Why so many Trains Kings Cross to Edinburgh on Sunday Mornings?

[Essexman]

There seem to be 7 trains departing Kings Cross for Edinburgh between 10.00 & 12.00 on Sunday mornings. Including two 3 minutes apart (10.00 & 10.03)and another 2 ten minutes apart (11.20 & 11.30). This seems an awful lot. Is the demand that high?

I'm only going to York next week but am wondering if lots of trains will mean plenty of seats or that there will be loads of people travelling.

 

[Mag_seven]

Its probably the return workings that these are run for - many UP ECML services on Sunday afternoon/evening are full and standing.

 

[dk1]

Trains start much later due to engineering requirements thus ensuing suppressed demand. Thanks to the modern AP reservations you'll find them all pretty busy.

 

[DarloRich]

There seem to be 7 trains departing Kings Cross for Edinburgh between 10.00 & 12.00 on Sunday mornings. Including two 3 minutes apart (10.00 & 10.03)and another 2 ten minutes apart (11.20 & 11.30). This seems an awful lot. Is the demand that high?

I'm only going to York next week but am wondering if lots of trains will mean plenty of seats or that there will be loads of people travelling.

The 10:00 is the Aberdeen. First stop York arrive Edinburgh 1420. The 1003 is principle stations to Edinburgh with an arrival at 1443

The 1030 is principle stations to Edinburgh while the 1100 is first stop York. The 1120 & 1130 have a different stopping patterns ( Grantham & York v Retford and Doncaster) while the 1200 is an Inverness and is fast to York.

I suggests that each train serves a different market & balance of passengers and stations. They tend to be busy if not ram packed.

 

[D1009]

There seem to be 7 trains departing Kings Cross for Edinburgh between 10.00 & 12.00 on Sunday mornings. Including two 3 minutes apart (10.00 & 10.03)and another 2 ten minutes apart (11.20 & 11.30). This seems an awful lot. Is the demand that high?

I'm only going to York next week but am wondering if lots of trains will mean plenty of seats or that there will be loads of people travelling.

In my experience Sunday morning trains to Edinburgh are nearly always very busy during the summer months, however many of them they run.

 

[Starmill]

Have you seen what happens on Sunday afternoons on the up from Newcastle? It's almost metro service!

1301 Hourly Express *
1315 Additional Newcastle starter
1330 Hourly semi-fast
1352 Up Northern Lights Relief
1400 Up Northern Lights *
1420 Additional Newcastle starter
1431 Hourly semi-fast
1445 Up Chieftain Relief *
1500 Up Highland Chieftain *

* Fast York to London Kings Cross

There is some room for an additional IC Edinburgh <> Newcastle service on Sundays too - because there is no 75mph DMU to Morpeth in the way.

An expert may correct my interpretation with any of this, but it seems that in the hours where there is no second Leeds <> London Kings Cross service there is scope to run a service that goes to Newcastle instead. For example the 1933 arrival is from Leeds, but the 1733 is from Newcastle.

From experience some of these trains are also horrifically overcrowded. Particularly the services from Inverness and Aberdeen.

 

[30907]

And thats before you add in the GC or HT services....

There is a reduced service south of Doncaster until about 1600 in both directions (a mere 4 trains an hour!) and then the (metaphorical!) floodgates open, with Leeds back up to half hourly).

 

[800001]

There seem to be 7 trains departing Kings Cross for Edinburgh between 10.00 & 12.00 on Sunday mornings. Including two 3 minutes apart (10.00 & 10.03)and another 2 ten minutes apart (11.20 & 11.30). This seems an awful lot. Is the demand that high?

I'm only going to York next week but am wondering if lots of trains will mean plenty of seats or that there will be loads of people travelling.

I travelled on the 09:30 from Kx a few Sundays ago, and the train was rammed, every seat in 1st taken, standing passengers in 1st from Doncaster.

Most trains throughout the day are extremely busy, the demand is there, and the timetable caters for it.

 

[YorkshireBear]

Sundays are very much no longer 'days of rest' and slowly but surely the Timetable across the UK is changing to reflect this. Leisure travel is now a huge market for rail.

 

[Jamesrob637]

Sundays are very much no longer 'days of rest' and slowly but surely the Timetable across the UK is changing to reflect this. Leisure travel is now a huge market for rail.

Agreed, and Sunday travel for Monday meetings in the capital is ever popular as people don't want to risk cancellations and delays on Monday mornings - they'd rather reassure themselves by being there Sunday night as hotels are relatively cheap on Sunday nights anyway plus you can often get off peak tickets since many businessmen return middle of the day Thursday or Friday before the peak restrictions set in.

 

[YorkshireBear]

Agreed, and Sunday travel for Monday meetings in the capital is ever popular as people don't want to risk cancellations and delays on Monday mornings - they'd rather reassure themselves by being there Sunday night as hotels are relatively cheap on Sunday nights anyway plus you can often get off peak tickets since many businessmen return middle of the day Thursday or Friday before the peak restrictions set in.

I think it is very good that new franchises are having big commitments towards running a midweek and weekend timetable. Rather than Weekday, Saturday and Sunday timetables. I think I read that TPE are actually planning on just having a 7 day timetable with just changes early morning and late evening to those normally operated midweek.

I certainly think that all our Long Distance Operators could conceivably just run a standard timetable all week. With alterations on weekends only to allow extended rules of route engineering access.

 

[northernchris]

I certainly think that all our Long Distance Operators could conceivably just run a standard timetable all week. With alterations on weekends only to allow extended rules of route engineering access.

I like the idea behind this, especially as Intercity services often seem busier on Sundays than mid week. However, would this reduce downtime for maintenance? It might just be a coincidence, but since London-Leeds went half hourly on Saturdays the number of faults seems to have increased

 

[tsr]

Have you seen what happens on Sunday afternoons on the up from Newcastle? It's almost metro service!

I quite agree. The ECML has some very impressive service frequencies on occasions - just a shame whenever there are anomalies against that.