Eagle
Established Member
Basically I'm referring to those services where a unit works one service, and then a completely different service, and they're shown as a single service. Some results (e.g. Birmingham-Chester-Manchester) can be weirder than others (e.g. Nottingham-Birmingham-Bournemouth).
Is there any rule that says when these are advertised as through services? I thought it would be when there are sensible journeys which would require you to use both bits (so to go from Wrexham to Warrington you'd normally change at Chester, but if you were travelling on the Birmingham-Manchester oddball you'd have to change from the train onto itself, so it's less confusing to just list it as a through service). But it doesn't always seem to be the case.
Example: Virgin's London-Birmingham-Scotland services are advertised as through on summer holiday weekdays only, but they definitely exist at other times. A Saturday in February I was travelling Coventry to Cheltenham and I took the Pendolino to New Street. The departure board said New Street, the internal and external screens all said New Street, and when it arrived the announcement was "The train now standing at platform 3 terminates here; this is the service from London Euston."
And then, no more than a minute later, "Platform 3 for the 10.20 Virgin Pendolino service to Edinburgh."
What? Why don't they advertise this as a through service? If I'd been going Coventry-Preston that day I'd've had to get back on the train I'd just disembarked. Same's true of pretty much any pair of stations on the route (barring London-Edinburgh itself; although if you're going to Edinburgh and turn up at Euston rather than King's Cross you deserve to be made late by taking this service 
).
Is there any actual policy on when to call these kinds of services through services?
Is there any rule that says when these are advertised as through services? I thought it would be when there are sensible journeys which would require you to use both bits (so to go from Wrexham to Warrington you'd normally change at Chester, but if you were travelling on the Birmingham-Manchester oddball you'd have to change from the train onto itself, so it's less confusing to just list it as a through service). But it doesn't always seem to be the case.
Example: Virgin's London-Birmingham-Scotland services are advertised as through on summer holiday weekdays only, but they definitely exist at other times. A Saturday in February I was travelling Coventry to Cheltenham and I took the Pendolino to New Street. The departure board said New Street, the internal and external screens all said New Street, and when it arrived the announcement was "The train now standing at platform 3 terminates here; this is the service from London Euston."
And then, no more than a minute later, "Platform 3 for the 10.20 Virgin Pendolino service to Edinburgh."
What? Why don't they advertise this as a through service? If I'd been going Coventry-Preston that day I'd've had to get back on the train I'd just disembarked. Same's true of pretty much any pair of stations on the route (barring London-Edinburgh itself; although if you're going to Edinburgh and turn up at Euston rather than King's Cross you deserve to be made late by taking this service ).Is there any actual policy on when to call these kinds of services through services?
