Trivia: Elongated/Indirect Services

[route101]

To add to Virgin XC, there was a service from Birmingham New Street to Edinburgh (departed New Street at 15:05) that went up to Glasgow Central, reversed and doubled back through Carstairs to get to Edinburgh. The 06:50 from Edinburgh to Birmingham did the same in reverse.

The 05:56 Manchester Airport - Edinburgh went via both Bolton and Wigan North Western.

Remember looking at an old timetable and few of the services served Glasgow then Edinburgh, not sure if it was HSTs or MK2 stock?

 

[Bald Rick]

Aren’t there Crewe - Liverpool services, via Piccadilly?

 

[Whistler40145]

Aren’t there Crewe - Liverpool services, via Piccadilly?

Think so during the normal timetable

 

[Revilo]

What about 1L98 Bristol Temple Meads to Stanstead Airport? Takes a lot longer than via London, and no cheaper

 

[Iskra]

Redcar to Manchester Airport trains under the current key workers timetable and running via Wakefield Kirkgate and then the Calder Valley route

How come?

 

[Whistler40145]

What about 1L98 Bristol Temple Meads to Stanstead Airport? Takes a lot longer than via London, and no cheaper

Is that via Birmingham New Street and Leicester?

 

[PHILIPE]

Is that via Birmingham New Street and Leicester?

It is. Merely an extension

 

[Whistler40145]

It is. Merely an extension

Quite a few hours longer and quite a distance too

 

[Web4160]

How come?

Don't know. Can't be any problems with capacity on the normal route via Huddersfield at the present time.

 

[Whistler40145]

Don't know. Can't be any problems with capacity on the normal route via Huddersfield at the present time.

Do you mean going via Wakefield Kirkgate before/after Leeds?

 

[Web4160]

Do you mean going via Wakefield Kirkgate before/after Leeds?

After Leeds. It is also routed via Castleford between York and Leeds so needs to reverse at Leeds.

 

[Whistler40145]

After Leeds. It is also routed via Castleford between York and Leeds so needs to reverse at Leeds.

So going via Woodlesford twice

 

[Web4160]

So going via Woodlesford twice

Yes it is.

 

[30907]

Yes it is.

I assume that it's performing a useful service Redcar-York, and after that is effectively a route learning/retention exercise, as the only intermediate stops are Leeds and Manchester. There may be method in their apparent madness.

 

[Whistler40145]

I assume that it's performing a useful service Redcar-York, and after that is effectively a route learning/retention exercise, as the only intermediate stops are Leeds and Manchester. There may be method in their apparent madness.

Quite surprised it’s not going via Cross Gates

 

[kieron]

1H98 is one of these cases when a Birmingham to Chester and a Chester to Manchester become merged into one.

It's partly that, and partly the fact that Wolverhampton to Chester via Shrewsbury is a pretty indirect route in itself (11.25 miles further than the WCML via Wrexham, 23 via Whitchurch).

 

[Andyh82]

Doesn’t one journey of the Leeds to Nottingham Northern services run via Derby?

 

[Iskra]

Doesn’t one journey of the Leeds to Nottingham Northern services run via Derby?

Yes, there is 1 tpd that way.

 

[bussnapperwm]

Isn't there a XC in the normal timetable that avoids Bromsgrove by running via Stourbridge?

 

[Statto]

Walsall to Wolverhampton - all via Birmingham New Street. Not quite true in reverse in that the 0542 SO Wolves - Walsall runs direct (in about a quarter of the time!)

One of those were the bus[529] is quicker than the train, & in normal times more frequent too.

 

[Peter Bonner]

Pre-May 2018 (Might have been before then) there was the Scunthorpe to Lincoln via Sheffield (Return journey went to Adwick). Made even worse by the fact that they called at both Retford and Doncaster - 20 minutes on the ECML, well over an hour via Sheffield.

Leeds to Lincoln via Barnsley and Sheffield nowadays is also a good contender, however, that and the prior service only exist to give Lincoln, Gainsborough, Retford, Worksop etc a direct service to Meadowhall.

A late afternoon service,usually a pacer ran from Lincoln to. via Sheffield. IIRC it ended in 2018 or 2019.

 

[Peter Bonner]

A late afternoon service,usually a pacer ran from Lincoln to. via Sheffield. IIRC it ended in 2018 or 2019.

Lincoln to Hull it shd have said. Phone keyboard is too small!!

 

[Tractor37]

Plenty of Calder Valley trains deviate via Halifax/Bradford

Via Brighouse.

via Bradford is actually shorter than via Elland, distance wise

 

[snookertam]

There's an hourly Milngavie to Cumbernauld service which is an extension of the Milngavie-Motherwell service, running via Glasgow Central low level and Hamilton - the return operates the same route but to Dalmuir. Until recently there were half hourly Dalmuir or Dumbarton Central to Cumbernauld services runnig via Springburn, far more direc.

I think most people in Cumbernauld know to avoid them now, but the less well versed traveller at Glasgow Central might innocently board the Cumbernauld train there, none-the-wiser that they can go to Queen Street and be there in under half the time.

EDIT: to add ALL Glasgow Central-Stranraer services, which run via Kilmarnock. Historially when there was a boat connection there, there were direct services via Kilwinning and far faster too. Now you could miss the Stranraer train at Central, catch the next Ayr service and catch up.

 

[norbitonflyer]

There are a number of service which connect across Manchester Victoria, such as Clitheroe - Blackburn - Bolton - Manchester - Rochdale, and Blackburn - Todmorden - Rochdale - Manchester - Southport (I could have misremembered the details but you get the idea).
This means if you are at Blackburn and want to go to Rochdale you take the (eastbound) Southport service, not the (westbound) Rochdale one. (For Southport you would take the Rochdale train and change at Bolton) Likewise if you are at Manchester Victoria and want to go to Blackburn you take the (westbound) Clitheroe train, not the (eastbound) Blackburn one

There is also the aforementioned Liverpool - Manchester Picc - Manchester Airport - Crewe service.

Doncaster - Peterborough via Lincoln and Sleaford is another one, although until the regular LNER service began last October, Lincoln to Peterboroough via Sleaford was often quicker, and certainly more reliable, than via the desolation that passed for interchange facilities at Newark Northgate.




Honourable mention for Blackfriars - Wimbledon via Tulse Hill, which is quicker by the District Line, and even quicker by walking down the road to Waterloo

 

[Old Yard Dog]

Bradford Exchange, the forerunner of Bradford Interchange, used to have an avoiding line between Bowling Junction and Laisterdyke. This was considered sufficiently important to warrant the doubling of the bridge over Wakefield Road (A650) when this was widened to six lanes in the 1960's. This bridge is still extant. There was also a line between Low Moor and Bramley via Dudley Hill and Pudsey Greenside. Sadly I never did any of these lines apart from the Pudsey loop on a Bradford Exchange - Leeds Central working in the mid 1960's. This was accidental as I was so young I didn't know this line even existed at the time.

It would have been possible to reach Bradford Forster Square from Bradford Exchange, Bowling Junction or Low Moor using lines from Laisterdyke or Dudley Hill. So Bradford did have a cross city link half a century ago, but a rather indirect one.

 

[61653 HTAFC]

Those EMR services would probably be advertised at Leicester as "Spalding" or wherever the last stop before Peterborough is, so people intending to travel from Leicester to Peterborough don't end up getting on said service which is much slower than the XC trains. Such arrangements already exist with Harrogate Loop trains at Leeds and York being advertised as being for Burley Park/Poppleton (and the Leeds-Bradford-Huddersfield stoppers as being for Bramley/Brighouse before they were cut back).

In recent years (and still* on sundays) the Leeds via Bradford services were no longer given a false destination at Huddersfield. They still were at Leeds though.

*=pre-Corona.

 

[duffield]

1R50 0520 Nottingham to Liverpool and 1L20 2137 Liverpool to Nottingham are booked via Beighton most days of the week.

Right, I missed these because they're not running at present due to the reduced timetable.

 

[London Trains]

Victoria to Epsom Downs via West Croydon (much much quicker to catch a fast to Sutton and change there)

Thameslink Core to anywhere on the Wimbledon loop (for Wimbledon / Wimbledon Chase / South Merton / Morden South / St Helier use SWR from Waterloo and change at Wimbledon, for West Sutton / Sutton Common take a direct Sutton service and stay on it as it goes onto its return journey round the loop)

London Bridge to Caterham via Tulse Hill and Norbury (use the fast service which splits at Purley)

Victoria to Hastings via Lewes (use Southeastern services via Tunbridge Wells)

Victoria to Southampton via Horsham (use SWR services via Basingstoke)

Bognor Regis to Victoria (interesting situation in that these trains join to a Portsmouth/Southampton portion at Horsham, and from Bognor Regis you can get a later service to connect with this portion of the train at Barnham so you arrive in London at the same time) THIS DOES NOT WORK IN REVERSE

 

[NoMorePacers]

What route is the Beighton one again?