Public transport on Christmas day

[Bemined]

Besides the UK, are there any other countries that have no or very limited service on Christmas day? Most European countries seem to be running at least some service today. In the Netherlands it's generally a Sunday service on both the 25th and 26th. The metro in Rotterdam also has the tradition of running single 3-car trainsets on all lines throughout the entire day because of low passenger numbers, but they still run the full Sunday timetable even in the early morning. Are there any places where the service is reduced to less than on a regular Sunday?

 

[duncanp]

I think the Irish Republic has very little service on Christmas Day.

Many urban transport networks in France, with the exception of Paris, have no service at all on 1st May.

 

[busestrains]

Besides the UK, are there any other countries that have no or very limited service on Christmas day? Most European countries seem to be running at least some service today. In the Netherlands it's generally a Sunday service on both the 25th and 26th. The metro in Rotterdam also has the tradition of running single 3-car trainsets on all lines throughout the entire day because of low passenger numbers, but they still run the full Sunday timetable even in the early morning. Are there any places where the service is reduced to less than on a regular Sunday?

Ireland is even worse than the UK as they shut down 100% of their public transport. They have no buses or coaches or trains or trams or airplanes or anything running at all. It is a 100% shutdown. The UK is pretty bad but at least we have a limited selection of National Express coaches running and we have some airplanes running too.

I think the Irish Republic has very little service on Christmas Day.

Many urban transport networks in France, with the exception of Paris, have no service at all on 1st May.

What is special about the 1st of May in France that causes a shutdown? Is this a holiday or is this due to a strike that is planned?

 

[hexagon789]

What is special about the 1st of May in France that causes a shutdown? Is this a holiday or is this due to a strike that is planned?

Fête du travail

Labour Day

 

[busestrains]

Fête du travail

Labour Day

Many thanks. I am surprised that causes a shutdown of public transport. Many other countries have a Labour Day too but public transport still runs.

 

[hexagon789]

Many thanks. I am surprised that causes a shutdown of public transport. Many other countries have a Labour Day too but public transport still runs.

In France it isn't merely an observance, it's one of 11 legally mandated Public Holidays. You could say that therefore it's more important/significant in a legal sense than say a UK Bank Holiday.

 

[Tester]

Christmas Day public transport is entirely normal outside the UK and Ireland.

I am currently in Melbourne, Australia, where not only does public transport operate on Christmas Day, but is free of charge.

I had a day out to Bairnsdale (3.5 hours east of Melbourne) - six carriage train each way, healthily loaded (estimate over 50%).

People here are generally surprised to hear that public transport shuts down for Christmas in the UK.

 

[ANDREW_D_WEBB]

The UK is pretty bad but at least we have a limited selection of National Express coaches running and we have some airplanes running too.

Add local bus routes in Poole/Bournemouth, Southampton, Isle of Wight, Brighton, Oxford, Oxford Tube, links from Oxford to Gatwick and Heathrow, Manchester, Liverpool, Edinburgh, hotel shuttles around Heathrow and a few assorted free services (e.g. 430 in London) and provision on 25/12 is slowly growing. It seems Wales continues to shut down completely. Boxing Day now sees better services in various places than was once the case.

 

[dutchflyer]

This 1/5 no service-but then usually only till around early afternoon, also applies to many local systems in Austria (not the trains in general). Remarkably though it does not apply to the old East-EUR former communist countries. The original idea-probably unthinkable for Brits, is to give the jolly workers the chance to participate in the normally held 1/5 various demonstrations held to show how bad a deal these workers think they get on various types of working conditions. Heritage from the distant past. Also the handing out to the general public of various sweeteners for it then-by the unions.
How those participants would even be able to get to the starting point of it? Well, hum,......Walk? Bike?
From what I know the severe Xmas restrictions are indeed limited to those islands in the NorthSea-and perhaps, maybe, as an imitation, on some tiny islands that once were considered to be colonies of the British empire, like in the Caribbean. Several of these, from what I kind of recall, do not even offer any sunday service at all-except for going to church. No trains involved, only (mini)bus.
As an aside: as pretty often railway staf are single males, and they get giant extra bonuses for working on those very unsocial days-there is often even a scramble of staff to work then-without tight family ties etc. Plus that the general public on those days is also in a festive mood and may even dole out some small presents ´for you to work on this day!´.

 

[Austriantrain]

This 1/5 no service-but then usually only till around early afternoon, also applies to many local systems in Austria (not the trains in general).

That practice stopped about 20 years ago…

 

[duncanp]

In France it isn't merely an observance, it's one of 11 legally mandated Public Holidays. You could say that therefore it's more important/significant in a legal sense than say a UK Bank Holiday.

Whilst May 1st is a legally mandated public holiday in France, no other public holiday causes a complete shutdown of public transport.

On other holidays (including Christmas Day) a Sunday service runs, which means little or no service outside the big cities.

 

[that1pepfan]

Brighton had ran a hourly service 8-6 on routes 1/1a 5b 7 49

 

[Ianigsy]

A couple of years ago, arriving in Calgary I was surprised to see on an airport bus stop "New Timetables Effective December 25th ". This year on the Calgary Transit website :

CTrain: Trains will run every 15 minutes throughout the day. Trains will run every 30 minutes after 10 p.m. Service ends around 02:30.
Sunday, Dec 25	Bus: Service every 20-45 minutes on Routes 1, 3, 8, 9, 14, 23, 38, 43, 100, 300, 301, 302, MAX Orange, MAX Yellow, MAX Teal and MAX Purple. On Demand service is closed in Carrington/Livingston and Springbank Hill.

 

[jamesontheroad]

Note that while we observe Christmas on 25th December, many observe the festival on the 24th. I’m thinking primarily of Austria, Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, Germany, Hungary, Norway, Poland, Slovakia, Sweden and Switzerland. In these countries, you’re more likely to see a thinning down of services on 24/12 as opposed to 25/12.

It was interesting to note on FlightRadar24 few (if any?) Ryanair services in the air over the UK on Christmas Day. However in my adopted homeland of Sweden, there was much closer to a normal scheduled air service that day, with a thinner schedule on Christmas Eve.

 

[Austriantrain]

Note that while we observe Christmas on 25th December, many observe the festival on the 24th. I’m thinking primarily of Austria, Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, Germany, Hungary, Norway, Poland, Slovakia, Sweden and Switzerland. In these countries, you’re more likely to see a thinning down of services on 24/12 as opposed to 25/12.

In Austria, 25/12 and 26/12, being public holidays, have a Sunday schedule. 24/12 is a half working day (with shops open until the early afternoon), although loads of people have the day off. As such, it has - more or less - a Saturday schedule, which in urban transport usually thins out around 5 pm which is when people will celebrate Christmas. ÖBB services run normally throughout the day, with only extra peak services not running.

The reason why, in Austria, urban transport, on 1/5, used to start only around midday was to let transport workers join the traditional May parades organized by the social-democrats (those parades still exist and can disrupt transport, but nowadays the schedule is a normal Sunday schedule).

 

[johncrossley]

you’re more likely to see a thinning down of services on 24/12 as opposed to 25/12.

But big difference between almost no UK service on 25th and reduced service on the 24th in the places that do that. Much of the UK has reduced service on the evening of the 24th as well.

 

[30907]

But big difference between almost no UK service on 25th and reduced service on the 24th in the places that do that.

Quite. 50% service on major routes is fairly typical, minor routes shut from early pm.

Much of the UK has reduced service on the evening of the 24th as well.

Pedantically: typically normal (offpeak) frequency but early finish by 2200 (been getting earlier over the decades).

 

[MarcVD]

In Belgium we have 10 legal public holidays every year. On those days, Sunday service schedules are applied, which for railways means all peak hour trains canceled and frequencies halved. At minimum you get a train every two hours. For those working, Sunday pay rates apply, too.

 

[miklcct]

From what I know the severe Xmas restrictions are indeed limited to those islands in the NorthSea-and perhaps, maybe, as an imitation, on some tiny islands that once were considered to be colonies of the British empire, like in the Caribbean. Several of these, from what I kind of recall, do not even offer any sunday service at all-except for going to church. No trains involved, only (mini)bus.

In Hong Kong, which was a tiny island and a colony of the British Empire before 1997, service is strengthened on 24/12 with the underground running overnight. A direct contrast to the UK. There are traditionally 4 days per year (24/12, 31/12, mid-autumn festival and Lunar New Year Eve) when the underground there runs an overnight service, which started as a result of Lan Kwai Fong stampede in New Year 1993 to prevent similar tragedies resulting from people rushing to take the last underground after festival celebration.

Peak hour services on these days, and also on winter solstice, are adjusted to return earlier in the evening peak as most workers have an early day off on these days.

On Christmas Day, or any other public holidays, a normal Sunday service runs throughout the territory. The only days when a less-than-Sunday service is provided are the first and the second days of Lunar New Year, when some recreational bus routes don't run. The reason is to redeploy the limited driver resources in order to cater for demand, as regular services are generally oversubscribed on these two days when everyone in the territory visits their families. Also, some peak-hour services are suspended for a few days afterwards despite being working days as commuting demand is reduced.

In addition, closing the railways for engineering work is basically unheard of there. The only situations when the railway is closed are when building a new line to connect to existing lines, which may require a closure of a few hours up to few days into the normal opening hours.

 

[mugam4]

It was interesting to note on FlightRadar24 few (if any?) Ryanair services in the air over the UK on Christmas Day. However in my adopted homeland of Sweden, there was much closer to a normal scheduled air service that day, with a thinner schedule on Christmas Eve.

Ryanair has an early shutdown on the 24th, and no services network-wide on the 25th

 

[ChiefPlanner]

New York Subway runs a normal Sunday schedule I gather , with a 20 min service overnight on most lines.

 

[ANDREW_D_WEBB]

Malta runs a normal Sunday service on both Christmas Day and New Year’s Day, but with a shutdown between 12:00 and 15:00 to allow drivers to go home to spend time with their families. In practice this means that services wind down from 11:00 and take until 16:00 to fully restart.

 

[67thave]

New York Subway runs a normal Sunday schedule I gather, with a 20 min service overnight on most lines.

That's the standard here for most major holidays.
Interestingly, today (which is when Christmas is formally observed by the federal government, as it fell on a Sunday this year) the subway ran on a Sunday schedule, buses on a Saturday schedule, and commuter rail (Metro-North and Long Island Rail Road) on a weekday schedule.

 

[Springs Branch]

It doesn't apply on 25th December (unless it happens to be a Saturday), but in the big cities in Israel, there's a 'Christmas Day' every weekend on public transport.

Jerusalem, Tel Aviv etc have modern light-rail and extensive bus systems which all close down before sunset on Friday afternoons and remain closed all day on the Jewish Sabbath (Saturday). I believe services do resume after sunset on Saturday evening.

In Tel Aviv, the largest and most cosmopolitan city, I think the authorities there recently started to run a free skeleton bus service during the Sabbath shutdown (the private bus operators who provide services the rest of the time still do not run).

 

[67thave]

It doesn't apply on 25th December (unless it happens to be a Saturday), but in the big cities in Israel, there's a 'Christmas Day' every weekend on public transport.

Jerusalem, Tel Aviv etc have modern light-rail and extensive bus systems which all close down before sunset on Friday afternoons and remain closed all day on the Jewish Sabbath (Saturday). I believe services do resume after sunset on Saturday evening.

This isn't 100% correct, as Haifa always had bus service on Friday nights and Saturday due to the presence of a large Arab population.

 

[Furryanimal]

Stagecoach ran hourly services on three routes in South east Wales on Boxing Day none of which were of any use to me!
My rugby team were playing somewhere they weren't serving so I couldn't go.
But I hope they may run on some other routes in future.

 

[daodao]

It doesn't apply on 25th December (unless it happens to be a Saturday), but in the big cities in Israel, there's a 'Christmas Day' every weekend on public transport.

Jerusalem, Tel Aviv etc have modern light-rail and extensive bus systems which all close down before sunset on Friday afternoons and remain closed all day on the Jewish Sabbath (Saturday). I believe services do resume after sunset on Saturday evening.

In Tel Aviv, the largest and most cosmopolitan city, I think the authorities there recently started to run a free skeleton bus service during the Sabbath shutdown (the private bus operators who provide services the rest of the time still do not run).

A similar public transport shutdown also applies on major Jewish religious holidays (of which there are 5 days in autumn and 3 in spring in Israel), although the number of additional days is less than 8 in years when some of these holidays coincide with the Sabbath. There are exceptions in areas within the pre-1967 Israel borders that have a significant Arab population, but there are also areas/streets (particularly in Jerusalem) where even driving private vehicles on the Sabbath/festivals is prohibited. However, outside these specific zones, shared taxi/jitney services using 10-seater mini-buses (Sherut) run on designated routes throughout Israel at all hours of the day, 7 days a week.

A similar absence of Sunday buses also exists on the Isle of Lewis and Harris, although ferries do operate. There is also effectively no public transport on New Year's Day throughout Scotland.

 

[Gordon]

Many urban transport networks in France, with the exception of Paris, have no service at all on 1st May.

There are places, mainly smaller towns, where public transport doesn't run on a Sunday, but that generally matched demand. In many places (even in France!) it runs but with a Sundays and Public Holidays timetable. That will inevitably mean that some routes intended mainly for school and 'industry' passengers don't run, and but there certainly isn't a pan-France blanket 'no service at all'. Of course in France the population is thinly spread so the demand isn't there.

 

[30907]

I discovered by chance that regional service provision in Germany, particularly "West" at least was considerably more restricted in the 80s- early 90s.

If anyone is interested, and reads German:
https://www.drehscheibe-online.de/foren/read.php?017,10303277

 

[SHD]

There are places, mainly smaller towns, where public transport doesn't run on a Sunday, but that generally matched demand. In many places (even in France!) it runs but with a Sundays and Public Holidays timetable. That will inevitably mean that some routes intended mainly for school and 'industry' passengers don't run, and but there certainly isn't a pan-France blanket 'no service at all'. Of course in France the population is thinly spread so the demand isn't there.

Duncanp is right though, there is no Labour Day public transportation service at all in many French cities, including major ones such as Lyon, Marseille, Toulouse, Nantes, Strasbourg, Lille…

Public transportation in Paris and its suburbs runs on May 1st with the level of service of a typical Sunday, but it is very much an exception.