Until the 1980s most long distance newspaper distribution was done by rail. Many national titles had printing presses in Manchester as well as Fleet Street. Fleets of vans would converge on all the London termini late at night, and the Manchester stations, with bundles destined for each station served by the trains, and the wholesalers or individual newsagents would meet the trains with their own vans to collect them ready for sale.
21,281 according to the last census, a slight drop from the 2011 one. Not that I’m surprised - well paid jobs aren’t plentiful, even Sellafield seems to be slowing down. Many young people never return home from university by the time they get a job in their chosen field.
I was on this before the pandemic and it picked up a substantial number of workers from the food processing factory at Tywyn (IIRC) who had finished at 10pm heading home to various stations like Barmouth.
but not many pubs down the line - only really from Bedford
Is London to Holyhead (via Chester) a "rural branch"?
I should imagine this applies in lots of places. A 21.00 train is too late for most people to start an evening out and too early to finish thus depressing figures (ok - I know it’s an over-simplification.)
The late/very late trains between Chester and Bangor (or most certainly to Rhyl!) can be somewhat raucous and very busy on Friday and Saturday nights, daily during the summer holidays and Chester race days…!
Not really the same as those the thread started with. And being pretty busy until the penultimate stop (Avanti don't serve the requests) is far removed from some of the ghost trains described.
Only up to a point. The last Holyhead train (00:40ish from Chester) is generally much quieter (in both senses of the word) than the 1W98. Some of that will be boat traffic as the former isn't a connection but the latter is busier with revellers too.
I used to use the last train back from Manchester Victoria to Todmorden (c2317-2320 over the years) when it was an hour after the previous one. Now there are also departures at 2257 and 2303, I will invariably go for those, as a 20 minute sacrifice of my friends' company seems a worthwhile trade for the security of having three possible trains home instead of one.
Im a few years out of date now but in winter this train didnt really load very well from Glasgow certainly less than 25% sometimes Id be the only person getting off at Garelochead on a busy day there would be 5 of us.
This is an important point. A service has to be viewed as a whole. An important role of the last train is as backup for the penultimate, reassuring people that if they do miss the penultimate they will still get home. I rarely plan anything that requires the last train, or the last bus, or car park that closes early. For example, if using Weston as the railhead for a cycle tour I will usually treat the 1810 to Sea Mills as the train to aim for, even in summer, with the 1910 as reserve. That is the last direct train, and before cycle carriage conditions on the 8xx series were relaxed the later Cardiff trains would not have been possible, quite apart from the change at Temple Meads.
No, it'll be down to Network Rail wanting the line closed for overnight engineering work.
