Query regarding New Years Day

[yorksrob]

I'm planning to travel from London to Wakefield on New Years Day, and National Rail Enquiries is warning of likely engineering works.

Does anyone know if any exciting diversions are on the cards, or will Bustitute Bertie be putting in an appearance ?

Any help gratefully received

 

[philjo]

East coast are not open for bookings yet but their site will show you the timetable for 1st Jan (and dates up to 11 Jan)

It is showing an hourly service from Kings cross to Leeds departing at 09:18 and hourly after that (mainly at xx:20 from 11:20 - varies depending on the hour)
Looks like the normal route.

 

[kermit]

I got caught out like this year before last. The National Rail website showed all sorts of services running on Boxing Day, which just turned out to be ghostys in the machine. I was left pretty peeved having assured various family members that a gathering for Xmas with travel home on Boxing Day was possible. I'll be surprised if anything runs at all on New Years Day to or from Scotland.

 

[Eagle]

Check OTT (schedules are typically reliable for 12 full weeks, which from this week would extend to January 11).

 

[yorksrob]

Many thanks for the replies. I guess I'll know for sure if any cheapo tickets come out.

 

[causton]

Check OTT (schedules are typically reliable for 12 full weeks, which from this week would extend to January 11).

"typically"
...
http://www.opentraintimes.com/location/WAT?day=25&from=&month=12&time=0757&to=&year=2012

 

[Goatboy]

Hmm, this is worrying. Are we saying then that just because a service is shown on the National Rail website on 1st Jan, doesn't mean it's actually running? How can I verify this?

 

[Ze Random One]

Hmm, this is worrying. Are we saying then that just because a service is shown on the National Rail website on 1st Jan, doesn't mean it's actually running? How can I verify this?

AFAIR, East Coast and Northern run a full Sunday-style service in Yorkshire on 1st Jan, give-or-take engineering works. Once reservations are open, you can be pretty sure that the plan is sorted -- until then, there might be some last-minute alterations (which is why reservations are not open yet)
The only TOCs/areas that typically get no service on New Years' Day are:
- Scotrail
- East Coast and Crosscountry Edinburgh to Aberdeen, Inverness and Glasgow
- Northern North East (Middlesbrough and Newcastle local services)
- Tyne & Wear Metro, and Glasgow Subway.

Boxing Day is different, because very few services run. Last year:
- Southern/GatEx, limited service
- Scotrail Strathclyde services
- Tyne & Wear Metro
- London Underground (give-or-take industrial action)
- Stansted Express
Plus a couple of bustitution services to the Airports was all that ran, AFAIR

 

[MidnightFlyer]

Northern run a service as per whatever day of the week it is IIRC, for example if New Year's Day was a Monday then a normal Monday service would run! Certainly the way it operates over west.

 

[ainsworth74]

Certainly the way it operates over west.

The North East is different, no services run on 1st Jan. Though this only affects Northern as East Coast, Transpennine and Cross Country run services.

 

[yorksrob]

Hmm, this is worrying. Are we saying then that just because a service is shown on the National Rail website on 1st Jan, doesn't mean it's actually running? How can I verify this?

In my experience, if Network Rail haven't confirmed what they're doing yet, NRE will tend to show the existing timetable without any advanced purchase tickets (with a warning that timings might be subject to change).

However, sometimes someone on here might know something !

 

[philjo]

East Coast are now allowing bookings for tickets until 4 January.

 

[yorksrob]

Thanks for the update !

 

[barrykas]

NRES have put a draft Christmas & New Year summary page up, but it's obviously been copied over from last year as it still shows NXEA instead of Greater Anglia!