TfW Sunday service enhancements

Some years ago, TfW agreed new working arrangements with their trades unions to make Sunday a rostered working day rather than relying on staff volunteering to work Sundays. This allows more services to be operated on a Sunday, and we have seen some improvements. For example, the Rhymney and Penarth lines near Cardiff used to have a once-every-two-hour service and now both have hourly services. The Coryton branch used not to have trains on Sundays at all, and now has an hourly service.

However, the Sunday service is still noticably worse than the Saturday service, and there are still a lot of stations closed on Sundays.

Are there any Sunday enhancements in the pipeline that you know of? What enhancements would you like to see?

For my part, I'd like the Penarth service to finish later on a Sunday. At the moment the last train to Penarth leaves Central at 2135, and does so one minute before the hourly train arrives from London, meaning that the effective last train from London leaves Paddington at 1845. (When I used to do this regularly I used to arrive too late for the Penarth train and take a bus or taxi instead). A more frequent service on a Sunday would be nice too - one timetable consultation a while back did suggest that the Metro scheme aims for 2tph on a Sunday.

No Sunday enhancements on the north Wales coast, still only one train per hour for the vast majority of the day west of Chester…

Cheltenham route only two hourly, and XC don't provide additionals at the likes of Chepstow on Sundays either.

I presume even though some demand is there, it isn't considered enough to warrant the additional costs, plus rolling stock and infrastructure needs maintaining at some time.

WG/TfW have ambitions but are no more awash with cash than DfT.

MikePJ said:

However, the Sunday service is still noticably worse than the Saturday service, and there are still a lot of stations closed on Sundays.

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Which stations are closed on Sundays?

MikePJ said:

Some years ago, TfW agreed new working arrangements with their trades unions to make Sunday a rostered working day rather than relying on staff volunteering to work Sundays.

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There is lies the issue. Recruitment to current staff levels have allowed the current Sunday timetable to be worked, with very little reliance on overtime. And to be fair to TFW, their Sunday service is much more reliable than most other TOC's. Their long distance services can be very busy on Sunday, but is there sufficient demand for local services?

One thing I have noticed is that when there are big events on a Sunday, especially in Cardiff, the capacity and service levels really struggle to cope with the extra volumes.

Caaardiff said:

Which stations are closed on Sundays?

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Swanline doesn't run on Sundays, so stations like Briton Ferry have no Sunday service.

MikePJ said:

Swanline doesn't run on Sundays, so stations like Briton Ferry have no Sunday service.

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Only pyle gets a Sunday service out of the swanline stations and infact probably getts a better service than it does on weekdays.

I do think a sunday service is needed on swanline