Does a HST regularly use a request stop?

[E100]

Currently on an inter7city set from Inverness and the thought occurred are there any stops regularly served by a HST that are a request stop? This can also be historic but I would generally exclude one offs though more than happy to hear about them.

As an aside request stops have long been a fascination to me and probably a large part of the reason I like trains in general now.

 

[Ianno87]

On of the Saturday HSTs to Pembroke Dock used to serve all the various minor request stops via Tenby.

 

[godfreycomplex]

Menheniot

 

[HamworthyGoods]

Menheniot

Menheniot hasn’t been a request stop for some time now.

I believe Dockyard is still a request stop though.

 

[irish_rail]

Menheniot hasn’t been a request stop for some time now.

I believe Dockyard is still a request stop though.

Yes technically dockyard is a request but anything that is a HST stops there regardless now.

 

[JN114]

On of the Saturday HSTs to Pembroke Dock used to serve all the various minor request stops via Tenby.

Full open stops though I believe.

 

[181]

On of the Saturday HSTs to Pembroke Dock used to serve all the various minor request stops via Tenby.

Full open stops though I believe.

I seem to remember at least one past timetable (late 1980s, maybe) showing them as request stops.

 

[Bald Rick]

I seem to remember at least one past timetable (late 1980s, maybe) showing them as request stops.

Yes some were definitely request for the HST.

 

[TEW]

Menheniot hasn’t been a request stop for some time now.

I believe Dockyard is still a request stop though.

Menheniot did get calls from full length HSTs when it was a request stop though. I think it only actually became a request stop around 2006/7? HSTs always called regardless anyway.

 

[Parallel]

If I remember correctly, Kidwelly and Ferryside were request stops when served by the morning HST towards Paddington.

 

[noddingdonkey]

How practical would that be with such long trains, in terms of passengers advising the guard that they want to alight at the request stop?

 

[Wilts Wanderer]

There’s a difference between a stop being shown as a request call in the public timetable and it actually being a request stop in practice. it doesn’t matter if a passenger puts their arm out if the train is already stopping.

So Kidwelly and Ferryside on the GWR Carmarthen trains, Narberth, Kilgetty, Saundersfoot, Penally and Lamphey on the GWR summer Pembroke runs and Dockyard and Menheniot in Cornwall appeared as request calls in public data for consistency with the TfW services but in practice the booked calls were always made, passengers or not.

Menheniot ceased to be a request stop at May 2020 timetable change as a high proportion of calls were being made by 2+4 HST sets. Dockyard remains a request stop as the majority of calls are made by the sprinter working the Gunnislake diagram.

 

[Andy Pacer]

How practical would that be with such long trains, in terms of passengers advising the guard that they want to alight at the request stop?

I suppose it's just a longer walk to find the guard, or the guard walks through the train.

 

[Ianno87]

Off memory, I did the Pembroke HST and it was pretty lightly loaded from Pembroke to Tenby so not hard for the guard to root out the passengers individually.

 

[soccermad]

I am pretty sure that HST's used to request stop on the Cotswold Line between Oxford and Moreton ?

 

[Wilts Wanderer]

There are no request stops on the Cotswold Line.

 

[Western 52]

If I remember correctly, Kidwelly and Ferryside were request stops when served by the morning HST towards Paddington.

As a regular commuter on that train I can confirm it stopped at both, although there were always some passengers waiting. The evening return service was not booked to stop at either station though.

 

[LowLevel]

The problem with HSTs and request stops is two fold - the length of them with request stop platforms generally being short, and the driver guard communication system being far less user friendly than on later designs of trains.

 

[TheEdge]

How practical would that be with such long trains, in terms of passengers advising the guard that they want to alight at the request stop?

You clearly never travelled between Oxford and Hereford on a GWR service!

Although no request stops lots of short platforms and different stopping points. A long sermon delivered before each station to advise where someone needed to be to try and get off!

 

[jimm]

I am pretty sure that HST's used to request stop on the Cotswold Line between Oxford and Moreton ?

There are no request stops on the Cotswold Line.

Combe, Finstock, Ascott-under-Wychwod and Shipton were request stops from the late 1960s until the mid-2000s.

During the period the smaller stations in West Oxfordshire were request stops - though on weekdays the morning and afternoon 'halts' trains that served them stopped everywhere anyway, as there were always some passengers getting on or off - the booked services were operated by run-of-the-mill dmus, except between 2004 and 2006, when some of the Saturday request calls were in diagrams operated by FGW Class 180s, thanks to their selective door opening. On Saturdays you normally had to stick out a hand for a train to stop, or tell the guard you wanted to get off at one of the halts.

I think request stop status ended with the December 2006 timetable, when the Saturday services were withdrawn from Combe, Finstock and Ascott-under-Wychwood. Shipton was the only one of the four to retain Saturday services, all booked to stop.

HSTs did have some regular stops at Shipton on weekday evenings and Saturdays in later years, once FGW's HSTs had SDO fitted. This also allowed additional calls to be made at the other three - normally in late afternoon when the halts train back from Oxford had been cancelled and the following HST stood in to get people home - or special stops for Ascott-under-Wychwood villagers to get to Oxford or London and back for shopping on Saturdays before Christmas, that have operated most years since 2011.