Imbalanced service Pevensey and Westham

[Graham H]

Trains one way but not other from Pevensey and Westham. A relative is moving to Pevensey so I looked up options to visit and came across what to me seems an anomaly.

Basically Pevensey and Westham is served by trains from Eastbourne to Ashford and return, London Vic to Ore and return and by a Hasting TO Brighton service but not by the return Brighton to Hastings one which doesnt stop there but does stop at all the other stations that the service to Brighton makes. This is the all day off peak pattern
There is an eastbound service 10 mins after the one that doesnt stop but likewise theres a westbound train about 10 mins after the one that does stop going west so its not about providing a regular interval service

Doesnt make sense to me for this train to omit one stop in one direction only considering theres around 10 stops made anyway on a relatively short 40 mile journey

Other than the usual parliamentary examples are there any other regular return journeys that omit one station in one direction ?

 

[Mcr Warrior]

Might be something in this.

Today's timetable, for example, has 92 departures from Pevensey & Westham.

Of which 51 are towards Eastbourne and only 41 towards Hastings.

However, on Saturdays, it's 53 trains towards Eastbourne and 53 towards Hastings.

 

[py_megapixel]

Manchester to Stoke-on-Trent stoppers serve Heaton Chapel northbound but not southbound.

 

[Graham H]

Might be something in this.

Today's timetable, for example, has 92 departures from Pevensey & Westham.

Of which 51 are towards Eastbourne and only 41 towards Hastings.

However, on Saturdays, it's 53 trains towards Eastbourne and 53 towards Hastings.

Actually its a little more complex (odd) than that as on Saturdays there appears to be an additional service running Ore to Brighton and return as well as the Hastings to Brighton offering. The service FROM Hastings stops but the return doesnt as per the weekday arrangement. The extra Ore to Brighton doesnt stop at Pevensey but its return does thus balancing out the east and west departures for Saturday. So we have two return services that call at a station in one direction only !

On Sunday Pevensey is down to just one train an hour each way, just the Ore to Victoria and return. The Ashford to Eastbourne doesnt stop on Sunday.

 

[Watershed]

Manchester to Stoke-on-Trent stoppers serve Heaton Chapel northbound but not southbound.

Similarly, on a Sunday, Levenshulme has a very unbalanced service - a clockface hourly service from Piccadilly to Buxton from 9am to 11pm, with just one gap. Yet in the other direction it's a hotchpotch of services - a mixture of Stoke, Chester, Crewe and Buxton to Piccadilly services, with some hours having 2 trains in quick succession (14:20, 14:28) and then 3 hour gaps (14:28 followed by 17:21).

Some of this is down to the vagaries of pathing along the Sunday morning two-track railway between Slade Lane Jn and Piccadilly. But it would probably have a consistently hourly northbound service if Sundays were in the working week for Northern's west side. There's only a ~3 hourly Stoke service on Sundays at the moment.

 

[30907]

Might be something in this.

Today's timetable, for example, has 92 departures from Pevensey & Westham.

Of which 51 are towards Eastbourne and only 41 towards Hastings.

However, on Saturdays, it's 53 trains towards Eastbourne and 53 towards Hastings.

Its a result of the reduced weekday timetable caused by reduced demand/DfT/staff shortages/Covid (your choice!) - the eastbound train that has been removed called there.

 

[Graham H]

Its a result of the reduced weekday timetable caused by reduced demand/DfT/staff shortages/Covid (your choice!) - the eastbound train that has been removed called there.

Hi 30907, not sure it has anything to do with any of the usual reasons trotted out. The train still runs both ways between Hastings and Brighton making 10+ stops in its 40 mile journey. Its just that on the return from Brighton it makes all the same stops EXCEPT Pevensey thus making a 3 train one way, 2 the other service for no reason thats obvious to me yet. Unless you mean there was another train that no longer runs and this Hastings to Brighton train had a stop inserted for Pevensey but not on its return working for whatever reason ?

 

[sussexbythesea]

Hi 30907, not sure it has anything to do with any of the usual reasons trotted out. The train still runs both ways between Hastings and Brighton making 10+ stops in its 40 mile journey. Its just that on the return from Brighton it makes all the same stops EXCEPT Pevensey thus making a 3 train one way, 2 the other service for no reason thats obvious to me yet. Unless you mean there was another train that no longer runs and this Hastings to Brighton train had a stop inserted for Pevensey but not on its return working for whatever reason ?

There used to be two trains from Hastings to Brighton an hour pre-COVID.

One (2Gxx) ran between Brighton and Ore, calling at Falmer, Lewes, Glynde, Polegate, Eastbourne, Hampden Park, Pevensey & W'ham, Bexhill, Warrior Square & Hastings.
(1Gxx) ran between Brighton and Hastings, calling at Mouslecoomb, Falmer, Lewes, Berwick, Polegate, Hampden Park, Eastbourne, Bexhill, Warrior Square & Hastings.

The different stopping patterns on these services were effective when they were both running - it spaced out the services between Eastbourne and Hastings for instance, whilst allowing faster journey times to Brighton. However, one service an hour has been removed and so what remains is the 1Gxx service from Brighton to Hastings, whilst on the return journey it takes the path of the 2Gxx service, thus only stopping and Pevensey and Westham in the Eastbourne direction. Just a weird diagramming quirk and why it is so frustrating that the Coastway timetables have been cut.