New late night services from London

[RobLawrence]

I understand that Chiltern are planning to supplement their weeknight 0005 MYB to BAN departure with a 0001 (0010 SO) MYB to BIT service.

And on Friday night in to Saturday morning, a further additional service will operate, departing MYB at 0110.

Personally I am delighted at the prospect of having 'proper' (after midnight finish) Friday nights out at London venues before needing to contemplate the journey home.

In the context of the NightTube, it got me thinking, whether any other TOCs are in the business of extending their services later to/from metropolitan areas in to the night. And indeed, if any other routes offer the track access for later services.

 

[theageofthetra]

I have a sneaking suspicion that something in the Southeast will go 24hr at a weekend. That the night tube is of almost no benefit to a sizeable % of London isn't something the London Assembly will tolerate for much longer.

 

[DaveHarries]

I understand that Chiltern are planning to supplement their weeknight 0005 MYB to BAN departure with a 0001 (0010 SO) MYB to BIT service.

And on Friday night in to Saturday morning, a further additional service will operate, departing MYB at 0110.

Personally I am delighted at the prospect of having 'proper' (after midnight finish) Friday nights out at London venues before needing to contemplate the journey home.

In the context of the NightTube, it got me thinking, whether any other TOCs are in the business of extending their services later to/from metropolitan areas in to the night. And indeed, if any other routes offer the track access for later services.

A look on RealTimeTrains for Saturday 16th December 2016 reveals these two new workings in the early hours:

1T77 0010 London Marylebone - Oxford, STA 0130hrs
1T81 0110 London Marylebone - Oxford, STA 0227hrs

Both trains have subsequent ECS workings as follows.

For 1T77:
- 5U79 0129hrs Oxford - Banbury, STA 0153, where it joins with 5U78 (0201hrs Leamington Spa - Banbury, which works off 1L78 0020hrs London Marylebone - Leamington Spa) and then works into Banbury Depot

For 1T81:
- 5U81 0235hrs Oxford - Banbury Depot, STA 0300hrs

So there you go Rob: your understanding was correct. These new workings first appear on Saturday mornings from 16th December 2017.

Dave

 

[JonathanH]

I have a sneaking suspicion that something in the Southeast will go 24hr at a weekend. That the night tube is of almost no benefit to a sizeable % of London isn't something the London Assembly will tolerate for much longer.

I think Network Rail would be reluctant to allow 24 hour working on any two-track railway route although weekend working may be possible.

We've seen night services from Victoria axed even though it is a four-track route because of a backlog of maintenance and services concentrated on Thameslink because there are four options for trains to go from Blackfriars to East Croydon.

It has previously been noted on this forum that London Overground can't run night services south of New Cross Gate because there are only platforms on the slow lines.

So there is quite a barrier to extension of night services because of engineering requirements.

 

[DarloRich]

I have a sneaking suspicion that something in the Southeast will go 24hr at a weekend. That the night tube is of almost no benefit to a sizeable % of London isn't something the London Assembly will tolerate for much longer.

will the track just fix itself then? In places there is bot all access as it is

 

[Mag_seven]

Personally I am delighted at the prospect of having 'proper' (after midnight finish) Friday nights out at London venues before needing to contemplate the journey home.

What about those who attend Friday nights out at Birmingham venues, Leeds Venues, Newcastle venues etc....

 

[RobLawrence]

What about those who attend Friday nights out at Birmingham venues, Leeds Venues, Newcastle venues etc....

As I said in the OP, *personally* the London-Oxford route benefits me these days but

...it got me thinking, whether any other TOCs are in the business of extending their services later to/from metropolitan areas in to the night.

I used to regularly use the late night services Leeds/York.

@Mag_seven What do *you* think about those who attend Friday nights out at Birmingham venues, Leeds Venues, Newcastle venues etc

 

[LAX54]

I understand that Chiltern are planning to supplement their weeknight 0005 MYB to BAN departure with a 0001 (0010 SO) MYB to BIT service.

And on Friday night in to Saturday morning, a further additional service will operate, departing MYB at 0110.

Personally I am delighted at the prospect of having 'proper' (after midnight finish) Friday nights out at London venues before needing to contemplate the journey home.

In the context of the NightTube, it got me thinking, whether any other TOCs are in the business of extending their services later to/from metropolitan areas in to the night. And indeed, if any other routes offer the track access for later services.

MYB I can guess, but BIT ?

 

[Silver Cobra]

MYB I can guess, but BIT ?

BIT is Bicester Village (checked it on BRFares).

 

[paok]

BIT is Bicester Village (checked it on BRFares).

Station changed name from Bicester Town not so long ago but the code remained the same.

 

[Mag_seven]

As I said in the OP, *personally* the London-Oxford route benefits me these days but



I used to regularly use the late night services Leeds/York.

@Mag_seven What do *you* think about those who attend Friday nights out at Birmingham venues, Leeds Venues, Newcastle venues etc

I think they should be afforded the same level of service that London gets.

 

[NSE]

Night Tube doesn't have to go right to your station to be helpful. For example, if I lived in Harrow, I don't have night tube. But I'd rather grab a tube to Stanmore (or a station before) to get a taxi from there rather than taxiing it the whole way from Central. Particularly if you've been somewhere like the O2 Arena and you fancied some post event drinks.

And I also don't get this whole 'they can't be 24 hours because of maintenance'. Is there maintenance on every stretch of line every night? As a passenger, I would think nothing of it if they said 'There's no trains for the nights 3rd, 4th, 5th of next month due to maintenance'. I'm aware it has to close sometimes and if it was a 24/7 railway I'd expect it to close every so often.

 

[superhands]

1T81 0110 to Oxford will be busy seeing as the last GWR to Oxfrord is 0022 I can see Chiltern winning a few passenger over

 

[MidnightFlyer]

Station changed name from Bicester Town not so long ago but the code remained the same.

BIT for Village and BCS for North makes Bicester one of the wonderful instances where the station codes do absolutely nothing to differentiate the two stations in the town. See also Salford (SLD and SFD; Crescent and Central respectively) and Cambridge (CBG and CMB, main and North respectively)!

 

[PeterC]

1T81 0110 to Oxford will be busy seeing as the last GWR to Oxfrord is 0022 I can see Chiltern winning a few passenger over

More importantly the Oxford Tube and X90 are 24*7

Under BR the Liverpool Street - Southend service had only a 2 hour gap between last and first trains so I don't think a 2 track line is an issue for a 24 hour service.

 

[MidnightFlyer]

More importantly the Oxford Tube and X90 are 24*7

Under BR the Liverpool Street - Southend service had only a 2 hour gap between last and first trains so I don't think a 2 track line is an issue for a 24 hour service.

Isn't Shenfield-Southend Victoria fully bi-directionally signalled though? That coupled with the 4-track for half of the journey probably helped accommodate such long hours of service.

 

[PeterC]

Isn't Shenfield-Southend Victoria fully bi-directionally signalled though? That coupled with the 4-track for half of the journey probably helped accommodate such long hours of service.

The four tracking helped but I don't know the date of the bi-directional signalling. I moved away from the area and stopped benefitting from those late trains long before that happened. These days it appears to be a 4 to 5 hour break depending on direction rather than the 2 hours back in the 80s.

 

[jopsuk]

Some sort of later services London-Cambridge would be nice. Last train from Kings Cross is 0014. Bus? Last National Express 010 leaves Victoria at 2300!

 

[CheeseOnToast]

Ignoring costs and resources ditching Section 4 access isn't necessarily an issue if people don't moan when the railway is shut via blockades or six weekends in a row...

Maintenance has to be done, Network Rail can't win, we want 24 hour services but we also want our railways to be safe and thus maintained.

 

[Hadders]

Some sort of later services London-Cambridge would be nice. Last train from Kings Cross is 0014. Bus? Last National Express 010 leaves Victoria at 2300!

0105 used to be the last Cambridge service from Kings Cross although I think it only goes as far Royston at the moment.

 

[radamfi]

More importantly the Oxford Tube and X90 are 24*7

The X90 no longer runs overnight. They have left the night passengers to the Oxford Tube.

 

[dk1]

An 00:30 Liverpool Street-Norwich is apparently on the cards.

 

[muddythefish]

KX - Peterborough semi-fast desperately needs a train between the 75 minute gap from 23.20 to 00.35.

There's an 00.01 on Fridays but it really needs to run every day of the week.

 

[xydancer]

One of these days it would be nice to see a decent late evening service from Euston on Saturdays.

From December, the last LM running north of Northampton leaves Euston at 2040 (and what follows to Northampton is not fast), and the last VT to Brum is at 2143. The fact these are always busy when I get them (although living where I do, I now tend to head for Chiltern to Banbury - the service is later and faster) suggests there is a demand.

 

[JonathanH]

One of these days it would be nice to see a decent late evening service from Euston on Saturdays.

From December, the last LM running north of Northampton leaves Euston at 2040 (and what follows to Northampton is not fast), and the last VT to Brum is at 2143. The fact these are always busy when I get them (although living where I do, I now tend to head for Chiltern to Banbury - the service is later and faster) suggests there is a demand.

No matter about demand - the railway needs engineering time - the trains are slow because of the need to operate a two-track railway timetable.

WCML passengers are fortunate that the line is only completely closed on certain bank holiday weekends - GEML passengers have to endure long periods of weekend closures to facilitate their engineering works.

It is a fact of life that WCML services will be slow on Saturday nights and Sunday mornings.

 

[route:oxford]

The X90 no longer runs overnight. They have left the night passengers to the Oxford Tube.

The X90 does tend to be quieter these days than the Tube, even at peak times.

This will serve a completely different market though making late night London more accessible to Kidlington and North Oxford.

 

[xydancer]

No matter about demand - the railway needs engineering time - the trains are slow because of the need to operate a two-track railway timetable.

It is a fact of life that WCML services will be slow on Saturday nights and Sunday mornings.

I get the engineering time. It's not the fact they are slow-ish to Northampton (understandable and acceptable), it's the fact that on Saturday they are non-existent to north of there (Rugby, Coventry, Brum) after 2143, which is rather early. Are both the Weedon and Northampton loops always closed for works? Does any other main line out of London finish so early every Saturday? Two or four-track?

 

[baz2277]

I agree with the call for later trains from Euston to the Midlands (Lichfield or Tamworth in my case) - at the moment there is a departure from Euston reaching Tamworth giving...1 full minute....to catch a connecting XC train to Burton on Trent and beyond- this also happens to be the last train of the day north from Tamworth. It would make a day/early evening in London better, and save a fortune in taxis from Lichfield or Tamworth!

If the XC service up to Nottingham from Tamworth was timed for a departure just 5-10 minutes later it would be great! (Especially for me!)