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Train pub crawl

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4SRKT

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Today my brother in law and I did a WYPTEDR and visited a few locations around the county. On the train from Huddersfield to Marsden there were loads of ****ed-up arseholes, about half of whom bailed at Slaithwaite to be replaced by a similar number going from there to Marsden. On the way back the pacer was totally packed and the same thing happened at Slaithwaite. Back at Huddersfield the station was completely swarming with about 100 drinkers.

I know this route is popular with drinkers due to the proximity of good pubs to the stations, but it seems to me to have gone too far in the sense that there are now far too many people doing it. The train to Marsden had a carnival atmosphere, but back to Hudds it was getting pretty rowdy. Every train disgorged 50 or so more revellers into each of Huddersfield, Slaithwaite and Marsden, many dressed in fancy dress like some sort of Pacer-based Rocky Horror Picture Show. The same thing was going on at Dewsbury as well BTW.

Now I like a booze-up as much as the next man, but this must surely be hell for the residents of Marsden and Slaithwaite if it's like this every Saturday. On the train there was a huge amount of drunken roaring and shouting. No fighting, although I could see that that could become a risk as the evening wore on.

The thing it reminded me of most was actually the atmosphere on board the Aberystwyth class 37 hauled summer Saturday trains in the 1980s, with hordes of drunken bashers behaving fairly badly. I was in my teens then so it seemed a right laugh, but now I can see that if I were a resident of Marsden I wouldn't be too happy.
 
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142094

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Even before the Rail Ale trail came about the HUD - MCV stoppers were always packed at weekends, so this has made it worse. I've been on a few on Saturdays (both after having a drink at the named stations and a few times just passing through). Not entirely sure what could actually be done about it - Northern could double up units if there is spare stock around, or could refuse to allow the drunks on (which is unfeasible with one driver and one conductor against the rabble).
 

CosherB

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Does anyone know if the pubs on the stations at Huddersfield, Dewsbury, and Stalybridge are open during the day midweek? We're thinking of doing this 'ale by train' but for the reasons given in the above post, we'd like to avoid weekends.
 

142094

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Does anyone know if the pubs on the stations at Huddersfield, Dewsbury, and Stalybridge are open during the day midweek? We're thinking of doing this 'ale by train' but for the reasons given in the above post, we'd like to avoid weekends.

Yes, most of them are but Slaithwaite I'm not sure about. Dewsbury, Marsden, Huddersfield and Stalybridge should be open.
 

Chapeltom

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Does anyone know if the pubs on the stations at Huddersfield, Dewsbury, and Stalybridge are open during the day midweek? We're thinking of doing this 'ale by train' but for the reasons given in the above post, we'd like to avoid weekends.

Done it on a Friday, it was fairly quiet as we started at Batley at midday and only got busy at Marsden. We enjoyed it.
 

4SRKT

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My point wasn't so much the effect on the NR staff (who deal with it by not doing any gripping AFAICS), but on the residents of the towns and villages en route. This has got totally out of control AFAICS.
 

Yew

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maybe someone should look at doing special 'Real Ale Trains' maybe a heritage railway to get some extra cash?
 

4SRKT

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maybe someone should look at doing special 'Real Ale Trains' maybe a heritage railway to get some extra cash?


It will be very hard for any preserved railway addicted as they are to absurdly high fares to compete with a WYPTE family dayrover for £9.50 for two adults.
 

WestCoast

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Yes, I have heard that things have been getting slightly rowdy of late on the Man Vic - Huddersfield stopper, can't be that great for the people who have to use these intermediate stops (or live near them).
 

heart-of-wessex

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Quite glad I didn't do the 2311 Bristol TM - Frome, that is rowdy on a non-event day, dread to think what it was like tonight!

After a day on a tour/long bash, I usually end up on the 2311 from Bath to Trowbridge, and a rowdy crowd is always there every Saturday night to pile on the 2 car 150. Sometimes there is space in the aisles (not the doorways) but other times it is full and standing in the door and aisles, then it's usually 5 minutes late on top of that at Trowbridge whilst the whole train slowly tips out...journey from hell!
 

Crossover

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When we did the WY Challenge a few weeks ago, we had a number of them on our 150 all shacks between Leeds and Huddersfield - they were pretty vocal but were on that occasion well behaved, at least.
As you say though, it must be quite loud for the locals (although places like Dewsbury and Huddersfield it probably isn't too much of an issue as they are contained within the station pretty much)

As for doubling up sets as suggested above - I doubt many of the platforms barring Leeds, Dewsbury and Huddersfield could take them. For sure I have been on a 3 car 158 where they used SDO (well, single door opening in this case) at Deighton and I've heard that 185's can't call at Cottingley when problems occur on the line so that station isn't all that long either. In fact, Huddersfield would struggle to take a terminating double set unless platform 4 were empty too
 

Mutant Lemming

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You seem to be lucky in encountering the woolly jumper brigade rather than the usual 'Saturday night on the town' crowd.
 

14xxDave

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This is a real shame. The Tyne Valley Ale Trail attracts quite a few and mostly at weekends too but the banter on the train is brilliant...never seen any loud people, just good fun.

Dave
 

yorksrob

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I must admit, I do tend to avoid the route If I want to stop off for a few drinks on a Saturday as it does get rather busy.

I do find its very pleasant for a lazy Sunday though.

You also have to remember that a lot of these routes are lifelines to their communities, so they will get a lot of people travelling to their night out in Leeds/Manc.
 

4SRKT

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I must admit, I do tend to avoid the route If I want to stop off for a few drinks on a Saturday as it does get rather busy.

I do find its very pleasant for a lazy Sunday though.

You also have to remember that a lot of these routes are lifelines to their communities, so they will get a lot of people travelling to their night out in Leeds/Manc.

That's what I mean. The pained expressions on the faces of people who'd just been shopping in Huddersfield were all too obvious.
 

Clint

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When we did it we started at Stalybridge and went North, missing out Marsden and Slaithwaite as the stopper trains were only about every hour.

If we did it again we might go to these two places just to see what they're like, but we would prioritise Stalybridge (and have some of their black peas this time), Huddersfield and Dewsbury, whose station bar is so nice and cosy, and range of drinks so vast, that it would merit a relaxing few hours on its own.

Doing it that way would give more time to look around places rather than just hurry from pub to pub. But then I am getting old!

We went on a monday, starting at 11am, and all the pubs were open.
 

142094

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My point wasn't so much the effect on the NR staff (who deal with it by not doing any gripping AFAICS), but on the residents of the towns and villages en route. This has got totally out of control AFAICS.

See it day in and day out here - walking through town at 6am for work and you see all the usual sights from the previous night.
 

ANorthernGuard

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We know its not very pleasant BUT its things like this that keeps lines open yadda yadda yadda, I hate dropping the p**heads off on a fri/sat morning out of Picc (who was the bright spark that opened a Nightclub underneath Picc?) However it does bring much needed revenue not only to the Railway but to the pubs and the local economies of the small Towns, To be honest, In my Opinion it is a necessary evil as we are "Public" Transport after all and drunks are alot easier to handle than Druggies, with them you really do not know how to handle them!
 

pmgarvey

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Indeed. If they're not being abusive then you can't do anything. There's no law against being annoying and they've got as much right to be on the train as anybody. And its keeping these small town pubs open (maybe even keeping the case for that lines level of service).
 

142094

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For this line 'normal' users i.e. those not on the booze would still keep it going, but on other lines it may well be the case that the drinkers help keep service levels up (one reason for the music trains that you see across the country).

I haven't seen any complaints but hopefully things will keep quiet and no one make a scene, as that is bound to attract attention from the media.
 

Mutant Lemming

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Indeed.There's no law against being annoying

..but there is one about being drunk or under the influence on railway vehicles or premises. Kind of difficult to determine what constitutes being drunk or under the influence these days. I would imagine if it was applied then most who were turfed off trains or stations would be below the legal age for consuming alcohol.
 

Prodigy

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Always see them on services between Manc Victoria - Huddersfield on a Saturday and more and more tend to do the crawl for stag parties nowadays too so it's kinda fun seeing all the wacky costumes. Not many get off in Mossley though (my town), wonder why :p.
 

Chapeltom

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..but there is one about being drunk or under the influence on railway vehicles or premises. Kind of difficult to determine what constitutes being drunk or under the influence these days. I would imagine if it was applied then most who were turfed off trains or stations would be below the legal age for consuming alcohol.

If the law was enforced about being drunk, then you'd see thousands of people turfed off trains. I interpret it as "If your drunk, no matter your behaviour your off railway premises" rather than "If your drunk and acting like a moron".

I've seen many drunk people on trains and stations..
 

ainsworth74

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If the law was enforced about being drunk, then you'd see thousands of people turfed off trains. I interpret it as "If your drunk, no matter your behaviour your off railway premises" rather than "If your drunk and acting like a moron".

That's one hell of a strict interpretation:

Railway Byelaws 4.1 said:
No person shall enter or remain on the railway where such person is unfit to enter or remain on the railway as a result of being in a state of intoxication.

And

Railway Byelaws 4.3 said:
Where an authorised person reasonably believes that any person is unfit to enter or remain on the railway ... an authorised person may:

(i) require him to leave the railway; and

(ii) prevent him entering or remaining on the railway until an
authorised person is satisfied that he has no intoxicating liquor
with him and/or is no longer in an unfit condition.

Source

That suggest to me that if in the reasonable opinion of an authorised person that someone is unfit to be on the railway (through actions that could endanger themselves, others or railway property) then they can be removed. I'm not sure that there is enough there to suggest removing someone just because they're drunk.
 

4SRKT

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I would also say that given that a huge proportion of people are travelling on Day Rovers and therefore each individual journey generates a marginal revenue of zero, this pub crawl doesn't even benefit greatly into terms of ££££ for Northern and TPE.
 

ANorthernGuard

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I would also say that given that a huge proportion of people are travelling on Day Rovers and therefore each individual journey generates a marginal revenue of zero, this pub crawl doesn't even benefit greatly into terms of ££££ for Northern and TPE.

No but they do benefit the local economies, and the more money that gets put into a local economy the better!
 

4SRKT

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No but they do benefit the local economies, and the more money that gets put into a local economy the better!

True enough, although I would say that the local economy of West Yorkshire is not massively enhanced by people from West Yorkshire spending money in West Yorkshire that they would otherwise have spent in West Yorkshire anyway.
 

the sniper

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See it day in and day out here - walking through town at 6am for work and you see all the usual sights from the previous night.

Never ceases to bemuse and disappoint me. This morning around 5-6am was particularly busy for a Monday morning, courtesy of Halloween...
 
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