East Coast Eureka clockface timetable May 2011

[Deerfold]

Stevenage services now apparently to increase, rather then decrease:

http://www.thecomet.net/news/east_coast_trains_from_stevenage_back_on_track_1_791023

Looks like spin - there's more services - but they only serve the places that have been complained about with connections.

That's 58 services or roughly 29 each way...

It does look like there's some extra ones to York but not beyond.

And fast services south from Stevenage at 0856FCC, 0858EC, 0903EC and 0906FCC!

 

[philjo]

There was an article in the Comet a couple of weeks ago about Stevenage Borough Council & I think also HCC having a meeting with Theresa Villiers about retaining Stevenage stops for EC services. The article implied this was since Christmas which seemed a bit late in the day to me considering that the official consultation was 12 months ago.

During the day Stevenage is getting a half-hourly EC service, with one of them an hourly Leeds train.
Problem is the other only goes to York or Newark on alternate hours, so longer journey times to get anywhere north of that due to having to change.
At least the York stopper does connect properly at York with the Scarbrough train, & it is half hourly every hour to Grantham so Nottingham will be easy.

The XC journey planner for 23 May shpws the new timetbale & shows a 7 minute connection at DOncaster from the Leeds train into a XC service to York, Darlington & Newcastle. All very well but I bet we won't be able to get decent price advance tickets on that compared to what are available at the moment.

I think the most missed morning service will be the present 07:19 from Stevenage through to Glasgow Central. This gets you to Darlington 09:25 (connections for Middlesborough/whitby - 12:05 arrival), Newcastle 10:00 (connects nicely with the 10:24 to carlisle), Edinburgh & Glasgow for onward connections.
I am booked on this service in April through to Glasgow - EC 1st advance is less than the cost of a std advance via Euston & I arrive in Glasgow earlier.

I did notice that EC will be giving a presentation on the new timetable to the February meeting of the Herts County Council transport committee - I think it is early next week. The minutes of the meeting should be on the HCC website a couple of days after that.

 

[RichW1]

Have I missed the release of this then? If so where's it available; I thought the whole thing was still being worked on!

 

[philjo]

Use the XC website journey planner for 23 May - 1st day of the new timetable. The times show up if you do a search.

 

[RichW1]

I'm having a look at East Coast but also looked at the timetable for XC....ouch! I never knew they were that slow! Bristol - Newcastle....5hours!! Jesus, has the driver stopped the engine, drilled a hole in the floor, popped his legs out and tried running with it instead??!!!

 

[swt_passenger]

Use the XC website journey planner for 23 May - 1st day of the new timetable. The times show up if you do a search.

It seems AFAICT that only the services that are confirmed show up.

There are some significant gaps as you go through the day, such as the 1000 and 1200 to Edinburgh are still both missing, as someone noted earlier in the thread...

 

[Deerfold]

It seems AFAICT that only the services that are confirmed show up.

There are some significant gaps as you go through the day, such as the 1000 and 1200 to Edinburgh are still both missing, as someone noted earlier in the thread...

Along with most of the evening peak KGX - LDS service.

 

[Aictos]

The only service at the moment from Bradford Forster Square is the 06:30 calling at Shipley, Leeds, Wakefield Westgate and Kings Cross.

Grand Central are running services from Bradford Interchange at 06:51, 10:22 and 15:37 and to Bradford Interchange at 10:48, 14:48 and 19:48.

The only service at the moment from Skipton is the 06:55, no northbound services yet.

A return service to Hull leaving Hull at 07:00 and leaving Kings Cross at 17:19.

A return service to Glasgow Central leaving at 06:50 and leaving Kings Cross at 15:00, the southbound working calls at Doncaster, Newark, Peterborough but the afternoon departure is fast between London and York.

 

[Fred26]

I think the most missed morning service will be the present 07:19 from Stevenage through to Glasgow Central. This gets you to Darlington 09:25 (connections for Middlesborough/whitby - 12:05 arrival), Newcastle 10:00 (connects nicely with the 10:24 to carlisle), Edinburgh & Glasgow for onward connections.
I am booked on this service in April through to Glasgow - EC 1st advance is less than the cost of a std advance via Euston & I arrive in Glasgow earlier.

I disagree. I think the most missed service at Stevenage will be the 1150 (the 1130 from Kings Cross). It runs to Newcastle Monday to Thursday and Edinburgh on a Friday. There's always a lot of passengers that board at Stevenage and also quite a few with booked assistance.

Does anybody know what the connections to Newcastle/Edinburgh will be like from Leeds? Would Stevenage/Peterborough passengers be better off changing there than at Doncaster or Newark?

 

[Failed Unit]

Post New timetable Steveage and Grantham could do either Newark or Doncaster. Doncaster is more pleasent. Newark will be a same platform change and doncaster will be crossing an island platform worse case. But you may have some longer walks at Doncaster as they have they bays in the island to walk around northbound.

 

[brompton rail]

I am pleased that the diversion of every other (i.e. two hourly) XC Reading / Newcastle service via Leeds does not seem to be happening. My limited searches have not found any additional services diverted via Leeds instead of Doncaster. There seemed to be a question over available paths between Leeds and York.

Regarding the incompleteness of XC's data, the 07.10 York / Aberdeen is missing, though the 14.52 back from Aberdeen is shown.

 

[silentone]

Some newer news about May. There is no EC service from Dundee in the morning now, it will remain with XC mainly because of H&S with only 4 carriages on the platform at some stops.

The return trip to Glasgow is now the 1500. Inverness & Aberdeen services are still there -don't panic!

 

[tbtc]

Some newer news about May. There is no EC service from Dundee in the morning now, it will remain with XC mainly because of H&S with only 4 carriages on the platform at some stops

This is the problem. The service (IIRC) was extended back from Edinburgh to start at Dundee in the morning back when ScotRail (and Chris Green) were very good at finding "spare" (long distance) stock they could use to augment the existing local services.

The downside is that the Voyagers/ HSTs which fill in for the 158/170s can't stop at all the local stations which the ScotRail units serve.

The other downside is that when long-distance services are disrupted, they tend to be curtailed to Edinburgh - GNER/NXEC routinely abandoned Aberdeen/Dundee/Inverness when there were problems further south on the ECML. So, Scotrail have left a path "spare" in the timetable for the ECML operator to serve, but this can leave a large gap if the ECML has problems (it may have run in place of a ScotRail unit once upon a time, but there's no spare ScotRail unit to fill in should the HST/Voyager be disrupted)...

 

[Deerfold]

More appearing on XC - most of the evening peak is there including an 1833 to Bradford. Unfortunately most of the evening peak and late services aren't particularly fast.

 

[silentone]

This is the problem. The service (IIRC) was extended back from Edinburgh to start at Dundee in the morning back when ScotRail (and Chris Green) were very good at finding "spare" (long distance) stock they could use to augment the existing local services.

The downside is that the Voyagers/ HSTs which fill in for the 158/170s can't stop at all the local stations which the ScotRail units serve.

The other downside is that when long-distance services are disrupted, they tend to be curtailed to Edinburgh - GNER/NXEC routinely abandoned Aberdeen/Dundee/Inverness when there were problems further south on the ECML. So, Scotrail have left a path "spare" in the timetable for the ECML operator to serve, but this can leave a large gap if the ECML has problems (it may have run in place of a ScotRail unit once upon a time, but there's no spare ScotRail unit to fill in should the HST/Voyager be disrupted)...

I'm not sure what it was extended back from as I believe it had some significant dwell time at Edinburgh. Anyway Scotrail also weren't happy with the arrangement due to timings between stops.

The abandoning of services north of Edinburgh isn't taken lightly, it's often Scotrail that has the problem as their services end up running late or sending the EC service north would delay it further as it ends up stuck behind stopper services.

Occasionally the Aberdeen services will get cancelled if the late running exceed's the turnaround time at Aberdeen. Very rarely will the Inverness get cancelled going north as it has to make the south trip the next day. I've seen the Inverness leave Edinburgh nearly 4 hours late and that I believe was under NXEC.

 

[Failed Unit]

Some newer news about May. There is no EC service from Dundee in the morning now, it will remain with XC mainly because of H&S with only 4 carriages on the platform at some stops.

The return trip to Glasgow is now the 1500. Inverness & Aberdeen services are still there -don't panic!

Interesting about Dundee on 2 respects, the Dundee service was a double voyager last time i saw it going through Haymarket at about 0800 but I guess it has SDO and power operated doors. But it is now a HST even if it is a shorter one than east coast so must have the same problems as east coast.

The Glasgow service is closer to the draft timetable, it was 1530 IIRC in it. In one respect probably better as if it passed through Edinburgh at 2230 it wouldn't get many passengers, but it may have avoided XC an ECS

 

[tbtc]

Interesting about Dundee on 2 respects, the Dundee service was a double voyager last time i saw it going through Haymarket at about 0800 but I guess it has SDO and power operated doors

IIRC only one Voyager set was open until Kirkcaldy, then the second set opens too

 

[Failed Unit]

IIRC only one Voyager set was open until Kirkcaldy, then the second set opens too

That would make sense for the Voyagers, strange that as it is a hst now they think using an east coast set will be a problem, unless the XC one fits on the platform. I dont think XC sets have SDO but could be wrong.

 

[hello]

xc sets are fitted with sdo

 

[MCR247]

I don't think they are able to use it though

 

[TEW]

XC HSTs have SDO fitted and it is used in the south west. Not so much now they are only seven car sets but it was used regularly with eight car sets.

 

[Failed Unit]

XC HSTs have SDO fitted and it is used in the south west. Not so much now they are only seven car sets but it was used regularly with eight car sets.

That would explain why XC retains the morning Dundee service, if it is a Voyager then can lock out the rear set and the HSTs have SDO which easts coasts don't. The demand from Dundee at that time in the morning makes one thing certain it won't be a 4 Voyager, if it was they may as well give the path to Scotrail so they can run a larger train such as a 3car 170 or 4 car 158!

 

[TEW]

Is this the 0632 from Dundee? That service is booked for an HST. The 0735 service from Dundee is diverted to start in Glasgow from May.

 

[Failed Unit]

Is this the 0632 from Dundee? That service is booked for an HST. The 0735 service from Dundee is diverted to start in Glasgow from May.

Yes that is the one, in the earlier drafts of the Eureka timetable this was going to be an East Coast HST, It would have hung around Edinburgh until 0830 and then continued to Kings Cross. I suspect Scotrail can probably pick up the demand from the 0735.

 

[Anvil1984]

xc sets are fitted with sdo

Just to clarify

XC HSTs HAVE SDO

XC Voyagers DO NOT have SDO

 

[TEW]

On XC voyagers there is the ability to lock out the rear coach though. However that means nobody can sit in it as well as nobody being able to board through it. It is useful where a 7 coach train will fit but not and 8 coach one though.

 

[MCR247]

Just to clarify

XC HSTs HAVE SDO

XC Voyagers DO NOT have SDO

I'm pretty sure voyagers do, they just don't use it

 

[Pumbaa]

I'm pretty sure voyagers do, they just don't use it

Nope Neither 220s or 221s have SDO (shockingly). Take a wild guess why they might not, but 222s do...!

 

[Anvil1984]

I'm pretty sure voyagers do, they just don't use it

Nope as I worked on them for 2 whole years I can seay for definate that they dont

 

[brompton rail]

I notice that the 07:10 Leeds- Aberdeen is now in the Eureka timetable (as kindly displayed by XC!)