OMGitsDAVE
Member
A new BBC report says that East Coast is the least punctual train company, according to Network Rail.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-11444412
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-11444412
During the summer I've been using rail between Ashford International and Inverkeithing on business. Whilst there have been inevitable delays due to infrastructure most of mine have been down to sloppy operating proceedure and poor regulation.
In about 5 journeys north during this summer no trains have arrived on time or within my official connection at Waverley.
I think 1 of the trains was advertised as ready to board 15 mins before departure time whilst 2 didnt start boarding till well after departure time. In one case without any announcements it appeared as one train had been cancelled as 400 people tried to get to customer information nearly 15 mins after scheduled it was suddenly announced as boarding on a platform where there had been train for at least 30 mins!
The service is still hampered by far too many calls at stations in the North East many of whom seem to attract very little custom. In my opinion no off peak London to Edinburgh services should stop at Peterborough, Doncaster, Darlington or Durham.
With the execption of Durham stops at all these stations seem to incur a huge time penalty. Darlington seems to be the worst offender where the average express trains seems to start getting signal checked about 10 miles out. Eventually you are bought to a stand just outside the station so a 2 car pacer can be let in to your platform in front of you. Eventually you trundle over some extremely speed restricted turnouts off the mainline into the station arriving 12 mins late when you left York on time. To make matters worst Darlington never seems to have more than a dozen passengers joining or leaving the train.
I'm back on Easyjet for the autumn, the new franchisee really does needs to get to grips if it wants to attract business passengers from air.
Nationalised East Coast no thanks!
Darlington has connections with Cleveland and the South of County Durham, Doncaster has connections with South Yorkshire and Lincolnshire, you are happy for these communities to loose a connection to London? or at least for them to have an extended journey time (which seemingly is your complaint, ironic huh?)
Oh sorry I forgot, you are from the South of England so clearly more important than us Northerners, apologies I should know my place.
I'm a Northerner, and Paul spends more than enough time up north so has more than enough experience on which to base his opinion, and I agree with him.
Doncaster is London served by Leeds trains, HT and GC, and northwards services by XC. Maybe 1tp2h to Edinburgh is sufficient. The Glasgow trains run through anyway. Darlington should not have every train call there, it wouldn't hurt to take it down to 1tph.
paul1609 - and you're qualified to decide what is sloppy operating procedure and poor regulation?
Darlington has connections with Cleveland and the South of County Durham, Doncaster has connections with South Yorkshire and Lincolnshire, you are happy for these communities to loose a connection to London? or at least for them to have an extended journey time (which seemingly is your complaint, ironic huh?)
Oh sorry I forgot, you are from the South of England so clearly more important than us Northerners, apologies I should know my place.
The average Southerner is unlikely to have ever travelled to the North has no need to and frankly doesnt care about the North. Some Northerners have great difficulty understanding this concept.
For whatever reason although in theory Darlington is an important hub in practise it seems to attract very few passengers for the inter city services. I suspect that most of those are making short hops to the next station where there are alternative services.
To be honest Im a bit lost why every discussion on here becomes an irrelevant North v South debate, even apparently the stops on a London to Scotland service! I kind of admit it amuses me that if you are a southerner, unless you travel away to football or a train enthusiast you don't even know about the North v South debate.
The average Southerner is unlikely to have ever travelled to the North has no need to and frankly doesnt care about the North. Some Northerners have great difficulty understanding this concept.
As far as I'm concerned the current average 4 h30 mins plus 20 to 25 mins late service from Kings Cross to Edinburgh isn't what I expect to receive paying a fairly hefty fare plus a huge taxpayers subsidy (by the back door). The continuing success of London to Scotland air routes suggests I'm not alone!
For whatever reason although in theory Darlington is an important hub in practise it seems to attract very few passengers for the inter city services. I suspect that most of those are making short hops to the next station where there are alternative services.
I'd do away with all trains to Inverness, Aberdeen etc. as this is beyond the scope of rail ever to be competitive. ......
Intermediate stations Doncaster to Newcastle would have their own semi fast service also calling at Potters Bar,Peterborough, Doncaster and then the usual stations to Newcastle both above would be formed of the current trains.
You've obviously never been to Potters Bar if you ask that question.
Sorry, but Stevenage is much more logical. And it can handle IC trains (by platform lenghts I mean)
the services to Inverness/Aberdeen are the current fasts to Edinburgh!
I wouldn't call Peterborough, Doncaster or Durham, York, Darlington, Newcastle, Berwick fast. The Up Inverness I'd agree is the closest you can get. But a core fast service on the hour would do nicely.
Do that, add in an all-shacks to Newcastle to mop up local services and connect in, job done (akin to WCML Trent Valley LM service).
Of the three current NoL stations for IC services, Stevenage, Watford and Luton, all three are worse off. Watford is wholly underserved and Luton could have a call or two to Nottingham (I'm not aware that they currently do, welcome to correction).
Ideal sitings for NoL stations rely on them being on the M25. Watford, Luton are fine. Stevenage is a good 20 mins further up the A1. Potters Bar is a far better situation to have a NoL call. If the IC call was moved there, I'd wager an increase in patronage above what we currently see from Stevenage. The only reason why Stevenage remains is that most people pay more money to either a) if they're south of Potters Bar, pay to travel into London then back out or b) pay to travel to Stevenage first. Either way, rail gets more money.
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I wouldn't call Peterborough, Doncaster or Durham, York, Darlington, Newcastle, Berwick fast. The Up Inverness I'd agree is the closest you can get. But a core fast service on the hour would do nicely.
Do that, add in an all-shacks to Newcastle to mop up local services and connect in, job done (akin to WCML Trent Valley LM service).
Oh sorry I forgot, you are from the South of England so clearly more important than us Northerners, apologies I should know my place.
I'd do away with all trains to Inverness, Aberdeen etc. as this is beyond the scope of rail ever to be competitive.
If this is the case, why is it that they're usually pretty full?
No you misunderstand, what I want is 1 or 2 TPH from London to Edinburgh calling at York, Newcastle and one of the intermediate stations to Edinburgh normally Berwick.
These trains given time and sucessfull marketing would be full of the passengers currently using air.
I'd do away with all trains to Inverness, Aberdeen etc. as this is beyond the scope of rail ever to be competitive