Stations that could be served on a Sunday/not be served on a weekday

[Gathursty]

When enjoying food at Pimbo Garden Centre next to Upholland station today, it occured to me that the area immediate to Upholland is probably at it's most busiest at the weekend. I know that to serve Upholland, you would have to serve the rest of the Kirkby branch hence we will just look at stations on their own merits.

I recall that the Breckland and Wherry line has some stations with weekday/weekend variability (Lakenheath/Shippea Hill/Buckenham etc...) which IIRC are served better at the weekend than during the week.

Which stations could be called at on a Sunday that are not now?
Which stations are called at Mon-Fri that we could probably skip?

 

[Ianno87]

Marston Vale is wanting of a Sunday service, in my opinion, especially the "urban" MK stations. I believe rectified by the new LNWR franchise.

Kenilworth (when it eventually opens) won't have a Sunday service initially.

 

[Jimini]

The Epsom Downs branch springs to mind (for a Sunday service).

 

[gordonthemoron]

Ravenglass on the West Cumbria line could probably do with a sunday service

 

[Y Ddraig Coch]

Llandudno really could do with an all year round Sunday service.

 

[Bletchleyite]

Llandudno really could do with an all year round Sunday service.

And the Conwy Valley. The lack of both is throwing away weekend break custom.

 

[London Trains]

The Epsom Downs branch springs to mind (for a Sunday service).

Wait for 2 months

 

[infobleep]

Although fantasy land, I think Shap could have a flow of passengers at the weekend going walking. It wouldn't happen of course as station would need rebuilding and it would interfere with fast trains.

 

[Confused147]

The Newquay branch has no Summer Saturday stopping service which is odd given that Newquay is the main seaside resort of Cornwall.

 

[bb21]

The Newquay branch has no Summer Saturday stopping service which is odd given that Newquay is the main seaside resort of Cornwall.

... therefore limited capacity on the line is dedicated to end-to-end traffic to/from Newquay. Perfectly sensible given the patronage at stations en route and the use of longer stock.

What is it that you are suggesting in line with the central topic?

 

[A0]

Marston Vale is wanting of a Sunday service, in my opinion, especially the "urban" MK stations. I believe rectified by the new LNWR franchise.

Given the penny numbers using stations like Bow Brickhill, Woburn Sands and Apsley Guise currently with a virtually hourly service 6 days a week I suspect your optimism is somewhat misplaced.

For the record the first two attract about 40,000 users a year - Apsley Guise is nearer 10,000.

 

[MidnightFlyer]

... therefore limited capacity on the line is dedicated to end-to-end traffic to/from Newquay. Perfectly sensible given the patronage at stations en route and the use of longer stock.

What is it that you are suggesting in line with the central topic?

They've managed to fiddle one all-stations in each directions into the summer Saturday timetable now haven't they? I will agree though, given the poor operational layout of the Newquay branch it is for the best to prioritise the non-stop inter-city traffic over the 150 every three hours all-shacks approach that suffices for the rest of year.

Out of interest does anyone know how the current services in high summer are faring? I was led to believe that patronage on the traditional summer expresses had started to decline...?

 

[Kite159]

They've managed to fiddle one all-stations in each directions into the summer Saturday timetable now haven't they? I will agree though, given the poor operational layout of the Newquay branch it is for the best to prioritise the non-stop inter-city traffic over the 150 every three hours all-shacks approach that suffices for the rest of year.

Out of interest does anyone know how the current services in high summer are faring? I was led to believe that patronage on the traditional summer expresses had started to decline...?

Normally the Newquay services have been 153s when I've seen them. Such a slow line and with improvements to local roads (dual carriageways etc) it is quicker to reach by car

 

[Wilts Wanderer]

They've managed to fiddle one all-stations in each directions into the summer Saturday timetable now haven't they? I will agree though, given the poor operational layout of the Newquay branch it is for the best to prioritise the non-stop inter-city traffic over the 150 every three hours all-shacks approach that suffices for the rest of year.

Out of interest does anyone know how the current services in high summer are faring? I was led to believe that patronage on the traditional summer expresses had started to decline...?

The decline has been quite pronounced in the summer since a budget airline started offering an extremely competitive fare between Cornwall and Southend (IIRC). At the same time the A30 upgrade has made significant improvements to road journeys to North Cornwall, rail fares have generally also risen. The growth in seasonal rail demand for south/ west Cornwall resorts compared to Newquay is essentially why GWR diverted one of the summer-only Newquay services to Penzance last year, and from all accounts will again in 2018.