Please don't use our trains!

[Schnellzug]

I notice, in the new South Westerly Trains pocket timetable, there's a little box entitled "Services during the Olympic Games". South West Tains, it says, will run the normal timetable for most of the day during the Games. (Games has a capital letter, as it's the most important thing to happen since the Coronation.) Where possible, it says, trains will run with more coaches than normal to take extra passengers to and from the Games venues.

Then it says, "Sailing at Weymouth and Portland. Trains to and from Weymouth are expected to be Extremely Busy. Spectators for the Sailing Events are recommended to drive to one of the Park & Ride sites for buses to the Spectator Areas".

That's right, please don't use our trains.

*rolleyes*

 

[asylumxl]

I would assume so commuters etc. have more space on the train.

I'd like to tell Olympic spectators to not use our trains at all, anywhere, will make commuting much more bearable during them.

 

[stut]

So glad I booked my holiday to coincide with the Olympics...

 

[Nym]

So glad we're having these games that is costing the country so much money what not having them could have paid off a significant chunk of the country's national deficit, or gone to pay for some pretty major projected needed outside London, like D2B, HS2, Pacer Replacement, Endless roads and motorway schemes.

 

[Deerfold]

So glad I booked my holiday to coincide with the Olympics...

We were going to but the place in Wales we were going to book has doubled its prices during the games

 

[stut]

We were going to but the place in Wales we were going to book has doubled its prices during the games

I expect there's going to be a lot of that.

I'm going to be heading abroad - and to do so, booked tickets the day they were released so they'd still be cheap. By the end of the day, the cheap tickets had gone Still cheaper than staying at home, though.

 

[Nym]

I expect it's even going to make my life and commute in and out of Manchester a total pain as well...

Actually, when is the stupid waste of money?

 

[swt_passenger]

I notice, in the new South Westerly Trains pocket timetable, there's a little box entitled "Services during the Olympic Games". South West Tains, it says, will run the normal timetable for most of the day during the Games. (Games has a capital letter, as it's the most important thing to happen since the Coronation.) Where possible, it says, trains will run with more coaches than normal to take extra passengers to and from the Games venues.

Then it says, "Sailing at Weymouth and Portland. Trains to and from Weymouth are expected to be Extremely Busy. Spectators for the Sailing Events are recommended to drive to one of the Park & Ride sites for buses to the Spectator Areas".

That's right, please don't use our trains.

*rolleyes*

The spectator areas are nowhere near the station, that's the reason. They aren't going to go sailing off Weymouth beach, more likely off Portland.

There was a good reason for all the infrastructure improvements to allow more trains in the Stratford area, because they have a long term local regeneration benefit. Increasing the power supply to allow longer trains to Weymouth for one week one summer would have been money down the drain...

 

[tsr]

Hang on a second... they want P&R to be implemented... but if everyone is told not to travel by car in the first place - and this is the advice being given out right now - where is the "Park" bit going to come from? Aha! I know! Everyone is going to ignore government transport advice - just like normal - and drive everywhere anyway.

I have an ominous feeling that people won't ditch their old habits. And if they do, how on earth is the transport network going to cope? Plus, take as an example the confusion over the naming and rail connections of Stratford's different stations. For people who post here, transport anomalies and trivia may be fun, but trust me, for most people, they are not.

 

[NSEFAN]

It's a shame that it takes something like the Olympics to force investment in the railways and public transport, when it should be happening anyway. Had London not won the games, I doubt we would be seeing the same level of investment and upgrades that have been taking place over the past few years.

I wonder if SWT will be running any 12 car DMU formations to Weymouth, since too many EMUs would cause the lights in Weymouth to go out! Cross Country are extending some services to Weymouth, and First Great Western might be lengthening trains, but that's all I've heard so far.

 

[swt_passenger]

I wonder if SWT will be running any 12 car DMU formations to Weymouth, since too many EMUs would cause the lights in Weymouth to go out! Cross Country are extending some services to Weymouth, and First Great Western might be lengthening trains, but that's all I've heard so far.

The 2 tph Weymouth service is the Olympics increase, it just came a few years early.

 

[wintonian]

I noticed this the other day, and what's is it with all this "our trains" I thought 'we' gave them to them or the leasing company at least - half of which are owend by the banks - so hang on a mo does that mean 'we' do still own them?

Sent from my HTC Desire S

 

[snail]

I expect it's even going to make my life and commute in and out of Manchester a total pain as well...

How do you come to that conclusion? All Manchester has is a few football games at Old Trafford, it's not like they are aren't used to handling large crowds there.
--- old post above --- --- new post below ---

The spectator areas are nowhere near the station, that's the reason. They aren't going to go sailing off Weymouth beach, more likely off Portland.

Manchester decided to implement park and ride during the Commonwealth Games in 2002. No traffic allowed near the stadium, everyone had to go to designated areas like Heaton Park or use buses from Manchester city centre. Lots of people said it wouldn't work but it went incredibly smoothly.

You still need to get people from the transport hub to the venues - London is relatively well set up for that, elsewhere setting up a park and ride for two weeks is a lot simpler than upgrading trains and stations.

Still, these are the attitudes that make our country what it is...

 

[cle]

I guess we can thank the Olympics for a lot of transport improvements in London, East Lodnon especially - but with no great cause to hammer on about, I wonder what the driving force will be for any future ones.

Hopefully decent economic reasons (as hinted by the regional schemes etc...) rather than tokenism and white elephants.

 

[Schnellzug]

We were going to but the place in Wales we were going to book has doubled its prices during the games

Wales? I suppose they advertise it as " near London", to attract gullible foreigners- I mean, um ...

Maybe they could rename Cardiff Central "London Olympics Parkway", to make a bit more revenue for FGW.

 

[90019]

Maybe they could rename Cardiff Central "London Olympics Parkway", to make a bit more revenue for FGW.

Don't give them ideas!

 

[NSEFAN]

The 2 tph Weymouth service is the Olympics increase, it just came a few years early.

I was refering more to train lengths. As far as I'm aware, it's still not possible to send longer-than 5 car formations to Weymouth without blowing something up, unless the work to allow 2 tph has also fixed this.

I know there has been at least one exception to this (12 car slam door EMU railtour in 2005), but given Desiros need more power to run, train length could be more of an issue now. If this is the case then it would be nice to see a 158/159 formation of some kind be used on some of the busier services.

 

[Schnellzug]

I was refering more to train lengths. As far as I'm aware, it's still not possible to send longer-than 5 car formations to Weymouth without blowing something up, unless the work to allow 2 tph has also fixed this.

I know there has been at least one exception to this (12 car slam door EMU railtour in 2005), but given Desiros need more power to run, train length could be more of an issue now. If this is the case then it would be nice to see a 158/159 formation of some kind be used on some of the busier services.

They have been known to run 10-car 442s in days of yore (I've travelled on at least two), albeit with one unit NFPU. I expect a Desiro would use rather more power than a 442, though, seeing that each carriage is about as heavy as a Tiger tank.

 

[Temple Meads]

I'm planning to maybe do a spot of camping with some mates in darkest Somerset, ignore all to do with the Olympics, or if not, I'll watch them casually, to be honest I can either take them or leave them.

 

[northwichcat]

http://www.southwesttrains.co.uk/Olympics.aspx

 

[swt_passenger]

I was refering more to train lengths. As far as I'm aware, it's still not possible to send longer-than 5 car formations to Weymouth without blowing something up, unless the work to allow 2 tph has also fixed this.

I know there has been at least one exception to this (12 car slam door EMU railtour in 2005), but given Desiros need more power to run, train length could be more of an issue now. If this is the case then it would be nice to see a 158/159 formation of some kind be used on some of the busier services.

Of course there are still power limitations - it is well known that only single units are permitted down there. The sort of expenditure needed to lengthen the trains as well as doubling the frequency was never going to be justifiable for two weeks, and I can't see why this cannot be accepted.

The problem with using DMUs is that the only units available are also needed to strengthen the services into London - where the vast majority of pax will be headed...

 

[Schnellzug]

This would only be an issue if you believed the presposterous estimates of numbers of people who are expected to wish to see the olympic 2012 Sailing Events that the London Organising Committee for the Olympic Games (LOCOG), the Olympic Delivery Authority (ODA), and the idiotic local council fondly imagine. Did you know that, according to someone from one of the above acronyms (perhaps Lord Coe) the other day, they're expecting 60,000 people, not in total, but every day? They honestly imagine that 60,000 people every day are going to want to watch the Olympic 2012 Sailing Events. Wherever do they get these incredible figures from? And apparently, according to someone in the paper the other day, 67% are expected to use the Park & Ryde Facilities, and the remainder to use Public Transport. Again, don't ask me how they came up with that. And according to a story in one of the Magazines recently, Not Work Rail apparently claim that the regular steam specials won't be able to run to Weymouth during the duration of the Olympic 2012 Sailing Events because of lack of paths owing to all the extra services that will run. Someone's lying here.

 

[MrC]

And according to a story in one of the Magazines recently, Not Work Rail apparently claim that the regular steam specials won't be able to run to Weymouth during the duration of the Olympic 2012 Sailing Events because of lack of paths owing to all the extra services that will run. Someone's lying here.

Actually that bit is just common sense. There's the little matter of the single line in the station throat and the need to shunt trains into the Jersey over it to clear platforms. And there are extra services planned over the Bristol route so you're restricted by the single line sections along there (let alone the additional XC services taking paths between Dorch-Moreton). Plus no idiot is going to risk all the plans getting screwed by a special failing somewhere embarrassing or causing a lineside fire.