Good Friday

[Bellwater]

I don't work sundays but there are always plenty who will do, so the trains will always run..

 

[jopsuk]

So, today and tomorrow, there's a rail replacement coach from Royston to Stevenage on the Cambridge-Kings Cross service. Are GA doing the sensible thing and making sure that the Liverpool Street services are all 8-car? Bound to be a fair number of extra passengers on the route, and the Kings Cross service can frequently be full-and-standing on 8-car services on Saturdays

Ooh, they did. And the somewhat overwhelmed guy selling tickets from a portable in front of a broken TVM this morning was even recommending people that had just missed a Royston shuttle due to the massive queues catch the Liverpool Street service. Well done GA

As for a proper seven day railway- it does rather require a heck of a lot of neogtiation. Made more difficult by even different depots/divisions within the same TOC running different T&Cs 9often due to franchise redrawing). It is hardly surprising that the union members are unlikely to want to change without it coming at a price.

 

[D1009]

With Northern timetables we really need a new Saturday and Bank Holidays timetable. (Having the same one should save on diagramming work opposed to two different ones.)

The new one should be like the weekday timetable expect the 'peak time extras' (where applicable) should be between 08:00 and 11:00 and between 15:00 and 18:00, instead of the weekday times for extra which are generally between 06:30 and 08:30, and also 16:30 and 18:30.

I think in most areas a Saturday level of service is sufficient for bank holidays, except that on most major routes last trains are earlier than M-F because of engineering work, and this is not appropriate on bank holidays.

 

[pemma]

As for a proper seven day railway- it does rather require a heck of a lot of neogtiation. Made more difficult by even different depots/divisions within the same TOC running different T&Cs 9often due to franchise redrawing). It is hardly surprising that the union members are unlikely to want to change without it coming at a price.

The thing I don't understand is why it seems every rail employee has to have matching T&Cs. Why not have two types of contract - one that is weekdays only (with option of weekend overtime if required) and the other having alternate weekends included? It would put the railways more in line with other 7 day operations such as the NHS and BBC. Existing employees could be given a choice of contracts, while new employees would be given one as required.
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I think in most areas a Saturday level of service is sufficient for bank holidays.

I'm really getting at the Saturday level of service being insufficient on Northern routes. I was suggesting the same level of service on Bank Holidays opposed to a Bank Holiday only timetable to avoid drawing up different diagrams for just a few days a year.