End of distancing = service cuts??

[Meerkat]

Please, NOT a debate about whether distancing SHOULD end, just what if it does end on trains next week.
Are there any savings/cuts to be made or is ridership up too much already? The Treasury must be sniffing around…..
Could any fleets be sent off lease early?
Are there any staff savings to be made (not redundancies but less overtime)? I’m assuming only relevant for multiple units that need staff on each unit (8xx, Voyager, 185??) so dropping a unit means fewer staff on that service.
I guess there are track access savings if you run 8 instead of 12 etc, but are they worth the bother?

 

[yorksrob]

Certainly on TPE the five and six carriage sets seem to be filling up nicely.

Northern's mainly two and three carriage as it ever was, so no change really.

 

[DB]

Certainly on TPE the five and six carriage sets seem to be filling up nicely.

Northern's mainly two and three carriage as it ever was, so no change really.

EMUs on the triangle north of Leeds/Bradford have also been getting steadily busier for months.

 

[Meerkat]

Good news!
Is anything running around pointlessly empty?

 

[Bletchleyite]

Good news!
Is anything running around pointlessly empty?

South East commuter services are the ones likely to be cut, most probably with an all-day timetable with a few longer trains in the morning/evening peak (which is how it mostly is away from London anyway). I can see it being used as an opportunity to rid the South East of ex-BR EMUs, certainly.

 

[The exile]

I suspect the most vulnerable services are the (very) outer suburban / inter city early morning peak extras, on the basis that the further you have to commute the more likely you are to a) be in a job where you can work from home and b) want to do so [the longer / more costly the commute, the more reason to ignore any inconveniences of wfh]. By the afternoon, other flows are also in there (I suspect that the "shoulder of the peak" problem of overloaded trains has always been much more of an issue after the evening peak than before the morning peak!).

Of course, the other thing that may happen is that many "office returnees" are going to discover that driving to work is less attractive once far more people are doing it and a place in the office car park is no longer a given.

 

[DB]

Good news!
Is anything running around pointlessly empty?

LNER, but that's only because of their ridiculous booking policies.

 

[Meerkat]

South East commuter services are the ones likely to be cut, most probably with an all-day timetable with a few longer trains in the morning/evening peak (which is how it mostly is away from London anyway). I can see it being used as an opportunity to rid the South East of ex-BR EMUs, certainly.

Having experienced how SWR likes to run shorter trains on Saturdays even when they get full and standing a few commuters might be disappointed to find their commute is just as crowded as before!

 

[Sprinter107]

Y

LNER, but that's only because of their ridiculous booking policies.

Yes, that puts me off travelling on there. I dont know why it should, but it just does.