Yeah I've used the 03:54 Reading to Paddington and it is usually surprisingly well used - it is also just a 2 coach since it's the train that will form the Greenford shuttle, but a decent number of railway staff (GWR and TfL mainly) use it alongside quite a few normal passengers - I once had a conversation with someone who had to get to the office super early so took that train daily.
Agree to disagree. People were standing on the service I got last Sunday, and it was 5 carriages.
This is what it was going to be. Havent got around to amending it to what it will actually be
Many thanks for sharing this!
In the 22 February Rail North Committee meeting, Northern MD Nick Donovan said that Northern's May timetable will be broadly the same as now. This suggests there are not going to be further cuts beyond those already in RTT.
That’s good news. Any cuts at the moment are ridiculous given that passenger footfall is growing for the most part. Some companies are struggling to catch up with training post Covid, but things,certainly on the company i work for are improving on that front on a monthly basis. Any further cuts to service are purely politically motivated in my personal opinion to try & sell a narrative that the railways aren’t being used.
I’m going to assume this is a cynical attempt by XC to extract a few extra £ for increasing services.
F*** Bradford, they don’t need trains. There seems to be a never ending kicking of Bradford by the railway!
Why do you think I'm travelling from Didcot to York via London? £10-£15 more but more trains and capacity!
IIRC, the 1994 resignalling of the entire Leeds North-West network (Kirkstall-Bradford FS-Ilkley-Skipton) was paid for by Bradford Council, on the condition that - once electrified - there would be a seven-days-a-week service from Leeds to Forster Square.
Though if my memory serves, direct services between Leeds and Forster Square didn't come about till the early noughties. . ?
The Station Staff Are no doubt expected to stop access to platform 3 before this service arrives which surely will lead to conflict as regulars will know the service stops and once they are on the platform there is no way they can be stopped from boarding and the previous one from P3 is I think the said 0705 ex Norwich
They came in when electrification was completed circa 1995. At the same time Skipton/Ilkley - Bradford was increased to half hourly, all of which was justified on much lower passenger numbers than now.
Yes it'll just be a free for all like it was when the boat trains from Parkeston became set down only. Ridiculous to even consider it especially for this moderately loaded service.
....is the right answer!
I’m not sure of the dates, but at some point (which must have been before 2013), Chiltern became responsible for providing the service for the stations after Dorridge, so Lapworth to Leamington Spa, with all 3 local services terminating at Dorridge. In order not to slow down London services too much Chiltern decided to provide the local 2 hourly Leamington to Moor Street shuttle, which alternated with the Leamington to Stratford shuttles. (The shuttle introduction may have happened after the transfer from London Midland to Chiltern for Lapworth etc.
Leamington Spa / Warwick <> Stratford-upon-Avon and mostly Leamington Spa / Warwick <> Lapworth being only 2 hourly is poor. Given Chiltern no longer run through Marylebone <> Stratford-upon-Avon IMO Leamington Spa <> Stratford-upon-Avon and all station Leamington Spa <> Birmingham services would be better returned to WMR. Chiltern staff would not need to sign Hatton <> Stratford-upon-Avon and the 165 unit(s) could be used to help cover the shortages due to unavailability of spare parts.
While this fits the Chiltern and WMR service patterns it is unfortunate.
Always thought it odd that Chiltern operate those - particularly the Brum to Leamington shuttle. On that note, it looks like the current handful of WMR Leamington services are reduced to just one in the morning and one in the evening with the new timetable.
Is WMR at Leamington just a matter of needing to use the stabling space, because of limitations at Tyseley?
There's historically long been a RR Central traincrew depot there with knowledge up to Worcester. I suppose it's just deemed more efficient to have those crew work trains that are stabled at the station rather than taxiing up to Tyseley to then take a unit empty back to Leamington.
