Odd historical Sunday closures

[Tester]

I recall that in the 1970s Birmingham New Street station had no suburban train service at all on Sundays.

 

[Bletchleyite]

There were a few stations on the electrified Merseyrail network which were closed on Sundays for a few years in the early 1980s - Moreton, Green Lane and James Street (the latter unbelievable by today’s standards). The main demand on Sundays at the time will have been to the likes of Southport, New Brighton and West Kirby rather than into Liverpool.

Another curiosity was that the Manchester Oxford Road - Warrington- Hunts Cross stopping service on the CLC route ran through to Lime Street on Sundays only.

I think Aughton Park had no Sunday service at one point, but that was long before we moved there.

 

[iphone76]

I'm sure the Wickford and Southminster line used to be closed on Sundays during the winter. Think it opened year round during the National Express days.

 

[joke2711]

All stations between Rock Ferry and Chester except Bromborough, plus all stations via Ellesmere Port to Helsby were closed on Sundays until electrification in the 1980s. Contrast this with the current Sunday service of a train every 30 minutes calling all stations Liverpool - Rock Ferry - Chester, augmented to every 15 mins between Liverpool and Hooton, due to the half-hourly Ellesmere Port service.

Image attached, a scan of the relevant page of the Merseyside PTE issued 'Wirral Division' timetable dated May 6th 1974, serves to illustrate the point.

However the first train did arrive at Bromborough 3 minutes before it left Rock Ferry!

 

[Springs Branch]

There were a few stations on the electrified Merseyrail network which were closed on Sundays for a few years in the early 1980s - Moreton, Green Lane and James Street (the latter unbelievable by today’s standards). The main demand on Sundays at the time will have been to the likes of Southport, New Brighton and West Kirby rather than into Liverpool.

Stations on the Merseyrail electrified lines did well on Sundays compared to their "City Line" cousins.

Around 1980 the only suburban stations on the lines out of Lime Street to open on Sundays were:-

• Allerton - served by irregularly-timed EMUs to Crewe and Manchester Piccadilly via Warrington trains.
• Hunts Cross and Hough Green - served by most (but not all) of the CLC trains to/from Piccadilly
• St Helens Junction and Earlestown - served by trans-Pennine trains to Hull, York and Newcastle, an odd DMU to Preston/Blackpool via Golborne Jn, plus North Wales - Manchester trains in the case of Earlestown.

Stations like Huyton, Newton-le-Willows and the entire line to Wigan NW via St. Helens Shaw St (a.k.a. Central) were closed all day.
Kirkby and Fazakerley only got Sunday services after electrification in the late 1970s.


Greater Manchester's suburban rail services were also dire on Sundays, especially the north side ex-Manchester Victoria.
From Victoria, the following stations did get some sort of Sunday service:-

• Eccles - some North Wales trains and the odd Chat Moss DMU to/from Lime St.
• Pendleton - most Blackpool, Southport & Blackburn trains stopped here - sometimes Pendleton saw 2 - 3 trains per hour (often better than the weekday off-peak)
• Moses Gate - Blackburn and Blackpool North trains called, but only during summer. Moses Gate was closed in winter.
• Bolton - all Blackpool, Southport & Blackburn trains, plus the odd Glasgow portion - if you ignored the take-up/set-down restrictions.
• Bromley Cross - trains to/from Blackburn ran every 2 hours through the day.
• Wigan Wallgate - Southport trains mostly ran every 2 hrs (via Bolton), sometimes hourly in summer in the seaside day-trip direction.
• Moston, Rochdale and Littleborough - served by Calder Valley trains, which ran once every 2 to 4 hrs in the daytime.
• Stalybridge - stops by trans-Pennine trains to Hull, York and beyond. No local trains - except the occasional DMU to/from Stockport!

The Atherton line, Oldham loop and the Bury electric line were all totally closed on Sundays.

The southern side of Manchester did a bit better by comparison:-

• Altrincham - Piccadilly - Stockport - Crewe EMUs ran every hour (half-hourly Piccadilly/Altrincham) and all stations were open.
• The Buxton line had regular-interval trains every hour. Only Middlewood and Furness Vale stations were closed.
• New Mills Central locals ran every hour via Belle Vue, stopping all stations except Ardwick and Strines.
• Local trains on the Hope Valley line ran infrequently between New Mills Central & Sheffield only, requiring a change at NMC to/from Manchester.
• The Stockport/Stalybridge shuttle ran around every couple of hours to connect with trans-Pennine trains at Stalybridge (but did not stop at Denton, Reddish South or Guide Bridge).
• Liverpool CLC line trains stopped at Urmston, Flixton and Irlam, then Warrington Central.
• Mid-Cheshire line DMUs between Oxford Rd & Chester were infrequent and stopped at Altrincham, Hale, Knutsford, Northwich, Greenbank and Delamere only (a few also called at Old Trafford, Stretford and Sale).

The entire Styal, Glossop/Hadfield and Rose Hill via Hyde lines were closed all day Sundays.

 

[Sprinter107]

Although Birmingham Snow Hill reopened in 1987, I recall it was closed on Sundays well into the late 1990's and possibly even into the noughties? Even after services were opened through to Stourbridge in 1995, Sunday services passed straight through stopping at Jewellery Quarter and Moor Street only.

Yes, in the late 90s, Snow Hill was closed on Sundays. The trains passed through at a very sedatory 15 mph. About the same time there was no evening Sunday service on that line either. By around 2000, Snow Hill was open on Sundays.

 

[Falcon1200]

I remember in the 70s the only electric service on the south side was a Glasgow to Newton (perhaps extended to Motherwell?) service with only one coach of a class 303/311 in use and an on board ticket inspector / issuer as all the station booking offices were closed.

And, IIRC, the coach used was the centre vehicle (the MC), which was also, until it was banned from BR altogether, the smoking coach !

 

[Paul180]

Worplesdon Station Was closed on Sundays until the beginning of 2020. I would always find it strange been on a train going through at line speed on a Sunday and not stopping as the train I used during the week would stop there.

 

[Taunton]

Burnham-on-Sea, Somerset, on the S&D, was the opposite, closed in 1952 apparently but reopened on odd Sundays (only) for more than another 10 years just for summer excursions. I dimly recall as a child going on such a special excursion from Taunton. The S&D line from Evercreech to Highbridge and Burnham had this last station closed, serving what is almost the largest and only significant town along the line, as it was just something of an operating nuisance crossing the main Bristol to Taunton line at Highbridge on the level - though seemingly not on Sundays.

It required a double shunt at Highbridge, crossing the main line twice, to get from the main line onto the S&D. To facilitate this, two 412xx tanks (visible in a family photo with youthful self) had been steamed and sent all the way across Somerset from Templecombe shed to handle this last mile of the excursion. As the line from Evercreech was otherwise closed on Sundays, it must have needed every signalbox along the line opening up to pass these two along, and again at the end of the day when they returned.

 

[30907]

Burnham-on-Sea, Somerset, on the S&D, was the opposite, closed in 1952 apparently but reopened on odd Sundays (only) for more than another 10 years just for summer excursions. I dimly recall as a child going on such a special excursion from Taunton. The S&D line from Evercreech to Highbridge and Burnham had this last station closed, serving what is almost the largest and only significant town along the line, as it was just something of an operating nuisance crossing the main Bristol to Taunton line at Highbridge on the level - though seemingly not on Sundays.

...when there was far less traffic about.

It required a double shunt at Highbridge, crossing the main line twice, to get from the main line onto the S&D. To facilitate this, two 412xx tanks (visible in a family photo with youthful self) had been steamed and sent all the way across Somerset from Templecombe shed to handle this last mile of the excursion. As the line from Evercreech was otherwise closed on Sundays, it must have needed every signalbox along the line opening up to pass these two along, and again at the end of the day when they returned.

Surprisingly inefficient, because Highbridge had its own shed with a couple of locos stabled overnight (looking at the timetable).
There was an afternoon milk train to Templecombe though as late as 1959, and there may have been a reason (sharing the overtime fairly?) for using a Templecombe loco and crew.

 

[Dr_Paul]

Looking through my copy of the 1923 Bradshaw's the other day, I noticed that a large number of branches had no Sunday service. I'll have another look, and provide a post with some details. Perhaps people with other copies of Bradshaw's or old BR timetables might give some other examples.

 

[AY1975]

Prittlewell had no Sunday service for many years. It was occasionally opened on the odd occasion Southend United had a Sunday match, but only before and after the match. Now it is open just like any other Southend Vic line station.

I also seem to recall that Hatfield Peverel had no Sunday service in BR days, and the Southminster branch had no winter Sunday service until about the mid to late 1980s. The Harwich branch also had no Sunday service (apart from boat trains) and the Sudbury branch had no winter Sunday service for a time in the 1990s.

Colchester Town (known as St Botolph's until 1991) still has no Sunday service (except during December when it has an hourly Sunday service to Walton-on-the-Naze according to Wikipedia, presumably to cater for Christmas shoppers travelling to Colchester) and Weeley on the Clacton line remains closed on Sundays to this day.

 

[Bletchleyite]

I think the thing we have to remember here is that as late as the end of the 1990s, shops in city centres were mostly not open on Sundays, so the demand was very small.

 

[Watershed]

The WCML between Carstairs and Carlisle via Lockerbie was shut until 16.00 on Sundays for most of the 80s.

It's still shut until quite late on a Sunday, even today. The down line doesn't open in its entirety until 11:55 during certain winter periods (the closure times being partly dictated by daylight hours).

Similarly, everything from Camden until Hanslope Jn (where the lines to Northampton and Rugby via Weedon diverge) is a two track railway every night of the week, which is extended on a Saturday night to run from 20:05 till 12:00 on the Sunday. That latter block means that journey times are very slow until after lunchtime.

 

[nw1]

This isn't Sunday and so perhaps is deserving of another thread, but Newbury's midday provision in 1967 is, well, not great...

Timetable World Viewer

timetableworld.com

Three-hour gaps in both the up and down service for a town that size and within 1hr15m of London even then is frankly bizarre. I remember even in the 80s Newbury had a fairly poor service but not quite that bad; I think in 1984 alternate HSTs to the West Country stopped, and that combined with a 2-hourly DMU would at least give an hourly service.

Maybe Newbury was only a very small town then? I remember it was pretty large by 1979 but it does look like it has a lot of late-60s, early-70s housing.

And intermediate stations between Reading West and Newbury were closed even on Saturdays! Looks like they were lucky not to be 'Beechinged'. Surprisingly, though, rural Kintbury did get a service on Saturday, and not a terrible one at that.

Again rather OT but comparing the 1965 and 1967 WR timetables, just two years apart, starkly illustrates the effect of Beeching. 1965 had all sorts of weird and wonderful lines open, while the 1967 network wasn't dissimilar to that which has prevailed since.

 

[Ianigsy]

Something else to remember about the 1970s and 1980s is that until bus deregulation, the PTEs ran both bus and rail services, so would be reluctant to fund a rail service in competition with the bus network. It’s probably not coincidental that the Southport and Wirral electrified lines had a better service than most, because the same trains which carried office workers and shoppers during the week would be taking city dwellers to the seaside at the weekend.

 

[RT4038]

Something else to remember about the 1970s and 1980s is that until bus deregulation, the PTEs ran both bus and rail services, so would be reluctant to fund a rail service in competition with the bus network. It’s probably not coincidental that the Southport and Wirral electrified lines had a better service than most, because the same trains which carried office workers and shoppers during the week would be taking city dwellers to the seaside at the weekend.

It also has to be realised that the bill for subsidising one rail line was probably in excess of the bill for the entire bus network! It is hardly surprising that decisions were taken at that time not to develop the rail network (which was pretty grotty and run down too)

 

[Bletchleyite]

Something else to remember about the 1970s and 1980s is that until bus deregulation, the PTEs ran both bus and rail services, so would be reluctant to fund a rail service in competition with the bus network. It’s probably not coincidental that the Southport and Wirral electrified lines had a better service than most, because the same trains which carried office workers and shoppers during the week would be taking city dwellers to the seaside at the weekend.

I don't think that follows, because all the Merseyrail lines had a good service, not just those going to the seaside.

 

[frodshamfella]

I remember in the 80s a few South London stations were closed on a Sunday, Eden Park, Albany Park and Eltham Park ( later closed when new Eltham Station opened )

 

[Quakers Yard]

Has the Coryton line ever had a Sunday service?

 

[AY1975]

The entire Styal, Glossop/Hadfield and Rose Hill via Hyde lines were closed all day Sundays.

Rose Hill via Hyde still is. I also seem to recall that for a time in at least the late 1980s and early '90s the Glossop/Hadfield line had a Sunday service in summer only.

 

[Taunton]

Back in the 1970s much of the Scottish network was minimally served on Sundays.

The Highland main line had just one day train from Glasgow and Edinburgh, which left Perth at 1030 in the morning, and a return which left Inverness at about 1630 in the afternoon. That was it. From Aberdeen southward the only morning service was a 1000 to Kings Cross. For these, all the manual signalboxes had to be opened just to pass them. Things picked up a bit in the evening. Aberdeen to Inverness, and the Far North lines, were closed all day.

 

[Gloster]

Back in the 1970s much of the Scottish network was minimally served on Sundays.

The Highland main line had just one day train from Glasgow and Edinburgh, which left Perth at 1030 in the morning, and a return which left Inverness at about 1630 in the afternoon. That was it. From Aberdeen southward the only morning service was a 1000 to Kings Cross. For these, all the manual signalboxes had to be opened just to pass them. Things picked up a bit in the evening. Aberdeen to Inverness, and the Far North lines, were closed all day.

Wasn’t part of the Far North open for the Euston-Lairg News and return to Inverness? I think that only one van went all the way through.

 

[AY1975]

Back in the 1970s much of the Scottish network was minimally served on Sundays.

Aberdeen to Inverness, and the Far North lines, were closed all day.

So were the West Highland lines as I recall, even in high summer, meaning that the Fort William sleeper didn't run Saturday nights northbound or Sunday nights southbound (it did run Saturday nights southbound and Sunday nights northbound, though).

I seem to recall that that was still the case by the time the Fort William-Mallaig steam specials (branded "The Jacobite" since about the late 1990s/early 2000s) first started in about 1984, meaning that for their first few years of operation they had no onward connection at Fort William on Sundays: not too much of a problem if they were meant as a tourist attraction rather than a means of getting from A to B.

 

[D6130]

Wasn’t part of the Far North open for the Euston-Lairg News and return to Inverness? I think that only one van went all the way through.

Correct....with a mark 1 BSK for the minimal passenger traffic. I travelled on it in June 1977.

Aberdeen to Inverness, and the Far North lines, were closed all day

Except for Inverness-Lairg on the early shift. (See above).

 

[AY1975]

Back in the 1970s much of the Scottish network was minimally served on Sundays.

So was much of the Welsh network in the 1970s and '80s, and to some extent even into the '90s and early 2000s.

As I recall at least in the early '80s Aberystwyth and Barmouth had only a token summer Sunday service, and Barmouth-Pwllheli had no Sunday service at all not even in summer. By about the mid '80s Machynlleth-Pwllheli had three trains on summer Sundays, then in about 1988/89 Aberystwyth regained a year round Sunday service and Pwllheli got one train on winter Sundays - a pattern that continued until fairly recently, I think.

There was also no winter Sunday service on the Llandudno branch or the Conwy Valley or Heart of Wales lines until recently.

 

[Shimbleshanks]

All stations between Rock Ferry and Chester except Bromborough, plus all stations via Ellesmere Port to Helsby were closed on Sundays until electrification in the 1980s. Contrast this with the current Sunday service of a train every 30 minutes calling all stations Liverpool - Rock Ferry - Chester, augmented to every 15 mins between Liverpool and Hooton, due to the half-hourly Ellesmere Port service.

Image attached, a scan of the relevant page of the Merseyside PTE issued 'Wirral Division' timetable dated May 6th 1974, serves to illustrate the point.

The 39 minute journey time from Liverpool Central to Chester via the connection at Rock Ferry onto the limited stop service is quicker than today's through journey with electrification (46 minutes).

 

[Mcr Warrior]

Always thought it somewhat unusual that the Cumbrian Coast line was effectively closed to passenger trains between Barrow in Furness and Whitehaven for many a year on Sundays (prior to May 2018).

Not sure for how many years there was no Sunday service.

 

[leytongabriel]

Crouch Hill on the Kentish Town - Barking line as was, was closed on Sunday evenings apart from the summer timetable in the 60s and 70s. It was an odd one as other stations on the line stayed open. I remember one day there was a large party coming back from Southend and the driver made a special stop for them. They were quite a merry bunch and could have made a fair old scene if we had sailed past as timetabled.

 

[30907]

Always thought it somewhat unusual that the Cumbrian Coast line was effectively closed to passenger trains between Barrow in Furness and Whitehaven for many a year on Sundays (prior to May 2018).

Not sure for how many years there was no Sunday service.

The winter Sunday service was minimal as far back as 1961 - 2 Up and 3 Down, and ISTR was later reduced to the evening Up Mail only.