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Leaving early

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Ian Howard

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Question for the experts:

I was at Welwyn Garden City (WGC) this morning waiting for the 8.02 to London King's Cross (KGX) and two customers were arguing with the GN staff because the train to Cambridge (CBG) that had just left had departed two minutes early and they had just missed it (by 30 seconds or so.)

I checked openrail and it suggests that the service 2C04 departed 2E.

GN staff told them this is allowed. Are they correct?

I thought 30 seconds early was the limit...
 
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bb21

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TOCs advertise the margin the doors can close early, and trains should not leave earlier than that, so systems showing departing 1 minute early is normally permissible.

No, trains are not allowed to depart 2 minutes earlier than booked time on GN, in normal circumstances, unless it is set down only.
 

Dren Ahmeti

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It could just be driver/dispatch error, the clock could be out, a plethora of reasons. More than 30/60 seconds early is usually investigated by the TOC.
 

dk1

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Unfortunate human error by the sound of it. Those involved will probably just get spoken too & reminded to a bit more clock aware.
 

AlterEgo

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There are some occasions where services may be dispatched early following an instruction from Control but this is pretty rare.
 

IKB

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Depends on local instructions for the location I would have thought - Eg Clapham Junction and Battersea Park in the 'up' direction, the instruction is to go when ready due to the frequency of services. Perhaps similar applies at WGC? I'm not familiar with that part of the world.
 

30907

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Depends on local instructions for the location I would have thought - Eg Clapham Junction and Battersea Park in the 'up' direction, the instruction is to go when ready due to the frequency of services. Perhaps similar applies at WGC? I'm not familiar with that part of the world.
I would hope not. WGC to CBG (or even WGC to London) is nowhere near that frequency.
 

Deepgreen

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Question for the experts:

I was at Welwyn Garden City (WGC) this morning waiting for the 8.02 to London King's Cross (KGX) and two customers were arguing with the GN staff because the train to Cambridge (CBG) that had just left had departed two minutes early and they had just missed it (by 30 seconds or so.)

I checked openrail and it suggests that the service 2C04 departed 2E.

GN staff told them this is allowed. Are they correct?

I thought 30 seconds early was the limit...
Assuming there were no extenuating circumstances, this sort of thing happens far too much these days, given the easily-achievable high degree of accuracy and reliability of clocks/watches now. Early departures is a bugbear of mine - the onus is on the TOC to ensure proper timekeeping, not on the passenger to turn up however many seconds or minutes each individual TOC chooses to allow itself to close the doors before departure - 30 seconds, 40 seconds, 1 minute, etc. There are those who say that there is no point in the train waiting for time if the doors have been closed ("and locked", as the TOCs are so fond, wrongly, of saying) - of course; the doors should only be closed so as to allow immediate departure on time (not early). Essentially, it's just sloppy operating.
 
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