One of the areas on GN with much missing service so far has been the link between Hatfield, Welwyn Garden City and Stevenage / Letchworth and Cambridge in both directions planned to be provided by the Cambridge Slows. These seem to be particularly absent in the AM Peak and now there are some replacement buses indicated on Live Departures. One such train is 2C55 1744 Cambridge North to King's Cross. Strangely, the Northbound working (2C38 1551 London Kings Cross to Cambridge North) does seem to run. It ran yesterday and is running today. Real time trains shows that instead of 2C55, there is an 'STP' Empty in its path from Cambridge North to Hornsey running as 5E20 with the same timings as 2C55 until Alexandra Palace.
Does anyone know why this is planned to run empty, especially since it would seem that a replacement bus has been ordered to cover at least part of the trip? Given that it is DOO, it would seem possible to run it as a passenger train at least to Welwyn Garden City, even if it has to go to Hornsey.
Yesterday, once 1744 came and went and the train left Cambridge North, Live Departures started to show 2C55 as running after all and it appeared as 2C55 on Open Train Times' map. Real Time Trains didn't pick it up, but showed 5E20 as cancelled. RTT also seem to suggest it ran as 2C55 (but 'STP') on Monday and Tuesday. If it is going to run most days, why not reinstate it?