Class 442s on Sundays

[jay jay]

Taking a trip down to Brighton tomorrow, will 442s be working at all on the Victoria to Brighton services or only on the Gatwick Express services?
Thanks

 

[metromuppet]

Most of the BTN fasts are now 442s, especially at weekends. There are amended services on the mainline tomorrow, but they should still feature!

 

[Tom C]

You often find BTN-VIC's are 377 on Sundays

 

[Class 33]

Hmmm.. a post in this thread http://www.railforums.co.uk/showthread.php?t=42156 says that on Sundays the xx:02 from London Victoria and the xx:34 services from Brighton are hauled by Class 442's.

I think some definitive clarification is required.

I was planning on heading down to Brighton on a Saturday or Sunday next month, specifically really to get a ride on the 442's. And I'd need to specify which services I'd be travelling on to get the cheapest fare. I would hate to book on the services which use the bland Class 377's!

 

[yorkie]

I was planning on heading down to Brighton on a Saturday or Sunday next month, specifically really to get a ride on the 442's. And I'd need to specify which services I'd be travelling on to get the cheapest fare. I would hate to book on the services which use the bland Class 377's!

A Southern Daysave is not much more than the price of 2 x Advance Singles.

If you get Advance tickets, it's a big risk that you will not get a 442!

 

[Mojo]

The details are in the public timetable.

http://www.southernrailway.com/download/6415.5/01-brighton-to-london/

On Sundays its the xx02 from Victoria and the xx34 from Brighton.

If things are all running to time you can do a leap at East Croydon off one and head back to Victoria on another. Myself and another forum member had a trip this afternoon down on the 15.02 out and changing at East Croydon heading back on the one going the other way.

 

[Class 33]

A Southern Daysave is not much more than the price of 2 x Advance Singles.

If you get Advance tickets, it's a big risk that you will not get a 442!

Cheers for that advice. Yes I will definitely have to get one of those Southern Daysave tickets instead.

 

[Sean_]

Hmmm.. a post in this thread http://www.railforums.co.uk/showthread.php?t=42156 says that on Sundays the xx:02 from London Victoria and the xx:34 services from Brighton are hauled by Class 442's.

I think some definitive clarification is required.

I was planning on heading down to Brighton on a Saturday or Sunday next month, specifically really to get a ride on the 442's. And I'd need to specify which services I'd be travelling on to get the cheapest fare. I would hate to book on the services which use the bland Class 377's!

The 377s are fine trains, however comfort-wise they don't come close to the 442s. It's lovely to board a Mk3 now at East Croydon, first Inter-City standard trains to call there since the end of the Virgin 47's i think? Unless you count Voyagers...

I went down to London a few weeks back specifically to try out the 442s, and they were turning up fairly frequently to and from Brighton. This was a saturday, so you should be fine.

 

[Class 33]

I'm heading down there tomorrow, hoping to get a ride on a 442 at least on either the outward or homeward journey.

If I am lucky I should just about be able to get to Victoria in time to get the 1302 service. If it's a 377 I will wait for the 1332 service. If that also turns out to be a 377 then I'll have to get the 1402 service whatever it is. Coming back from Brighton I'll have to get either the 1700 or 1734 service. If I was lucky enough to get a 442 down there, then I'll probably just get the 1734 service and settle for whether it's a 377 or a 442.

Anyone able to confirm in advance which of the above services are usually booked to be operated by a 442?

 

[The Barlow Boy]

As a slight follow-on have the Junipers now disappeared from the Gatwicks? I can't recall the last time that I saw one on a Gatwick diagram.

 

[DavyCrocket]

As a slight follow-on have the Junipers now disappeared from the Gatwicks? I can't recall the last time that I saw one on a Gatwick diagram.

They're still running.

Re the GatEx - ticket gates are going in at Gatwick and Victoria and all the on train ticket staff are being made redundant.

 

[The Barlow Boy]

They're still running.

Re the GatEx - ticket gates are going in at Gatwick and Victoria and all the on train ticket staff are being made redundant.

So I'll be able to buy a cheap(er) Southern ticket to London but travel on a Gatwick Express as no-one will be on board checking tickets. Whoopee!

 

[Class 33]

Just got there in time today to catch the 1302 service with just barely a couple of minutes to spare. Saw it was a 442 so jumped on. Problem was it was only a 5 carriage train and allready very busy. Had a job to find an available window seat(I am not very keen on aisle seats). Only available window seat I could find was positioned between a window panel and window. But made do with that. By the time it reached it's first stop of Clapham Junction it was standing room only. I estimate there was probably at least 100 odd people standing all the way to Brighton. Aside from that though, a nice journey on a 442 instead of a bland 377.

I worked out that the 1302 service from Victoria would be the very same train to be used for the 1734 service from Brighton. 1302 Victoria-Brighton, 1434 Brighton-Victoria, 1602 Victoria-Brighton, 1734 Brighton-Victoria. And I was correct in my thinking. When I arrived back at Brighton station at just before 5pm, I could see the 1700 service to Victoria was a 377 so I didn't board that train! The 442 shortly pulled in which formed the 1602 from Victoria. I got a head start to get a desired forward facing window seat, by boarding the train before the platform number was mentioned on the departures board and before all the crowds descended onto the train. Anyway, it was a very busy service again. And again many people(easily at least 100 people) were having to stand up for their journey from Brighton.

So going by what happened today and providing it works like this every Sunday, then on Sunday's a Class 442 set should definitely be working the following:

1002London Victoria-Brighton
1302 London Victoria-Brighton
1602 London Victoria-Brighton
1902 London Victoria-Brighton

0834 Brighton-London Victoria
1134 Brighton-London Victoria
1434 Brighton-London Victoria
1734 Brighton-London Victoria



If you want to avoid the 377's then don't travel on the following services:

0932 London Victoria-Brighton
1232 London Victoria-Brighton
1532 London Victoria-Brighton
1832 London Victoria-Brighton

0800 Brighton-London Victoria
1100 Brighton-London Victoria
1400 Brighton-London Victoria
1700 Brighton-London Victoria
2000 Brighton-London Victoria


The services at times not mentioned above(i.e. the 1202 from Victoria), I'm not sure whether they'll be a 377 or a 442. But a posting elsewhere on here does mention that all the xx:02's from Victoria and the xx:34's from Brighton are Class 442's.

Hope this helps.

 

[TomJ93]

So with a Southern day saver I could go back and fourth on 442s to my hearts content for £12?

 

[thefab444]

Sadly there seems to be a philosophy of running minimal length services on Sundays, despite them often being extremely busy and the service frequency often being half of what it usually is.

 

[Southern]

Could of been a short formation, something that seems to be quite a regular occurrence with 442 booked diagrams. The express becomes half hourly from 22nd May, probably won't make much difference crowd wise though.

 

[The Barlow Boy]

Sadly there seems to be a philosophy of running minimal length services on Sundays, despite them often being extremely busy and the service frequency often being half of what it usually is.

I expect that a bean counter has looked at these and realised that a person is required at a depot/station to couple/uncouple the non-auto couplers on a 442. That's money so, it's five cars on a Sunday.

 

[thefab444]

I was making a more general point rather than specific to this route, Sunday frequencies tend to be half the weekday frequency and the stock provision is also usually half, yet there isn't only a quarter of the passengers!

But you're right that it is to do with money.

 

[radamfi]

The Brighton Main Line is relatively well served on Sundays compared to other main lines in the South East. The 00/02/15/17/30/32/45/47 departures from Victoria are maintained 7 days a week, albeit with extended journey times and different service patterns.

The slow train from Victoria to Brighton is typically 12 coaches on a Sunday, although even that often leads to standing.

 

[OxtedL]

Yes, been caught on a train to Brighton before on a weekend - make sure you're prepared to be in close contact with random strangers, you never know!

Just out of interest, I'm guessing the 442s aren't cleared down the Oxted...? (the more intelligent will have grasped what I'm getting at here )