Eureka Timetable

[MidnightFlyer]

Anyone got any opinions on the new EC timetable

 

[Failed Unit]

The last version I saw still needed a few tweaks. Definately winners and losers. Overall a good timetable unless you travel from Peterborough to Scotland.

 

[DaveNewcastle]

There were quite a LOT of opinions in these two threads :-
http://www.railforums.co.uk/showthread.php?t=31492
and
http://www.railforums.co.uk/showthread.php?t=30138

 

[MidnightFlyer]

There were quite a LOT of opinions in these two threads :-
http://www.railforums.co.uk/showthread.php?t=31492
and
http://www.railforums.co.uk/showthread.php?t=30138

Yep realised once id started the thread how outdated it was. I dunno, the timetable is being altered all the time, so some stuff may change.

 

[shinkansen1966]

IMHO, Eureka timetable is not quite so revolutionary as you might think. The main prob has been providing an even interval service at stations between Kings Cross and Doncaster. Until now, it's been case of skip stopping the Leeds/Newcastle services.

The Eureka service has been acheived by adding an hourly all stations service from Kings Cross to either Lincoln/York. This allows existing services north to Leeds/Newcastle to have fewer but uniform stopping patterns.

The new timetable is a welcome improvement on the near random calling patterns we have now. The clear winner has been London to Leeds. Faster service and standard timings. Looks like Retford is a looser with fewer services and only going as far north as York.

As a regular user of the line, I marvel at the ability to run nearly a dozen trains an hour over the ECML Welwyn Viaduct bottleneck. Rarely seems to be any kind of delay there.

Over this bottleneck, post Eureka, there will be 5-6 East Coast/Hull Trains/Grand Central per hour, plus 2 fasts to Cambridge and 4 semi fasts to Peterborough/Cambridge. I make that 12 trains per hour , with two an hour calling at two track Welywn North !

 

[tbtc]

The new timetable is a welcome improvement on the near random calling patterns we have now

That's the way I see it too

If you were designing a timetable from scratch, you wouldn't design the muddle we have now (where some stations get two services in a few minutes then nothing for an hour or two)

You can't design this without some losers, and there will be certain journeys that are no longer simple/ possible, but I think it concentrates on the main corridors and the busiest flows

 

[HITMAN]

I can't help but notice that they have been very sly in the way they have been presented, for example it gives a slower fastest journey time than presently to york, but they claim to have improved it. What they are actually saying is the train that will do the fastest journey time is x minutes quicker than it is at the moment, but that is still slower than the train which achieves the fastest journey time now

 

[gingerheid]

Sadly my EC journeys were not just via Peterborough to Scotland, but via Peterborough to Glasgow, so I'm not happy! (And even worse worse still, it's Central I need to end up at.

I'm thinking the best way of travelling will probably be to take the bus to MK and take the train from there.

If I stayed with EC an overall journey of 8h 44m with 2 changes (including 5h1m on the ECML with no changes) for my most usual trip would have a minimum of an hour and an extra change added to it, along an existing change turning into a cross city transfer.

 

[jamesontheroad]

Sadly my EC journeys were not just via Peterborough to Scotland, but via Peterborough to Glasgow, so I'm not happy!

Ditto. There aren't many of us, but PBO is a very useful one-stop interchange for direct services to Norfolk, Suffolk and Cambridgeshire. I use it regularly to get the First X1 bus across towards mid-Norfolk.

On the whole, Eureka makes a lot of sense for the ECML. Better frequences, better service patterns etc. But Glasgow really suffers. We lose our alternative direct service to London (with the possible implications for competition), we lose our direct service to East Anglia, and we gain only marginal benefits from additional XC services. Good if you want to go to any ECML city, Leeds, Wakefield, Sheffield or Derby. If you're travelling beyond Birmingham it is, of course, quicker to go by Virgin down the WCML. So have multiple daily XC departures to Bristol and the South West won't improve things for people headed that far.

We also lose the mk. 4s... and gain more *****box Voyagers. That will sting the most.

 

[route:oxford]

Sadly my EC journeys were not just via Peterborough to Scotland, but via Peterborough to Glasgow, so I'm not happy! (And even worse worse still, it's Central I need to end up at.

I was about to protest and say you'd be quicker to jump on a service via Falkirk High and walk from Red Square to Gordon Street

But thought I'd better check first. Average time Edinburgh to Central - 1h01m, Average time Edinburgh to Queen Street -51m!

I'm sure it never used to take *that* long - it was less than 45mins back in the day of the 47s & DBSO wasn't it? Makes me wonder... If the slow running through Gorgie (level crossing issues) and slow running through Carstairs were sorted out... Could the service to Central be quicker than to Queen street?

 

[Hobbo]

Eureka is such a hard task making sure your principle stations of Peterborough, Doncaster, Leeds, York, Newcastle and Edinburgh have all got frequent services but then making sure there are still services for Wakefield Westgate, Retford, Newark North Gate, stevenage Durham, Darlington Berwick, Dunbard Morpeth and alnmouth glad i aint got that job

 

[gingerheid]

@routexford There's a thought actually - I was completely forgetting about the Caledonian Express services to Central. If the times tie up then it's actually not so bad. Still a cursed nuisance though

 

[tbtc]

Average time Edinburgh to Queen Street -51m!

I'm sure it never used to take *that* long - it was less than 45mins back in the day of the 47s & DBSO wasn't it? Makes me wonder...

I guess back in the days of the 47s there were only two Dunblane services each hour running that route out of Edinburgh (non stop to Linlithgow). Now there are also two Bathgate services (soon to become four) and all the Bathgate/ Dunblane trains stop at Edinburgh Park

It means the Glasgow service can't get the kind of clear run it used to; back in the day they could get past Polmont before catching up with anything in front.

 

[Max]

Eureka is such a hard task making sure your principle stations of Peterborough, Doncaster, Leeds, York, Newcastle and Edinburgh have all got frequent services but then making sure there are still services for Wakefield Westgate, Retford, Newark North Gate, stevenage Durham, Darlington Berwick, Dunbard Morpeth and alnmouth glad i aint got that job

...and it's interesting how you seem to lump relatively important places strategically like Darlington and Wakefield Westgate in with rural stations such as Alnmouth and Morpeth - surely there has to be prioritisation in this group too?