How busy have your trains been?

[Wolfie]

That is a very, very brave assumption!

Indeed. Obviously not someone with experience of dealing with HMT.

 

[dk1]

Indeed. Obviously not someone with experience of dealing with HMT.

What’s HMT?

 

[Wolfie]

What’s HMT?

Her Majesty's Treasury.

 

[dk1]

Her Majesty's Treasury.

I did wonder. Time will tell.

 

[Wolfie]

I did wonder. Time will tell.

Having spent 35 years of my life dealing with them all l will say is don't expect to enjoy it.

 

[dk1]

Having spent 35 years of my life dealing with them all l will say is don't expect to enjoy it.

I’ve done 37 years continuous service on the railway starting with BR in 84. Perhaps it’s why I’m so chilled now. Not got much to worry about.

 

[Wolfie]

I’ve done 37 years continuous service on the railway starting with BR in 84. Perhaps it’s why I’m so chilled now. Not got much to worry about.

Makes sense.

 

[Jamesrob637]

I was on a train from Birmingham Moor Street to Marylebone today. The car parks at Beaconsfield and Gerrards Cross looked like they were a quarter to a third full. This suggests commuting is still way down from normal.

Were they full until March last year?

 

[Wolfie]

Were they full until March last year?

Yes

 

[Peter Mugridge]

Various news headlines reporting that the number of passengers using the Underground has shot up today. Good news.

Not just the Underground.

Today for the first time in a while I've seen full and standing on Thameslink through the core to London Bridge in the evening peak. This wasn't "person aversion" standing either; virtually every seat was taken. Even had to stand myself...

 

[Paul Jones 88]

Enfield Town to Silver Street was busy on Sunday.

 

[dk1]

Full & standing on many GEML services into Stratford/Liverpool St again this morning. Next Monday cannot come soon enough.

 

[squizzler]

Presumably a lot of people are tempted to go to air-conditioned offices rather than sweat in their hot spare rooms today.

 

[WestRiding]

Full & standing on many GEML services into Stratford/Liverpool St again this morning. Next Monday cannot come soon enough.

Pardon my ignorance, but what happens next Monday?

 

[WestRiding]

As an observer last night at the Platform 2 pub in Tynemouth, the Metro was well used on every train through the station for the duration of my stay, 8pm onwards.

 

[dk1]

Pardon my ignorance, but what happens next Monday?

Timetable returns to almost normal from the 13th September.

 

[Jamesrob637]

Presumably a lot of people are tempted to go to air-conditioned offices rather than sweat in their hot spare rooms today.

Also people might want a few days together in the office after so long at home/only in very small groups.

 

[Ianno87]

Also people might want a few days together in the office after so long at home/only in very small groups.

And, for many, a chance to get in the office without having to worry about supervise kids during the day.

 

[trainophile]

Perhaps... or it may all come to a shuddering halt again...

Winter lockdown fears sparked after No10 warning to take further steps

New fears of a winter lockdown have emerged as Downing Street warned they were willing to take “further steps if necessary” to tackle Covid.

www.standard.co.uk

This article has just been refuted on the BBC News website. Sorry can’t post link on phone.

 

[Bikeman78]

Full & standing on many GEML services into Stratford/Liverpool St again this morning. Next Monday cannot come soon enough.

From my observations the GEML has been increasingly busy for weeks, much more so than the West Anglia route, with the exception of Hertford. Are there enough units to run the full timetable or will lots of extra 720s appear?

 

[Bletchleyite]

This Sunday I found Windermere-Manchester quite busy with tourists and day trippers, but Manchester-Euston in the evening (1935) a fresh-air express (4 of us in Coach A and the rest similarly quiet). This sort of timing would typically carry lots of weekly commuters/weekend visitors "back home" up north but this traffic is still near totally absent.

It does very much seem that leisure has near-fully returned if not gone higher due to reduced holidaying abroad, but business and commuter traffic is near totally absent, certainly to white collar jobs (blue collar of course never really stopped).

 

[Ianno87]

This Sunday I found Windermere-Manchester quite busy with tourists and day trippers, but Manchester-Euston in the evening (1935) a fresh-air express (4 of us in Coach A and the rest similarly quiet). This sort of timing would typically carry lots of weekly commuters/weekend visitors "back home" up north but this traffic is still near totally absent.

What won't help is Avanti's booking horizon being extremely short at the moment, so people seeing only high walk up fares available and not bothering.

 

[Killingworth]

It does very much seem that leisure has near-fully returned if not gone higher due to reduced holidaying abroad, but business and commuter traffic is near totally absent, certainly to white collar jobs (blue collar of course never really stopped).

That's been my experience over the last few months. Whether leisure remains at current high levels next summer remains to be seen. Generally speaking overseas holiday makers are higher spenders and it's many of them creating the higher loadings in the UK this summer. White collar commuting hereabouts is still below 25% of pre-Covid.

Future leisure loadings are hard to predict, leaving aside daily weather forecasts. More journeys to airports, but how many and from where? Recalculations of all aspects of railway travel will need to happen. Frequency, timings and length of trains. Revised routes.

 

[westv]

White collar commuting hereabouts is still below 25% of pre-Covid.

Do you mean 25% down or less than 25% of what it was?

 

[Peter Mugridge]

LNER has reported today that leisure travel with them has now exceeded pre-virus levels, and business travel with them has reached 50% of pre-virus levels.

Things are starting to look a lot more optimistic aren't they?

 

[Bletchleyite]

LNER has reported today that leisure travel with them has now exceeded pre-virus levels, and business travel with them has reached 50% of pre-virus levels.

Things are starting to look a lot more optimistic aren't they?

If you consider that we had (roughly) the same railway with a more reliable, slightly sparser timetable in the 1990s, but far, far fewer passengers, it does seem to suggest that any attempts at actual closures are entirely political and not justified by loadings in and of themselves.

 

[Bald Rick]

Do you mean 25% down or less than 25% of what it was?

25% of what it was. That’s all commuting, not just ‘white collar’ - as no data is collected on the colour of passengers’ collars when buying tickets.

 

[Bikeman78]

If you consider that we had (roughly) the same railway with a more reliable, slightly sparser timetable in the 1990s, but far, far fewer passengers, it does seem to suggest that any attempts at actual closures are entirely political and not justified by loadings in and of themselves.

My recollection of the 1980s and 1990s was wedged 12 car rush hour trains and lightly loaded off peak trains. The off peak service along the Arun valley was a single 4CIG once an hour at one point. Now it's a half hourly eight car that splits at Horsham so four trains per hour south of there. Thinning out the service a bit would solve the crew shortage and any spare 377s could be used to replace 313s and 455s. Not really sure what they can do beyond that. If they cut back the service too much, fewer people will use it and it becomes a downward spiral.

 

[Killingworth]

Do you mean 25% down or less than 25% of what it was?

I'll rephrase it as commuting from here is over 90% of what we used to call white collar jobs, but white collars went for most males many years ago. Even I stopped wearing white collars over 20 years ago. Commuting to well paid jobs like university staff, airline cabin and flight crew, doctors, legal professionals, business managers, senior professionals, some working in rail related positions.

The numbers of commuters are less than a quarter of what they were in early March 2020. Evidenced by numbers on trains and cars in the car park at 8.30. Say if the figure in 2020 was 400 it's under 100 now. But may be higher next week/month/year, fingers crossed. In the meantime lots of space for commuting.

I didn't mention stopping patterns in my previous post. They may also need review for a more leisure orientated railway.

 

[dk1]

From my observations the GEML has been increasingly busy for weeks, much more so than the West Anglia route, with the exception of Hertford. Are there enough units to run the full timetable or will lots of extra 720s appear?

Not sure how it’s going to work really. Monday will be interesting. Leisure travel especially has been extremely buoyant on Anglia Intercity & locals.