Great Northern travel experience compared with GA commuter services

[Owen]

Just a few questions regarding Great Northern. I used them on Saturday due to GA engineering work on the GEML. I have used them on a few occasions recently, aswell.

So, I noticed a few differences.

- Why are Greater Anglia services so slow from Cambridge? 1 hour and 20 minutes for a 55 mile service? My GN train made it to Kings Cross in 48 minutes.
- Why so old trains?
- Why is Cambridge and Ely offered the luxury of a Non-stop service whilst a service from say Chelmsford or Colchester, a Nonstop is generally muted as being 'unrealistic'.

Is this all to do with money?

 

[Wivenswold]

Yes and no.

The West Anglia line from Cambridge to Liverpool Street doesn't have the benefit of 4 tracks. As there's no slow or fast lines it limits the possibility of non-stop trains. The East Coast Mainline is exactly that, the West Anglia line is more of a commuter route in modern times.

West Anglia has newish stock, 30 x 8 year old Class 379 Electrostars for Stansted and Cambridge services. The rest of the fleet are Class 317 which were built between 1981 and 1987 that were inherited in the early nineties from the Euston & Kings Cross commuter routes. All Greater Anglia trains are being replaced in the next 2 years.

See my first answer, the 2 running lines between Shenfield and Colchester are at maximum capacity so slow services have to fit in with fast. Colchester and Chelmsford do have non-stop services to and from London (if you include stopping at Stratford).

Both Great Eastern and West Anglia lines desperately need to be expanded with two running lines or more passing loops in order to have better, faster services. Which obviously means a lot of investment.

 

[jopsuk]

Once upon a time the West Anglia route was the mainline from Cambridge. It was west anglia trains that ran through to King's Lynn, it was the west Anglia that was fully electrified first, etc. For a while there weren't even through trains to Kings Cross- there was a period when the line was electrified from Hitchin to Royston, and Royston-Cambridge was served by two car DMUs.

But with, as noted, more capacity for fast trains on the Great Northern route, it became possible to run a 48 minute express service that way. So that's now what happens. It's still a bit of a mess, but pre-Thameslink the basic off-peak Cambridge pattern was, from memory:
xx04 Liverpool Street calling at Whittlesford Parkway, Audley End, Bishops Stortford, Harlow Town, Broxbourne and Tottenham Hale - slightly over an hour
xx15 Kings Cross Express
xx21 Liverpool Street calling at all stations to Chesunt, then Tottenham Hale - hour and twenty minutes
xx28 Kings Cross calling at Royston, Letchworth, Hitchin, Stevenage & Finsbury Park (a bit over an hour) (Kings Cross semi-fast)
xx45 Kings Cross Express (this one starting at Kings's Lynn)
xx55 Kings Cross calling at all stations to Welwyn Garden City then Finsbury Park (Kings Cross stopper)

by now, there were supposed to be two KGX semi-fast and two KGX stopper trains per hour, both diverted to St Pancras instead to be Thameslink services. On Saturdays the semi-fast and an express have disappeared. But basically the pattern should provide a good spread- all express services now start at least at Ely, some LST and slower KGX services start at Cambridge North.

The elderly 317s on the West Anglia are being replaced, but really, 30 years is a reasonable age for such EMUs- could possibly have done with better mid-life refurbishments though, the /5 fleet have had very little done

 

[30907]

Cambridge has a big non-commuter market (business not just leisure) and road is not very competitive (gone are the days - mid 80s - when the M11 north of Stortford was almost empty) so the fast service is justified.
Pre-electrification there was a 2-hourly fast service (2 stops) on each route, plus stoppers, so it has always had a decent service, though not very fast.

 

[Owen]

Once upon a time the West Anglia route was the mainline from Cambridge. It was west anglia trains that ran through to King's Lynn, it was the west Anglia that was fully electrified first, etc. For a while there weren't even through trains to Kings Cross- there was a period when the line was electrified from Hitchin to Royston, and Royston-Cambridge was served by two car DMUs.

But with, as noted, more capacity for fast trains on the Great Northern route, it became possible to run a 48 minute express service that way. So that's now what happens. It's still a bit of a mess, but pre-Thameslink the basic off-peak Cambridge pattern was, from memory:
xx04 Liverpool Street calling at Whittlesford Parkway, Audley End, Bishops Stortford, Harlow Town, Broxbourne and Tottenham Hale - slightly over an hour
xx15 Kings Cross Express
xx21 Liverpool Street calling at all stations to Chesunt, then Tottenham Hale - hour and twenty minutes
xx28 Kings Cross calling at Royston, Letchworth, Hitchin, Stevenage & Finsbury Park (a bit over an hour) (Kings Cross semi-fast)
xx45 Kings Cross Express (this one starting at Kings's Lynn)
xx55 Kings Cross calling at all stations to Welwyn Garden City then Finsbury Park (Kings Cross stopper)

by now, there were supposed to be two KGX semi-fast and two KGX stopper trains per hour, both diverted to St Pancras instead to be Thameslink services. On Saturdays the semi-fast and an express have disappeared. But basically the pattern should provide a good spread- all express services now start at least at Ely, some LST and slower KGX services start at Cambridge North.

The elderly 317s on the West Anglia are being replaced, but really, 30 years is a reasonable age for such EMUs- could possibly have done with better mid-life refurbishments though, the /5 fleet have had very little done

Thanks, very intriguing post! Cambridge has a great transport network!