Absolutely correct. A friend of mine wanted to travel from Southampton to Birmingham for the day recently and use the train as he had always done in the past. Based on the paltry service he drove instead.
People are pointing out that unfortunately, although there may not be a shortage in the way you choose to define it, there is no budget for overtime unless it is an exceptional case. Therefore some depots cannot cover all of the work that the industry and the travelling public might like in terms of services.
By far the most likely outcome is that the service remains degraded and less attractive. And of course, therefore earns less.
Its down to Network Rail when the May 22 timetable will be published. Also not all operators are published at the same time, some have already been published and some are yet to be published.
It's even worse than that. The service used to be 3tp2h, as alternate Newcastle-Reading services would continue on to Southampton. The current 1tp2h service represents a reduction of two thirds on pre-Covid.
I would strongly advice against trying to plan things based on what is currently in the public domain. Things are still too much up in the air for you to be confident that any train you plan on taking will actually run.
Eh, most of the May 22 timetables have been finalised now, although they won't all be published yet. In fact most won't be yet.
It hasn't ended. Critically it cannot do so either because some of the contracts are let by different organisations. Merseyrail's revenue is for Merseytravel to choose how to spend. Transport for Wales' revenue is a matter for Transport for Wales. TfL Rail and London Overground revenues are for TfL to choose how to spend. ScotRail and Caledonian Sleeper earn revenues which it is up to Transport Scotland to direct. And of course, Arriva are entitled to the proceeds earnt by Grand Central, and First Group those earnt by Hull Trains and Lumo.
Perhaps, but I would be amazed if that's what actually ends up operating.
My original aim was to do this summer 2021 but once I'd planned it I couldn't get the hotels - they must be close to the stations and too many people were holidaying in UK because of Covid.
Except CrossCountry seem to be actively suppressing demand by removing calls at stations (only to, have extra dwell time at the following stop), skewing this data beyond much useful purpose.
This is beyond ridiculous as they operated a full hourly service from Bournemouth to Manchester throughout the first lockdown, then afterwards when demand increased they reduced it to two-hourly and started skipping stops justified as being for "social distancing," which ended long ago yet is still happening. They're still using roughly the same number of units and staff but providing a much worse service for everyone.
How can it when there is no point of comparison? The downturn could easily be blamed on Covid whether true or not.
ORCATS now merely serves to redistribute revenue between different pots within the DfT. A reduction in services will simply result in a slightly larger share of the revenue ending in SWR's pot. It is the reduction in total revenue from such pointless skip-stopping that matters.
No the operators still receive ticket revenue. Just any shortfalls in operating costs are met by the dft
True, but surely not so low as to only warrant 1 train per day. Demand to Blackpool can't be that much higher (logistical benefits aside) nor do I believe Edinburgh demand is 6 times higher. I'm not necessarily saying to add more journeys to Scotland but just confused as to why they aren't more evenly distributed amongst TV and BHM routes.
You can, and I have done so many times but this tends to add 30 mins+ onto the journey and the inconvenience of having to drag heavy baggage off and on the train an extra time and finding another passenger in the seat you booked
.You can, and I have done so many times but this tends to add 30 mins+ onto the journey and the inconvenience of having to drag heavy baggage off and on the train an extra time and finding another passenger in the seat you booked
It is an average 49 minute wait at Carlisle for the following Glasgow Avanti. Not really a good option. However it is about a 12 minute fester at Lancaster with same platform transfer to the TPE Glasgow service.
There seems to be something symbolic that Blackpool is felt as if it should have direct trains from London, without considering actual demand or frequency of the local services.
