Trivia: Trains with unusual stopping patterns

[ChilternHenry]

Its what is says on the tin really, are there any trains in your area that you think have odd calling patterns, perhaps passing larger 'more main' stations and stopping at smaller stations and shaks? Just interested to know of examples on other lines that i might not venture onto so frequently. I would give an example from my local line (the chiltern mainline) but there are a good number off oddities on this line, i don't know which ones to pick! (p.s you may include parliamentary services, but i don't want this thread to become one only about these)

 

[RichJF]

From a Southern London Bridge commuter's viewpoint...

There is a class 377 service to Bognor Regis (17:50) from London Bridge that stops at East Croydon then misses out Gatwick Airport but calls at Ifield and Littlehaven instead. Most Bognor trains from London that I'm aware of usually do the complete opposite.

There's also a class 442 to Eastbourne (18:23) that misses Gatwick but then calls at most of the small stations on the East Coastway, Plumpton, Cooksbridge, Glynde, Berwick.

 

[t0ffeeman]

These normally run during the peak and serve smaller stations so that these pax can get a seat, if the big stations were served there would be overcrowding. Theres a 1823 out of KX first stop Welwyn North for example.... Then next stop Hitchin!

There used to be a non stop from Arlesey in the morning peak too...

 

[Trainfan344]

On the Cross City route in Birmingham, there is a train from Four Oaks to Wolverhampton direct, it calls all stations to Erdington and then non-stop to New Street, which is weird as all other trains on that line call at all stations.

 

[DarloRich]

Do the phrases "operational requirements" or "load management" mean anything to you?

 

[Trainfan344]

Do the phrases "operational requirements" or "load management" mean anything to you?

They mean stuff, I'm not sure what yet, seeing as I have 0 years experience on the railway.

 

[Deerfold]

These normally run during the peak and serve smaller stations so that these pax can get a seat, if the big stations were served there would be overcrowding. Theres a 1823 out of KX first stop Welwyn North for example.... Then next stop Hitchin!

That used to be one of my regular trains - was marvellous. Otherwise if I wanted a seat I was best getting an EC to Stevenage and then picking up a local for the one stop from there.

Of course before Stevenage New Town was built, Hitchin was the main station between London and Peterborough.

 

[DarloRich]

@Trainfan344

Well they might need to run the service with a strange calling pattern at peak times to make sure people actually get on, or that certain groups of people get on certain trains, thus easing the load on the "popular" services or the paths might only be available within certain time windows meaning the trains have to run fast between certain locations to keep to the time table

 

[tsr]

Other Southern examples...

No trains to or from Brighton (or any station on the BML South of Three Bridges) serve Redhill between the weekday morning and evening peaks, which is frankly bizarre, and yet for some reason it is felt necessary to provide a metro-frequency service to and from Horsham and two trains per hour to Bognor Regis.

Merstham has no direct off-peak service to or from stations from Redhill to Tonbridge, but otherwise shares an identical service with Coulsdon South.

Earlswood and Salfords have no winter Sunday service. I've never really worked out why not. It might be to do with saving a couple of minutes due to possible wheelslip in the winter, but there's hardly a lower demand for trains in winter months in that area and it's inexcusable to reduce a service for several months on the basis that the trains can't cope with the weather - this is Surrey, not some sort of Alpine retreat! Severe weather conditions should be dealt with as and when they occur.

Faygate is just a bit unusual, but does now have a bit of a better service.

North Downs Line services occasionally omit all stations between Guildford and Reading. Once or twice a day on both FGW and XC (well, on the only XC services, that is).

 

[DarloRich]

Yet is this any more bizarre than Virgin not serving MKC during the peaks?

 

[Rich McLean]

New Street to Coventry stopper. All shacks but skips Marston Green

 

[61653 HTAFC]

The changes to the Calder Valley services a few years back made a few anomalies at the smaller stations on the line. Sowerby Bridge lost 1tph when one of the LDS-MCV via Bradford went semi-fast, but this call was picked up by the service via Brighouse & Dewsbury. At Walsden (and Ravensthorpe) though, the Dewsbury train only calls during the peak, meaning there's now only 1tph to Leeds or Manchester from Walsden. I'm not sure why the service misses Walsden (Ravensthorpe is easier to understand as it's fairly remote) as it would allow a better service to the two big cities and allow pax for Halifax/Bradford to pick up the ex-Blackpool at Hebden Bridge. Presumably it's a pathing issue...

 

[dewsnapsliding]

Never really understood why Rose Hill/Glossop (or Hadfield services) don't serve both Fairfield and Gorton? It's always one or the other (service depending).

It would irritate me if either was my local station.

 

[The Planner]

New Street to Coventry stopper. All shacks but skips Marston Green

Covered by the Northampton/Euston trains, if the all shacks stops at Marston Green it then clashes with the Pendo behind it.

 

[SprinterMan]

1,500th post!
Great Idea for a thread btw

East Anglia
2F01 M-F 0443 Colchester to London Liverpool Street - Calls at Gidea Park & Seven Kings
1Y05 M-F 0652 Ipswich to London Liverpool Street - Local stopper that does not call at Witham or Shenfield
1Y31 M-F 0930 Ipswich to London Liverpool Street - Marks Tey gets a high speed service to London
1Y98 M-F 0800 London Liverpool Street to Ipswich - Stopper that omits Manningtree
1F05 SuO 0724 Colchester to London Liverpool Street - Calls at Ilford
1H98 M-F 0803 London Liverpool Street to Cambridge - Only train to not call at Audley End
1R54 M-F 1552 Norwich to Liverpool Lime Street - Calls at Eccles Road & Harling Road
1R54 SuO 1553 Norwich to Manchester Piccadilly - Does not call at Ely

North Wales
1G60 M-F 1544 Holyhead to Birmingham International - All stations Holyhead to Llandudno Junction then fast to Chester
1H80 SuO 0750 Holyhead to Manchester Piccadilly - Calls at Shotton but not Prestatyn or Flint (From next timetable change)
1D83 SO 0850 London Euston to Holyhead - Calls at Watford Junction, and is only Virgin service all week that is not pick-up/set-down only at WFJ (Until next timetable change)

Great Western
1A12 M-F 0740 Paignton to London Paddington - Train exists to give local Devon stations a direct train to London, but neglects to call at Dawlish Warren
1P16 M-F 0714 Didcot Parkway to London Paddington - Calls at local stations but not Reading
2E92 M-F 0652 Worcester Foregate Street to Oxford - Supposed to be local all station stopper, but does not call at Honeybourne

All I can think of now
Adam

 

[Welshman]

One that always seems odd to me is ATW's summer Sundays 0750 Holyhead to Manchester.

It stops at Rhyl [0908], then omits both Prestatyn and Flint, to stop next at Shotton [0928], so is totally different from the normal stopping patterns on the North Wales Coast line.

I can't see "load managment" or "operational requirements" having much influence at that time on a Sunday morning. Perhaps it assumes the good people of Prestatyn and Flint are at worship at that hour on the Sabbath?

 

[61653 HTAFC]

Never really understood why Rose Hill/Glossop (or Hadfield services) don't serve both Fairfield and Gorton? It's always one or the other (service depending).

It would irritate me if either was my local station.

I'd assume that one was the only way of fitting the service in amongst the TPE services through Guide Bridge, Ashburys and Ardwick. There's also the quirk on that route of the direction the trains go round the triangle at the ends of the line at different times of day. It might get better post-electrification when (at least some of) the expresses switch to Victoria. Shame it's not still 4-tracked along there...

 

[Cherry_Picker]

I'll offer one which calls at the OP's home station:

2H36, the 09:33 Aylesbury to Marylebone via Aylesbury. Calls almost everywhere except for Saunderton and Beaconsfield. It's unusual to have a train call at High Wycombe and Gerrards Cross but miss Beaconsfield.

I suspect it is a pathing thing, the train gets overtaken at Gerrards Cross (and it is one of the few London bound trains to use the down platform there) or that the train is formed of an AYS-PRR service and a GER - MYB service which have been stitched together following feedback from passengers who want more through services from Aylesbury to High Wycombe.

 

[Eagle]

New Street to Coventry stopper. All shacks but skips Marston Green

It also skips Adderley Park (but so does almost everything from Coventry).

 

[bILLOO]

LM Crewe trains that now avoid Northampton.

 

[David Goddard]

East Anglia
1R54 SuO 1553 Norwich to Manchester Piccadilly - Does not call at Ely

Parliamentary - to maintain passenger service over Ely West Curve.

 

[CC 72100]

1,500th post!
Great Idea for a thread btw


Great Western
1A12 M-F 0740 Paignton to London Paddington - Train exists to give local Devon stations a direct train to London, but neglects to call at Dawlish Warren


All I can think of now
Adam

Interesting that one - the working in the other direction, 1C23 the 17:00 Pad - Paignton does. I did find it a little strange this evening on this working, the guard announced 'we will shortly be arriving at St Thomas' when the rear of the train must have still been alongside the platform at St Davids! Oh, and we used platform 5 (and sit there for about 10 minutes), which is normally the Northbound 'main' platform.

 

[Qwerty133]

17:09 Birmingham new street to Leicester misses out Narborough but calls at south wigston http://www.realtimetrains.co.uk/train/P30089/2013/04/30/advanced
and then the 17:22 BHM to stanstead airport stops at narborough at not south wigston which makes a lot more sense

 

[43167]

One beauty I did once was on the Summer Saturday only 09xx Newquay-Edinburgh. After Newquay, Cornish major stations to Plymouth, then Dawlish Warren.

Some might say 'why', but probably down to managing the passenger flow in a correct and sensible manner.

 

[Bedpan]

Seems quite sensible to stop there on a summer Saturday - there's hundreds of caravans there and better to give returning holiday makers a direct train home rather than making them take the local to Exeter, with all their bags, and then change there. A good example of non rush hour load management.

 

[A-driver]

The Hertford loop trains to and from moorgate during peak hours have very irregular calling patterns, a real mix of stations served. Its mainly to try to reduce over crowding by forcing people who want 'smaller' stations onto particular services and encourage those who want the bigger stations onto slightly faster services.

In addition to the Royston train which stops at welwyn north and hitchin there are also a few peterbourgh services in the peak which run fast finsbury - Stevenage with an additional stop at either welwyn north or knebworth. Funnily enough, those services also suffer worse than any others for fail to calls...

 

[barrykas]

2H36, the 09:33 Aylesbury to Marylebone via Aylesbury. Calls almost everywhere except for Saunderton and Beaconsfield. It's unusual to have a train call at High Wycombe and Gerrards Cross but miss Beaconsfield.

I found a pre-Hatfield NRT while having a clearout recently, and calling patterns in Chilternland were a lot different than now.

For starters, London - Stratford was still in the hands of Thames, there were trains spinning at Warwick, no service beyond Snow Hill and Bicester - Aynho hadn't been redoubled. Oh...And on Sundays, the vast majority of "Met" services only ran between Aylesbury and Amersham, with passengers expected to use LU onwards.

 

[Eagle]

I found a pre-Hatfield NRT while having a clearout recently, and calling patterns in Chilternland were a lot different than now.

Out of interest, what was the longest fast run out of Marylebone? I somehow doubt it'll be Leamington as it is today...

 

[Johnny Lewis]

On Saturdays at present, the 14.05 MIA - EDB runs via York and is non-stop from York to Newcastle - the only passenger train to do this run non-stop now that ALL East Coast trains stop at Darlington northbound.

 

[Deerfold]

The changes to the Calder Valley services a few years back made a few anomalies at the smaller stations on the line. Sowerby Bridge lost 1tph when one of the LDS-MCV via Bradford went semi-fast, but this call was picked up by the service via Brighouse & Dewsbury.

Not quite.

The service via Dewsbury was introduced before one of the services via Bradford was dropped which was when the semi fast service was introduced.