If that was a response to my post, then I shall be clearer. Boxing Day has been a Bank Holiday in Scotland since the passing of the Banking and Financial Dealings Act 1971. The specific dates if not listed in the legislation are made by royal proclamation. Here is the one for 2021:
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Christmas engineering works - can we do without them?
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If that was a response to my post, then I shall be clearer. Boxing Day has been a Bank Holiday in Scotland since the passing of the Banking and Financial Dealings Act 1971. The specific dates if not listed in the legislation are made by royal proclamation. Here is the one for 2021:
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Whistler40145
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Any idea why the drainage and other engineering work between Milton Keynes Central and Rugby are taking place in January and not over Christmas?
Aren't there ECML works happening over Christmas? (See above about not closing both main routes to Scotland).
Whistler40145
Established Member
Considering a majority of trains might not be running due to staff absence, it might have already seen a reduction in passengers wishing to travel
Whistler40145
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Who?
The Planner
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Lowest passenger and revenue hit in January. Remember these were planned prior to the latest issues. Its actually cut back from what it originally was.
Crun
Member
Does anyone know what they are doing and where as mentioned in this Peterborough Telegraph article?
Points upgrades to take place at Peterborough train station this Christmas
https://www.peterboroughtoday.co.uk...rborough-train-station-this-christmas-3501506
Points upgrades to take place at Peterborough train station this Christmas
https://www.peterboroughtoday.co.uk...rborough-train-station-this-christmas-3501506
Deafdoggie
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It's funny how everyone says it's the quietest time for travel on the trains at Christmas. Yet, for the roads it's the busiest time.
Either the railways don't have the faintest idea about travel demand or people really, really hate travelling by train.
I appreciate there are other reasons why engineering works take place at Christmas but I don't think it's because its the time of year no-one travels.
Either the railways don't have the faintest idea about travel demand or people really, really hate travelling by train.
I appreciate there are other reasons why engineering works take place at Christmas but I don't think it's because its the time of year no-one travels.
It's funny how "the railway" is simultaneously driven by nothing but the profit motive and also completely clueless about demand.
That won't happen as the majority of attendees are either local, or come by car. Business meetings happen when the business wants them. Those coming by train, apart from meetings in central London, are seen as something of an outlier, or even cause comments about having lost your driving licence.
Annetts key
Established Member
You do know that the ticket selling outlets have computers that can count, don’t you?
The reason for lower passenger numbers is because there are less commuters, due to people having time off from work.
You could have made the argument that you can’t sell tickets for trains that don’t exist, as leisure travellers normally make sure that a train is scheduled before booking. And if there is engineering work, there won’t be a scheduled train service. But you didn’t…
apples and oranges.
the roads are very busy in the run up to Christmas, as people travel long distance to see family and friends. (Although, oddly, not tonight). So are long distance trains (Which are busy tonight).
the roads are not busy on Christmas Day, not particularly so on Boxing Day, and are certainly not busy on commuter routes into the major cities at peak times, right through to the first working day of new year. Neither are the railways.
On any given weekday I can go to the main road near my house at 0800 and observe a 1-2 mile queue of traffic heading into my city. I can guarantee that on any day for the next 11 days at 0800 there will be no queue at all. QED it is not the busiest time of the year on the roads.
I'd guess it depends on the days, it is busy in the run up and afterwards, but I'd expect travel on Christmas Day and Boxing Day is generally light. Plus of course the railways are, or were, focused around commuters which drop away over the holiday period.
That said, there is something of a tension between arguing that people should try to use public transport and that rail is an essential service, to then say that it's ok to close bits of it over a key holiday period.
Probably more of the later because the public transport at either end won't be great either at this time of year, so if you've got a car then that's the better option.
Deafdoggie
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Roads are very busy on Boxing Day as people head off to the sales to buy the 52" TV they didn't get on Black Friday!
I did make the point that travel demands are not the only reason engineering works are done at Christmas. But as rail sees demand shift from commuter to leisure it maybe worth looking at if it is the right time still.
Ticket selling companies can indeed count tickets and the Highway Agency can count cars. They say it's the busiest time of year for travel.
I did make the point that travel demands are not the only reason engineering works are done at Christmas. But as rail sees demand shift from commuter to leisure it maybe worth looking at if it is the right time still.
“they” don’t.
“They” say that the run up to Christmas - for the getaway - is the busiest time of the year. From Christmas Day onwards - it’s not busy on the roads.
Less so when the 27th and 28th are public holidays (and trains are running BTW) - but in any case, people generally travel to their local out-of-town shopping centre/IKEA (other retailers are available) rather than halfway across the country.
As I said in an earlier post, we used to travel from Edinburgh to Derby between Christmas and New Year. The trains were rammed. And lots of Scots emigrants and their friends travel north for Hogmanay.
It's commuting that's absent. Unfortunately long distance and commuting often share the same tracks.
It's commuting that's absent. Unfortunately long distance and commuting often share the same tracks.
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The Planner
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Their eyes will glaze over at the detail.
ExRes
Established Member
Perhaps a lot of people wish to visit multiple family members and friends in multiple areas, taking older or less able family members, presents, perhaps luggage even, why on earth would they attempt to travel by public transport if they had a car available even if there were no engineering works whatsoever?
LNW-GW Joint
Veteran Member
Didn't NR use the lockdown periods of low traffic to do some of this drainage work?
Government isn’t. The industry is, and the letting Government know what comes from it
Yes, but there’s more to do. Kilsby is a wet tunnel!
Whistler40145
Established Member
Any idea why these points weren't replaced during the Werrington Dive under work?
Annetts key
Established Member
NR took advantage of the reduced train service to get a lot of routine maintenance work done plus some other works.
But keep in mind that there was a reduced workforce due to staff isolating plus the restrictions brought in to reduce the possibility of spreading the virus. So reduced team sizes, keeping two metres apart, limits on the number of staff in road vehicles and in depots etc. Also various non-time critical maintenance work was being postponed.
The Planner
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Depends where they are, if Werrington hadn't got all the resource, if the worksites were compatible and didn't overlap and if you could stack the engineering trains. As well as a number of other factors such as the compensation element, renewals don't have the same amount of funding as an enhancement.
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Load of work down at Castlethorpe too.Government isn’t. The industry is, and the letting Government know what comes from it
Yes, but there’s more to do. Kilsby is a wet tunnel!
Crun
Member
I have since learnt they are just north of Peterborough Station near the Peterborough box. A new scissors junction apparently:
https://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/u...09.jpeg.d57a6868b43f5ff97fee2ddcff52a3fd.jpeg
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Because the work and contracted work to build the dive under had nothing to do with these points or any other work done at the time it was being build over the past 12 plus months.
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