystwyth commuter train.

 

[flymo]

In the winter 2000/2001 timetable there was a Mon - Sat 07:07 Aberystwyth to Grimsby arr 13:17

Went via Shrewsbury, Birmingham, Nuneaton, Leicester, Nottingham, Newark, Lincoln and Grimsby. Had more calls than that, this is just indicative of the routeing.

 

[D6975]

In the days of regional railways there used to be lots of such services. They were just several locals joined together for operational purposes.
Cardiff-Cleethorpes was another, and Wolves-Wakefield via Chester another one.

 

[43074]

It would have stopped running in October 2001 when Wales & Borders took over from Central Trains on the route. Even after that, there were still Shrewsbury to Lincolnshire and East Anglia services until 2004; In December 2004 one of the half hourly fast Birmingham to Shrewsbury service was withdrawn, and with it some BHM - NRW services, and then the Birmingham to Nottingham via Leicester was split up with a separate Leicester to Lincoln and Birmingham to Leicester service from June 2005. (I did actually look that up in the relevant National Rail Timetables, and didn't do it from memory, thank god!)

It's a pity CT were broken up IMO. Routes like Stansted - Birmingham - Liverpool were so much more useful than having to change at Birmingham New Street.

How reliable were the Cambrian services when CT were running them?

 

[Welshman]

As I've mentioned before in these columns, Central Trains had the nickname - "The Yarmouth to Barmouth Railway"

I also recall a Skegness-Cardiff through service, bringing the then luxury of a Cl.170 to places like Heckington and Hubberts Bridge. This left Skegness around 1515, and although it was simply a linking of the two services at Nottingham, it was actually advertised as a through service.

Also, for a time, their Skegness-Nottingham-Derby-Crewe service was extended to Manchester Airport. That must have been the first and only time Skegness enjoyed an hourly service to the Airport! I used it once - 4.5 hours on a 153!

 

[thenorthern]

Also, for a time, their Skegness-Nottingham-Derby-Crewe service was extended to Manchester Airport. That must have been the first and only time Skegness enjoyed an hourly service to the Airport! I used it once - 4.5 hours on a 153!

It ran to Cleethorpes for a couple of years from Manchester Airport via Nottingham as well, If I remember it was whatever stock they could find on that line, I have travelled on a 153, 156, 158 and 170 on it.

I agree there should be a return to a single Midlands Franchise.

Carlisle to Nottingham is a similar service operated now I think.

 

[ChiefPlanner]

It's a pity CT were broken up IMO. Routes like Stansted - Birmingham - Liverpool were so much more useful than having to change at Birmingham New Street.



Stansted - Liverpool was split after the Operation Princess meltdown and was exceedingly unreliable (often not getting much further than Crewe to Cambridge) - some of the links onto the Cambrian were odd - there was one Central train a day from Northampton to Brum - am peak - which ended up linked to Aberystwyth (a 170 also)

 

[Gareth Marston]

It would have stopped running in October 2001 when Wales & Borders took over from Central Trains on the route. Even after that, there were still Shrewsbury to Lincolnshire and East Anglia services until 2004; In December 2004 one of the half hourly fast Birmingham to Shrewsbury service was withdrawn, and with it some BHM - NRW services, and then the Birmingham to Nottingham via Leicester was split up with a separate Leicester to Lincoln and Birmingham to Leicester service from June 2005. (I did actually look that up in the relevant National Rail Timetables, and didn't do it from memory, thank god!)

It's a pity CT were broken up IMO. Routes like Stansted - Birmingham - Liverpool were so much more useful than having to change at Birmingham New Street.

How reliable were the Cambrian services when CT were running them?

A lot better than after the creation of Wales and borders! They tried to run the same tt with trains turning st New St instead of being separate diagrams coming from further east and whole thing feel into chaos. It was only sorted out in Dec 08 when ATW extended to BHM INTL, the franchise split was poorly thought through and much regretted here in Mid Wales having an all Wales franchise meant a worse service.