Longest scheduled stop?

[Egg Centric]

I'm currently on a service at New Street where I've had enough time to get out, stretch my legs, go to M&S and Pret, and get back in time to write this post (well, start writing it - we left a bit before I finished as I was double checking the times). That's cause we have a 19 minute scheduled stop. Makes me wonder - what's the longest scheduled station stop on GB rail services?

 

[Darandio]

Not quite as long as that but there used to be an 08:43 off Redcar Central that had a 13 minute scheduled stop in Middlesbrough, given it used to often arrive a couple of minutes early as well you'd have 15 minutes sat in Middlesbrough. Considering the line offers a fairly short journey end to end sitting there used to wind me right up!

@ainsworth74 might remember it, I cannot even recall if there was any obvious operational reason for doing so.

 

[185143]

Debatable if it counts, but the Caledonian Sleeper arrives at Edinburgh at 03:48 and only departs for Fort William at 04:50.

I've got to make the changeover from seated carriages on Wednesday morning FWIW.

 

[Spaceship323]

Not quite as long as that but there used to be an 08:43 off Redcar Central that had a 13 minute scheduled stop in Middlesbrough, given it used to often arrive a couple of minutes early as well you'd have 15 minutes sat in Middlesbrough. Considering the line offers a fairly short journey end to end sitting there used to wind me right up!

@ainsworth74 might remember it, I cannot even recall if there was any obvious operational reason for doing so.

XC to Plymouth waits about 15 mins at Bristol Temple Meads, and I've seen XC waiting at Derby for more than 1/2 hour (but maybe that was a planned diversion and was just waiting for the next path)

 

[swt_passenger]

Until fairly recent alterations removed the dwells, by breaking the service into separate sections, the down direction Waterloo to Poole stopper had about a 20 min stop at Southampton, followed just a few miles later by a roughly 35 min stop at Brockenhurst.

So using the Poole train from Waterloo was a good way of adding about 90 mins to the journey time compared to getting on a Weymouth train.

 

[Western 52]

1748 SX Paddington to Carmarthen has a 32 min dwell at Swansea. Whilst it waits, there's a 2048 TfW service to Milford Haven, which most passengers will change to!

 

[Wilts Wanderer]

Long dwells are part and parcel of overnight sleeper operations. GWR’s ‘Night Riviera’ sits at Exeter/Taunton combined for long enough to enable occasional planned diversions via Honiton and Yeovil (complete with run-round at Exeter St David’s) and still regain the standard booked path from Reading to London.

Regarding day train operations, I recently experienced a 45-min stop in a northbound XC service at Derby which had been diverted via Lichfield and was waiting to regain the following hour’s slot north. In the permanent plan I suspect there will be a fair number of 30-plus minute waits at key ‘node’ stations in lower priority long-distance services. Certainly 20-years ago it wasn’t unusual for XC loco-hauls to have 30+ min dwells at New Street, particularly those non-standard paths between SW and NW England which also often encompassed a loco-change.

1748 SX Paddington to Carmarthen has a 32 min dwell at Swansea. Whilst it waits, there's a 2048 TfW service to Milford Haven, which most passengers will change to!

Is that possibly because in the original pre-Covid version of the GWR timetable, it would have occupied a later peak ‘superfast’ path out of Paddington with the first stop being Bristol Parkway? And now those trains are eliminated from the timetable, the West Wales leg has been tacked onto the nearest suitable service, obviously also constrained by availability of slots between TFW and freights on the SWML west of Cardiff.

 

[brad465]

XC to Plymouth waits about 15 mins at Bristol Temple Meads, and I've seen XC waiting at Derby for more than 1/2 hour (but maybe that was a planned diversion and was just waiting for the next path)

Over 30 minute waits on XC trains at Bristol Temple Meads are not uncommon when diversions south of Bristol occur. Earlier this year this was the case heading northbound, presumably to get the services back to the same time past the hour north of Bristol as per normal timetabling, with XC's final ever HST diagram one of them.

 

[tramdan]

The 0547 Nottingham to Skegness service on weekdays has a 19 minute dwell at Boston. This service doesn’t go via Grantham, and sits at Boston for a similar amount of time that it would take to do so, and as such the end to end journey time of the service is similar to most that do. The 0955 Nottingham to Skegness also avoids Grantham, and dwells at Boston for 15 minutes.

 

[43055]

Another EMR one:

The first Nottingham to Crewe service on weekdays has a 24 min wait at Derby. Leaves Nottingham at 0553 then waits for the normal Crewe path from Derby at 0648. During the day the xx52 from Nottingham is the Matlock service whilst the Crewe one goes at xx16.

 

[MerlinRail 804]

Not quite as long as some of the others here, but I think the longest Chiltern one is the 2H26 0948 Gerrards Cross - London Marylebone, which spends 13 minutes at West Ruislip to be overtaken by three trains.

 

[Harpo]

0524 Aber -Bhm Int has 23 mins at Salop
2008 Bhm Int -Aber has 30 mins at Salop
Multiple southbound Avantis sit at New St xx06-xx21.

 

[tramdan]

Another EMR one:

The first Nottingham to Crewe service on weekdays has a 24 min wait at Derby. Leaves Nottingham at 0553 then waits for the normal Crewe path from Derby at 0648. During the day the xx52 from Nottingham is the Matlock service whilst the Crewe one goes at xx16.

Indeed the standing time is that long that you can catch the 0600 CrossCountry from Nottingham 7 minutes later and make that same train over to Crewe!

 

[waverley47]

The 12:30 London Kings Cross to Aberdeen today (cancelled from Kings Cross to Peterborough) had a forty minute stop at Edinburgh scheduled, due to at least two sets of engineering works affecting the route.

 

[satisnek]

Regarding day train operations, I recently experienced a 45-min stop in a northbound XC service at Derby which had been diverted via Lichfield and was waiting to regain the following hour’s slot north.

With today's 'thinned out XC' it's possible to split it and waste some time at Burton as well, but they don't shut down the engines there because there's no-one available to help if the thing can't be started up again...

 

[ainsworth74]

Not quite as long as that but there used to be an 08:43 off Redcar Central that had a 13 minute scheduled stop in Middlesbrough, given it used to often arrive a couple of minutes early as well you'd have 15 minutes sat in Middlesbrough. Considering the line offers a fairly short journey end to end sitting there used to wind me right up!

@ainsworth74 might remember it, I cannot even recall if there was any obvious operational reason for doing so.

Sorry not one that I can recall sadly!

 

[sammyg901]

Not quite as long as some of the others here, but I think the longest Chiltern one is the 2H26 0948 Gerrards Cross - London Marylebone, which spends 13 minutes at West Ruislip to be overtaken by three trains.

Chiltern also breaks up at least one train at Aylesbury- the 1953 from Aylesbury Vale Parkway is just a service to Aylesbury terminating at 1958. There is then a 2015 to London Marylebone which is almost always formed of the same unit that sits in Aylesbury for 17 minutes. I guess makes it clearer in the timetable that there is a wait in Aylesbury

 

[Ianigsy]

The last incarnation of the East Midlands St Pancras-Leeds HST service had 20 minutes at Nottingham and the same at Sheffield. It was almost like a rail tour.

 

[thealexweb]

Longest scheduled stop outside a station would be Northern’s Windermere surely? Frequently waits just outside the station for a platform for around 20 minutes.

24 mins on todays

Realtime Trains | 1C72 1450 Manchester Piccadilly to Windermere | 15/10/2024

Real-time train running information for 1C72 1450 departure from Manchester Piccadilly to Windermere on 15/10/2024. From Realtime Trains, an independent source of train running info for Great Britain.

www.realtimetrains.co.uk

 

[A S Leib]

Longest scheduled stop outside a station would be Northern’s Windermere surely? Frequently waits just outside the station for a platform for around 20 minutes.

24 mins on todays

Realtime Trains | 1C72 1450 Manchester Piccadilly to Windermere | 15/10/2024

Real-time train running information for 1C72 1450 departure from Manchester Piccadilly to Windermere on 15/10/2024. From Realtime Trains, an independent source of train running info for Great Britain.

www.realtimetrains.co.uk

I was going to mention the 16:00 (Saturdays only?) Windermere – Manchester Airport, which has a less impressive eight minute dwell at Oxenholme and makes the 16:24 Avanti service slightly quicker for Windermere – Lancaster / Preston.

 

[Jimini]

The last down trains out of Euston can have a ~30 min dwell time at Milton Keynes Central and another ~10 mins at Rugby, when the fast lines are the two left open after 2200 and the line via. Weedon's available as well.

 

[GW43125]

The last down trains out of Euston can have a ~30 min dwell time at Milton Keynes Central and another ~10 mins at Rugby, when the fast lines are the two left open after 2200 and the line via. Weedon's available as well.

The 15 minute fester at Rugby on 9G49 was always a killer when I was only trying to get to Coventry...

Honourable mention to the SWT pre-covid 2Bxx Poole stoppers (really 3 different stoppers bolted together), which had an 18 minute stand at Southampton, all stations to Brockenhurst then another 25 minute fester there!

I managed to leave Southampton on the fast next to it, go to Brockenhurst, ride to Lymington and back and the 2B was still at Brockenhurst!

 

[80sGuard]

Until fairly recent alterations removed the dwells, by breaking the service into separate sections, the down direction Waterloo to Poole stopper had about a 20 min stop at Southampton, followed just a few miles later by a roughly 35 min stop at Brockenhurst.

So using the Poole train from Waterloo was a good way of adding about 90 mins to the journey time compared to getting on a Weymouth train.

Going back a bit before the Poole stoppers were introduced (after electrification to Weymouth?) the timetable before that had three trains per hour off peak Waterloo-Bournemouth. Fast (91) at xx.35, slow (93) at xx.42 and semi (92) at xx45. This looks odd at first sight, but benefited passengers making intermediate journeys. The 93 waited 15 minutes at Southampton to allow the 91 that left 53 minutes later to connect and overtake. The 92's didn't offer quite the same connecting possibilities, but of course called at more stations than the 91 (Southampton - Bournemouth then all stations to Weymouth). The 93 was first stop Surbiton than all stations to Bournemouth except Southampton Airport.

Off topic, does anyone remember the announcment at Bournemouth for the up semi to Waterloo? The actual departure time wwas never mentioned. Form memory it want 'The ttin now at platform 2 is the semi-fast service to London Waterloo, departuing on the hour and calling at .....' Saved recording multiple announcments I suppose.

 

[jammmmmsssssss]

1Y51 https://www.realtimetrains.co.uk/service/gb-nr:L68911/2024-10-17/detailed#allox_id=0 is scheduled to stop at Colchester for 19 mins (but did 21 today)

 

[Snow1964]

The 15:59 Westbury to Gloucester waits 24 minutes at Bristol Temple Meads, as retimed this week

Realtime Trains | 2E71 1559 Westbury to Gloucester | 18/10/2024

Real-time train running information for 2E71 1559 departure from Westbury to Gloucester on 18/10/2024. From Realtime Trains, an independent source of train running info for Great Britain.

www.realtimetrains.co.uk

Must be a candidate for longest intermediate stop on a local train

 

[swt_passenger]

Honourable mention to the SWT pre-covid 2Bxx Poole stoppers (really 3 different stoppers bolted together), which had an 18 minute stand at Southampton, all stations to Brockenhurst then another 25 minute fester there!

I managed to leave Southampton on the fast next to it, go to Brockenhurst, ride to Lymington and back and the 2B was still at Brockenhurst!

As i said in post #5, although i was guessing at the exact times…

 

[Taunton]

Historic now, but back in the 1980s the summer Friday night overnight services from the North to the West Country had timetabled extended stops at Bristol Temple Meads, stated for refreshments, to use the toilets, etc, all of which were maintained open overnight on the main westbound island platform, with trains pulled up on both sides. Most such advertised stops were 30-40 minutes, but I see the Sheffield to Paignton service in 1982 had nearly an hour, from 0246 to 0340. Apart from seeming to beat any examples above, I guess they were the last ever en-route refreshment stops.

 

[Shimbleshanks]

Going back nearly 50 years, I remember a trip on the Cambrian Coast line I took with my parents in about 1973-5. Our return train from Machynlleth only went as far as Barmouth; the timetable then showed a separate train departing about an hour later for Pwllheli. During our one-hour layover in Barmouth, we watched the southbound daily pick-up freight arrive and shunt the station sidings (yes, this WAS a long time ago) and depart for the south. Then, eventually the DMU that had deposited us on the platform at Barmouth took us northwards on to Pwllheli.
So not technically a scheduled stop as it was shown in the timetable as two separate trains, but effectively a one-hour halt.

 

[Joey Beauchamp]

Realtime Trains | 2Y02 0829 Birmingham New Street to London Euston | 20/10/2024

Real-time train running information for 2Y02 0829 departure from Birmingham New Street to London Euston on 20/10/2024. From Realtime Trains, an independent source of train running info for Great Britain.

www.realtimetrains.co.uk

This train effectively dwells at Northampton for 48 minutes as it joins with the following service from Birmingham.

Strangely, it shows on journey planners and station screens as going through to London Euston - I know this because I was at Long Buckby heading the other way and noticed it said Euston on the opposite platform. Very misleading as passengers could catch a train half an hour later and get to London at exactly the same time!

 

[Haywain]

Years ago - late 90s? - there was a through service from Newcastle to Ayr (or Stranraer) that had a lengthy wait in Carlisle. As I remember it was something approaching an hour, and around lunchtime, so when I used it there was ample time to go for a beer away from the station!