They’re altering it to save money. In fairness, this is one cut back I’d understand. Not sure there’s any requirement for four trains per hour to Ayr off peak.
The way you phrased your post it made it sound like you were expecting 6tph on a Sunday which is clearly never going to happen.
Milford Haven is 2 hourly year round with no plans for improvement. The only major changes West of Carmarthen expected are on the Fishguard branch, with it going to a consistent 2 hourly all day service (running in the alternate hours to the Milford services).
I was merely stating what had been touted before and what we currently have now. Nowhere did I say I was expecting 6tph on a Sunday
Passenger loadings at the present don’t seem to warrant 4 trains an hour on a Sunday. With the dft controlling the budget the days of TOC’s experiment with extra trains for a timetable period are sadly long gone. Add to that at the moment the only train crew on West Mids with committed Sundays are conductors that have started within the last few years.
It might be an overprovision having 4tph to Ayr/Gourock, but the lack of atleast hourly Gourock semi-fasts is shameful. There used to be 4tph to Gourock pre-covid, now cut down completely to 2tph all stoppers. The Ayr services slightly better as they're now semi-fast but still only 2tph.
The services I use don’t appear to agree with this sentiment, I’d argue that they warrant more than 2tph between Birmingham and Stourbridge, and they definitely don’t warrant only 1tph to Kidderminster
I’m guessing it would depend on what time you are travelling. Worked last Sunday & none of the trains i worked through the day were full enough to warrant an increase in service at present. West Mids authority want increased services or at least did. Can’t see it happening in the current financial climate,especially with weekday services not going back to pre Covid levels. Fewer but busier trains seem to be the preferred dft model.
Fantastic. No doubt West Midlands Railway will be patting themselves on the back when the new May timetable comes around, ignoring its glaring weaknesses
You don’t seem to get the point. It’s not up to the TOC’s now if they want to run extra services. Everything has to be agreed by the dft. They hold the purse strings & say what companies can & can't run. Northern are facing massive service cuts & other TOC’s will be as well i suspect. West Mids may suffer the same or could be lucky & escape the cuts. Another potential issue with running a full 7 day timetable is unit availability. Not all maintenance can be carried out at night. Hence having a reduced Sunday service allows for additional maintenance especially on the diesel fleet. The other issue will be traincrew at present.
No, I get the point very well
Ah ok! Marketing is way beyond my pay scale. We are lucky in the west mids that the travel authority or what ever it’s called are very pro rail. Hopefully when things settle we may well see improvements.
True, but i’m not entirely sure if both trains from the Largs/Ardrossan direction need to serve Howwood or Lochwinnoch. Nobody really seems to get on at those stops.
www.realtimetrains.co.uk
www.realtimetrains.co.uk
The 0642 ex Largs used to do Hillington West only, but that service no longer runs come May (leaves at 07:09 instead and runs all stops)And for what could be the first time ever, Hillington West, Hillington East and Cardonald gain calls on a morning Ayr-Glasgow service.
Realtime Trains | 2K50 0536 Ayr to Glasgow Central | 22/05/2023
Real-time train running information for 2K50 0536 departure from Ayr to Glasgow Central on 22/05/2023. From Realtime Trains, an independent source of train running info for Great Britain.
Can easily take that long, a 10 car voyager arriving at say Newcastle that terminates and is booked to depart back over KEB would need driver to walk full length of train on platform to enter what will be leading cab, then walk back through the train closing exterior doors and checking toilets, then locking exterior doors from what will be the rear cab on departing for depot, then recheck the whole interior again in case someone boarded before doors were locked. It is a serious incident if someone is carried to the depot as they could egress from the train with movements being made on adjacent lines. So it can take a while
Why does the driver have to do it?
We do it as it is part of our t&c’s from a few years back as XC don’t have platform staff at many stations so meant didn’t have to pay other companies to check our trains and driver is responsible if SCU (self check unit) showing on diagram if anyone carried over
We are supposed to have platform staff watching train while we are walking through it as it is not on us to get anyone off who wants to stay on thinking it’s their train home after a night on the drink. They then dispatch us normally using a RA indicator.
Presumably the former Melton turns will also go over to 360s, so saving a 222 diagram that will help free the 180s to go off lease.
On the other hand there are a couple of additional service from Derby to Sheffield (calling at Chesterfield) on Sunday mornings:
12 car slam door trains were always good fun. I saw a bloke at Shoeburyness leg it onto a 12 car 302, as it departed to the sidings! In a book written by a driver, he talks about a lady that ended up on his 12 car ECS from London Bridge to, I think, Streatham Hill. Passcom pulled somewhere around Sydenham. Only the front coach was on the platform; inevitably the lady was in the 12th coach.
That’s very good, I didn’t notice those. They’ll come in handy like you say
Probably useful for an early start or an International service this might attract complaints
Not sure these have much value beyond Corby.
Has a later train departing at 22:37 from Nottingham - as long it waits at Nottingham with 1D94 is late.
Again useful for a late night or coming home from an International service - useful for leisure passengers whom the DfT seem to want to discourage.
The former and latter are big losses in my view. The MML has long enjoyed a much better service in terms of first and last trains than the WCML and many other lines. Obviously these individual trains may be lightly loaded at times, but they provide a very useful service for those who need it. Unfortunately with the DfT in cost-cutting mode, I suppose this kind of loss is to be expected
