Late evening services from Euston.

[100andthirty]

I have been used to service frequency and speed from Euston to Milton Keynes deteriorating significantly after 22 00 but the trains that ran used to be well loaded 12 car LNR services between a couple of slow Avantis. Tonight I travelled late and 22.39 was 8 car and 23.09 was 4 car.both were rammed. Is this what we're lumbered with now?

 

[Boodiggy]

I would imagine it is linked to drivers action short of strike and units not being platformed for strengthening correctly for whatever reason and then no driver to shunt.

 

[DarloRich]

I have been used to service frequency and speed from Euston to Milton Keynes deteriorating significantly after 22 00 but the trains that ran used to be well loaded 12 car LNR services between a couple of slow Avantis. Tonight I travelled late and 22.39 was 8 car and 23.09 was 4 car.both were rammed. Is this what we're lumbered with now?

that isn't reflective of my experience of travelling at such a time but there are often short notice changes.

 

[Bletchleyite]

Other than the old 12 car 319 sets "going home" they've only been 12-car sets on Saturdays. They are a bit shorter now, this does reflect slightly lower demand but also higher daytime unit utilisation as there are now almost no 4 cars during the day on Saturdays, which is a better use of the units.

 

[Silverlinky]

There have been a number of issues in the last couple of weeks due to action short of a strike restricting Driver movements and flexibility, as well as a spike in sickness and an increase in leave due to the school summer holidays. A perfect storm if you like when trains are cancelled at their origin, and not making it to Euston to strengthen the service for the late evening/night trains.

 

[100andthirty]

Thanks for all the responses. In the end I caught the 23:30 Avanti to Milton Keynes which is booked to take 59 minutes and only took the usual 30 minutes, so I overtook the packed 4-car 23:09. Curiously this train wasn't on the departure board at MKC.

Things are worse tonight (Thursday 10/8) with 22:09, 23:09 and 23:42 all cancelled. I wonder if they can run 16-car trains on the 22:39 and 00:09 to compensate? (tongue in cheek - because I know that ony 3 x 4-car class 350s are allowed)

 

[Adam Williams]

Things are worse tonight (Thursday 10/8) with 22:09, 23:09 and 23:42 all cancelled. I wonder if they can run 16-car trains on the 22:39 and 00:09 to compensate? (tongue in cheek - because I know that ony 3 x 4-car class 350s are allowed)

Avanti did offer ticket acceptance and declassify Std Premium on at least one of these services, which is something.

 

[moogal]

Last night I was on the 22.39 which was absolutely rammed - if we'd missed it our next train would have been the 00.09 service! The LNR website was annoyingly vague about this sort of thing, with its generic "check your journey" advice not really flagging that a large part of the evening service wasn't running.

 

[Bletchleyite]

Last night I was on the 22.39 which was absolutely rammed - if we'd missed it our next train would have been the 00.09 service! The LNR website was annoyingly vague about this sort of thing, with its generic "check your journey" advice not really flagging that a large part of the evening service wasn't running.

LNR has been a very poor show this week. In London Midland days in these sort of circumstances they used to drop to splitting the service in half at Northampton and run an hourly (or if possible half hourly) all stations stopping service with 12 coaches. This week they've descended to TPE levels of unusable.

 

[Silverlinky]

Lack of flexibility this week due to action short of a strike and also late notice sickness, along with increased leave due to school summer holidays
Only one of the last five services out of Euston is operating tonight

 

[sammyg901]

Gap of 90 mins last night and the last train was cancelled. I had considered using them instead of Chiltern but I'm glad I didn't!

Getting home at night is really becoming unpleasant to this part of the world and will be making people think twice about train travel next time