Christmas Workings

[Jimini]

Wasn't there an unadvertised all stations service that ran as a paper exercise for Santa? I certainly remember seeing it uploaded once or twice to RTT.

James

Yep, sure it'll be along soon

 

[vidal]

Yep, sure it'll be along soon

Without wishing to derail the thread, what's the reason for the RTT entry? The NORAD santa tracker is pretty visual and one I showed my own children 20 plus years ago. I can't see the same attraction for a static Web page full of numbers.

James

 

[sh24]

Without wishing to derail the thread, what's the reason for the RTT entry? The NORAD santa tracker is pretty visual and one I showed my own children 20 plus years ago. I can't see the same attraction for a static Web page full of numbers.

James

Some cheap to effectively free marketing, plus it might raise a smile.

 

[renegademaster]

Without wishing to derail the thread, what's the reason for the RTT entry? The NORAD santa tracker is pretty visual and one I showed my own children 20 plus years ago. I can't see the same attraction for a static Web page full of numbers.

James

Santa has to get his presents to everyone somehow and not including it on WTT would be chaos

 

[Class 466]

Shame Southeastern stopped bothering with their popular Ashford/Gravesend to St Pancras HS1 Boxing Day service.

 

[321362]

Wasn't there an unadvertised all stations service that ran as a paper exercise for Santa? I certainly remember seeing it uploaded once or twice to RTT.

James

Often there's a North Pole Depot to North Pole Depot service entered as a joke, but it doesn't look like it's up this year.

 

[D6130]

Often there's a North Pole Depot to North Pole Depot service entered as a joke, but it doesn't look like it's up this year.

....not yet!

 

[styles]

Didn't TPE announce they were going to run Boxing Day services this year?

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 8 Dec 2025 ==

Oh golly, maybe I was remembering this article from 2018! https://www.railmagazine.com/news/network/tpe-could-operate-boxing-day-trains

 

[CFRAIL]

Shame Southeastern stopped bothering with their popular Ashford/Gravesend to St Pancras HS1 Boxing Day service.

Presumably if it was popular, they wouldn't have stopped it? Also, would you have enough volunteers to staff it? Force staff to work it and they'll call in sick, potentially leaving the service in tatters. Surely, it's far better to advertise no service in advance so that folk can make alternative arrangements

 

[720144]

In recent years, the final Stansted Express south has departed at 2359, but not this year.

Usually there is a 30 min Stansted Express service starting & terminating at Tottenham Hale on Boxing Day.

 

[Highlander1]

Scotrail running a fairly extensive service on boxing day. This is straight off national rail.

Glasgow Central - Ayr / Largs / Ardrossan Harbour / Gourock / Wemyss Bay / Paisley Canal / Neilston / Newton / East Kilbride / Girvan / Kilmarnock / Edinburgh (via Shotts) / Lanark

Airdrie - Dalmuir / Balloch

Springburn - Hyndland / Milngavie

Dalmuir - Edinburgh / Bathgate / Motherwell / Rutherglen / Larkhall

Glasgow Queen Street - Anniesland / Alloa (via Cumbernauld) / Edinburgh (via Falkirk High, Bishopbriggs, Lenzie, and Croy)

Edinburgh - Dunblane / Perth (via Dunfermline) / Leven (via Kirkcaldy) / Arbroath / Aberdeen

 

[bicbasher]

Boxing Day only:

London Overground are operating 4tph between Highbury & Islington and West Croydon on the Windrush line and 3tph from Clapham Junction to Shepherd's Bush on the Mildmay line.

Southern are operating 1tph (2tph before 0830) from Victoria to Gatwick Airport, 1tph Victoria to Brighton semi fast, 2tph Victoria to Sutton via Selhurst which is all stops and 2tph to Victoria to East Croydon via Streatham Hill all stops.

 

[Trainfan2019]

I genuinely look forward to the yearly special Christmas train on real time trains. Yes, sad I know but that's just me I guess.

 

[notverydeep]

Presumably if it was popular, they wouldn't have stopped it? Also, would you have enough volunteers to staff it? Force staff to work it and they'll call in sick, potentially leaving the service in tatters. Surely, it's far better to advertise no service in advance so that folk can make alternative arrangements

Where Boxing Day services are near normal in London, the routes that operate carry about 85% of the traffic that would be carried on a typical Sunday (itself close to back to 100% of pre-pandemic levels). Taking account the traffic growth over the last couple of decades this means that London Boxing Day traffic exceeds the normal Sunday levels of even the early 2010s. This is without the longer distance traffic that would use London services for part of their journey if the rest of the National Rail network were available. The busiest times are the middle of the day and afternoon (at these times roughly equivalent to Sunday numbers), with lower levels in the early morning and evenings.

 

[Forty29]

Probably find the schedule has been missed and not been cancelled for the day.

Must be the same reason on RTT for the Chiltern line service, there is one train at 14 27 to Aylesbury in one direction only.

 

[Stephen42]

Presumably if it was popular, they wouldn't have stopped it? Also, would you have enough volunteers to staff it? Force staff to work it and they'll call in sick, potentially leaving the service in tatters. Surely, it's far better to advertise no service in advance so that folk can make alternative arrangements

Popular and economical can be two different things. The HS1 charges have got a lot more expensive over time and leave the government controlled purse. I can't find any reference online, but believe the HS1 Investment Recovery Charge was heavily discounted for boxing day in the past. Each Ashford to St Pancras domestic service now is £6k in HS1 charges per direction not including traction electricity or any other Southeastern costs. It's hard to make a case to run a small fraction of the network at a large loss and give other routes no service.

 

[chiltern trev]

Must be the same reason on RTT for the Chiltern line service, there is one train at 14 27 to Aylesbury in one direction only.

RTT for 14.27 says ECS. It runs via High Wycombe.

 

[mb]

Wasn't there an unadvertised all stations service that ran as a paper exercise for Santa? I certainly remember seeing it uploaded once or twice to RTT.

James

Yes, usually from North Pole International (XNP) https://www.realtimetrains.co.uk/search/simple/gb-nr:XNP/2025-12-24/2340

 

[coach fan]

Presumably if it was popular, they wouldn't have stopped it? Also, would you have enough volunteers to staff it? Force staff to work it and they'll call in sick, potentially leaving the service in tatters. Surely, it's far better to advertise no service in advance so that folk can make alternative arrangements

So train drivers call in sick regularly when they don’t want to work a shift do they? Pretty disgusting that considering they are paid by tax payers. No wonder the public have lost sympathy for the poor hard done by train drivers.

 

[dk1]

So train drivers call in sick regularly when they don’t want to work a shift do they? Pretty disgusting that considering they are paid by tax payers. No wonder the public have lost sympathy for the poor hard done by train drivers.

28 years in the grade and I have never known much sympathy for train drivers, not that I or most of my colleagues want any, but then you are assuming this is the behaviour of all rather than a minority, as it is in all walks of life regardless of job title.

 

[milooo]

So train drivers call in sick regularly when they don’t want to work a shift do they? Pretty disgusting that considering they are paid by tax payers. No wonder the public have lost sympathy for the poor hard done by train drivers.

Why are they expected to work on boxing day?

 

[D6130]

So train drivers call in sick regularly when they don’t want to work a shift do they? Pretty disgusting that considering they are paid by tax payers. No wonder the public have lost sympathy for the poor hard done by train drivers.

Working boxing day would be regarded as overtime....and you can't force anyone - in any grade - to work overtime if they don't want to. The correct way to go about this would be to put out notices well in advance of the date stating that you are planning to run a limited service on that day and asking for volunteers.

 

[dk1]

Working boxing day would be regarded as overtime....and you can't force anyone - in any grade - to work overtime if they don't want to. The correct way to go about this would be to put out notices well in advance of the date stating that you are planning to run a limited service on that day and asking for volunteers.

Totally that. It’s purely a voluntary thing at my depot for the few night shifts needed and always has been and I see no change in that anywhere on the horizon. Around 3-5% is the maximum number of total depot establishment that normally puts their names forward. The majority are totally uninterested.

 

[Highlander1]

Working boxing day would be regarded as overtime....and you can't force anyone - in any grade - to work overtime if they don't want to. The correct way to go about this would be to put out notices well in advance of the date stating that you are planning to run a limited service on that day and asking for volunteers.

Every TOC will have its own restoring agreements. I doubt it's overtime at most. It would be treated as a bank holiday.

 

[dk1]

Every TOC will have its own restoring agreements. I doubt it's overtime at most. It would be treated as a bank holiday.

Christmas & Boxing Day are the normal guaranteed days at most train operators. Bank holidays have meant nothing since the 1990s and the DRI.

 

[Highlander1]

Christmas & Boxing Day are the normal guaranteed days at most train operators. Bank holidays have meant nothing since the 1990s and the DRI.

That varies TOC to TOC.

 

[dk1]

That varies TOC to TOC.

Of course but most have those two days guaranteed hence why no realistic chance of any regular services.

 

[PLY2AYS]

So train drivers call in sick regularly when they don’t want to work a shift do they? Pretty disgusting that considering they are paid by tax payers. No wonder the public have lost sympathy for the poor hard done by train drivers.

I and many colleagues have volunteered to work our dedicated annual leave on Boxing Day to run services.
All driver wages on Boxing Day on Chiltern are funded by Bicester Village so services run for Boxing Day sales, so there’s that too, if you still felt entitled to my time.

 

[coach fan]

Why are they expected to work on boxing day?

Why shouldn’t they?

 

[sh24]

Why shouldn’t they?

If they aren’t contracted to, then why would they?

The bigger issue is that working patterns and practices need aligning with Sundays being a big travel day, whereas for many operators it doesn’t form part of the core working week. Fixing that is going to be a big job!