(This relates to 'normal' pre-Covid timetables, so maybe it should go in the Railway History and Nostalgia thread, I'm not sure - however I'd consider 2019 a little recent for nostalgia!)
Were there, up to 2019, any known instances where a 'local' service of some kind was run by 'express' stock (such as 158s, for example) for operational convenience?
I can think of a scenario where this might make sense. You have a local service from a city to a town in the surrounding area, calling at most or all stops, which only needs to be hourly. It takes 57 minutes. So let's say it leaves the city at xx20, it might arrive at the terminus town at xx17, 5 min turnaround, return at xx22, back in the city station at xx19 - so the timings are 'wrong' for a self-contained service.
Then, you have a 'Regional Express' type service arriving at the city station at say xx55, and leaving at xx45. Thinking of a typical 158-operated service, for example.
Efficient diagramming could then lead to the xx55 regional express going out on the xx20 local stopper, returning at xx19 two hours later, then going out on the xx45 outbound regional express.
Imagine that there are no other local services that the xx20 local could efficiently interwork with, for example imagine all the other locals are half-hourly, but the traffic on this route only justifies hourly.
Perhaps in the peak this doesn't happen, as a) the 158s (or whatever) are then used to double-up the regional express services and b) the local route justifies a half-hourly service in the peak only, meaning that it can become self-contained.
Would be interesting to hear of any actual examples of this sort of diagramming - at any time in the 'modern' (1970-2019) railway.
Were there, up to 2019, any known instances where a 'local' service of some kind was run by 'express' stock (such as 158s, for example) for operational convenience?
I can think of a scenario where this might make sense. You have a local service from a city to a town in the surrounding area, calling at most or all stops, which only needs to be hourly. It takes 57 minutes. So let's say it leaves the city at xx20, it might arrive at the terminus town at xx17, 5 min turnaround, return at xx22, back in the city station at xx19 - so the timings are 'wrong' for a self-contained service.
Then, you have a 'Regional Express' type service arriving at the city station at say xx55, and leaving at xx45. Thinking of a typical 158-operated service, for example.
Efficient diagramming could then lead to the xx55 regional express going out on the xx20 local stopper, returning at xx19 two hours later, then going out on the xx45 outbound regional express.
Imagine that there are no other local services that the xx20 local could efficiently interwork with, for example imagine all the other locals are half-hourly, but the traffic on this route only justifies hourly.
Perhaps in the peak this doesn't happen, as a) the 158s (or whatever) are then used to double-up the regional express services and b) the local route justifies a half-hourly service in the peak only, meaning that it can become self-contained.
Would be interesting to hear of any actual examples of this sort of diagramming - at any time in the 'modern' (1970-2019) railway.
