ruaival
Member
With only 3 days to go it looks like the Buxton Spa Express https://www.railwaytouring.net/bse-14-03-26 is still not showing up in the realtime trains timetable listing; does that suggest it will still (or will not now) run?
-
Our new ticketing site is now live! Using either this or the original site (both powered by TrainSplit) helps support the running of the forum with every ticket purchase! Find out more and ask any questions/give us feedback in this thread!
Buxton Spa Express and realtime trains
- Thread starter ruaival
- Start date
Sponsor Post - registered members do not see these adverts; click here to register, or click here to log in
R
RailUK Forums
Iskra
Established Member
I wouldn’t worry, sometimes they only appear overnight on the day before.
LittleRedTrain
Member
I received an e-mail advertising it just 30 minutes ago, so this suggests it's still running!
There has been a really bad spell lately of confirmed tour timings only being available a day or two before, which is a pain for those of us who need to work out if we can join a railtour by train, or have to spring for a hotel.
There has been a really bad spell lately of confirmed tour timings only being available a day or two before, which is a pain for those of us who need to work out if we can join a railtour by train, or have to spring for a hotel.
Pick up point times are Usually advertised well in advance on the tour information, so all you can do is work out approximate times according to the tour route. Helpful to consult railway herald railtour site which gives detailed information
LittleRedTrain
Member
In my experience, the times suggested by tour operators are often massively optimistic, with far later departures and far earlier finishes than end up being confirmed.
The only exceptions tend to be regular itineraries (e.g. Cumbrian Mountain Express from Euston), where there's a regular path that's almost always used.
Sadly if you book a railtour ticket based on the approximate times and they then change wildly, you've got zero recompense or right to refund if you can no longer reach the tour by public transport.
Incidentally, back to the original thread, the RTC page for this tour shows 'Confirmed' rather than 'Approximate' timings, even though they aren't yet in RTT, so can presumably be taken as accurate.
== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: ==
Times now on RTT:
Realtime Trains | Departures from Buxton all day on 14/03/2026
Train information at Buxton all day on 14/03/2026. From Realtime Trains, an independent source of train running info for Great Britain.
www.realtimetrains.co.uk
Last edited:
Jamesrob637
Established Member
- Joined
- 12 Aug 2016
- Messages
- 6,057
If anybody wants a video of this train, they're more than welcome to see mine if they DM me (can't share it here as it's a minute long so a large file!)
WTT Gremlin
Member
Timings showing or not on RTT on its own is suggestive of purely whether the paths appear on RTT. There are many different reasons why some/all timings may or may not be visible.
Charter promoters have their own norms about communicating with ticket holders regarding confirmed times. Plus the only public with a ‘need’ to know confirmed timings are those who have brought tickets.
‘Sadly’? A) Someone would have been aware that the timings could change, and B) Why is the charter promoter responsible for a passenger being able to reach their choice of pick up location by public transport?
LittleRedTrain
Member
Sadly for me because it means I cannot do some of the railtours I would like to do. I won't risk booking if I don't know I'll be able to get to them and I'll end up losing my money or having to pay for a last minute hotel!
Sadly for the tour promoter because they then don't get my money!
If the tour promoters were given confirmed times weeks rather than days ahead, it wouldn't be an issue!
Sadly for the tour promoter because they then don't get my money!
If the tour promoters were given confirmed times weeks rather than days ahead, it wouldn't be an issue!
I no longer do tours where a hotel stay is going to be likely. Fortunately I'm in quite a central location so I still have a good choice available. Birmingham, the Birmingham-Bristol line, Welsh Marches line etc. All readily accessible for me. I tend to look at the approximate times and work on the basis of the pickup time being an hour earlier and the set down time being an hour later. Diesel tours are often on RTT well in advance. There's one in May I'm doing which has been on RTT for two weeks already.
WTT Gremlin
Member
Normal timeframes are weeks not days, but there are various factors which can impact when a complete set of timings are finalised, when those timings reach operator/promoter, or when they might appear on sites like RTT. (These are not be in chronological order for all cases)
Obviously if you know the solution to ensure that no timetable decision would ever get down from weeks to days, then I am sure the whole industry would be interested.
LittleRedTrain
Member
This didn't used to be a problem in the days when tour timings and tickets had to be sent out to passengers by snail-mail, so had to be confirmed well in advance rather than sent via e-mail a day or two before.
Therefore it strikes me that this is the usual situation, train planning departments which have been under-resourced, under-funded and (where multiple organisations are involved), fragmented. Hard working people up against tight deadlines and charters end up at the bottom of the pile.
I'd love this to be improved under GBR, but imagine it probably won't be as the government tries to cut everything to the bone.
Therefore it strikes me that this is the usual situation, train planning departments which have been under-resourced, under-funded and (where multiple organisations are involved), fragmented. Hard working people up against tight deadlines and charters end up at the bottom of the pile.
I'd love this to be improved under GBR, but imagine it probably won't be as the government tries to cut everything to the bone.
Keet
Member
Looks like this is running again on 16th May.
Already listed on rtt as 1Z66 and 1Z68.
Already listed on rtt as 1Z66 and 1Z68.
norbitonflyer
Established Member
Times are sometimes published late to discourage irresponsible lineside behaviour.
Spartacus
Established Member
- Joined
- 25 Aug 2009
- Messages
- 3,809
You still used to get tickets sent out sometimes with estimated timings, and you'd give a number to call when booking for if there were any last minute alterations.
Trouble I've found, and I used to be involved with planning them, is you'd often get totally useless bids from the operators, trying to do moves that are physically impossible, either for the train or in the case of steam support work like tankers (wanting hoses dragged across running lines for watering is not unknown!), sometimes through booked possessions, and with timings that sometimes are impossible even with no other traffic on the line, let alone trying to weave in and out of existing services.
The number that could have been, and sometimes should have been, rejected outright was quite high, but out of principle we didn't, but bids were meant to essentially work already when submitted to Network Rail, but too often we got guesstimates, which obviously take much longer to deal with, then when what you send back looks nothing like the original impossible bid, you start getting to and fro 'negations'; "can we do this instead; can we change the start time; the finish time's too late, but we still want 3 hours at the destination, no still no good; but what if we went this way instead; oh we've had lots of bookings, we need to add more coaches; we need to plan for a different loco....." all resulting in alteration after alteration, after alteration, so it gets later and later sending out the final timings.