Fridays Only & Fridays Excepted

[StewieG]

I don't even know if thats the right word...

But anyways. Got hold of the XC Timetable today, and it seems strange to me why theres trains that are Fridays only and fridays excepted...

Looking at the XC timetable, the 13:06 Edinburgh - Plymouth, is both...

Yet the only difference is the train arriving a minute later at New Street... and then a minute earlier at Parkway

What is the point in this?

 

[SWT Driver]

That single minute can make all the difference between it being a connection or not being a connection at those stations.

It might be that there's a freight train in the system that runs on a particular day or days as well & that may mean it needs a minor tweak.

 

[StewieG]

Ahhh right, okay. But still, why on a Friday? People need to make connections all week...

I like that second explanation. Someone also said it could be pathing issues at New Street after I posted - is that feasible?

 

[SWT Driver]

That train may only run on a Friday.

For example:

We have a train from Waterloo, the 1023, it should by rights go to Alton, however it has to terminate at Farnham to accommodate a EWS train to Holybourne Neatham Oil Terminal.

That train doesn't run all days, sometimes it runs 1 day a week, sometimes 2 or 3 depending the demand for oil. However because it varies from week to week SWT can't run that train to Alton. You never know which day of the week it will run!

To add to the mix. It also can run via Guildford or via Woking as well, so that means trains on two routes can be altered slightly, that also knocks other trains elsewhere!

 

[A60K]

Similar to what SWTD said, there is/was a once a week nuclear train meaning that one Southminster branch service on a regular interval hourly service didn't run on a Thursday morning. Bit of a giveaway of the nuclear train timetable

 

[jamatace]

generally speaking friday only timetables are designed to take into account the extra passenger numbers experienced on a friday evening as people escape for the weekend and long distance commuters who stay closer to work return home. The difference of only a minute may seem insignificant but can't make all the difference when regularly loading large numbers of passengers at certain stations.

In some instances train formations may be extended to cope with the extra loading and may need detachments at stations en route requiring extra time to do so. There are many and varied reasons for fridays being different to the rest of the working week depending mainly on the type of route it applies to but there is a reason

 

[jon0844]

But I think the OP refers to the situation where it's only the final destination that varies by a minute. So, the train is scheduled with exactly the same stopping pattern throughout.

If there was more time needed to dwell at each station, the extra minute would be part way along the route - otherwise you're going to be running late almost the whole time!

 

[jopsuk]

Doesn't matter if you're running a minute late the whole way, it's the destination that counts for PPM...

 

[jon0844]

True, but it's rather silly from a timetable point of view. It just confuses people, especially when the timetable entry has both services next to each other with letters above it that you have to look up, possibly on another page.

 

[BlueGrey]

Looking at the XC timetable, the 13:06 Edinburgh - Plymouth, is both...

I think its booked an HST on a Friday instead of a Voyager.

 

[jopsuk]

Sorry to be cynicical, but I think from the corporate level they'll take a few confused passngers over a missed target.

 

[jon0844]

I'm not denying that - but nor do I think that this is the real reason for having possibly one or two trains that are scheduled like this.

Otherwise, every afternoon/evening train on a Friday would be given more recovery time wouldn't it?

 

[djw1981]

If it is an arrival time, how does it confuse you? These are so padded that the 1 min difference won;t matter

 

[jon0844]

In a timetable, it can be confusing to see multiple services with the same times and then codes to explain them that have to be looked up. Plenty of people can't even seem to read timetables at all, so goodness knows what they think!!

And when I say confusing, I mean you'll be confused as to what the difference is when there are two columns with seemingly identical times (bar one at the end) and you'll wonder why they aren't in fact the same. Not confused as in you'll miss the train or anything.

It's not always referring to days of the week, but sometimes one will be from Jan to March and the other March to May (or whatever). And these disprove the theory that it's for evening peak services on a Friday - especially when on FCC it would always seem to be very late services when the peak is long over.

Anyway, I'm sure someone will explain the actual reason for it and I'm sure it will be a 'Ah, right!' moment.

 

[MCR247]

It really annoys me that XC & VT on Sat & Sun will just have loads of trains that are 'D' 'E' 'F' and you then have to go to notes, then back to the page and try and find all 'D' services. Whereas EMT will have Sundays from 21st Jan so if you are travelling after 21st Jan, you can simply look up your train

 

[Surreytraveller]

Could be the case that the train is booked a different formation on a Friday, so has to go into a different platform that is longer / access to facilities such as trollies or whatever. This may mean that the pathway into that platform isn't available until a minute later. Different formations on a Friday may not only be for higher passenger loadings, they may also be to get stock in the right place for Saturdays / Monday mornings etc.