Medium term rail timetable

[AlanFry1]

With the announcement of the rail timetable today to be ramped up soon again, and the investment in transport, there could be major changes to the medium term rail timetable.

Would reducing more intercity services but increasing local services be a good thing where possible? It can definitely be plausible to help social distancings. Realistically this will go on for some time, and a work at home scenario will be increasing more and more, with staggered timings. This will mean especially from the villages and towns outside of london and Manchester for example, lower intercity and regional train service usage, whereas a quick increase in urban areas of Manchester and London

Examples:
> Stansted Airport won't need 4tph. Cambridge could have it's off peak service into LST increased by 2tph, to allow for increased distancing, with two other paths either going to Hertford/Cheshunt/Enfield/Chingford - do-able with the spare 317s and soon spare 315s, with the new LO stock well underway.

> London to Norwich can probably stay at 1tph for the foreseeable - Ipswich in peaks also 1. This can increase temporary capacity to Southend/Chelmsford using spare GA 317s ETC.

> Heathrow express - I'm not too sure in the rights the government would have in forcing the TOC here to stop this service for the medium term, potentially picking up again late 2020/ early 2021 - this can lead to spare paths for trains to slowers Slough/Reading/Maidenhead/Hayes and Harlington, or semi-fasts to Bedwyn/Oxford/Banbury/Didcot.

> Thameslink - reducing the amount of ECML from KGX to Edinburgh, and increasing services to Peterborough/Cambridge with spare 700s on services yet to be deployed

How do you think the medium term timetable will look?

 

[Bletchleyite]

I think if working from home remains high, an all-week (maybe except Sunday) Saturday style timetable, with uniform-length trains at regular intervals all day, may develop. Some timetables, e.g. the WCML IC services, are already like that anyway.

 

[BJames]

With the announcement of the rail timetable today to be ramped up soon again, and the investment in transport, there could be major changes to the medium term rail timetable.

Would reducing more intercity services but increasing local services be a good thing where possible? It can definitely be plausible to help social distancings. Realistically this will go on for some time, and a work at home scenario will be increasing more and more, with staggered timings. This will mean especially from the villages and towns outside of london and Manchester for example, lower intercity and regional train service usage, whereas a quick increase in urban areas of Manchester and London

Examples:
> Stansted Airport won't need 4tph. Cambridge could have it's off peak service into LST increased by 2tph, to allow for increased distancing, with two other paths either going to Hertford/Cheshunt/Enfield/Chingford - do-able with the spare 317s and soon spare 315s, with the new LO stock well underway.

> London to Norwich can probably stay at 1tph for the foreseeable - Ipswich in peaks also 1. This can increase temporary capacity to Southend/Chelmsford using spare GA 317s ETC.

> Heathrow express - I'm not too sure in the rights the government would have in forcing the TOC here to stop this service for the medium term, potentially picking up again late 2020/ early 2021 - this can lead to spare paths for trains to slowers Slough/Reading/Maidenhead/Hayes and Harlington, or semi-fasts to Bedwyn/Oxford/Banbury/Didcot.

> Thameslink - reducing the amount of ECML from KGX to Edinburgh, and increasing services to Peterborough/Cambridge with spare 700s on services yet to be deployed

How do you think the medium term timetable will look?

See the below post in this thread: http://railforums.co.uk/threads/rail-services-to-be-increased-on-may-18th.204170/page-7#post-4575706

Greater Anglia stepping up a few routes from Monday 18th. Southend-Liverpool St reverts back to every 20mins. Stansted Express, Hertford East, Cambridge & Ipswich to Liverpool St go half hourly. All other commuter & regional routes (except Ipswich-Peterborough which is 2 hourly anyway) will remain hourly. This includes Norwich-London Intercity. Only other change is Norwich-Cambridge which once again runs through to Stansted Airport.

As you can see Stansted to London and Cambridge to London will be half hourly, Norwich to London hourly and Ipswich to London half hourly.

Just a point about London Overground routes to Chingford/Cheshunt/Enfield - the 317s are no longer in service with London Overground and the entire service must be made up of Class 315s and Class 710s. More 710s should be available once driver training gets up and running at pace, I believe there are a few different units available for service now. The LO lines to Cheshunt and Enfield are back up to half hourly all day weekdays (seems to be hourly at weekends at the moment) so Chingford is 4tph weekdays and 2tph weekends.

Medium term more generally, as many services will probably run as possible in order to attempt some form of social distancing (e.g. all London Overground West Anglias are running 8 car instead of 4 car all day).

Someone else might be able to comment with regards to the Heathrow Express but it is owned by Heathrow and currently operating 2tph, not sure they'd pull the service completely, especially as we are now coming to a period where restrictions may start lifting and more flights might start operating - they won't want to pile more pressure onto the Piccadilly Line.

 

[theironroad]

With the announcement of the rail timetable today to be ramped up soon again, and the investment in transport, there could be major changes to the medium term rail timetable.

Would reducing more intercity services but increasing local services be a good thing where possible? It can definitely be plausible to help social distancings. Realistically this will go on for some time, and a work at home scenario will be increasing more and more, with staggered timings. This will mean especially from the villages and towns outside of london and Manchester for example, lower intercity and regional train service usage, whereas a quick increase in urban areas of Manchester and London

Examples:
> Stansted Airport won't need 4tph. Cambridge could have it's off peak service into LST increased by 2tph, to allow for increased distancing, with two other paths either going to Hertford/Cheshunt/Enfield/Chingford - do-able with the spare 317s and soon spare 315s, with the new LO stock well underway.

> London to Norwich can probably stay at 1tph for the foreseeable - Ipswich in peaks also 1. This can increase temporary capacity to Southend/Chelmsford using spare GA 317s ETC.

> Heathrow express - I'm not too sure in the rights the government would have in forcing the TOC here to stop this service for the medium term, potentially picking up again late 2020/ early 2021 - this can lead to spare paths for trains to slowers Slough/Reading/Maidenhead/Hayes and Harlington, or semi-fasts to Bedwyn/Oxford/Banbury/Didcot.

> Thameslink - reducing the amount of ECML from KGX to Edinburgh, and increasing services to Peterborough/Cambridge with spare 700s on services yet to be deployed

How do you think the medium term timetable will look?

Don't suppose you've a link or can point me to the timetable increase announcement today? Thx.

 

[Hadders]

> Thameslink - reducing the amount of ECML from KGX to Edinburgh, and increasing services to Peterborough/Cambridge with spare 700s on services yet to be deployed

The 'branch' line from Hitchin to Cambridge is already at capacity so I don't think it's an option to run more trains to Cambridge.

If you run fewer trains from London to Edinburgh how do you deal with journeys like Durham to Newcastle, Doncaster to York, Darlington to Newcastle, Peterborough to Newark. These journeys are made using the Kings Cross to Edinburgh trains that you're proposing to withdraw....

 

[111-111-1]

Don't suppose you've a link or can point me to the timetable increase announcement today? Thx.

Mention by Grant Shapps at press brief. No questions asked about it due to Cuming.

 

[London Trains]

The works at Gatwick Airport station have actually come at the right time, because for now, the Littlehampton and Eastborune services run separately, (no splitting at Haywards Heath) so there is more capacity. It also scrapped the Gatwick Express services which terminated at Gatwick, which would be relatively useless right now.

I would extend all the London Metro services to 10 car (other than London Bridge to Beckenham Jct, London Bridge to Caterham via Streatham and London Bridge to Coulsdon Town which would be run with 8 car 455s) the Littlehampton, Eastbourne and Reigate trains all to 8 car, and all the Brighton, East Grinstead and Portsmouth / Southampton / Bognor Regis (4 to Portsmouth / Southampton, 8 to Bognor Regis) to 12 car for max capacity all day.

The Littlehampton, Eastbourne and Portsmouth / Southampton / Bognor Regis services would all skip Gatwick Airport. I would also have the Littlehampton trains skip Burgess Hill, Hassocks and Preston Park, and the Eastbourne train skip Wivelsfield. Then I'd have the Brighton GX service be branded as Southern and call at Clapham Junction, East Croydon, Gatwick Airport, Haywards Heath, Wivelsfield, Burgess Hill, Hassocks and Preston Park. This is to spread out calls and not have all the calls on the Littlehampton / Eastbourne services and have the Brighton service empty, only with Brighton passengers (Gatwick will be pretty much empty).

 

[ruaival]

The 'branch' line from Hitchin to Cambridge is already at capacity so I don't think it's an option to run more trains to Cambridge.

If you run fewer trains from London to Edinburgh how do you deal with journeys like Durham to Newcastle, Doncaster to York, Darlington to Newcastle, Peterborough to Newark. These journeys are made using the Kings Cross to Edinburgh trains that you're proposing to withdraw....

You could run York to Edinburgh services in their place? ... assuming also you stop some of the London to York "extras" that use southern half of the ECML capacity.
( or some Doncaster to Edinburgh )