Boards showing 5 direct trains to London from 150 miles away: can Anyone Beat This?

[thirdriding]

I'm not sure if this is the correct part of the forum to post this....but here goes.

I arrived on the platform at Doncaster Station this morning to take a photo of one of the departures screen showing five trains were due to leave for London within the next 36 minutes. Is this a record for a station so far away from London, over 150 miles?

Damn; I was going to post the image...but it's asking for its URL. The only URL I have for it is my walking blog where I've featured it. http://peakwalking.blogspot.com - just if you want to see the proof I suppose.

 

[Michael.Y]

For those who can't see the image, it reads

0736 London Kings Cross
0745 London Kings Cross
0758 London Kings Cross
0811 London Kings Cross
0820 London Kings Cross

 

[thirdriding]

Cheers Michael...yes, there it is. Can Doncaster beat all-comers?

 

[greatkingrat]

Crewe has 5 trains an hour to Euston which depart within a 33 minute period

eg
1056 (Holyhead - Euston)
1101 (Glasgow - Euston via Birmingham)
1102 (LM Crewe - Euston stopper)
1122 (Liverpool - Euston)
1129 (Manchester - Euston)

 

[plastictaffy]

I know it's close to London, but my father lives in Surbiton, and there seems to be about a dozen trains an hour into London!!!

 

[6Gman]

Crewe has 5 trains an hour to Euston which depart within a 33 minute period

eg
1056 (Holyhead - Euston)
1101 (Glasgow - Euston via Birmingham)
1102 (LM Crewe - Euston stopper)
1122 (Liverpool - Euston)
1129 (Manchester - Euston)

Crewe superior to Doncaster.

Again ...


(Sorry; it's a dispute that's been running since the 1930s... )

 

[WestCountry]

But two of those (the LM stopper and the Birmingham one) don't really count - they're painfully slow and overtaken by trains that leave almost an hour later.
They're not any use as services to London, they just happen to go there eventually.

All the Doncaster departures are direct services down the ECML, with comparable journey times, and someone going to London could sensibly catch any one of them.

 

[gazthomas]

Nowhere near as far out but Reading must win

 

[higthomas]

Perhaps we should use a departures/hour/miles from London to work this out?

Within this hour at least Doncaster's on 1/30.

 

[Michael.Y]

And once again thread creep means you don't read the OP in full.


....Doncaster Station this morning to take a photo of one of the departures screen showing five trains were due to leave for London within the next 36 minutes. Is this a record for a station so far away from London, over 150 miles?

So Reading, Surbiton etc are nothing to do with the point or question that the OP is trying to pose - that a station quite a way away from the Big Smoke has a lot of services per hour. So to top this, you must either find a station of a similar distance that has MORE services, or you must find a station which is further away that has AS MANY services. Otherwise Clapham Jn would win, shurely?

Crewe is 158 miles from Euston and Doncaster is 156 miles. So Crewe is a fairly equitable comparison. And frankly off the top of my head I can't think of anywhere else in the country which would compete with either of these two.

 

[yorkie]

Nowhere near as far out but Reading must win

It would win... if you re-defined the question

 

[Starmill]

Manchester Piccadilly has 5 trains to London Euston between 0635 and 0735. I think it's slightly further?

 

[Peter Mugridge]

What about Exeter St David's? Are there any tight batches there, possibly in the morning peak, given that it has routes to both Paddington and Waterloo?

 

[jopsuk]

Doncaster of course has in addition to those services stopping quite a few London trains passing through at speed

 

[Peter Mugridge]

Those won't show up on the boards, though, will they?

 

[CC 72100]

Taunton has 4 trains in the morning in 25 minutes all to London. (Not 150 miles, I know, but still a reasonable way out)

http://www.realtimetrains.co.uk/search/advanced/TAU/2015/09/24/0710?stp=WVS&show=all&order=wtt

 

[LNW-GW Joint]

But two of those (the LM stopper and the Birmingham one) don't really count - they're painfully slow and overtaken by trains that leave almost an hour later.
They're not any use as services to London, they just happen to go there eventually.

I think you'd be surprised how many people use the indirect trains all the way.
Part of it is the LM fare structure, and the VT via Brum is a way of finding a seat from Preston/Wigan/Warrington - the direct trains are very full.
The LM service would do even better if it didn't go via Stoke.

 

[Cherry_Picker]

I know it's close to London, but my father lives in Surbiton, and there seems to be about a dozen trains an hour into London!!!

Surbiton is in the London Borough of Kingston upon Thames and in travelcard Zone 6. If it's a separate town then so is Croydon and East Croydon (Zone 5) has 20-25 trains an hour into Zone 1.

 

[IanXC]

Moving on to 4 services, Edinburgh, on a Sunday, in the 12:00-12:59 hour has:

• 1200 1E14 London Kings Cross
• 1220 1E98 London Kings Cross
• 1230 1E15 London Kings Cross
• 1251 9M56 London Euston

Which seems pretty impressive at circa 400 miles.

 

[Impey0711]

Again nowhere near as far out but mkc has 9 london services between 6:04 and 7:00 this morning

 

[Chapeltom]

Taunton has 4 trains in the morning in 25 minutes all to London. (Not 150 miles, I know, but still a reasonable way out)

http://www.realtimetrains.co.uk/search/advanced/TAU/2015/09/24/0710?stp=WVS&show=all&order=wtt

Not 150 miles, 164 miles!

 

[swt_passenger]

Taunton has 4 trains in the morning in 25 minutes all to London. (Not 150 miles, I know, but still a reasonable way out)

http://www.realtimetrains.co.uk/search/advanced/TAU/2015/09/24/0710?stp=WVS&show=all&order=wtt

If you use NRES and tick 'fastest trains only' three of them disappear, as they aren't much use at all for journeys all the way to London. It's probably another good example of where the displays should show a false destination...

 

[glbotu]

The Departures/Hour/Distance metric doesn't work, the "winner" is the station the furthest away with the most station stops, as such, it's a multiplication game:

Doncaster - 5tph * 165 Miles - 825 Train miles/hour
Birmingham - 8tph * 126 Miles - 1008 Train Miles/hour
Crewe - 5tph * 179 Miles - 895 Train Miles / hour
Edinburgh - 4tph * 414 Miles - 1656 Train Miles / hour
Reading - 18tph * 41 Miles - 738 Train Miles / hour
Clapham - 132 tph * 4.5 Miles - 594 Train Miles /hour
Manchester - 5tph * 217 Miles - 1085 Train Miles /hour

The winner is clearly Edinburgh, even with the very high frequency of trains at places like Reading and Clapham Junction. Also, Crewe, Manchester and Birmingham all also beat it.

 

[Philip C]

For what it may be worth:

In 1974 (for example) the CIE timetable shows weekday departures from Limerick Junction at 1650 (the 1520 Boat Train from Cork to Dun Laoghaire Pier arr 2010 connecting with the 2045 Boat and then the 0055 and 0110 Irish Mail workings from Holyhead to Euston (arr 0529 & 0613 respectively)) and at 1655 (the 1600 Limerick to Rosslare Harbour arr 1945 connecting with the 2030 Boat and then the 0100 working from Fishguard Harbour to Paddington arr 0625).

Not bad two Boat Trains with onward services to London departing from a rural railway crossroads in the the south west of Ireland within five minutes!

 

[Trainfan344]

York has 4 from 16:57 to 17:57.

 

[Howardh]

Are all the trains (to London) on the Doncaster board the same company, or do you have a choice?

Not sure how to ask this, but how close do you have to be to London before you get two or more TOC's offering services? Think Edinburgh is now Virgin both ways (??)

EDIT Think Crewe has two, one's Virgin and the other (E) Midlands (??)

 

[Trainfan344]

Are all the trains (to London) on the Doncaster board the same company, or do you have a choice?

Not sure how to ask this, but how close do you have to be to London before you get two or more TOC's offering services? Think Edinburgh is now Virgin both ways (??)

EDIT Think Crewe has two, one's Virgin and the other (E) Midlands (??)

Crewe is two (London Midland and Virgin.) Doncaster is four. (Virgin, First, Grand Central, East Midlands).

 

[Howardh]

Crewe is two (London Midland and Virgin.) Doncaster is four. (Virgin, First, Grand Central, East Midlands).

Thanks. I was trying to remember the company from Crewe without bothering to look it up !

Great when you have a choice. Something we would love up here in Virgin land. Might as well be British Rail again, but that's a different thread entirely!

 

[Michael.Y]

Some choice.

 

[Jonny]

Crewe is two (London Midland and Virgin.) Doncaster is four. (Virgin, First, Grand Central, East Midlands).

It could only be up to three of them, as EMT don't run through to Kings Cross (St Pancras instead).