Direct trains Euston - St Albans Abbey begun?

[Tobberz]

Apologies if this is the wrong subforum, and if the topic has already been brought up.

I heard on the grape vine that a direct trial service had happened between Euston and St. Albans Abbey (in early Dec.) though I thought this was a one off.

Further, Wikipedia claims: "From 13 December 2021 the 21:10 service from London Euston travels directly to St Albans Abbey station each evening, without having to change at Watford Junction."

Does anyone have further info on this, since it would be a pretty major development if actually going ahead...

 

[JonathanH]

Does anyone have further info on this, since it would be a pretty major development if actually going ahead...

It definitely ran on 13 December. There were more people there for the novelty of the through running than what would be termed 'normal' passengers.

It isn't that major a development as the facility to run through has existed since 2014 and it is just there to allow the unit on the branch to be swapped over each day.

350245 did the honours on 13 December.

I heard on the grape vine that a direct trial service had happened between Euston and St. Albans Abbey (in early Dec.) though I thought this was a one off.

It isn't the precursor of a more regular service if that is what is implied by a 'trial service'. It isn't a trial either, it is part of the timetable, although don't be surprised to see it cut out if there are insufficient traincrew to run train services on the St Albans Abbey line.

 

[pdeaves]

It lasted about a week before the entire branch service was withdrawn again.

 

[swt_passenger]

This was spotted in RTT in early November and discussed in the general timetable thread, initially here:

December 2021 Timetable change

if “they” had realised at the outset that lockdowns would go on for so long, and that the long term switch to working at home would happen, and that ‘they’ were on the hook for an additional half billion quid a month eve when it ended, then “they” would have shut down many more services, and...

www.railforums.co.uk

But as @JonathanH notes, I don’t get “trial service” in this context. I don’t see why it would need a “trial” as a precursor to the single daily service, it’s effectively only an ECS retimed and warmed up by making it a passenger service.