Trivia: Fastest and slowest TOC on average

[Bromley boy]

As a regular user of the line, the reason that the services now call at all stations is that the intermediate stations post HS1 provide by far the majority of the passengers. The average classic line service leaving Ashford has very few passengers even in the morning peaks whilst the platforms at places like Staplehurst and Paddock Wood are crammed. The majority of London traffic transferred to HS1. Prior to HS1 the car park at Headcorn used to regularly be full but nowadays it is a busy day when its half full. it was a railhead for a large area of South west but many people now park at Ashford which has ample parking for the HS1 services.

There is a cynical view that, when HS1 started, the classic lines express services which went Ashford - Tonbridge - Sevenoakes - London Bridge/Waterloo East were so quick that most users wouldn't have seen much benefit in switching to the HS1 services - particularly when long interchanges by tube were taken into account, which may not have been necessary previously for passengers who worked near Charing +/London Bridge - hence slowing them down by timetabling extra stops to encourage people to use the premium service!

I'm sure that in the intervening years demand has naturally adapted to the current service provision and I'm also sure you're quite right that classic express services would no longer be an appropriate use of paths and rolling stock.

 

[samuelmorris]

I seem to remember c2c having an average speed of something between 30 and 40mph, which is rather slow.

London Overground must be the slowest.

30-40 for that sort of service really isn't that bad. The Overground is probably the slowest. Stratford-Richmond, HHY-Clapham Junction at 17mph, Dalston Junction - New Cross at 16mph, though other routes are slightly better e.g. Goblin at 21 and Chingford at 24.

My record for slowest ever service I believe was set this week with a Thameslink service between Blackfriars and Farringdon held up for 10 minutes by a failed train in front, resulting in an average speed of just 2.3mph

 

[najaB]

30-40 for that sort of service really isn't that bad. The Overground is probably the slowest. Stratford-Richmond, HHY-Clapham Junction at 17mph, Dalston Junction - New Cross at 16mph, though other routes are slightly better e.g. Goblin at 21 and Chingford at 24.

Taking jonny5532's figures as reasonably accurate they must have some higher-speed sections to make up for the crawls.

 

[jonny5532]

As well as using increasingly suspect mileage data, my calculations only measured the time the train was moving, ignoring dwell times. If rerun taking those into account the London Overground average plummets to 18mph, with line averages ranging from 23mph on the Chingford line to 16mph at Dalston Junction, which seems to fit with what samuelmorris said.

The fastest run is surprisingly high - 54mph average between Southbury and Turkey Street on the Cheshunt line.