all the parliamentary services

[ess]

i know there's the stockport to stalybridge 0922 fridays only service and another which goes via shepherd's bush (can't remember the times of that one) but what other parliamentary services are there?

 

[A-driver]

Not sure if they still run it and positive it is pretty much empty but noorwood depot used to have a job on Fridays I believe that went via shepards bush from Ealing broadway to wands worth road then ECS to London bridge.

Do they still run one from Runcorn to Chester or something like that?

 

[Sceptre]

Not sure if they still run it and positive it is pretty much empty but noorwood depot used to have a job on Fridays I believe that went via shepards bush from Ealing broadway to wands worth road then ECS to London bridge.

Do they still run one from Runcorn to Chester or something like that?

Which, I believe, is an extension of the Kenny O to Wandsworth Road parliamentary service to use the Latchmere Curve.

 

[trentside]

In Lincolnshire, the line through Gainsborough Central, Kirton Lindsey and Brigg only has three trains per week (between Sheffield and Cleethorpes), all of which run on a Saturday. The rest of the week the line only sees freight trains.

 

[ainsworth74]

Wiki has a good list of trains here.

 

[swt_passenger]

Not sure if they still run it and positive it is pretty much empty but noorwood depot used to have a job on Fridays I believe that went via shepards bush from Ealing broadway to wands worth road then ECS to London bridge.

I don't believe it ever ran to Ealing Broadway in passenger service, due to some issue or other on the GW. The southern part of the route (Wandsworth Road - Shepherds Bush) ran daily in the last timetable IIRC, using a unit from the SN WLL peak extra services that would otherwise have been running ECS to/from Selhurst in between the peaks.

The northern part is a 'secret' bus service still I think...

 

[tbtc]

There are a lot of things which get confused as "parliamentary".

Infrequent services (but more than one a week)
Oddly diverted routes (e.g. XC running via Rotherham for staff training/ retention)
TOCs doing the bare minimum in their franchise specification

...but on the other hand there are some "parliamentary" services that you might not realise from reading timetables (e.g. the Northern service from Retford (High Level) to Sheffield.

 

[Xenophon PCDGS]

There is the Summer Saturdays only service leaving Chester at 0753 to Runcorn....and there are complaints as to the starting date on another thread:roll:

 

[Striker]

TOCs doing the bare minimum in their franchise specification

Is that not a parliamentary service?

 

[AlterEgo]

Not strictly - a parliamentary service is a service over a part of track that would otherwise need to be closed, with significant costs to do so.

 

[A-driver]

The shepards bush to wands worth road still runs I think in the evening. They take a 455 via the 3 hills and then run it in service back to wands worth road. Don't sign the west London so not sure if it gets busy or not. The Ealing did run but may have been empties. Was to keep the line open after virgin pulled their services.

Will have a look at noorwoods diagrams next time I'm at Selhurst and see if they still have those jobs.

 

[rail-britain]

Has Norton Bridge been formally closed?

 

[Xenophon PCDGS]

Has Norton Bridge been formally closed?

It is strange to see this station mentioned, as on another thread recently, an example of an evening only train in the 1981/2 British Rail timetable had one evening service from Altrincham, stopping at ALL stations to Stafford, with sole exception of Norton Bridge. It was not popular even in those days.

 

[Shaggy]

Not quite a parliamentary service but i actually used to commute daily from Carnoustie into Dundee and for a couple of years i used to return at night from Dundee to Golf Street.

The service was so underused (I was mainly the only passenger, certainly beyond Broughty Ferry) that it was often cancelled and i was given a taxi ride to my house instead!

 

[thefab444]

The Wandsworth - WLL service is the same as the previous timetable:

1004 KPA - WWR
1612 WWR - KPA

Although when I used the former service last week, it was hidden from the departure boards at Olympia! Apart from me and a friend, there was nobody else on the train.

 

[Eagle]

A good one is the last train from Newcastle to Southampton Central. Nonstop between Basingstoke and Southampton, and yet it still manages to get overtaken by the following Manchester-Bournemouth, which stops at Winchester and the Airport and should theoretically be about half an hour behind.

The reason? The NWC-SOU is going via the Salisbury junctions. Deviation of about 25 miles. If it stopped at, say, Andover or Romsey then I guess you could say it's for parly/franchise reasons, but being as it's nonstop on a route that's much slower than usual, I can't see why on earth XC would want to run it this way.

 

[Liam]

A good one is the last train from Newcastle to Southampton Central. Nonstop between Basingstoke and Southampton, and yet it still manages to get overtaken by the following Manchester-Bournemouth, which stops at Winchester and the Airport and should theoretically be about half an hour behind.

The reason? The NWC-SOU is going via the Salisbury junctions. Deviation of about 25 miles. If it stopped at, say, Andover or Romsey then I guess you could say it's for parly/franchise reasons, but being as it's nonstop on a route that's much slower than usual, I can't see why on earth XC would want to run it this way.

Driver training?

Sounds similar to the early morning XC Edinburgh-Dundee service, which went the long way around the Fife Circle, missing out Kirkcaldy, probably the only place there might be a few passengers. This runs as ECS now, not sure which way it goes.

 

[Eagle]

Driver training?

Sounds similar to the early morning XC Edinburgh-Dundee service, which went the long way around the Fife Circle, missing out Kirkcaldy, probably the only place there might be a few passengers. This runs as ECS now, not sure which way it goes.

Makes sense. If you actually sit down and look at it XC have a surprising number of weirdly-routed services (Laverstoke, Camp Down line, Galton Junction, the Crewe-Stoke line, through Rotherham, wrong way round at Newcastle, via Lichfield... the list goes on). I guess with the most route miles they must have the most diversionary routes too.

 

[tbtc]

Makes sense. If you actually sit down and look at it XC have a surprising number of weirdly-routed services (Laverstoke, Camp Down line, Galton Junction, the Crewe-Stoke line, through Rotherham, wrong way round at Newcastle, via Lichfield... the list goes on). I guess with the most route miles they must have the most diversionary routes too.

Also the route through Beighton from Sheffield to Chesterfield (which Northern run "driver training" routes on too).

One which people may not appreciate is the West Highland Sleeper which is the only scheduled passenger service over a couple of chords around Glasgow (can't remember for sure, but I think one of them is from the Cumbernauld line to the Anniesland line north of Queen Street station)