Engineering work on Grand Central route yesterday.

[londonbridge]

As I may have mentioned in one or two earlier threads,when attending Sunderland matches I usually travel with the London supporters branch on Grand Central at a special rate which they offer us. Yesterdays 17:29 return journey was re-timed to depart at 17:06 due to engineering work-I understand there was a diversion for part of the journey. This meant a) leaving the match early to be sure of making the train b) stop in Sunderland overnight or c) come back on East Coast. I went for option c as I managed to book my own advances, going up on GC and coming back on EC for a similar price to the branch rate. Was heading back to Newcastle after the match when I got a text from a mate who said that GC was delayed by twenty three minutes! Later I got a call saying they'd left at 17:30, had been through the diversion and were on schedule to arrive at Kings X at the usual time of just before 21.00. Meanwhile I got back at 21:45.
If they were able to effectively leave at the usual time, take in the diversion and still make up enough time to arrive at the usual time then what was the point of retiming the train to leave at 17:06 to begin with??

 

[DarloRich]

As I may have mentioned in one or two earlier threads,when attending Sunderland matches I usually travel with the London supporters branch on Grand Central at a special rate which they offer us. Yesterdays 17:29 return journey was re-timed to depart at 17:06 due to engineering work-I understand there was a diversion for part of the journey. This meant a) leaving the match early to be sure of making the train b) stop in Sunderland overnight or c) come back on East Coast. I went for option c as I managed to book my own advances, going up on GC and coming back on EC for a similar price to the branch rate. Was heading back to Newcastle after the match when I got a text from a mate who said that GC was delayed by twenty three minutes! Later I got a call saying they'd left at 17:30, had been through the diversion and were on schedule to arrive at Kings X at the usual time of just before 21.00. Meanwhile I got back at 21:45.
If they were able to effectively leave at the usual time, take in the diversion and still make up enough time to arrive at the usual time then what was the point of retiming the train to leave at 17:06 to begin with??

I wasn't aware Grand Central did track works

It could have been that the engineering works were re timed to allow the service through or they were in some way delayed or even cancelled.

BTW Sun'ln fan?

EDIT - perhaps the incoming working was delayed

 

[yorkie]

There were engineering works between Eaglescliffe and Northallerton, so the train had to go via Darlington.

However, it was able to go via Darlington in no more time than it is booked to go the more direct route. This is because the timetable has a lot of padding ('allowances') in it.

Sunderland    1706 1732 26
Hartlepool    1734 1756 22
Eaglescliffe  1758 1817 18[COLOR=DimGray]
Darlington    1820 1835 14[/COLOR]
Northallerton 1832 1847 15
Thirsk        1841 1856 14
York          1901 1914 13
[COLOR=DimGray]Doncaster     1921 1933 12
Retford       1931 1942 11
Newark        1942 1951  9
Grantham      1950 1959  9
Peterborough  2008 2013  5
Stevenage     2035 2039  4[/COLOR]
Kings Cross   2057 2102  5

It could in theory have arrived at Kings Cross bang on time, but that would have required green signals all the way. It did get a good run though.

 

[londonbridge]

Thanks Yorkie. Typical sods law that when you have to leave early to get a train, said train is then delayed. Mind you, would've been more frustrating if we'd equalised in the last few minutes but as it was we lost the game 1-0 so those who left early didn't miss anything.

 

[DistrictDriver]

As I may have mentioned in one or two earlier threads,when attending Sunderland matches I usually travel with the London supporters branch on Grand Central at a special rate which they offer us.

There's a London branch of Sunderland fans?!
Not that many go from Wearside so fair play to you for travelling all the way up to watch them!

 

[londonbridge]

Branch has around 500 members, there's usually anything up to 40 regular travellers on the trip for Saturday 3pm home games. I was born and raised in London but family originally came from North East, been going up and back for many years now.

As to the timetable slack I made an earlier thread concerning one of my fellow fans who believes there is too much slack in the outward jouney and that the time could be cut-at present the outward is 07:48-11:40 (three hours fifty two) whilst the return is 17:29-20:57 (three hours twenty eight). However the upcoming timetable changes will see the outward journey retimed to 08:12-11.50, reducing the outward time to three hours thirty eight.

 

[DarloRich]

beaten to it by Yorkie - bear in mind the route will be much quicker via Darlo than via Hartlepooh which might explain the timings.

 

[calc7]

Branch has around 500 members, there's usually anything up to 40 regular travellers on the trip for Saturday 3pm home games. I was born and raised in London but family originally came from North East, been going up and back for many years now.

As to the timetable slack I made an earlier thread concerning one of my fellow fans who believes there is too much slack in the outward jouney and that the time could be cut-at present the outward is 07:48-11:40 (three hours fifty two) whilst the return is 17:29-20:57 (three hours twenty eight). However the upcoming timetable changes will see the outward journey retimed to 08:12-11.50, reducing the outward time to three hours thirty eight.

I reckon there's more slack in the "down" direction as the train needs to be almost guaranteed to make its path down into London. Going north, it starts in London, so there is much less opportunity for it to get in the way.

 

[Marton]

beaten to it by Yorkie - bear in mind the route will be much quicker via Darlo than via Hartlepooh which might explain the timings.

Not sure I understand. This was via Hartlepool.

Long time for the reversal in Darlo shown in Opentrains http://www.opentraintimes.com/schedule/G02039/2012/11/3