How busy have your trains been?

[ChiefPlanner]

Boring maybe - but got the 0943 off SAC yesterday for Kent - very busy - as was the 1025 to Ramsgate to at least Herne Bay where I alighted. Main surprise after a quiet return to Vic via Bromley South was the atmosphere around Victoria and the Barking tube to Blackfriars for an early pm peak departure. No spare seats and standing ....and no they were not Primark shoppers.

At least 6 in the "proper" GTR first both ways who looked like commuters (unlike my freeloading) .....so not just shoppers and leisure.

 

[james60059]

WEDNESDAY 9th JUNE:

09:24 Nuneaton - Leicester, 3 car Class 170. 7 passengers in rear coach, rest of the train looked pretty empty.
10:10 Leicester - Sheffield, 7 car Class 222, 5 passengers in front coach, however train looked pretty loaded when it emptied at Sheffield.
11:11 Sheffield - Cleethorpes, 6 car (2x Class 185). 6 including myself in front coach, however a good number alighted at Cleethorpes.
12:56 Cleethorpes - Barton-on-Humber, 2 car (2 x Class153). Half a dozen in front unit, although a handful got on and off at intermediate stops.
13:56 Barton-on-Humber - Cleethorpes - AS ABOVE - 8 passengers boarded at Barton, and a few more en-route too.
15:26 Cleethorpes - Doncaster, 6 car (2 x Class 185). About 35-40 passengers boarded, I had the lead coach all to myself as far as Scunthorpe.
17:21 Doncaster - Peterborough, 9 car MKIV set please . Coach I was in was at social distanced capacity.
18:54 Peterborough - Nuneaton, 3 car Class 170. Rear coach, 7 passengers, a good number alighted at Peterborough however.

Cheers

James

 

[zero]

My recent travel:
Glasgow - Edinburgh (SR): <10% full
Edinburgh - Manchester (TP): gradually filled up with most rows occupied by Preston
Manchester - Birmingham (XC): about 30% full
Birmingham - Cheltenham (XC): only 3 people in my carriage, but others had more
Worcester - Reading (GW): about 20% full
Reading - Waterloo: quite full with some standing (because people don't want to sit next to someone else particularly for a short journey - not necessarily due to covid)

The times of the trains may have been a factor in the loadings though.

 

[Jamesrob637]

My recent travel:
Glasgow - Edinburgh (SR): <10% full
Edinburgh - Manchester (TP): gradually filled up with most rows occupied by Preston
Manchester - Birmingham (XC): about 30% full
Birmingham - Cheltenham (XC): only 3 people in my carriage, but others had more
Worcester - Reading (GW): about 20% full
Reading - Waterloo: quite full with some standing (because people don't want to sit next to someone else particularly for a short journey - not necessarily due to covid)

The times of the trains may have been a factor in the loadings though.

Well that must have taken the best part of a day - Glasgow to Waterloo via here, there and everywhere! Or was it done over several days? You only mentioned "recent travel" without mentioning specific dates.

Also, you missed out Cheltenham to Worcester unless you caught a lift.

 

[DannyMich2018]

Friday 11th June:- 16.47 from Hinckley to Leicester (ex Birmingham), 3 car 170. No less than 20 in my coach and similar got off at Hinckley. Least 50 in other two carriages. I'd say least half full when terminating at Leicester. 16.39 from Hinckley to Birmingham, around 60% full (3 car 170) leaving Hinckley. Leicester station quite busy. I know it was peak time but the loadings of most services I seen were at least 50%. Many were more. No services were quiet. First Class was no surprisingly quiet. Some services were not far off pre Covid levels. Yes not crowded or standing room only but all were well loaded I observed. Even 7 car 222s were nicely loaded.

 

[Andy Pacer]

Friday 11th June:- 16.47 from Hinckley to Leicester (ex Birmingham), 3 car 170. No less than 20 in my coach and similar got off at Hinckley. Least 50 in other two carriages. I'd say least half full when terminating at Leicester. 16.39 from Hinckley to Birmingham, around 60% full (3 car 170) leaving Hinckley. Leicester station quite busy. I know it was peak time but the loadings of most services I seen were at least 50%. Many were more. No services were quiet. First Class was no surprisingly quiet. Some services were not far off pre Covid levels. Yes not crowded or standing room only but all were well loaded I observed. Even 7 car 222s were nicely loaded.

Being Leicester based myself I can concur that the trains in this area (and in my experience of the wider East Midlands) really do seem to be picking up trade wise. As an associated note the Leicester buses are also notably busier in recent weeks.

 

[LowLevel]

On Thursday 1607 Crewe to Nottingham had just over 70 on board a 2 car 156 by the time it left Stoke. Bearing in mind it wasn't long ago that this train was a single 153 that's not bad going.

Yesterday 1639 Nottingham to Norwich had 105 on board leaving Nottingham, 80 or so after Peterborough and still 60 or so people by Norwich - that was with a lot of passenger changeover at Grantham, Peterborough and Ely so I would say over 200 people over that section of the journey. It had been 2 vice 4 from Liverpool and full all the way to Nottingham, apparently.

1538 Mansfield W to Notts had 80 on board after Hucknall, but it was the first train in some time due to cancellations.

As far as things like seat sharing goes, people seem quite happy to share tables but less so with the airline seating, though I have noted a shift towards tolerance as things have gotten busier.

 

[Ianno87]

Got the 1014 Cambridge-Kings Cross fast this morning. Busiest train yet* since pre-Covid - pretty much all pairs of seats occupied. I was at front - wouldn't be surprised if there were a few standees further back (closer to steps at Cambridge). Universal face mask compliance too.

*Pre-Covid this was always very busy on a Saturday.

 

[zero]

Well that must have taken the best part of a day - Glasgow to Waterloo via here, there and everywhere! Or was it done over several days? You only mentioned "recent travel" without mentioning specific dates.

Also, you missed out Cheltenham to Worcester unless you caught a lift.

It was over 2 days, and I didn't do that part by train.

 

[Killingworth]

This morning, Hope Valley out of Sheffield.

Northern 9.14, 2 car 195, well loaded, most seated and should have been space for more at Dore, probably some standing. 3 car would have been better.

10.14, 2 car 195, very well loaded. Young lady had anxiety attack and declined to board. Platform staff and conductor got all others aboard. Shoe horn job likely if there were many waiting at Dore. That train has been heavily loaded for years with passengers left behind. It should regularly be 3 car if not 4.

Young lady was going to Manchester. Why on the stopping train that takes 20 minutes longer than fast? Because fast services cost up to 4 times more!

Waiting for the next fast would not have been a good move anyway. The 10.37 EMR Peterborough- Liverpool was short formed with 2 car 158 instead of 4 and was also rammed full, standing room only. The refreshment trolley lady got aboard but how could she sell anything?

The young lady and her companion were getting increasingly anxious. On advice of platform staff they were last seen boarding 6 coach TPE at 11.09.

Northern's 11.14 was 3 car 195, well loaded again with a few standees but some empty seats. Rear carriage much fuller than the front. I left at Dore along with several others to leave room for similar number boarding.

An interesting morning of observations. Manchester-Cleethorpes cancelled at Sheffield, driver taken ill. Leeds - Nottingham cancelled at Sheffield, shortage of drivers.That one looked to have been very busy as all piled out.

Any Covid effects were being swamped by other operational issues on the railway!

Timetabling! At present there are 3 trains per most hours between Sheffield and Doncaster, all leaving within about 10 minutes of each other. The 6 car, and fastest, TPE service is dearest.

Why spend a morning train spotting? A relative is visiting this weekend from Harrogate. We'd got her into using trains before Covid rather than motorways. I'd hoped to convince her rail was still a good and safe option. Sorry, she saw last weeks Daily Mail report on the Blackpool - York route. She wouldn't have appreciated this morning's crowded, short formed or cancelled trains. She's coming by car!

And that's why the recovery is going to be very patchy.

 

[deltic]

Wednesday evening

London Victoria line all seats taken and standing
Euston station dead
18:03 to Liverpool possibly about 50 got off at Lime Street which was pretty dead - quite a few people around in the city centre though

Saturday

7am ish Merseyrail services were very quiet
7.47 Lime Street to Euston quiet - no more than a 100 got off at Euston which was very quiet at 10ish
Victoria line quiet, plenty of seats available

 

[Jamesrob637]

It had been 2 vice 4 from Liverpool and full all the way to Nottingham, apparently.

The Hope Valley Line has severe issues at the moment. Some Northern services are 2-car, a lot of TPE seem to be 3-car and not on Journey Check either, and many EMR are 2-car. Not good considering last summer we had almost guaranteed 6-car on TPE and 4-car on EMR respectively (even if some of EMR's fleet are a bit ropey!) plus quite a bit of 4-car on the Northern locals!

 

[yorksrob]

The Hope Valley Line has severe issues at the moment. Some Northern services are 2-car, a lot of TPE seem to be 3-car and not on Journey Check either, and many EMR are 2-car. Not good considering last summer we had almost guaranteed 6-car on TPE and 4-car on EMR respectively (even if some of EMR's fleet are a bit ropey!) plus quite a bit of 4-car on the Northern locals!

Yes, I hope the Hope Valley gets up to speed again soon. Had a 3 carriage TPE to Sheffield this evening. Apart from the rigmarole while the units were split at Pic, everyone seemed to fit on reasonably comfortably albeit busy.

 

[Kite159]

The Hope Valley Line has severe issues at the moment. Some Northern services are 2-car, a lot of TPE seem to be 3-car and not on Journey Check either, and many EMR are 2-car. Not good considering last summer we had almost guaranteed 6-car on TPE and 4-car on EMR respectively (even if some of EMR's fleet are a bit ropey!) plus quite a bit of 4-car on the Northern locals!

2 coach 195s are just not suitable for the Hope Valley stoppers, they are too short. Even 3 coach units are too short compared to pairs of 150s, even with the horrible 3+2 seating

Today in the East Midlands, Robin Hood line was busy, likewise the northern services from Nottingham (although that might be down to EMR cancelling).

 

[Killingworth]

Yes, I hope the Hope Valley gets up to speed again soon. Had a 3 carriage TPE to Sheffield this evening. Apart from the rigmarole while the units were split at Pic, everyone seemed to fit on reasonably comfortably albeit busy.

4 car EMR, 3 car TPE and 3 car Northern with better pricing between them should be the minimum hourly requirement on days like today. If all then run to time it should work. But they don't!

On Friday I noted a half hour late EMR eastbound service slotted in between the Northern stopper and TPE fast. That's bound to distort loadings. 6 coach TPEs aren't yet needed on most services, but are very useful to help recover situations where things have gone wrong like that. If EMR are missing tomorrow due to strike action I hope both the others will step up to the plate.

 

[yorksrob]

4 car EMR, 3 car TPE and 3 car Northern with better pricing between them should be the minimum hourly requirement on days like today. If all then run to time it should work. But they don't!

On Friday I noted a half hour late EMR eastbound service slotted in between the Northern stopper and TPE fast. That's bound to distort loadings. 6 coach TPEs aren't yet needed on most services, but are very useful to help recover situations where things have gone wrong like that. If EMR are missing tomorrow due to strike action I hope both the others will step up to the plate.

Yes, the Hope Valley copes if two out of the three are firing on all cylinders, but if more than one is struggling it gets very cosy.

With regard to the 2 carriage 195's, its hard to imagine what services they were provided for. I'm always relieved when a 158 turns up on the Hallam stopper.

 

[Killingworth]

Yes, the Hope Valley copes if two out of the three are firing on all cylinders, but if more than one is struggling it gets very cosy.

With regard to the 2 carriage 195's, its hard to imagine what services they were provided for. I'm always relieved when a 158 turns up on the Hallam stopper.

Looks like mostly 3 car 195s today from Northern although one not specified on RTT. 6 car 185s fromTPE.

 

[miklcct]

The trains between Bournemouth and Poole are always nearly empty whenever I take them! The most busy trains I have got until now are on the section just west of Brighton, where the number of passengers is more than one per row.

 

[Jamesrob637]

Looks like mostly 3 car 195s today from Northern although one not specified on RTT. 6 car 185s fromTPE.

Sundays are actually pretty good on the Hope Valley! Pity the service at Heaton Chapel and Levenshulme is expletive, especially going towards Manchester (coming back 1 train per hour is acceptable and in fairness they're all booked 4-car) so I'd probably start and finish my journey at Stockport.

 

[yorksrob]

Looks like mostly 3 car 195s today from Northern although one not specified on RTT. 6 car 185s fromTPE.

Yes, 3 carriages is a bit better. I wonder where all the 150's have gone !

 

[james60059]

FRIDAY 11th JUNE 2021.

09:55 350267 Nuneaton - Stafford. Rear coach, 10 passengers.
10:56 350111 Stafford - Stoke-on-Trent, Front Coach, 7 passengers.
11:35 156498 Stoke-on-Trent - Derby, Front coach, just about every pair of seats taken.
12:29 222021 Derby - Sheffield. Front coach 11 passengers.
13:14 195010 Sheffield - New Mills Central. Busiest train I've been on during my Rover. Full and Standing.
14:15 195006 New Mills Central - Sheffield. Full, no standees until we got to Edale.
15:54 195009 Sheffield - Lincoln Central. Every pair of seats taken, although many got off at Worksop.
18:04 158812 Lincoln Central - Newark North Gate. 13 passengers in rear coach.
18:56 801106 Newark North Gate - Peterborough. Middle coach, 12 passengers. DESPITE BEING TOLD NO SEATS AVAILABLE.
19:54 170636 Peterborough - Nuneaton. 11 passengers in front coach; Bay of 4 to myself. AS WITH LNER, WAS TOLD NO SEATS AVAILABLE.

My original plan to go from Lincoln to Peterborough via Spalding was caped due to the 17:50 being cancelled.

 

[Jamesrob637]

I shall be using a couple of off-peak trains tomorrow and peak trains Tuesday onwards. Stand by.

 

[DannyMich2018]

Being Leicester based myself I can concur that the trains in this area (and in my experience of the wider East Midlands) really do seem to be picking up trade wise. As an associated note the Leicester buses are also notably busier in recent weeks.

Yes I agree. This evening took 18.18 from Kettering to Leicester. 2 x 5 car 222s. Busiest service so far. In standard class close to capacity with a least half of the seats taken. Presumably the hot weather and footy bringing people out too on a very busy day.

 

[jamieintercity]

My brother was on the 1022 LNER aviemore to Edinburgh service yesterday and it was a decent load despite no scotrail services were running

 

[Ianno87]

My brother was on the 1022 LNER aviemore to Edinburgh service yesterday and it was a decent load despite no scotrail services were running

Possibly a decent load *because* no Scotrail services were running!

 

[infobleep]

I am on a direct Guildford to Waterloo service via Cobham. Not intended to be direct service.

Surprisingly there are only 12 of us in coach 6. I say surprisingly as there are infrastructure issues between Havant and Guildford and at Woking, and that's just the ones on the line I would be using if all was well.

My eventual aim isn't Waterloo, I'm just doubling back due to the issues. It was either this or wait half an hour for a train to Redhill and change there. It's touch and go as to whether they would have been faster wither wat the train is quieter than I'd expect.

It may turn out that a delayed direct train to Clapham Junction was faster and maybe a lot of people wanting Woking and Clapham Junction and not Waterloo at this time of the evening. Due to signalling issues at Woking, I didn't want to chance waiting for a train to Clapham Junction.

 

[Jamesrob637]

10:17 Heaton Chapel to Manchester Oxford Road - not too busy in the front 3 carriages, the rear three might have been busier. A few got on at Piccadilly though.

Slightly delayed 15:34 Manchester Oxford Road to Heaton Chapel - the 4-car 769 wasn't too busy even though it picked up a couple of passengers who would've otherwise taken the 15:44 Hazel Grove, presumably bound for Levenshulme, Heaton Chapel or Stockport as the routes diverge south of there. Nice comfy ex-First Class seats though! This train was showing as 2-car until it arrived at Southport off the preceding diagram so there must have been a unit swap on the coast.

Peak trains restart tomorrow for me!

 

[infobleep]

Got stuck in a queue of trains into Waterloo. Should have expected that and added on 10 minutes to the journey vers the National Rail Enquiries prediction. Now on a train to Shepperton. Some passengers on board but not massively busy. Getting busier at Vauxhall, which people now standing. This was coach 5 of a 10 coach 707.

Needless to say, I just missed a train to Berrylands that left on time and this train departed 2 minutes late. Even my connecting train at Clapham Junction, which I left on time. The next one down to the coat is 4 minutes late!

On top of that, the late-running direct train to Clapham Junction has arrived so I should have got that one. However, I wasn't sure how big the delay at Woking was and this train was diverted via Cobham for a reason.

Once on the 18:02, most pairs of seats were taken as I walked through from about coach 5 or 6 to coach 4.

The seats with a half tablet beside the lol were free. Obviously people less keen on sitting here. I don't have such a strong sense of smell. Anyway at East Croydon lots of people alighted.

 

[Jamesrob637]

So, 07:19 Heaton Chapel to Manchester Oxford Road was probably only marginally busier than the 10:16 was yesterday, and that's peak versus off-peak! Same amount of coaches (6)

The 16:40 from Deansgate back to Heaton Chapel wasn't busy either, admittedly it is 6-car also, but it's plain to see, along with the relatively quiet streets of Manchester, that commuter numbers have a long way to go to be anything near pre-COVID levels. Off-peak and weekend travel have bounced back steadily; commuter numbers less so.

Commuter trains were often creaking at the seams pre-COVID but now they're depressingly quiet. We need a balance between the two. Mind you, a fair bit of stuff around Manchester still seems to be 2-car so it might be a small blessing in disguise that peak trains aren't as busy as they used to be. Twitter feeds, not just Northern but also other TOCs, would imply that most complaints about overcrowding occur on weekends at the moment!

 

[Kite159]

Busiest train on Sunday for me was a Hull Trains departure from Doncaster towards London, although I went towards the 2nd coach and it was quiet (rear coaches were busy, but then the wisdom of the norm does state there is only 2 sets of doors on a train).

A 7 coach 222 got quite busy after Leicester, but more with the timetable of having a hourly Nottingham - London & Sheffield - London running within 15 minutes of each other (I actually bailed at Wellingborough for a pair of 360s, having a private coach all the way)