Duplicate Trains Running in the Path of Late Runners

[GordonT]

I don't expect that this will happen very often due to limited spare resources in the right place at the right time. However do any of the TOCs ever inject an additional train in on the time of a severely delayed train at an intermediate point of the journey with both the "on time" duplicate and the late runner perhaps over an hour later completing the remainder of the entire journey?

 

[pokemonsuper9]

One time (Jun 12 2022) I was expecting a very long wait in Salford Crescent as my train (17:41 towards Southport) was running half an hour late due to a fault.
20 minutes after my train was due, a train is not due to stop about to pass (odd), I check RTT and they sent the units it was supposed to swap to from Victoria early.
No announcement, no warnings, it just came out of nowhere.

Not sure if the intended train ran behind, the fault (which is the reason it was delayed 30m) was presumably fixed, the display board at my end station still indicated that it was.

 

[JonathanH]

However do any of the TOCs ever inject an additional train in on the time of a severely delayed train at an intermediate point of the journey with both the "on time" duplicate and the late runner perhaps over an hour later completing the remainder of the entire journey?

It can technically happen on CrossCountry where a service may restart from Birmingham New Street, and the following service drops back into the schedule the next hour.

In such a circumstance, the following service could however be halted.

 

[zwk500]

Can happen at Northampton if the train is late out of London, with the depot on hand and lots of units detaching and attaching anyway it's not unusual to get the London-New Street service cut in two.

 

[The Puddock]

I don't expect that this will happen very often due to limited spare resources in the right place at the right time. However do any of the TOCs ever inject an additional train in on the time of a severely delayed train at an intermediate point of the journey with both the "on time" duplicate and the late runner perhaps over an hour later completing the remainder of the entire journey?

ScotRail and LNER do this all the time.

 

[Starmill]

It's definitely something that does happen. As others have mentioned CrossCountry have lots of places where they can re-form services to give a right time departure. Nottingham for EMR towards Norwich or towards Liverpool Lime Street, and Salisbury for SWR and Avanti West Coast at Chester for services towards London too.

 

[Snow1964]

Occasionally happens at Westbury on local GWR trains, where spare or stabled set replaces late or cancelled service.

 

[philjo]

On Friday the 1700 Kings Cross to Edinburgh was cancelled and it was announced at Kings Cross that this service would start at Newcastle.
In its place was a 1700 Kings Cross to Darlington service calling at most intermediate stations as the 1630 had also been cancelled.

 

[IanXC]

the late runner perhaps over an hour later completing the remainder of the entire journey?

The first part is common, in RTT if this has been done you're looking for a xFxx, xGxx, xTxx or xZxx headcode depending on where in the country you are, the other character would remain the same as the original train. Note that these letters are used for other purposes too.

The second part I've quoted above is very rare. The original train will almost always terminate before, or at the point, that the restarted train began.

 

[david1212]

There was a 'person in contact with a train' incident on the Great Western Main Line in Berkshire. I was in Cornwall at Liskeard. While not actually on time a local Penzance > Plymouth service was turned around smartly to provide a service to Penzance well ahead of the severely delayed HST. This was 10 or so years ago.

 

[brad465]

I don't think this quite meets the topic definition but is at least very close: on the 22nd August 2019, when a police incident shut Falkirk Grahamston station for a few hours, the up Highland Chieftain that I was onboard was held at Stirling until the line was clear and reached Edinburgh 2 hours late. It was decided that the Chieftain would be cancelled on the system but that the train would take the place of an Edinburgh-KGX service that happened to coincide with when the Chieftain ended up arriving in Edinburgh. Thus passengers north of Edinburgh stayed on the same train towards London, although it meant reservations were wiped and caused a few issues from then on (it certainly did in 1st class where I sat so was presumably worse in standard).

 

[800001]

I don't think this quite meets the topic definition but is at least very close: on the 22nd August 2019, when a police incident shut Falkirk Grahamston station for a few hours, the up Highland Chieftain that I was onboard was held at Stirling until the line was clear and reached Edinburgh 2 hours late. It was decided that the Chieftain would be cancelled on the system but that the train would take the place of an Edinburgh-KGX service that happened to coincide with when the Chieftain ended up arriving in Edinburgh. Thus passengers north of Edinburgh stayed on the same train towards London, although it meant reservations were wiped and caused a few issues from then on (it certainly did in 1st class where I sat so was presumably worse in standard).

That still happened frequently when there are issues on the Inverness or Aberdeen line when the southbound service is heavily delayed .

An additional service 1Zxx is created running in the path of the delayed service from Edinburgh, then like you mention above, the original terminates at Edinburgh but then forms the next Edinburgh to Kings Cross service.

 

[Welshman]

It happens occasionally at Chester, where Transport for Wales has both a train and staff depot.
If a train on the Cardiff-Holyhead and vv corridor is running late, it is terminated at Chester, and a different train sets out from Chester to either Cardiff or Holyhead in the original times. This has the advantage of not delaying Chester and following passengers, plus providing them with an empty train, but is a pain if you're wanting to travel say from Flint to Gobowen!

 

[Dfatcontroller]

ScotRail and LNER do this all the time.

ScotRail do it - but rarely do both trains reach the original destination.

 

[robert thomas]

It happens occasionally at Chester, where Transport for Wales has both a train and staff depot.
If a train on the Cardiff-Holyhead and vv corridor is running late, it is terminated at Chester, and a different train sets out from Chester to either Cardiff or Holyhead in the original times. This has the advantage of not delaying Chester and following passengers, plus providing them with an empty train, but is a pain if you're wanting to travel say from Flint to Gobowen!

Same thing happens frequently at Cardiff with Marches trains

 

[Gloster]

Back around 1981 the Leeds-Paignton Devonian failed a short way into its journey. There were plenty of day trippers waiting at New Street, so they rustled up Tyseley suburban DMU as a substitute: toilet stops at Bristol and Exeter. One of the few occasions that I had a Hanover (train running in two portions).

 

[30907]

The 0805 Edinburgh-Plymouth was involved in a fatality just south of Newcastle. It restarted from Leeds using one set off the 1004 arrival from Bristol which terminated.