Very good news for the North Staffs getting Sunday service back and Matlock's get a service to Nottingham again although one day a week. Now just need the full Monday to Saturday service now.
National Rail journey planner indicates that Nottingham-Liverpool Sunday services will be restored from this Sunday, although this is not shown on the EMR link/press release?
At least they were supposed to get to Manchester last Sunday but the weather prevented that.
At the moment it looks like the regional timetable just rolls over (with the exception of Skegness) in May unfortunately.
Does anyone know if the signal boxes were kept open on the North Staffs line on Sundays since the strikes commenced back in May 2021?
As previously reported in this thread no uplift in the timetable on the Robin Hood Line in May back to pre Covid levels. In fact it gets even worse with trains only calling every 2 hours at both Langwith and Whitwell, even on Saturdays. Also some of the peak time trains are missing out stops at Newstead and Bulwell which has never happened before. Peak time trains have always stopped at all stations.
The half hourly off peak service is still under consideration for May, apparently.
I really do hope so. I’ve had enough of having to wait for an hour at Nottingham every time I go to visit relatives in Norfolk. The connection to Norwich is missed literally by a few minutes and it’s the same on the return journey. Last week I drove there instead and it was much quicker. You can get quite a distance along the A17 towards King’s Lynn during the hour you are sitting on Nottingham station. I also understand that it isn’t just the connection to Norwich that the current hourly service just misses.
Nottingham has always been a station of poor connections for some reason.
Is it just the Matlock's and Robin Hood being looked into for May?
If that’s an official EMR position it’s totally arrogant. It should be far more than “looking at” - at the very least, it should be “will be” unless there’s justifiable public explanation why it can’t be done
That's all I've heard.
Yes, they were open. The lack.of a passenger service, due to industrial action, had nothing to do with Network Rail staff. In some cases permission may have been given for boxes close early, though it isn’t a regular thing to happen.
That is potentially very good news about Nottingham Matlock. Maybe the public/political pressure on this issue is having some impact.
Apologies for going a bit off topic. The bridge works have been planned a while, and I belive planning permission has been granted now, but the gates need to be replaced, the existing ones are not suitable. The wooden ones are going and steel ones put in to a more appropriate design for the listed bridge. Hopefully it'll be done soon, it's certainly been pushed for by the staff for years, as everyone knows it's an issue.
I've been provided the above information by a rep.
I really do not understand why there are now such problems on the Robin Hood Line and the timetable needs a complete recast. What was wrong with the very successful timetable that has operated with few problems for over 20 years since the line reopened. The only change I can see is the Class 170 trains can’t cope with the numerous stops, especially northbound on the gradients. I know that they did run on the line in Central Trains days but only on occasional trains not a full service. The only good point is that at least a half hourly service to Mansfield is eventually to return as I did fear that it never would.
I think it's a multitude of issues really. The Mansfield terminators never had adequate time to turnaround, 3mins and no additional time allowed for a running brake test. The resilience was never there after Bulwell lost its second platform to the tram so delays would usually continue through most of the day as trains would pass if running perfectly on time around Basford and Kirkby, giving at best 60-90s between the single line occupancy. My idea has always been to dual the line from Hucknall to Newstead loop, fast trains using the "up line" and anything calling at Newstead the "down line", but using both bidirectionally as required.
Curious that the 6.47 Liverpool - Norwich won't be reinstated. It appears every week in RTT, only to disappear about Thursday in the week beforehand. I've promised to take my better half on a trip to Peterborough when it finally does run.
The timetable that operated before cannot operate at present because of the requirement to stop at all 3 stations in both directions on the single line. With the reduced timetable you could look at extending the turnaround at Worksop by 25-30 minutes and pass the trains at the north end of the single line, but this would mean crews getting back to Nottingham 25-30 minutes later than the current out and back trip. The previous timetable could in theory return once the Mansfield services are reinstated, and this would require each service to make only 2 stops on the single line. I suspect its unlikely that it will though, especially if this recast proves to be a good performance boost for the line, we will have to wait and see on that.
