"Not" Calling at....

[blakey1152]

I remember travelling from Abbey Wood into London Bridge many years ago
-We are talking way before Connex and Southeastern Trains and the old slam door trains

And I remember that on occasion it was announced that the train was "Not calling at St.Johns"

Was the practice of mentioning stations that the train wasn't going to stop at stopped to avoid confusion ?
Or does it still exist in another part of the country today?

Blakey

 

[tjl599]

It seems to happen fairly regularly. I traveled on a train from Taunton to Bristol on Saturday evening and the guard repeatedly stated the stations that the service did not call at. I think its just to help make things less confusing for pax.

 

[Michael.Y]

The evening Chester service off Cardiff has:

DOES NOT CALL at
Gobowen, Chirk, Ruabon, Wrexham General

prominently displayed underneath its entry on all departure boards.

 

[tsr]

In routine circumstances, a handful of services at London Victoria are displayed (but generally not announced) as "NOT calling at" some stations. This practice is increased when trains are required to miss stops in incidents and thus calling patterns are altered beyond reasonable expectations.

 

[iphone76]

Most drivers on the (few remaining) morning fast trains from Southminster/Southend announce they will not be stopping at Shenfield.

 

[John Webb]

I used to use the Woolwich-London Bridge lines up until 1977 when I moved away from the area. As I recall it was trains to Charing Cross via Blackheath and Lewisham which didn't call at St Johns as they went up the Nunhead line, over the Mid-Kent lines and then dropped down the relatively new connection to the Up Fast line to minimise the crossing needed on the approach to London Bridge. There was no platform at St John's for this connecting line. The Cannon Street trains stayed on the Up Slow line which did have a platform and therefore they called there, usually. So the "Not calling at St Johns" was a reminder to people who had been commuting that way for some time that there had been a change.

 

[Starmill]

I believe the practice is fairly common where stops are skipped, but this is a little different to what I think you are suggesting!

"This train will not be calling at Navigation Road, Hale, Ashley, Mobberly, Lostock Gralam, Plumley, Greenbank, Cuddington, Delamere or Mouldsworth today."

 

[CatfordCat]

I also grew up in SE London, and "not calling at St Johns" at the end of any announcement was so common that a train actually calling there was seen as something of a rarity! (this from the mid 70s onwards)

Comparing old timetables, almost everything - including trains that avoided Lewisham - seems to have stopped at St Johns up to a certain point in time (possibly the London Bridge resignalling scheme, of which the Tanners Hill Flydown (worth a look at the articles on 'London Reconnections' for more) was part.

The traffic generated at St Johns was not in proportion to the train service, and think this must have also been a factor in reducing the number of trains stopping there, a service of 2 or 3 trains per hour was probably quite sufficient.

From memory, it tended (off peak at least) to be the Hayes trains that did call at St Johns, and think the station was closed on Sundays when I remember it (although in the 4EPB era I remember one or two people boarding / alighting due to a signal stop - hope they didn't alight on a Sunday and then find the station gates locked!)

I think where the default service pattern is "all stations" then having one or two exceptions announced as "not calling at X" is valid, passengers are perhaps more likely to take note of something out of sequence at the end of an announcement, rather than register that their station wasn't mentioned somewhere in a long list.

Although several years in passenger transport has taught me that however you present information to the public, some of them won't get it...

 

[sarahj]

On our coastway services, the trains from London to Littlehampton run twice an hour, one calls at Hove,Portslade,Shoreham, Worthing.....
the other Hove, Shoreham, Lancing, Worthing....

If i'm doing the one that does not stop at Lancing, I always make an annoncement at Shoreham of this fact. Please note after Shoreham this train will run fast to Worthing. This service does not call at Lancing. Last chance to change here for Lancing*

Off course I've still had the odd passenger that hears it and yet still thinks it stops at Lancing, 'yes I heard you, but I thought it did'

*the first chance is Hove, its the same train, a Brighton to West Worthing stopper, and a 5 min wait at hove, or a 9 min wait at Shoreham.

SJ

 

[krus_aragon]

The evening Chester service off Cardiff has:

DOES NOT CALL at
Gobowen, Chirk, Ruabon, Wrexham General

prominently displayed underneath its entry on all departure boards.

Similarly the Ebbw Vale services are advertised as NOT calling at Newport. Every other eastbound service out of Cardiff does, hence the need for clarification.

 

[ANorthernGuard]

On our coastway services, the trains from London to Littlehampton run twice an hour, one calls at Hove,Portslade,Shoreham, Worthing.....
the other Hove, Shoreham, Lancing, Worthing....


If i'm doing the one that does not stop at Lancing, I always make an annoncement at Shoreham of this fact. Please note after Shoreham this train will run fast to Worthing. This service does not call at Lancing. Last chance to change here for Lancing*

Off course I've still had the odd passenger that hears it and yet still thinks it stops at Lancing, 'yes I heard you, but I thought it did'

*the first chance is Hove, its the same train, a Brighton to West Worthing stopper, and a 5 min wait at hove, or a 9 min wait at Shoreham.

SJ

Almost caught me out when I was down there. U lot and your 12 coach trains lol

 

[howittpie]

Have heard this recently at Victoria regarding Battersea Park on the station announcements.

 

[Jeni]

It's fairly common for XC TM's to point out when the train doesn't call at Macclesfield and that passengers should change at Stoke or Stockport (depending on direction).

 

[headshot119]

The evening Chester service off Cardiff has:

DOES NOT CALL at
Gobowen, Chirk, Ruabon, Wrexham General

prominently displayed underneath its entry on all departure boards.

And ironically at Chirk the departure boards for the WAH prominently display, VIA WREXHAM DOES NOT CALL AT CREWE!

 

[swt_passenger]

A couple of the XC services from Southampton that do not call at Winchester had extra specific warnings on the PIS LCD screens, over and above the call not appearing on the scrolling calling pattern on the 3 line display. Not sure if it still appears that way.

 

[thedbdiboy]

Another good example is Medway towns services from Vic of which a tiny number over the years omitted Bromley South as a stop. In such cases, regardless of the announcements about where the service did stop, there was always the rider 'this service does not call at Bromley South...'. At one time the 1708 was just such a service and despite this announcement there was always the guilty pleasure when riding this train of watching a passenger stand up as the service approached Bromley, only to nervously sit down as it roared through the station and they came to terms with a round trip via Chatham.

 

[trc666]

At Waterloo we have 'Please note this train will (call additionally / not call) at' if a stopping pattern has been changed, and the rugby specials that run non stop to Twickenham will have a 'Please note this train will not call at Clapham Junction.' announcement.

 

[headshot119]

The Chester - Liverpools and Liverpools - Chester always announce if the train is not going to stop at Capenhurst.

 

[Max]

'Not calling at Chesterfield' is quite commonly announced on XC and EMT services before departure from Sheffield. A few years ago everything used to call I believe.

 

[sprinterguy]

The train managers that work the 07:30 to Euston from Birmingham New Street are always quite insistent in announcing prior to departure that the train does NOT call ANYWHERE between Birmingham and London. Though you still probably get 3 or 4 passengers most days that then end up taking a trip to London when they wanted Coventry.

 

[MikeWh]

I too remember "except St Johns" fondly. In my very early years it was the Bexleyheath line trains that had the honour of serving St Johns, but it switched to the Hayes trains as part of the resignalling work which created Tanners Hill flydown. If trains used the flydown then it was pot luck whether the announcement would say "except St Johns and New Cross" or "fast from Lewisham to London Bridge". In general, missing one station (or two not together) would yeild an "except ..." announcement while missing 3 or more consecutively produced a "fast from ..." one. The rest of the stops would be covered by "this train calls at all stations to Charing Cross (or Cannon Street)".

Incidentally, does anyone else remember when Hungerford Bridge was half closed and some trains terminated in platforms A and B at Waterloo East?

 

[wimbledonpete]

Sometimes the guards of the peak hour semi-fasts from Waterloo to Dorking will announce "please note that we are not calling at Motspur Park, Stoneleigh or Ewell West" but it is only occasionally. I will admit that at the last major timetable change I did get up for Motspur Park only to experience the shame as it galloped through non-stop.

 

[Halsebee]

On a similar theme, on some timetables there is sometimes one or two stations which appear to be served by virtually all services, but one occassionally doesn't call, for no obvious reason. I remember on the North london Line timetable many years ago, one train, I think in the morning peak, missed a Hampstead Heath call, inexplicably to me, whilst every other train stopped.
Can anyone offer reasons for this sort of thing, or examples of others?

 

[tsr]

On a similar theme, on some timetables there is sometimes one or two stations which appear to be served by virtually all services, but one occassionally doesn't call, for no obvious reason. I remember on the North london Line timetable many years ago, one train, I think in the morning peak, missed a Hampstead Heath call, inexplicably to me, whilst every other train stopped.
Can anyone offer reasons for this sort of thing, or examples of others?

In keeping with your avatar picture, I should give honorary mention to an FGW service which runs on the North Downs Line and does not call at any station between Guildford and Reading - thus reducing the journey time to 1 hour between Redhill and Reading. It's the 0907 Gatwick Airport departure. This is highly unusual as it is only mirrored by the XC departures off Guildford in terms of lack of stops.

 

[Mojo]

Can anyone offer reasons for this sort of thing, or examples of others?

On one of the older timetables on the Severn Beach line, one of the early Saturday trains called at all stations to Clifton Down, then went fast to Temple Meads (normally all services called at all stations). This enabled it to depart Temple Meads at a certain time for its return journey.

Now every train calls at all stations between Avonmouth and Temple Meads, except every third train which doesn't call at Lawrence Hill, except during peak hours.

 

[Starmill]

Heald Green gets 3tph (4 in the peaks) to Manchester whereas all of the other stations on that line only get 2! (we're all secretly jealous).

Never heard a TPE guard specifying that he won't be calling at Mauldeth Road, Burnage, East Disbury or Gatley though.

Perhaps they do on the handful that only miss Mauldeth Road and Burnage *sob*

 

[quarella]

I do not think there should be "..does not call" announcements unless, for example a delayed service is omitting stations. There are often complaints on here about the constant noise of announcements. A station environment can be noisy and people may pick up the station name but not the not call element.

 

[cle]

In keeping with your avatar picture, I should give honorary mention to an FGW service which runs on the North Downs Line and does not call at any station between Guildford and Reading - thus reducing the journey time to 1 hour between Redhill and Reading. It's the 0907 Gatwick Airport departure. This is highly unusual as it is only mirrored by the XC departures off Guildford in terms of lack of stops.

That's interesting. I think there should be more like that - even today's 'fast' services are semi-fast at best and don't encourage regional use.

 

[Michael.Y]

Noticed another interesting one today:

1053 Treherbert.
First Stop Radyr.

 

[30907]

Incidentally, does anyone else remember when Hungerford Bridge was half closed and some trains terminated in platforms A and B at Waterloo East?

Remember it well as I was working at Waterloo at the time. There was a crude temporary footbridge at the country end between A and B/C (and D?) to ease the crush.

The only time when the A's train left from Platform B

(Non-SE people should be able to work that one out from previous posts