• Our booking engine at tickets.railforums.co.uk (powered by TrainSplit) helps support the running of the forum with every ticket purchase! Find out more and ask any questions/give us feedback in this thread!

Stansted Express

Status
Not open for further replies.

Spet0789

Member
Joined
28 Jan 2018
Messages
30
Why has the service become so slow? Compared with pre-Covid, it looks to me like the peak services into London are 10-15 minutes slower… an age. For example the 0637 departure takes 1h04 to Liverpool Street.

The Cambridge fasts are still timetabled for the same length of time through the same section of track.

That’s a huge difference in journey times. Pretty rubbish. Any insights?
 
Sponsor Post - registered members do not see these adverts; click here to register, or click here to log in
R

RailUK Forums

JonathanH

Veteran Member
Joined
29 May 2011
Messages
18,532
There is a lot of capacity on the units used on the Stansted Express. Are you suggesting that they should run empty and not serve intermediate stations during the period when demand is suppressed?
 

306024

Established Member
Joined
23 Jan 2013
Messages
3,940
Location
East Anglia
Generally they are slightly slower off peak (47 to 50 minutes) as they call both Harlow Town and Bishops Stortford due to the service being half hourly.

The 06.37 has 3 further stops and catches up the preceeding Stortford starter so is a bit of an exception.

Pathing through the tunnel is the likely cause. If you are making extra stops you have to leave Stansted earlier, but have to leave even earlier than you would like to avoid hitting a train coming the other way in the tunnel.
 

Spet0789

Member
Joined
28 Jan 2018
Messages
30
There is a lot of capacity on the units used on the Stansted Express. Are you suggesting that they should run empty and not serve intermediate stations during the period when demand is suppressed?
No, I’m asking why the journey times are so much worse than they used to be pre-Covid.
 

Spet0789

Member
Joined
28 Jan 2018
Messages
30
...and effectively it all comes back to less passengers travelling from the airport.
Surely if anything the trains should be faster with fewer people on them…

I’m not complaining about the frequency. I’m complaining about the journey time!
 

Peregrine 4903

Established Member
Joined
18 Aug 2019
Messages
1,443
Location
London
Surely if anything the trains should be faster with fewer people on them…

I’m not complaining about the frequency. I’m complaining about the journey time!
I think its because the frequency has dropped, they have had to add stops to the services still running so that some places still get two fast trains an hour such as Bishops Stortford which has increased journey time.
 

Bald Rick

Veteran Member
Joined
28 Sep 2010
Messages
29,070
Why has the service become so slow? Compared with pre-Covid, it looks to me like the peak services into London are 10-15 minutes slower… an age. For example the 0637 departure takes 1h04 to Liverpool Street.

The Cambridge fasts are still timetabled for the same length of time through the same section of track.

That’s a huge difference in journey times. Pretty rubbish. Any insights?

Whether deliberate or not, you have highlighted by far the slowest of the services. Which, incidentally, is used by practically nobody from Stansted, as it departs before any flights have arrived. That service is aimed at commuters further along the line.

All Stansted services now call at Harlow and Bishops Stortford, and every other one calls Stansted Mountfitchet. At 3 minutes per call, the extra time soon adds up.
 

Bikeman78

Established Member
Joined
26 Apr 2018
Messages
4,495
Generally they are slightly slower off peak (47 to 50 minutes) as they call both Harlow Town and Bishops Stortford due to the service being half hourly.

The 06.37 has 3 further stops and catches up the preceeding Stortford starter so is a bit of an exception.

Pathing through the tunnel is the likely cause. If you are making extra stops you have to leave Stansted earlier, but have to leave even earlier than you would like to avoid hitting a train coming the other way in the tunnel.
The 0637 stops at Broxbourne and Cheshunt. Rare to see a 12 car at Cheshunt.

Off peak I don't think the extra stop at Harlow or Bishop's Stortford makes much difference. Up trains tend to catch up with the up Cambridge or Hertford trains anyway so the extra stop simply reduces the pathing time. The best runs were on the XX10 down from Liverpool Street. They follow the faster Cambridge train which manages to keep out of the way.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.

Top