Amaze fellow passengers...

[Bodie]

Hello,

I was at Wigan North Western a few days ago and was waiting for a train to Preston. At that time (1830-1900) there are many to choose from.
I wanting a Pendolino ride let the 1831 to Blackpool North in the hands of a Class 156 go and also the late running 1838 to Glasgow Central which was a 221.

Anyhow to pass the time I checked the timetables on the station to see how much time the 1838 would make up on the 1831. To my delight the 1838 takes 13 minutes while the 1831 is timed to do the run in 23 minutes having called at Euxton Balshaw Lane and Leyland in between.

I missed the chance to have some fun because as I say the 1838 was running some five minutes late.

However it did cross my mind that you could if both trains were on time, amaze some unsuspecting members of the general public.

Just pick a random person who is getting the 1831 and check that they are not getting off before Preston then say something when they ask why along the lines of 'I'll see you in Preston' or 'Meet you in Preston'

Then stand on the platform in sight just so they know your not getting on. Some may choose to wave off their unsuspecting quarry.

Then board the 1838 and the three minutes you have in hand at Preston are more then enough to get over to the platform for the soon to arrive 1831.
Wait at the door for quarry to get off and watch their little mind blow up!!!

Has anyone done this???

Also how rare is this, I suspect that up and down the country it's fairly common. What with stopper trains and express trains on the same route.

Bodie

 

[David Goddard]

Happens all the time, particularly on suburban routes.
Ever wondered why at Kings Cross there are trains to Foxton at xx06?
These trains dont terminate at Foxton of course, they go to Cambridge
They get overtaken by the xx15 non stop service to Cambridge, which gets there 26 mins earlier!

Same goes on the Great Western-
At Paddington you will see trains at xx27 to Radley- these go to Oxford but there is a faster train at xx50, so the stopper is only listed as Radley.
Likewise at Reading the Paddington stoppers are marked as Ealing Broadway, so people going to Paddington can ignore these and take a faster non stop/Slough only train

 

[EM2]

St Pancras has the 19:30 and 19:55 to Leeds, and for Sheffield, Wakefield Westgate and Leeds, it is at least twenty minutes quicker to wait and take the 55, as the 30 goes via Nottingham.

 

[Polarbear]

In years gone by, the through trains from London to Chester used to change loco's at Crewe which normally took about 10 minutes. My party trick was to get off at Crewe having travelled from London - leg it to the chippy outside the station, get a sausage dinner (or similar), then rejoin the train, sitting in exactly the same seat as I had been in on the Euston-Crewe leg.

Always amused me to see the perplexed faces of some of the other travellers as to them, this dinner seemed to appear out of nowhere!

 

[DarloRich]

Has anyone done this???

No

Also how rare is this, I suspect that up and down the country it's fairly common. What with stopper trains and express trains on the same route.

York to Leeds trains via Harrogate are not shown as going to Burley Park as it is quicker to get to Leeds via Garforth.

 

[NSE]

Happens all the time, particularly on suburban routes.
Ever wondered why at Kings Cross there are trains to Foxton at xx06?
These trains dont terminate at Foxton of course, they go to Cambridge
They get overtaken by the xx15 non stop service to Cambridge, which gets there 26 mins earlier!

I'm familiar with this, but as a regular traveller on this line, I've wondered why the slow Peterborough train is labelled as Peterborough. With the 3 East Coast departures an hour surely passengers would get there quicker by waiting? I thought It'd be more logical to have that one labelled up on the boards as Huntingdon.

 

[calc7]

I'm familiar with this, but as a regular traveller on this line, I've wondered why the slow Peterborough train is labelled as Peterborough. With the 3 East Coast departures an hour surely passengers would get there quicker by waiting? I thought It'd be more logical to have that one labelled up on the boards as Huntingdon.

Existence of route FCC Only fares perhaps?
"I can see lots of First Capital Connect trains but none of them are going to Peterborough!!!"

 

[trentside]

Bill Bryson describes a game you can play with someone unfamiliar with London and the Underground system in Notes from a Small Island - for example two stations a couple of minutes walk apart that require at least one change of trains. While the person is doing this you have time to get a coffee and do some shopping. I haven't got a copy of the book to hand, but he suggests some examples.

 

[calc7]

Bill Bryson describes a game you can play with someone unfamiliar with London and the Underground system in Notes from a Small Island - for example two stations a couple of minutes walk apart that require at least one change of trains. While the person is doing this you have time to get a coffee and do some shopping. I haven't got a copy of the book to hand, but he suggests some examples.

Warren Street to Euston Square - enough time to get a coffee, visit a friend in hospital and get a book out of the UCL library.

 

[HSTEd]

I often walk from King's Cross to Euston square if I am going to get the subsurface lines to somewhere since the ticket office normally has no queue at the latter.

Unfortunately once I somehow walked to Warren Strret instead

 

[Crossover]

I have never done it but I would quite like to do it on our local line.

People for Huddersfield from Dewsbury may jump on the xx:01 Northern service to Huddersfield. Meanwhile I will wait for the xx:06 TPE service to Manchester Airport, overtake the stopper round Mirfield and arrive in Huddersfield about 5 minutes before the stopper

I seem to recall from the GMPTE challenge that there is a similar situation from Salford to Wigan Wallgate (but in that case, the two services take two different routes)

 

[gnolife]

One of my tricks with my friends going from Bolton to Altrincham is

They all buy S1 Train+Metrolink day savers, I buy a GM Day Ranger
We take the 13:56 service from Bolton (bound for Hazel Grove), which gets to Piccadilly at 14:18. This is just after the Chester via Altrincham departs at 14:17. They go running down to the Met platforms, I go running to platform 6 for the 14:20 to Cleethorpes, bailing at Stockport at 14:28, which gives me just enough time to make the 14:30 to Chester, which gets to Altrincham at 14:45, which gives me time to get some food before their Met gets in. Cue baffled faces when they do eventually turn up.

 

[Lampshade]

Going to Blackpool North from Preston the xx38 TPE often arrives a minute or two before the xx34 ex-York Northern service, giving you enough time to alight, cross to platform 1 and arrive in Blackpool 10 minutes earlier.

 

[LNW-GW Joint]

It can work the other way, if you try to be too clever.
Heading to Chester from Birmingham last week I boarded the 1920 VT 221 to Glasgow, and then realised the previous 1901 LM 350 to Crewe was running late so I swapped trains and we left at 1910.
It began to unravel immediately as they had let the 323 local in front of us, so crawled to Wolverhampton.
And then true to the way they have regulated this line since the 60s, we were turned slow line from Stafford (forcing a late train to be even later), so I had to watch the Voyager steaming past us on the fast near Whitmore.
Luckily we still made the local to Chester, otherwise a fuming half-hour wait at Crewe would have been in order.

 

[Lampshade]

It can work the other way, if you try to be too clever.

Most of my wild risks have involved buses to try and catch a service on a different line - usually resulting in a 57 minute wait :roll:

I've seen the xx47 from Preston - Manchester Airport delayed a few times and immediately gone for the xx49 - which got held at Euxton Junction to allow the xx47 past

 

[merlodlliw]

In years gone by, the through trains from London to Chester used to change loco's at Crewe which normally took about 10 minutes. My party trick was to get off at Crewe having travelled from London - leg it to the chippy outside the station, get a sausage dinner (or similar), then rejoin the train, sitting in exactly the same seat as I had been in on the Euston-Crewe leg.

Always amused me to see the perplexed faces of some of the other travellers as to them, this dinner seemed to appear out of nowhere!

I think it was the 1725 HST Euston to Holyhead, which called at Rugby and was overtaken there by a Liverpool or Glasgow ex Euston 1730 which arrived in Crewe about 15 minutes earlier, I often used this later train having seen friends at Euston depart at 1725,sometimes If the connection was right I hit Chester 20 mins sooner than the HST. Often wives meeting hubby off the 1725 reported me arriving 20 minutes earlier. Of course ticketing was different 20 years ago

 

[Peter Mugridge]

The xx.12 from Epsom to Victoria gets to Clapham Junction and Victoria a few minutes ahead of the xx.04 service; the latter is an all stops via West Croydon; the former runs fast from Sutton to Clapham Jct via Mitcham Jct.

This is a very good pattern for playing leapfrog because many people don't believe the later train is quicker...

 

[btcc fan]

When travelling to Southbourne travelling Virgin to Euston, then SWT to Havant where I changed to Southern I once saw the same XC train pass through Havant as the one I had seen leave Manchester 10 minutes before mine to Euston.

It was on a Sunday when the XC trains From Manchester to Bournemouth where getting diverted via Guildford and Havant.

 

[Rick1984]

The portsmouth harbour direct line fast service overtakes the slow service at havant (i think) and they actually tell you to get off the slow train and change to the fast one. Done this a couple of times.

 

[Eagle]

Has anyone done this???

I've done the pedestrian version of it.

The other week, spotted a pair of confused tourists at the Market Street entrance of Edinburgh Waverley, wondering how they were supposed to get to the bus stops on North Bridge which were currently 10 metres above their heads. So I directed them up the steps of Fleshmarket Close, which is the obvious way to ascend but means you end up on High Street and have to double back along North Bridge to get to the bus stops.

Meanwhile, I took a leisurely stroll up the spiral staircase inside the Scotsman Hotel, which takes you directly upwards to bridge level, and beat them by over a minute to their bus stand. The look on their faces

 

[yorkie]

You could beat someone on a Coryton - Radyr train (example) by walking slowly between the two stations. I doubt many people do the through journey though. There are many routes where you could take a fast train for part of the route and get an earlier train on the slower route e.g. if doing Westminster to Stanmore, you'd change at Finchley Road and Wembley Park and get on at least the train before yours, if not two trains ahead.

 

[317666]

The District and Piccadilly lines run parallel on their own pairs of tracks between Acton Town and Barons Court, we were on a Piccadilly line train which stopped at Hammersmith and a District line train pulled up alongside - we decided to run over to it, for one stop to Barons Court, then jumped back on the same Piccadilly line train there. The faces of some of the passengers was priceless

 

[Squaddie]

The other week, spotted a pair of confused tourists at the Market Street entrance of Edinburgh Waverley... I directed them up the steps of Fleshmarket Close, which means you have to double back along North Bridge.

Meanwhile, I took a leisurely stroll up the spiral staircase inside the Scotsman Hotel and beat them by over a minute to their bus stand. The look on their faces

They were probably wondering why you deliberately sent them the wrong way for the fun of it.

 

[snail]

I've seen the xx47 from Preston - Manchester Airport delayed a few times and immediately gone for the xx49 - which got held at Euxton Junction to allow the xx47 past

Ah, so you fall for that one as well!!

 

[OxtedL]

Anywhere south of Stockwell on the Northern Line to anywhere north of Euston can be reduced by something like 5 minutes using the Victoria line, and that's with pessimistic interchange times for the Vic...

 

[317666]

Another thing I've done whilst travelling to Sheffield to buy a rover ticket, and my first move of that rover ticket was to Manchester Piccadilly. I had to get an EMT 158 from Ely to Peterborough. I then got a 91 up to Doncaster and a Northern 158 to Sheffield. After buying my rover, my train to Manchester was the exact same 158 and service that I had caught from Ely to Peterborough! Pity it wasn't the same crew!

 

[reb0118]

I've done the pedestrian version of it.

The other week, spotted a pair of confused tourists at the Market Street entrance of Edinburgh Waverley, wondering how they were supposed to get to the bus stops on North Bridge which were currently 10 metres above their heads. So I directed them up the steps of Fleshmarket Close, which is the obvious way to ascend but means you end up on High Street and have to double back along North Bridge to get to the bus stops.

Meanwhile, I took a leisurely stroll up the spiral staircase inside the Scotsman Hotel, which takes you directly upwards to bridge level, and beat them by over a minute to their bus stand. The look on their faces

They were probably wondering why you deliberately sent them the wrong way for the fun of it.

Yes, I can see that too. However, to be fare to Eagle, I wouldn't send tourists up the "Stinky Stairs" either (have you seen Trainspotting?). They absolutely reek of pish and there is normally a wee drinking school at their foot! Saying that the Fleshmarket Close is not much better - there are usually a few jaikies haunting the disused doorways on the left - sometimes they leave wee messages to mark their territory if you get my drift (& I hope you don't!) - on the plus side, however, you can "break your journey*" at the Half Way Hoose, Ginglin' Geordie's, & the Scotsman enroute!



*Unless of course Eagle has given you Advance directions & you will have to stick religeously to the itenerary provided

 

[transmanche]

*Unless of course Eagle has given you Advance directions & you will have to stick religeously to the itenerary provided

Oh why isn't there a :like: button...?

 

[AeroSpace]

Don't forget Birmingham to Glasgow via Cross Country.

Or, catch the 0710 Gloucester - Stansted Airport, bail at Cheltenham and get the 0730 to London Padd arriving 0939, then the 1015 from King's Cross to Cambridge arriving 1101, just in time to rejoin the original train at 1110!

 

[90019]

They were probably wondering why you deliberately sent them the wrong way for the fun of it.

Because it can be awkward trying to explain to some tourists about the stairs up the side of the Scotsman, and that it's not just the way into the building itself.