Changing platforms at Wolverhampton Station

[SteveP29]

Not sure if I've put this in the correct subforum but here goes.

Going on holiday to Weymouth in July.
Partner's daughter has a newborn, he'll be 5 months old when we go, she wants to avoid London and the tube, or else we'd have gone Edinburgh to Kings Cross and Waterloo to Weymouth.
Were booked to go via Wolverhampton and Bournemouth (only 15 or so minutes longer than the London route)
We only have about 9 minutes between trains at Wolverhampton (Virgin WC & XC) so my question, being that there are 6 platforms at Wolverhampton (according to NRE) are there specific platforms those TOC's use and are we likely to have to go over the bridge to get to our next train.
Thanks for any help you can offer.

 

[daikilo]

Not sure if I've put this in the correct subforum but here goes.

Going on holiday to Weymouth in July.
Partner's daughter has a newborn, he'll be 5 months old when we go, she wants to avoid London and the tube, or else we'd have gone Edinburgh to Kings Cross and Waterloo to Weymouth.
Were booked to go via Wolverhampton and Bournemouth (only 15 or so minutes longer than the London route)
We only have about 9 minutes between trains at Wolverhampton (Virgin WC & XC) so my question, being that there are 6 platforms at Wolverhampton (according to NRE) are there specific platforms those TOC's use and are we likely to have to go over the bridge to get to our next train.
Thanks for any help you can offer.

Trains have booked platforms which vary during the day and also depending on traffic. I recommend you go on National Rail enquiries and specify the journey you plan to take with the actual departure time.
http://ojp.nationalrail.co.uk/service/planjourney/search
If you go into the details for that journey it will give you the platfroms at Wolverhampton. If you get 2 & 3 it is cross-platform, if you get 4 on either then it is over the bridge, but there are lifts behind the stairs.

Note: if you specify Edinburgh to say Oxford you will get fewer choices making it easier to find the right trains.

 

[Bill EWS]

I often change at Wolverhampton when going up to Edinburgh (For Aberdeen) and the Edinburgh train usually comes in at the same platform I got off. Likewise.

last week I changed at Wolverhampton for Oxford when travelling down from Glasgow and the Bournemouth train arrived on the opposite side of the island platform I arrived on.

I have only once had difficulties when changing trains at Wolverhampton and that was a sudden change of platform and didn't get over the other side in time to catch my connection.

Another connection that has always worked well is changing at York for a cross country train to Oxford when traveling from Aberdeen. Again the connection arrives at the same platform, usually platform three.

 

[xotGD]

I often change at Wolverhampton when going up to Edinburgh (For Aberdeen) and the Edinburgh train usually comes in at the same platform I got off. Likewise.

last week I changed at Wolverhampton for Oxford when travelling down from Glasgow and the Bournemouth train arrived on the opposite side of the island platform I arrived on.

I have only once had difficulties when changing trains at Wolverhampton and that was a sudden change of platform and didn't get over the other side in time to catch my connection.

Another connection that has always worked well is changing at York for a cross country train to Oxford when traveling from Aberdeen. Again the connection arrives at the same platform, usually platform three.

On the East Coast mainline you would be much better off changing at Darlington where it will definitely be the same platform whereas at York you may have to cross the bridge.

 

[takno]

Most of these are booked for the Edinburgh train to come in on 2 and the Bournemouth train to go from 3, which is cross platform. The fact that the Edinburgh train sits around at Wolverhampton and gets overtaken by the Bournemouth one does seem to mean that the Edinburgh one is often a couple of minutes down (https://traksy.uk/live/M+10+WVRMPTN/S+P52442+2017-03-31/P+P52442 shows 9M50 being late at Wolverhampton about 40% of the time), but unless the Edinburgh is really late the Bournemouth train will be following it down from Stafford, so you'll definitely make a cross platform interchange.

The only thing that could mess it up is the Edinburgh train being more than 10 late by Crewe, or if the Bournemouth train is right behind it *and* one of the trains ends up in Platform 4, which would involve a jog up the platform to the new bridge and back down to mid-platform where the train will have stopped. I could do that in around 80 seconds, but I'd want 3-5 minutes to do it with toddlers or a pushchair. That's pretty unlikely though, and if it does happen the Bournemouth trains are hourly anyway.

 

[SteveP29]

Thanks for all your help everyone.

Should have probably said we're on AP tickets, so only allowed on booked trains as you all know.

Reassuring to know that it will probably just be a 10 second walk to the adjacent platform, never having been to Wolverhampton station before, I'm completely unaware of the layout, where the departure boards are etc so that I could at least know exactly where to look once we were all off the train from Edinburgh.

I do have the East Coast Live Trains app, which is great when I'm travelling from Edinburgh to home, I know which platform my train will arrive into at Newcastle and which one I need to head to for my connection. Unfortunately, it doesn't cover Wolverhampton (obvious really, with it not being on the East Coast), but West Coast don't have an equivalent app

Perhaps I'm panicking unnecessarily as the online booking system wouldn't have allowed me to book that journey if there weren't enough time between trains to make the change

 

[ac6000cw]

I do have the East Coast Live Trains app, which is great when I'm travelling from Edinburgh to home, I know which platform my train will arrive into at Newcastle and which one I need to head to for my connection. Unfortunately, it doesn't cover Wolverhampton (obvious really, with it not being on the East Coast), but West Coast don't have an equivalent app

Put the 'National Rail' app on your phone (http://www.nationalrail.co.uk/times_fares/84874.aspx) - that covers everywhere, and the 'Live Trains' section will show you the platform numbers in real time (if you keep refreshing it as you get close to Wolverhampton).

 

[takno]

Perhaps I'm panicking unnecessarily as the online booking system wouldn't have allowed me to book that journey if there weren't enough time between trains to make the change

It should be a 9 minute change. If you try to make the change but can't due to the incoming train being late there shouldn't be an issue using a later one, especially if it's a through ticket (although you won't have reserved seats). Staff at Wolverhampton will be able to give you guidance on that if it happens.

 

[SteveP29]

Well, that turned out well, didn't it....NOT
We had to pick a day to travel south when a number of northbound trains were running late, taking all of the drivers over their working time.
Sat at Preston for 45 minutes before being told the train was cancelled, moved to the next train, sat on that one for 25 minutes before being told that was cancelled too.
Told to move platforms and await the next southbound train, which came into another platform, necessitating a panic to get to the train, ended up standing in the bike storage area at the rear of the train with our luggage as there were no seats and the carriage was all standing.
Had to leave that train at Crewe as the next stop for the one we were on was Euston.
Had to take the next train to Wolverhampton, to catch our connection to Bournemouth.
Eventually arrived in Weymouth 4 hours late.
Delay repay for all £449 of our fare submitted.