What routes have a better service on Sundays than the rest of the week?

[Argosy]

Am intrigued to know of others besides our local service to Stranraer, which gets all of its Sunday services direct to/from Glasgow.

 

[61653 HTAFC]

First thing that entered my head when I read this thread title was the line through Gainsborough Central and Brigg, though that gets all it's services on Saturday, of course.

 

[MidnightFlyer]

Beaulieu Road gets an hourly service and Buckenham (I think) has its only trains a week on Sundays.

 

[jopsuk]

most of the stations between Chesunt and Tottenham Hale (apart from Northumberland Park and Angel Road), plus Stratford, gain a direct service to Cambridge, as the "slow" Cambridge-Liverpool Street service is merged with the Bishops Stortford-Stratford service

 

[rm88]

Chester to Manchester trains go on to Southport on Sundays, don't know if that counts as anything :l

 

[Buttsy]

Chertsey and Addlestone get hourly through services to Woking on Sundays when there is only one each way on other days.
Lakenheath and Berney Arms also get better Sunday services than weekday.

 

[dk1]

Yarmouth-Berney Arms-Reedham has always had a better Sunday service. Dates back to when the 'via Acle' route to Norwich only operated during Summer. This all changed around 2006 when NXEA traded in the franchise commitment to run a through morning/evening loco-hauled through service to London.

 

[SeanG]

Whitby does in the summer

 

[Condor7]

The Sheffield to Carlisle and Carlisle to Nottingham return, as it only runs on a Sunday.

 

[Deerfold]

Clitheroe to Hellifield only runs on a Sunday (once in Summer extending to Carlisle, twice in Winter...)

http://www.northernrail.org/pdfs/timetables/20130416/12.pdf

 

[30907]

Whitby does in the summer

no longer - cut from 5 to 4 on Sundays a year or two back.

Not sure whether it's to compensate for the Friday extra, or to allow the NYMR to run a full service, or both.

 

[Darandio]

no longer - cut from 5 to 4 on Sundays a year or two back.

Not sure whether it's to compensate for the Friday extra, or to allow the NYMR to run a full service, or both.

But as it has direct services to Darlington on a Sunday only, albeit only until the start of November, that surely counts as a better service?

 

[SprinterMan]

Bangor and Holyhead get their last Eastbound train an hour later on Sunday than they do on any other day of the week. As far as I know, this service only runs to get a pair of 175s back to the depot at Chester from Holyhead. There is a weekday equivalent of this service, but it runs from Llandudno to Crewe using the 150 off the Conwy Valley line.

Yarmouth-Berney Arms-Reedham has always had a better Sunday service. Dates back to when the 'via Acle' route to Norwich only operated during Summer. This all changed around 2006 when NXEA traded in the franchise commitment to run a through morning/evening loco-hauled through service to London.

I remember back in Anglia Railways days everything to Great Yarmouth on a Sunday used to run via Reedham, with the Acle & Lingwood line being closed. Things seem to have changed now though. Wasn't that through service operated by 170s? It coupled up to a train from Lowestoft at Ipswich as far as I can remember. Typical costcutting by NXEA. If you have any more info about them in this period I would love to hear it.

Adam

 

[TEW]

Byfleet & New Haw goes up from 2tph to 3tph on a Sunday, and also gets direct train to stations to London Waterloo via Virginia Water, and Guildford, neither of which it gets Off-Peak in the week.

 

[Deerfold]

Although much less frequent, the last train is an hour later on a Sunday from Skipton to Leeds.

Handy if you're connecting into the overnight megabus to London.

 

[Mojo]

lf it counts, on Summer Sundays only St Andrews Road and Severn Beach stations both have an hourly service all day whereas Monday to Friday it is every 2 Hrs off-peak (the train operates every 2 Hrs on Saturdays but is supplemented by a bus service giving an hourly service).

Outside of the summer however, these stations only see two departures on Sundays.

 

[Be3G]

most of the stations between Chesunt and Tottenham Hale (apart from Northumberland Park and Angel Road), plus Stratford, gain a direct service to Cambridge, as the "slow" Cambridge-Liverpool Street service is merged with the Bishops Stortford-Stratford service

Whilst that is true, the end result is just a once-an-hour service for three stations which is pretty pathetic for a London train service, even on a Sunday, so I'm not sure I'd call it a ‘better service’. Even more so when Greater Anglia only bother to put a four-car unit on it (which results, on a nice summer's Sunday or bank holiday Monday, in a train as busy as the AM peak).

On a more positive note, the Southbury loop (Soutbury, Turkey Street and Theobalds Grove) does by most measures get a genuinely better Sunday service, with trains travelling in to London faster and in the other direction extended to Hertford rather than Cheshunt. The only people who suffer are those travelling to the smaller stations between Edmonton and London, but I don't think there're many of those from the Southbury loop.

 

[dk1]

I remember back in Anglia Railways days everything to Great Yarmouth on a Sunday used to run via Reedham, with the Acle & Lingwood line being closed. Things seem to have changed now though. Wasn't that through service operated by 170s? It coupled up to a train from Lowestoft at Ipswich as far as I can remember. Typical costcutting by NXEA. If you have any more info about them in this period I would love to hear it.

Adam

Under Anglia & BR before them the Acle line was only ever opened on Summer Sundays. Yarmouth had a dreadful Winter Sunday service of roughly 2-hourly intervals via Reedham only apart from late afternoon but nothing 08.19-11.20. NXEA had a franchise commitment to run a loco-hauled train to/from London weekdays but traded this in with DfT for an hourly Sunday service inc alternate trains via Acle all year. This was far better in my mind than the pretty useless through train that ran in marginal times that suited the main line fleet.

The through 170 was brought in under Anglia attatching to the East Suffolk portion at Ipswich. Through various timetables the 15.00/1530 & 20.00 ex-Liverpool St also ran through to Yarmouth. It wasnt so much cost cutting as better utilisation of the 170 fleet & increase in frequency of other routes that saw the withdrawl of 170s through to London. That has been a good thing in my opinion & growth on the Ipswich to lowestoft & Cambridge routes is testemant to this change.

 

[swcovas]

Carmarthen, Burry Port & Llanelli? Three through trains each way to Paddington on Suns.....only one on weekdays.

 

[yorksrob]

Although much less frequent, the last train is an hour later on a Sunday from Skipton to Leeds.

Handy if you're connecting into the overnight megabus to London.

On a similar note, the Sunday service on the Little North Western from Lancaster to Leeds is much better on a Sunday as it leaves at 20:20 as opposed to 19:20 on all other days. I‘d be fascinated to know the reason for this and services aren‘t any more frequent, however it definately goes on the list as a netter service in my book.

 

[johntea]

I live in Castleford, and if I want to go to Barnsley / Sheffield / Nottingham (or anywhere in between!) I now travel on a Sunday, I believe the service isn't 'better' as such (2 hourly rather than 1 hourly?) but the last stopper train leaving Nottingham at 21:33 is a real advantage!

Annoyingly the service around the same sort of area is poor on a Friday and Saturday evening due to I believe previous issues with drunks? :roll:

 

[thenorthern]

Teesside Airport is better on Sundays than any other day of the week by far.

 

[43106]

I don't know if it's still the case, But about 10 years ago, I thought the GNER service between Edinburgh and Kings Cross was slightly better on a Sundays than on weekdays. For a large part of the (Sun)day, there was a train every half-hour, which obviously included Inverness, Aberdeen and Glasgow services. However on Monday - Fridays, it was (still is) an hourly service with an extra one thrown in here and there.

 

[Deerfold]

I don't know if it's still the case, But about 10 years ago, I thought the GNER service between Edinburgh and Kings Cross was slightly better on a Sundays than on weekdays. For a large part of the (Sun)day, there was a train every half-hour, which obviously included Inverness, Aberdeen and Glasgow services. However on Monday - Fridays, it was (still is) an hourly service with an extra one thrown in here and there.

This is still the case for much of the day on Sundays.