Trivia: Train services with no intermediate stops

[Techniquest]

I am almost certain there used to be Oxford - Didcot Parkway shuttles which ran non-stop a couple of years ago, but it seems they all call at Radley now.

Obviously some of the Thames Valley branches would count (Windsor - Slough, plus Marlow - Bourne End at peak times), but both of those have no intermediate stations.

Plenty of the current Oxford-Didcot shuttle services still run non-stop. Just look at the current timetable.

https://www.gwr.com/~/media/gwr/pdfs/plan-journey/timetables/2021/may/t8-0521.pdf?la=en

Beaten to it, I was going to confirm from personal observations that there are currently multiple non-stop Didcot Parkway to Oxford and vice-versa shuttles, noting it on my recent visit to the area. On a related tangent, Didcot's just not the same these days, a ghost of its former self!

No non-stop services I can think of in my area, or anywhere else that I can think of.

 

[Kite159]

There used to be a few services between Exeter Central and Exeter St David's only. Not sure if they're still running.

In the timetable at the start of April when both Exmouth & Paignton were hourly, I did see some times the stopper from Paignton would run to Exeter Central, go out ECS to return to the opposite platform to run an Exeter Central - St David's service before forming an Exmouth stopper

 

[berneyarms]

I wonder if that could be a contender for the country's shortest timetabled service?!

Nope. The 07:10 Wrexham General to Wrexham Central is. Working timetable shows 2 mins.

Realtime Trains - 2J00 0710 Wrexham General to Wrexham Central

Realtime Trains is an independent source of live realtime running information for the Great British railway network.

www.realtimetrains.co.uk

Here is the All The Stations video on the trip:

 

[Deepgreen]

Hampton Court Flower Show specials, non-stop from Waterloo. Much further back, 'The Elizabethan' from King's Cross to Edinburgh Waverley, which was the longest non-stop passenger working in the world until its demise in 1963.

 

[Jamesrob637]

A few Paris to Marseille TGV have no intermediate stops. 3 hours and nearly 800km. Wonderful stuff.

 

[Sean Emmett]

Pre-covid, Frome to Westbury by IET! Travelled first class too, at the insistance of the guard, who wanted all dozen pax in the same place. Set then ECS from Westbury.

 

[dk1]

Pre-covid, Frome to Westbury by IET! Travelled first class too, at the insistance of the guard, who wanted all dozen pax in the same place. Set then ECS from Westbury.

Was that because of a fault or purely for convenience?

 

[Techniquest]

A few Paris to Marseille TGV have no intermediate stops. 3 hours and nearly 800km. Wonderful stuff.

Nice! I have a vague plan to visit that area, when things open up again, and a non-stop TGV would be a great way to get down there!

Pre-covid, Frome to Westbury by IET! Travelled first class too, at the insistance of the guard, who wanted all dozen pax in the same place. Set then ECS from Westbury.

Ah yes, I did that once on an HST, back when it was those weird grey and blue seats. Just much more convenient for the guard, I guess it was just easier to lock the rest of the train up and not have to find anyone asleep in coach A or whatever.

 

[Sean Emmett]

Was that because of a fault or purely for convenience?

Convenience, so it could be promptly taken out of use on arrival at Westbury.

 

[dk1]

Convenience, so it could be promptly taken out of use on arrival at Westbury.

Fair enough. Makes sense.

 

[Sean Emmett]

A few Paris to Marseille TGV have no intermediate stops. 3 hours and nearly 800km. Wonderful stuff.

I've done a few Madrid - Barcelona, Madrid - Valencia AVEs non-stop. Also Rome - Milan.

And, er, Caernarfon to Rhyd Ddu during a gala. But IIRC never done Porthmadog - Blaenau Ffestiniog non-stop.

Up to N Wales this w/e for Ffestiniog and Welsh Highland. Covid restrictions mean can only join at Caernarfon or Porthmadog, and no advertised intermediate stops on the way to Beddgelert or Tan-y-Bwlch. But there will be stops to change tokens so not really counting these.

There must be plenty of examples on heritage railways, when literally pulling the stops out! But hard to beat RHDR Hythe - Hythe non stop, via the balloon loop at Dungeness.

 

[LSWR Cavalier]

Does the gravity slate train on the Festiniog count? Non-stop from Tanygrisiau until it runs out of momentum on the Cob.

 

[Kite159]

I did notice that the first Wolverhampton - Walsall - Rugeley train on Saturdays (the one which uses the direct line) no longer runs fast from Walsall to Rugeley Trent Valley, instead calls at all the stations after Walsall.

 

[Nova1]

There's a handful of Chiltern services a day that go from Stratford-Upon-Avon -> Hatton non stop.

I believe on weekdays there's also a late night West Midlands Railway service that runs from Stratford-Upon-Avon to Birmingham Moor Street non stop.

 

[Kite159]

There's a handful of Chiltern services a day that go from Stratford-Upon-Avon -> Hatton non stop.

I believe on weekdays there's also a late night West Midlands Railway service that runs from Stratford-Upon-Avon to Birmingham Moor Street non stop.

That West Midlands service carries on to Birmingham Snow Hill, all be it set down only at Moor Street.

 

[Jamesrob637]

Does the gravity slate train on the Festiniog count? Non-stop from Tanygrisiau until it runs out of momentum on the Cob.

I'd love to do that line! Air-conditioning guaranteed

 

[johntea]

One amusing service is the Bradford - Kings Cross Grand Central service, which takes almost as long to do a grand tour of West Yorkshire as it then does for the straight run between Doncaster and Kings Cross!

(Bearing in mind point to point in a car Bradford - Doncaster is 45 miles compared to Doncaster - Kings Cross at 170 miles!)

 

[Whisky Papa]

One amusing service is the Bradford - Kings Cross Grand Central service, which takes almost as long to do a grand tour of West Yorkshire as it then does for the straight run between Doncaster and Kings Cross!

(Bearing in mind point to point in a car Bradford - Doncaster is 45 miles compared to Doncaster - Kings Cross at 170 miles!)

When I was working at Bradford Interchange, if we had a customer who had just missed the Grand Central departure, it was not unknown to sell them a single to Doncaster and tell them to catch up with it there and then use their pre-booked ticket. Can't recall any adverse feedback from GC conductors, although I suppose it wasn't technically watertight with an Advance ticket.

I had been also been meaning to throw this one in, although it's a bit of a cheat. On two separate Sundays in Nov 2015 and Feb 2018, we did a non-stop ATW journey from Manchester Piccadilly to Chester via the Northwich line due to engineering works somewhere on the normal route via Warrington BQ. Both were on nearly-empty Class 175s, and on the first one the fog was so thick that frankly we could have been pretty well anywhere for all we could see!

 

[61653 HTAFC]

During the late 1990s, Trans-pennine express services were diverting via Calder Valley from Mirfield one weekend, with a 144 shuttling non-stop between Huddersfield and Mirfield to connect with the expresses. This was before Brighouse (or the Bradley chord) reopened and became the usual diversion strategy for Huddersfield.

 

[40129]

How about the Lynton and Lynmouth Railway? All services non-stop Lynton to/from Lynmourth

 

[TXMISTA]

Reading - Basingstoke SWR shuttles on Sundays. Not sure it it’s already been mentioned

 

[ls2270]

Reading - Basingstoke SWR shuttles on Sundays. Not sure it it’s already been mentioned

These only run if there are engineering works between Basingstoke and Salisbury. In the long term Sunday timetable, all of these services run to/from Salisbury or beyond.

 

[172007]

Didn't that non-stop to Surbiton train head to Hampton Court after Surbiton, solely as a way of getting it out of the way of the main-line?

(Shame the 08:37 Birmingham Snow Hill - Stratford Upon Avon calls at Stratford Parkway to break it's non-stop run, even skips Birmingham Moor Street)

Pre Covid, I'm sure there was a couple Basingstoke - Reading non-stop runs on GWR at the end of the peaks.

07:25 SSuX Moor St to Whitlocks End is non stop.

 

[Sean Emmett]

And, er, Caernarfon to Rhyd Ddu during a gala. But IIRC never done Porthmadog - Blaenau Ffestiniog non-stop.

Up to N Wales this w/e for Ffestiniog and Welsh Highland. Covid restrictions mean can only join at Caernarfon or Porthmadog, and no advertised intermediate stops on the way to Beddgelert or Tan-y-Bwlch. But there will be stops to change tokens so not really counting these.

On Sunday I travelled on the 11.05 ex Porthmadog (Double Fairlie Merddin Emrys), which stopped at Minfford both ways to change tokens. On the return we crossed Welsh Pony, which did the token change on the move, so presumably ran Porthmadog to Tan-y-Bwlch non-stop?

 

[BeijingDave]

A few Paris to Marseille TGV have no intermediate stops. 3 hours and nearly 800km. Wonderful stuff.

There are a small number of non-stop Beijing South to Shanghai Hongqiao trains that run non-stop, just over 4 hours to do 1,318km (819 miles), the fastest railway line in the world.

I have done it a few times but on the service with just one intermediate stop (Nanjing) or two (Nanjing and Jinan), never the service that runs with no stops.