Consistently late train (00:04 Rainhill to Liverpool)

[Granpuff]

14 minutes late tonight/this morning

 

[Adrian1980uk]

It's always a no win situation for timetables, Liverpool street to Norwich nearly always leaves on time with the 30 mins turnaround time but at the moment the timetable is slack by the time we get to Witham or even be that we're 6 or 7 mins early and caught the stopper in front so follow that slowly through.
We can also be delayed at haughley junction and still make up a few minutes and get in time.
That's also a little frustrating when you're trying to get home, in the grand scheme of things it's nothing I know and given how busy the trains are it's probably preferable to have that predictability than a 10 min quicker journey time

 

[dk1]

Not the last train of the day, but I got this train from London Liverpool Street to Norwich a couple of days ago which left Liverpool Street half a minute early: https://www.realtimetrains.co.uk/service/gb-nr:G17745/2024-01-05

It’s fairly unusual that I leave Liverpool Street early as signals often only clear 30secs before departure time as almost always something else crossing our bows. If we do leave early that’s down to platform staff as all trains use CD/RA here.

I do notice that even when I depart at the exact time, Real Time Trains often shows as departing 30secs earlier. I’m not sure if that’s just where the trigger is as as soon as my wheels turn I’m already passed the platform starting signal.

 

[Adrian1980uk]

Not the last train of the day, but I got this train from London Liverpool Street to Norwich a couple of days ago which left Liverpool Street half a minute early: https://www.realtimetrains.co.uk/service/gb-nr:G17745/2024-01-05

As the first off-peak train leaving Liverpool Street for Norwich, it tends to be quite busy in my experience, but it seemed to be less so to me this Friday, when I walked right to the front of the train as usual - only 1 of the carriages was showing as full on the in-train display, whereas in my experience the train is usually pretty full of seated passengers, whether it’s an Inter-City unit, or substituted by a Stansted Express unit, as this train was. The trains I usually get nowadays are from Shoeburyness, London Fenchurch Street, Liverpool Street, or Norwich, and it doesn’t seem to be unusual to me for any of them to leave up to three quarters of a minute early, though I don’t usually chance getting the last train of the day (though I used to from London King’s Cross to Cambridge), though I would expect that to be less often the case with the last train of the day. Though those trains are usually either every 15 or every 30 minutes, so it’s not too long a wait until the next train.

It’s fairly unusual that I leave Liverpool Street early as signals often only clear 30secs before departure time as almost always something else crossing our bows. If we do leave early that’s down to platform staff as all trains use CD/RA here.

I do notice that even when I depart at the exact time, Real Time Trains often shows as departing 30secs earlier. I’m not sure if that’s just where the trigger is as as soon as my wheels turn I’m already passed the platform starting signal.

I would think now that is one of the busier sections of track with the GEML having a train every few minutes plus the overground coming in and the Elizabeth line joining a bow, I should imagine on time departure is pretty important not to have large effects across the area

 

[dk1]

I would think now that is one of the busier sections of track with the GEML having a train every few minutes plus the overground coming in and the Elizabeth line joining a bow, I should imagine on time departure is pretty important not to have large effects across the area

Yes it’s always been like that although the Elizabeth line is more or less self contained bar the GA/WA ECS moves to/from Ilford car sheds. The E lines from Liverpool Street are very quiet now as far as Bow. 2 minute headways are pretty common on all lines.

 

[leytongabriel]

This is not considered to be leaving early and would not be treated as such by the railway. Customers need to allow plenty of time to catch their intended train.

Considered by whom? Railway industry treating passengers as a bit of a nuisance again?

 

[The exile]

Considered by whom? Railway industry treating passengers as a bit of a nuisance again?

It is a long-established (and well-announced) fact that train doors may be locked a short while before departure (40secs?). If that’s acceptable - then once the doors are locked there’s no real problem with the train leaving straightaway.

 

[TUC]

"Every morning my train is eleven minutes late. This is infuriating. This morning I took a later train. This also was eleven minutes late. This also was infuriating. Why don't you re-time all your trains to arrive eleven minutes late? - then they will all be on time.
Yours Faithfully,
Reginald I. Perrin"

Exactly what I thought

 

[Granpuff]

3 minutes ! Big improvement

 

[Granpuff]

14 minutes