I know the Down service in the evening has, on at least one occasion, conveyed foreign tourists who wanted Sheffield but were in the wrong portion at Kettering. Unfortunately for them, the job was stopped further east and there was no sign of an XC service onwards from Melton - quite sensibly, the train worked forward to Derby in service vice ECS!Probably the only ones who get off at Melton are the sort who don't listen to the various announcements at Derby/East Midlands Parkway and expected it to go via Leicester
There was a couple when I did it last year and if I recall the guard said there was an XC towards Leicester due in around 10 minutes.
Official individual service loading figures are commercially sensitive, and never generally available to members of the public.
Highly improbable without ordering additional rolling stock. Has been proposed in numerous previous discussions.
Depending upon who is on Control are usually quite happy to help out. I've had dozens of SSOs for passengers at places like Chinley, Brandon, Romiley, Marple and a few others. I've ran ECS runs in service too on a fair few occasions, usually for drunkards who fell asleep.
I think the problem is that, at the moment, most of the passenger services north of Corby - certainly 1M06/1P69 in the daytime (the former is the ECS off the early morning shuttles to Kettering only, and the latter drops into the circuit when the service pattern changes slightly but enough to make the short turnarounds earlier in the day impossible to maintain) - are movements that are necessary anyway to maintain the passenger service south of there. Alter that passenger service so that it's wholly resourced from the south, and remove the constraints of the single line that make the service a little awkward at times, and suddenly those movements are no longer necessary, so it's much harder to justify running those passenger services north of Corby. 1P10 in the early morning (10-car) presumably runs mainly for the heavy commuter loadings south of Kettering, which the DfT seem determined to shift onto the new electric service. 1M61 in the evening is a slightly more complex, but similar justification applies.
Well - yes. That's exactly what I said happened. The traincrew agreed with Control that the train would continue forward in service to Derby, so that they could be deposited there to continue their journey.
If a bus with no competition was unviable a train has no chance...
Probably right...however...these days I'm ramped on and off trains, so the fewer the changes the better ! That said, EMT station staff are the mutts as far as I am concerned (station staff @York were pretty ok too tbh).
Not directly related, but Hanborough to Worcester Shrub Hill is nigh on ten miles shorter than Corby - Derby (if it ever was worked by an HST), and was worked by a 2+2 formation to boot, making it a short short HST working!
I was referring to times of disruption, when it is vital to get customers in the move.
The 156s worked from Kettering to Sheffield in lieu of 1F56, which is a portion detached from an evening peak London - Corby train at Kettering. 1F56 was short-formed, and planned to be short-formed far enough in advance to get the units and suitable crew (bearing in mind that relatively few sign both route and traction) together and run empties to Kettering via Wellingborough.