Trivia - major cities with two completely different lines connecting them

[JKF]

1H02 04:53 Bristol Temple Meads to Paddington

Shortly after that there’s also the 1K71 which goes to Paddington via Westbury with a reversal. I was completely unaware it existed until looking up the 1H02.

Realtime Trains | 1K71 0510 Bristol Temple Meads to London Paddington | 17/02/2025

Real-time train running information for 1K71 0510 departure from Bristol Temple Meads to London Paddington on 17/02/2025. From Realtime Trains, an independent source of train running info for Great Britain.

www.realtimetrains.co.uk

The other half is often on the 05:47 from BTM these days due to lack of affordable tickets on later trains, I wonder if she’ll eventually get priced off that too and end up going round the houses on the Berks & Hants. There used to be an evening train coming back via parkway a couple of years back that she would often be on.

 

[Indigo Soup]

Prior to covid there were two routes to go from Newcastle to Glasgow direct. One was to take an LNER/CrossCounty service via Edinburgh and the other option was to get a joint Northern/ScotRail service via Carlisle and Dumfries. The strange thing was that neither route was the quickest way as it was quicket to get a train to Edinburgh and then get the train via Falkirk.

While the limitations on Queen Street are such that it can't really be any other way... it always seems a little frustrating that the services that run from Glasgow to Edinburgh then fast down the East Coast take the slow, indirect route from Central via Carstairs.

 

[A S Leib]

While the limitations on Queen Street are such that it can't really be any other way... it always seems a little frustrating that the services that run from Glasgow to Edinburgh then fast down the East Coast take the slow, indirect route from Central via Carstairs.

But it's a difference of around fifteen minutes, and I think having fast Central to Edinburgh services saves more than fifteen minutes for e.g. Paisley to Edinburgh passengers as well as the benefit to Glasgow – Newcastle and beyond passengers (assuming connection times line up; harder with so few fast Motherwell services at the moment).

 

[thenorthern]

While the limitations on Queen Street are such that it can't really be any other way... it always seems a little frustrating that the services that run from Glasgow to Edinburgh then fast down the East Coast take the slow, indirect route from Central via Carstairs.

But it's a difference of around fifteen minutes, and I think having fast Central to Edinburgh services saves more than fifteen minutes for e.g. Paisley to Edinburgh passengers as well as the benefit to Glasgow – Newcastle and beyond passengers (assuming connection times line up; harder with so few fast Motherwell services at the moment).

Pre 2017 the big problem was that the line via Falkirk wasn't electrified. Looking at the timetable now though there is only 1 train per day from Newcastle to Glasgow Central so it's not a major thing anymore.