Overnight/sleeper trains when the clocks change

[SeanG]

Hello

Next Saturday (25th) the clocks change by 1 hour at 2am. The same happens in October.

What happens to overnight trains in Europe on these nights? Do they run early/late in the evening/morning to accommodate for this?

 

[superalbs]

No idea, but I've booked one inadvertently, so I guess we'll find out!

 

[DanielB]

No idea what happens to the international overnight trains, but for the NS ones in the Netherlands it's relatively straightforward:

• At the transition to summer time, the 02.xx services won't depart from their first stop (as that hour doesn't exist)
• Services already on the way will have a journey time that's virtually one hour longer
• At the transition to winter time, there are two 02.xx departures. The first one will have a negative journey time somewhere en route, as it doesn't reach the destination before clocks go back. (Train 1411 therefore only exists at that one night each year, as obviously train numbers should be unique)

 

[JonasB]

In Sweden the overnight trains either stop for an hour along the way or become delayed by an hour.

 

[HamworthyGoods]

Hello

Next Saturday (25th) the clocks change by 1 hour at 2am. The same happens in October.

What happens to overnight trains in Europe on these nights? Do they run early/late in the evening/morning to accommodate for this?

Depending which way the clocks are changing they either wait time at the first call after the change or they run an hour late after the change.

 

[AlbertBeale]

Night buses in London always used to continue as though the clock change hadn't happened, so that when the clocks went forward there was an overlap with the first day routes with - in effect - some extra-frequent services for an hour; when the clocks went back, the night buses would simply add an extra hour to their schedules and continue with the same service pattern for an extra hour, to cover the gap (though no doubt that caused some minor problems with shifts and rotas and so on).

However, now there are some 24-hour routes where the same route keeps going round the clock (as well as there still being "normal", separate, night routes), I have no idea what exactly the strategy is for these.

 

[pitdiver]

I don't know about international sleeper trains, what about those people who who work nights in this country. When the clocks went forward your shift ended early by one hour. But the person who copped it in the Autumn ended up doing an extra hour.

 

[dutchflyer]

This upcoming night is 1 hr shorter and I remember from by now quite some time ago the delay next morning will hence be at least 1 hr (The best known current nighttrains, OeBB NightJet are nearly invariably late on arrival-most often due to extended times for the shunting split/combine they have in the mid of night). There may be the occasional case where there is slack in the timings-often to give clients a decent night sleep and not too early arrival, ZSR in Slovakia has such a train-but this afaik does not run nights sat/sun!
When we revert to wintertime late oct. most often there will be a standstill in some convenient spot for 60 mins-or less to wipe out delays-but in this night staff rosters and working hours and all that may also influence it. These differ quite a bit per country.
The 2/3 overnight trains in GB (Scotland and Cornwall) probably also not run those nights sat/sun?

 

[HamworthyGoods]

This upcoming night is 1 hr shorter and I remember from by now quite some time ago the delay next morning will hence be at least 1 hr (The best known current nighttrains, OeBB NightJet are nearly invariably late on arrival-most often due to extended times for the shunting split/combine they have in the mid of night). There may be the occasional case where there is slack in the timings-often to give clients a decent night sleep and not too early arrival, ZSR in Slovakia has such a train-but this afaik does not run nights sat/sun!
When we revert to wintertime late oct. most often there will be a standstill in some convenient spot for 60 mins-or less to wipe out delays-but in this night staff rosters and working hours and all that may also influence it. These differ quite a bit per country.
The 2/3 overnight trains in GB (Scotland and Cornwall) probably also not run those nights sat/sun?

There’s far more overnight passenger trains than just the Cornish and Scottish sleepers. Services run all night on Thameslink, Paddington to Reading and Transpennine amongst others however in all these cases like the sleepers they don’t run on a Saturday night.

 

[Austriantrain]

In Sweden the overnight trains either stop for an hour along the way or become delayed by an hour.

Same in Austria and everywhere else I know about.

 

[87015]

There’s far more overnight passenger trains than just the Cornish and Scottish sleepers. Services run all night on Thameslink, Paddington to Reading and Transpennine amongst others however in all these cases like the sleepers they don’t run on a Saturday night.

ELL says hi

 

[HamworthyGoods]

ELL says hi

I did wonder if that was the exception! Couldn’t remember which bits had a night service.

 

[DanielB]

As treinposities.nl also logs historical departures in the Netherlands, thought it might also be a nice addition to share some screenshots of trains during the clock change... (Be aware that at NS trains departing between 0.00 and 4.00 hrs are running during the night following the day mentioned, so a 2.16 Saturday departure is actually running early Sunday morning)

Departures from Utrecht Central during the night of 30 to 31 October 2021 (changeover to winter time):


The log of the departure at the "second" 2.16 hours messed up computer systems and took -47 minutes to run from Amsterdam to Schiphol:


In contrast, the log of a train passing through the transition to summer time in 2022, taking a whopping 1 hour and 15 minutes from Amsterdam to Schiphol:

 

[AlbertBeale]

ELL says hi

ELL?

 

[zero]

I don't know about international sleeper trains, what about those people who who work nights in this country. When the clocks went forward your shift ended early by one hour. But the person who copped it in the Autumn ended up doing an extra hour.

When I had a job which involved nights, the coordinator would rota the same person to do both clock change nights.

At times this was not possible, and one time, someone "invoiced" the employer for an extra hour overtime, which was paid.

 

[37201xoIM]

Back in the early '90s I remember taking the 01:40 (I think it was?) from Halle to Nordhausen all-shacks stopper on that night, which after its first stop would be an hour late, all other things being equal. As a result, the driver just decided on an alternative strategy of, after Angersdorf, driving like a complete nutter to reduce the deficit. With a DR Ludmilla on load 3, it was a case of "hold on tight"!!!!

 

[Merseysider]

ELL?

East London Line

 

[AlbertBeale]

East London Line

Of course - thanks!

 

[rvdborgt]

Back in the early '90s I remember taking the 01:40 (I think it was?) from Halle to Nordhausen all-shacks stopper on that night, which after its first stop would be an hour late, all other things being equal. As a result, the driver just decided on an alternative strategy of, after Angersdorf, driving like a complete nutter to reduce the deficit. With a DR Ludmilla on load 3, it was a case of "hold on tight"!!!!

And a lot of thick black exhaust, undoubtedly...

 

[37201xoIM]

And a lot of thick black exhaust, undoubtedly...

Ah, they all clag less at night....

 

[7ransport]

There’s far more overnight passenger trains than just the Cornish and Scottish sleepers. Services run all night on Thameslink, Paddington to Reading and Transpennine amongst others however in all these cases like the sleepers they don’t run on a Saturday night.

Although Southern run Victoria - Three Bridges for all of Saturday night!

 

[DanielB]

Just saw this tweet with a video of one of the Dutch overnight trains during the clock change. Look how fast the clock is ticking

 

[superalbs]

My train arrived two hours late, so presumably it was an hour late plus the missing hour.

 

[zuriblue]

The SBB site shows journeys in the past and this shows that the time just changes to take account of the time change

(screenshot shows extract from SBB.CH showing the SN1 from Aarau to Winterthur departing Aarau at 01:07 and arriving at Winterthur at 03:28. It departs Altstetten at 01:58 and arrives at Hardbrucke at 03:00, a journey of 2 Km. The 02:07 departure from Aarau doesn't run the next is at 03:07.)

 

[thaitransit]

As treinposities.nl also logs historical departures in the Netherlands, thought it might also be a nice addition to share some screenshots of trains during the clock change... (Be aware that at NS trains departing between 0.00 and 4.00 hrs are running during the night following the day mentioned, so a 2.16 Saturday departure is actually running early Sunday morning)

Departures from Utrecht Central during the night of 30 to 31 October 2021 (changeover to winter time):
View attachment 130993

The log of the departure at the "second" 2.16 hours messed up computer systems and took -47 minutes to run from Amsterdam to Schiphol:
View attachment 130994

In contrast, the log of a train passing through the transition to summer time in 2022, taking a whopping 1 hour and 15 minutes from Amsterdam to Schiphol:
View attachment 130995

These are long distance intercity trains? An hourly service overnight wow! There are long distance trains in my country that are twice weekly! Even a daily service is a dream let alone hourly. They really do have it good there.

As for daylight saving the normal situation here is the train runs 60 minutes late or early depending on the time of year. A service notice is issued in advance so passengers know.

With cross border services eg NSW to Queensland each operator uses local time for entire route even after crossing the border into Queensland time. Queensland doesn't use daylight saving time and is same time year round.

But they do have cross border commuters but that border at Tweed heads tends to operate like an international border where local buses shall not cross and you must change buses and walk across border! Only long distance buses cross the Queensland border. Only one train a day cross the border via an isolated border tunnel in the mountains much further inland. There is only one cross border railway line into Queensland and its single track and has only one station in Queensland at Brisbane Roma Street.

 

[AdamWW]

These are long distance intercity trains? An hourly service overnight wow! There are long distance trains in my country that are twice weekly! Even a daily service is a dream let alone hourly. They really do have it good there.

As for daylight saving the normal situation here is the train runs 60 minutes late or early depending on the time of year. A service notice is issued in advance so passengers know.

With cross border services eg NSW to Queensland each operator uses local time for entire route even after crossing the border into Queensland time. Queensland doesn't use daylight saving time and is same time year round.

But they do have cross border commuters but that border at Tweed heads tends to operate like an international border where local buses shall not cross and you must change buses and walk across border! Only long distance buses cross the Queensland border. Only one train a day cross the border via an isolated border tunnel in the mountains much further inland. There is only one cross border railway line into Queensland and its single track and has only one station in Queensland at Brisbane Roma Street.

When visiting Australia a while ago I was struck by the way that in some ways the different states seemed to be treated like different countries, in a way that, say, the US doesn't.

 

[30907]

These are long distance intercity trains?

Hardly - long distance and Netherlands don't belong in one sentence