Passenger etiquette?

[Esker-pades]

That (5h15 before a break) was the Central Trains driving limit, which (as far as I know) is still in force with all its successor companies, so almost anything around the West Midlands with an average time between stops of more than 3 minutes will hit that limit, so Wolverhampton-Coventry, Birmingham-Walsall-Rugeley, and so on, along with all their East Midlands services.
I've not worked the route for 20 years but ISTR that XCity classed as intensive so had a lower max (might have been 5h00, I forget), but it was perfectly possible to work Birmingham New Street - Longbridge - Lichfield City - Redditch - New Street on the bounce (all stations all the way) before a break, and the guards could take that last trip through to Lichfield TV and back before running out of hours.

I've worked Lincoln-Peterborough-Doncaster-Lincoln (4h45), 30 minute break, Lincoln-Leicester-Lincoln (3h50) before now too, and that's at a depot renowned for having an easy workload.
Mind you, even here we used to have a job that was Lincoln-Nottingham, 7 minutes to change platform and unit, Nottingham - Birmingham, 10 minutes ditto, Birmingham - Nottingham (9 minutes) - Birmingham then the break, which was about 5 hours before you got your break, then you had to work back to Lincoln with a change of trains at Nottingham just to round it off.

I believe that Thameslink drivers regularly used to work Bedford-Brighton-Bedford straight, and I recall being told that the Sutton loop workings were hated because they were full length diagrams with minimal turnround times and bare breaks. Not sure if they've improved with the spread of TL routes across the south or if things have gotten worse.

The only reason drivers wouldn't be diagrammed to the maximum possible hours on every shift is the timetable; for example, on the Robin Hood line I believe the normal "block" of work before a break is Nott'm-Worksop-Nott'm-Mansfield-Nott'm (or vice versa) simply because any more goes beyond the maximum hours.

Edit: You can be reasonably certain that all the TOCs running urban services (Northern, TSGN, GWR, GA, c2c, whoever) will have similar limits.

That's all very interesting, thanks.

What I meant when I said 4h30m straight was driving the same train on the same service. (This isn't to say that changing trains/services is a break.)

 

[atraindriver]

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[Esker-pades]

I doubt there are any. Even your Far North example, are you sure the driver works all the way through?

For what it's worth, having driven both urban and 75-100 mph regional trains, I consider the urban far more stressful.

Most of the time, yes. The only exception are the first trains of the day (06:18 from Wick and 07:00 from Inverness) where the crews change at Lairg. Otherwise, they work the full way through. For example: A driver takes the 10:41 from Inverness to Wick, which arrives there at 14:56. They have 1h4m before they work the 16:00 back, arriving at Inverness at 20:10. The guard does the same thing.

I would have guessed urban would be more stressful, given the intensity of the stop-start workings.

 

[atraindriver]

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[Esker-pades]

So that's 4h15 each way plus break for a total of 10h34 plus whatever booking on/off time they get.
We wouldn't be allowed to do that any more as our maximum rostered shift length is 10h30 (having been reduced from 11h00 some years ago), but I'd rather do that shift than some of the shorter but more intensive diagrams I've worked in the past.

That said, I bet it's a right beggar in the depths of winter, and if there are problems at the far end of the line, you're stuck. There's a lot to be said for shorter routes where you're never more than an hour or two from home!

Actually, that works out as 9h29m (10:41 to 20:10) plus their book on/off time.

 

[atraindriver]

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