Quick q: Reading to Coventry pre-Covid

[Jimini]

Afternoon all,

Quick question if I may: has the last northbound service from Reading to Coventry always been the ~2115 service, or was there a later one before all the Covid fun and games started?

Cheers,

Jim.

 

[181]

The December 2019 timetable shows a 22.02 Reading-Birmingham on Mon-Fri, 21.45 on Sat and 21.42 on Sun.

 

[Jimini]

Brill, thanks v much!

 

[gallafent]

The December 2019 timetable shows a 22.02 Reading-Birmingham on Mon-Fri, 21.45 on Sat and 21.42 on Sun.

Was that definitely via Coventry though? I think I remember that during the day alternate services bypass Coventry and Birmingham International, instead running through (without stopping) Solihull. Current timetable with only one service per hour, … all of them do seem to go via Coventry. Wouldn't be surprised if later in the evening they all go that way of course, even in the old days.

 

[181]

Was that definitely via Coventry though?

When I saw your message I had, coincidentally, just checked that -- I was fairly sure that I'd already checked it for the weekday service but less sure about the weekends. It turns out that the 21.45 ex-Reading Saturday service was non-stop from Leamington to Birmingham (so the last Reading-Coventry train was the 21.15), but Coventry was indeed served by the last train on Sun-Fri. Apologies for not checking this properly in the first place.

The pattern in December 2019 was that on Mon-Fri the xx.15 (plus or minus a few minutes) from Reading ran via Coventry and the xx.45 (ditto) didn't, but with no 21.45 and the 22.02 behaving as if it was the 22.15; Saturdays had the same basic pattern except that the 20.45, unlike the 21.45, did serve Coventry. On Sundays all trains ran via Coventry -- I don't remember that being the case in earlier timetables, but I don't have copies to check.