Because of the bridge works south of Oxford, they will be back to normal when its done. International is operationally better. You block platforms at Leamington and Banbury with double sets turning round.
Hasn’t been a problem for the last few weeks though, and why a problem just every other hour on a clock face timetable? And for the record, they are now only running single sets ex-Manchester..
Ask them?
I don't understand what you mean by is hasn't been a problem for the last few weeks - they've been running a two hourly service since the line shut back in april. The fact that they're single sets is presumably because of more units being used elsewhere.
Using the same logic there is no need to provide a service from Glasgow to Manchester. There are plenty of trains from Glasgow to Preston and from Preston to Manchester.
True.TBH at the moment the direct service may as well not exist given how likely it is to actually run!
Based on that presumption then they won't have enough units to restore the hourly service from 10th June!
That is exactly why it isn't coming back beyond the token service.
Either way, it isn't going to return. The current requirement is for one business departure linking Glasgow with Leeds and one leisure service for the South-West. The 0748 is designed to meet both those requirements.
Correct, ostensibly because there wasn't much demand for London by that route, especially after the accelerated WCML service, but there was still demand for Glasgow to Newcastle/York/Leeds.
Majority of services on the NE to SW axis are now single units too - much more than before the timetable chage. And they haven't had the pre-covid service restored, with only 5tpd via Doncaster still, so capacity between Newcastle to Birmingham is reduced.
www.realtimetrains.co.uk
real time trains will tell what they are today for GTR, and in a few days time for the previous seven of the new timetable, which should be a good indication of what they are expected to be.
is it clear why the off peak pattern from Paddington needed to be changed at all, other than to bring the Newbury departures forward slightly to squeeze the Didcot slows in down the mains and take the Slough stop out of the Oxfords??
Well I guess if you want to speed up the Bristols then they have to leave before the cheltenhams, which is the only other change really. Issue is that they're sped up by anywhere between not at all to about 3 minutes, so is it worth cutting the didcot stop for that?
Where?
I knew they were low on 377s but I didn't expect it to come to this!
Better to some unhelpfully branded 387s than a cancelled 700 though!
Agreed. Personally I'd like to see it go back to being 2tpd in each direction. 17.33 doesn't really match up with a significant number of City working habits, far too early. Perhaps something to hope for after some stability.
It provides useful capacity in front of the very busy 17:35 Brighton service, but the decline in long distance commuting probably means it has little benefit as a coastway service.
The west coastway services are the some of the busiest services in the timetable even according to GTR with the 18xx departures being busier than the 17xx. Whilst the 17.35 ex LBG is indeed busy, it doesn't mean the 18.35 isn't.
The other change is the Didcot stops in half the Oxford fasts when they run again.
So much green in that picture kind of implies that there is still a lot of fresh air being conveyed at peak time.
Might as well hand it back to LNER as XC need the diesel trains for their routes south to cover for the loss of the HSTs later in the year.
