Boxing Day 2022 - what services might run (outside Scotland)?

[cle]

Its not self righteous and pompous to say so. Why do people need to go shopping on boxing day? Get a grip ..stay home, go for a walk, eat more rubbish, watch films, play with kids, play with the dog, listen to stories from your grandparents, watch daft TV, do ANYTHING but go out shopping just because the shop is open. If you wanna grab the sales then go the following day the sales will still be on. Try giving those in retail and transport a well earned break.

Choose a M-F/9-5 career if you don't want to work weekends or holidays. It's not a surprise. Same as a pilot, nurse, millions of others in all sorts of careers - you enter that field knowing it's a full-week, sometimes anti-social hours service.

Some of the biggest things on the traditional boxing day are horse-racing and football. Both require tons of staff. Should they be shut down too? You know that TV also requires staffing? And what about pubs?

And maybe folks in retail - many seasonal workers - want the hours, especially if at a higher rate. You stay in. Let the market decide when they want to shop or sit with their grandparents (projecting much?) - for many, Dec 25th and 26th don't culturally mean much for their family either. It's a very pluralistic country we live in, and different people celebrate different things. Should they not be able to buy food or go anywhere? Or be forced to drive?

 

[Watershed]

Choose a M-F/9-5 career if you don't want to work weekends or holidays. It's not a surprise. Same as a pilot, nurse, millions of others in all sorts of careers - you enter that field knowing it's a full-week, sometimes anti-social hours service.

Some of the biggest things on the traditional boxing day are horse-racing and football. Both require tons of staff. Should they be shut down too? You know that TV also requires staffing? And what about pubs?

And maybe folks in retail - many seasonal workers - want the hours, especially if at a higher rate. You stay in. Let the market decide when they want to shop or sit with their grandparents (projecting much?) - for many, Dec 25th and 26th don't culturally mean much for their family either. It's a very pluralistic country we live in, and different people celebrate different things. Should they not be able to buy food or go anywhere? Or be forced to drive?

Indeed. Should the electricity, gas and water networks shut down on the 25th and 26th too, whilst we're at it? After all, these also require staff to work 24/7 to monitor them and keep them running.

 

[duncanp]

What about those who do work on the railway on Christmas Day and Boxing Day, namely those who do engineering work?

Aren't they entitled to be with their families on December 25th and 26th as well.

As others have said, there are certain jobs where it is sometimes necessary to work anti social hours, including over public holidays. People in these jobs should be adequately compensated, either by an enhanced rate of pay, or extra time off, or both.

Anyone who works in such a job can then decide whether the remuneration package is worth the downside of having to work when everyone else is off.

My father was in the police, and I don't remember feeling deprived or neglected when he had to work on Christmas Day or Boxing Day. We just adjusted our plans over the festive season to compensate.

 

[87015]

Its not self righteous and pompous to say so. Why do people need to go shopping on boxing day? Get a grip ..stay home, go for a walk, eat more rubbish, watch films, play with kids, play with the dog, listen to stories from your grandparents, watch daft TV, do ANYTHING but go out shopping just because the shop is open. If you wanna grab the sales then go the following day the sales will still be on. Try giving those in retail and transport a well earned break.

Boxing Day shifts are on average 3x over subscribed for at least one rail operator. I don’t think people involved buy your story.

 

[Cowley]

Well. Maybe we should leave the politics there (unless someone wants to start a separate thread?) and just concentrate on the allocations - ie the what’s actually running side of things now.

Thanks everyone

 

[dk1]

Well. Maybe we should leave the politics there (unless someone wants to start a separate thread?) and just concentrate on the allocations - ie the what’s actually running side of things now.

Thanks everyone

Thank you. This is one if not my favourite threads every year.

 

[Bevan Price]

Its not self righteous and pompous to say so. Why do people need to go shopping on boxing day? Get a grip ..stay home, go for a walk, eat more rubbish, watch films, play with kids, play with the dog, listen to stories from your grandparents, watch daft TV, do ANYTHING but go out shopping just because the shop is open. If you wanna grab the sales then go the following day the sales will still be on. Try giving those in retail and transport a well earned break.

Some people might want to get away from family / in-laws / kids for a short break after a busy day on 25 December ......

 

[childwallblues]

Merseyrail are meant to be running again, probably along the lines of a limited stop daytime 30min service as previous years.

It is in RTT.

 

[greatkingrat]

It is in RTT.

RTT is just showing the normal weekday service. Any services that will actually run haven't been uploaded yet.

 

[AF91]

Not quite sure why people come out with statements about working a 9-5 job if you don't want to work boxing day. For most TOCs, Christmas day and boxing day are treated as bank holidays in all staff contracts. Therefore any service provided on the day is done so as voluntary overtime.

Both days are also not covered under track access contracts with NR so a service on boxing day requires a separate negotiation and would also be dependent on NR signalling staff volunteering to work on top of the TOC staff.

 

[OliverH68]

Some Boxing Day stuff has gone up now:

Southern - limited service from London Bridge to Three Bridges/Brighton
Stopping service from London Bridge - East Croydon (fast to West Norwood then stations via Crystal Palace)
Stopping service from London Bridge - Sutton (fast to Streatham Common via Tulse Hill then all stations via West Croydon)

Heathrow inter-terminal transfer operates on both Christmas & Boxing Days.

Can't see much else atm

 

[TC60054]

Looks to be, as said above, a half hourly Merseyrail service in through most of the day, Hooton/New Brighton/West Kirby to Liverpool loop, Ormskirk/Kirkby to Liverpool Central, Southport to Liverpool South Parkway. All running very much limited stop - the West Kirby services appear to even be running as class 1s!

 

[pitdiver]

I worked in retailing for a number of years. We never got enhanced pay for working bank holidays and to try and get people to work on Boxing Day was an absolute nightmare. After dealing with over spending customers you were glad of two days off.

 

[cle]

Some Boxing Day stuff has gone up now:

Southern - limited service from London Bridge to Three Bridges/Brighton
Stopping service from London Bridge - East Croydon (fast to West Norwood then stations via Crystal Palace)
Stopping service from London Bridge - Sutton (fast to Streatham Common via Tulse Hill then all stations via West Croydon)

Heathrow inter-terminal transfer operates on both Christmas & Boxing Days.

Can't see much else atm

The semi-fast elements are interesting. Are these aimed at inbound Croydon shoppers? Seems Croydon does pretty well on Boxing Day.

But they miss out some important stops (e.g. 4tph missing Peckham Rye and Tulse Hill in the above)

 

[30907]

The semi-fast elements are interesting. Are these aimed at inbound Croydon shoppers? Seems Croydon does pretty well on Boxing Day.

But they miss out some important stops (e.g. 4tph missing Peckham Rye and Tulse Hill in the above)

I presume because these are diversions from an unavailable Victoria, so SN don't want to set a precedent? Or it may be to do with station staffing requirements - do those require dispatchers, perhaps?

 

[bicbasher]

Southern in recent years have run those semi-fast stoppers missing out the inner London stations between West Norwood and South Bermondsey. East Dulwich on Boxing Day is usually locked up.

RTT has London Overground operating Highbury to Islington to West Croydon every 15 mins, although I understand they're asking drivers if they want to volunteer that day before confirming it.

 

[Surreytraveller]

The semi-fast elements are interesting. Are these aimed at inbound Croydon shoppers? Seems Croydon does pretty well on Boxing Day.

No shops in Croydon these days. Most of the big names have upped sticks and left

 

[Bevan Price]

Looks to be, as said above, a half hourly Merseyrail service in through most of the day, Hooton/New Brighton/West Kirby to Liverpool loop, Ormskirk/Kirkby to Liverpool Central, Southport to Liverpool South Parkway. All running very much limited stop - the West Kirby services appear to even be running as class 1s!

Yes - the now "usual" Boxing Day timetable is shown on RTT for 26 December for Merseyrail Electrics
Liverpool Central & James Street are the only stations open in the city centre. Birkenhead Hamilton Square is also closed.
I suspect that they might have wished to extend from Hooton to Chester, but cannot because that station is not under their management (I recall that comment being made a few years ago when Boxing Day services were first restarted.).

In past years I have tried those Boxing Day services, and whilst loadings are not massive, there always seemed to be enough passengers to make it a useful service.

 

[317 forever]

I understand what you are saying but I won’t hold my breath on that one.

I can see that you were right about the potential for strikes at Christmas.

There will be some disruption after all, affecting trains just before and after Christmas. I have seen advice to try to avoid needing to travel after lunchtime on Christmas Eve.

This contributed to my decision to have a Huyton/outer Liverpool (originally intended to be Widnes/outer Liverpool) trip yesterday instead of Christmas Eve.

 

[dk1]

I can see that you were right about the potential for strikes at Christmas.

There will be some disruption after all, affecting trains just before and after Christmas. I have seen advice to try to avoid needing to travel after lunchtime on Christmas Eve.

This contributed to my decision to have a Huyton/outer Liverpool (originally intended to be Widnes/outer Liverpool) trip yesterday instead of Christmas Eve.

It just thought it to naive to think otherwise that was all. Many trains will now need to be tucked up by 18:00 so nothing expected much after lunchtime.

 

[NorthernSpirit]

Its not self righteous and pompous to say so. Why do people need to go shopping on boxing day? Get a grip ..stay home, go for a walk, eat more rubbish, watch films, play with kids, play with the dog, listen to stories from your grandparents, watch daft TV, do ANYTHING but go out shopping just because the shop is open. If you wanna grab the sales then go the following day the sales will still be on. Try giving those in retail and transport a well earned break.

Let's say you've run out of milk, what are you going to do? Stay at home and drink tea / coffee, eat cereal / porridge without milk or would you simply pop out to the local Spar / CoOp / Budgens to pick up a couple of pints?

What about those who don't have any offspring or grandparents? Are they expected to simply stay at home looking at four walls all day bored to tears or to put it another way, what about those who are orphaned and have no siblings? In my own view its best for them to interact with others so it makes complete sense for them to go into town on Boxing Day.

Where I work which is non transport but does have a logistical slant to the job, I do work on both Christmas Day and also on Boxing Day for a handful of hours overall since the items that people have ordered after the "in-time-for-Christmas" window has closed need to be ready for dispatch on the 27th and 28th December especially when the first batch has to be ready to load for 9am on the 27th. Likewise with the railways, any Boxing Day service will be diagrammed so that unit A and unit B will be where it should be for the 27th.

 

[Mag_seven]

I suggest that people consult National Rail or individual TOC websites to see what services may be running on Boxing day

As for the discussion as to whether services should run on Boxing Day we have done this to death many times on the forum before therefore this thread is now closed.