May 2023 changes

[geoffk]

Is there definitely the stock for that? Or are some 150s expected imminently?

Word is that GWR is struggling with the reliability of the Turbos (class 165/6) so more 150s are out in Devon to cover for those unavailable. Is TfW likely to have spare stock by May?

 

[HamworthyGoods]

Word is that GWR is struggling with the reliability of the Turbos (class 165/6) so more 150s are out in Devon to cover for those unavailable. Is TfW likely to have spare stock by May?

The issue with the 165/166s isn’t so much reliability but a shortage of parts from manufacturers - Chiltern are having similar issues with their 165s.

This leads to units stopped waiting parts, this isn’t just parts for failures but routine parts needed for exams etc.

 

[geoffk]

The issue with the 165/166s isn’t so much reliability but a shortage of parts from manufacturers - Chiltern are having similar issues with their 165s.

This leads to units stopped waiting parts, this isn’t just parts for failures but routine parts needed for exams etc.

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 31 Jan 2023 ==

The issue with the 165/166s isn’t so much reliability but a shortage of parts from manufacturers - Chiltern are having similar issues with their 165s.

This leads to units stopped waiting parts, this isn’t just parts for failures but routine parts needed for exams etc.

I see, thanks. Useful to know that.

 

[HamworthyGoods]

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 31 Jan 2023 ==


I see, thanks. Useful to know that.

It’s the same outcome though - not enough units for traffic!

I know Aylesbury depot have a couple of Christmas Trees for Chiltern units presently.

 

[Halish Railway]

Oh dear it looks like Ilkley and Skipton to Bradford is going back to hourly again. Fortunately the services used by schoolchildren are still in the timetable.

 

[Bikeman78]

Gourock fasts look to be scrapped outside of peak hours.
Ayr services now run semi-fast, with the Largs/Ardrossan services running all stop. No increase in freq on Ayr route.

They are finally going back to the timetable that existed during the class 318 era, albeit both Ayr trains were fast from Johnstone to Kilwinning back then.

Aside from the lack of fast Gourock trains, the timetable through Bishopton is also the same as 20 years ago.

 

[WizCastro197]

Although it is a very minor change, the Victoria-Portsmouth & Southsea extension once per day to Portsmouth Harbour, now occurs from Monday to Friday rather than Tuesday-Friday. Tiny change.

 

[IBLRG]

From what I can see in terms of Northern, on the West side, the timetable is pretty much identical, the main change being Headbolt Lane opening.
On the East side, some reductions
The remaining Huddersfield to Castleford services are withdrawn
Sheffield to Cleethorpes via Brigg becomes a daily Mon-Fri service. Saturday services withdrawn
The early Whitby service is withdrawn
That's all I've noticed so far.

There is obviously been some mistake with the Sheffield to Cleethorpes via a Brigg because the signal boxes are closed in the afternoon.

Interestingly a letter from the Secretary of State for Transport to a member of The Independent Brigg Line Rail Group at the start of January, confirmed again that Northern Railway did not want to run the Brigg Line service, and reading between the lines another operator will be needed.

Maybe Doctor Beeching is alive and well, this would certainly be the nail in the coffin, especially for the blue rosette constituency MPs of which there are quite a lot of them on this 72 miles of route.

 

[yorksrob]

There is obviously been some mistake with the Sheffield to Cleethorpes via a Brigg because the signal boxes are closed in the afternoon.

Interestingly a letter from the Secretary of State for Transport to a member of The Independent Brigg Line Rail Group at the start of January, confirmed again that Northern Railway did not want to run the Brigg Line service, and reading between the lines another operator will be needed.

Maybe Doctor Beeching is alive and well, this would certainly be the nail in the coffin, especially for the blue rosette constituency MPs of which there are quite a lot of them on this 72 miles of route.

So Northern are dictating to the SoS what lines the choose to run ! What a curious state of affairs.

 

[anthony263]

Received a email from our local AM and Councillors. tfw confirmed they will be returning to the separate swanline service pre covid from May 2023 which should help cut journey times on West Wales to Cardiff and Manchester services. Depending how things goes GWR I suspect may end up getting a couple of tfws class 150s

 

[Bantamzen]

Oh dear it looks like Ilkley and Skipton to Bradford is going back to hourly again. Fortunately the services used by schoolchildren are still in the timetable.

I noticed this too, just in time for the what were once busier summer services. Whoever is planning this, assuming this ends up being the plan, needs booting down the road and replacing with something more useful, like a bag of dead badgers.

 

[Bletchleyite]

I noticed this too, just in time for the what were once busier summer services. Whoever is planning this, assuming this ends up being the plan, needs booting down the road and replacing with something more useful, like a bag of dead badgers.

I don't wholly get why East has been the subject of so many reductions, yet some obvious low consequence savings in West (e.g. returning to two hourly on the central section of the Cumbrian Coast as it was for years) seem to have been missed. Were the "10% savings" perhaps ready for East, but the West ones haven't gone in yet?

 

[Bantamzen]

I don't wholly get why East has been the subject of so many reductions, yet some obvious low consequence savings in West (e.g. returning to two hourly on the central section of the Cumbrian Coast as it was for years) seem to have been missed. Were the "10% savings" perhaps ready for East, but the West ones haven't gone in yet?

Last summer's reductions out of Bradford FS were cited because Northern were behind on driver training, and as a result were only temporary. And so it seemed last month when 2tph on all triangle routes were restored, so if this indicates a return to last year's cuts I have no idea why. The Bradford FS services are not as densely used as their Leeds equivalents, but are popular when the good weather breaks. For example there was a lot of dissent last summer in Ilkley with the reductions as businesses noticed a drop in footfall, as a lot of traffic from Bradford into the Wharfe valley was spur of the moment with the town being very popular with people wanting to enjoy warm weather.

My only hope that this is incomplete or a cut & paste job from May 2022 until something more comprehensive is completed. Otherwise these routes will lose more and more passengers permanently, forcing even more traffic back onto the roads in the area, which are already safely back to pre-covid levels even with the Clean Air Zone in force between Bradford and Shipley.

 

[IBLRG]

So Northern are dictating to the SoS what lines the choose to run ! What a curious state of affairs.

Dr Beeching Northern Railway that will be.

Better start arranging the closing down sale, will throw in a DFS sofa free

 

[InkyScrolls]

I see 1E65, the erstwhile 1340 Carlisle to Leeds, has been retimed to 1336 and gained two extra stops (Garsdale and Ribblehead), presumably for the benefit of walkers.

 

[SouthEastBuses]

I've noticed that there will be direct Thameslink services from Horsham to the core (Blackfriars, City Thameslink, Farringdon & St Pancras Int'l) on Sundays & Public Holidays, but running to Bedford instead of Peterborough.

 

[Halish Railway]

Last summer's reductions out of Bradford FS were cited because Northern were behind on driver training, and as a result were only temporary. And so it seemed last month when 2tph on all triangle routes were restored, so if this indicates a return to last year's cuts I have no idea why.

Maybe it’s to cut costs, which seems pointless if the depots that sign the route have more staff than pre-Covid. It also makes unit utilisation less efficient by disrupting the inter working of services at Bradford Forster Square.

Regarding ridership, whilst 4 coaches is overkill on most services, the exception being those used by Schoolkids, I think they do justify being twice-hourly; The way people will be discouraged from driving into Bradford now that the LEZ is in force is to provide a frequent, high-quality rail service. Maybe when the 331/1s are swapped for 331/0s these services can drop down to three carriages.

I see no justification for cutting these services down to hourly.

 

[JonathanH]

I've noticed that there will be direct Thameslink services from Horsham to the core (Blackfriars, City Thameslink, Farringdon & St Pancras Int'l) on Sundays & Public Holidays, but running to Bedford instead of Peterborough.

It saves running a separate Horsham to London Bridge stopper. There will presumably need to be a driver change somewhere though to the extent that Horsham or Bedford drivers work this service. (Three Bridges drivers can work throughout.)

 

[Class 170101]

Like I said last week…

But can you rely on it being correct?

 

[MikeWM]

Rainhill etc. still only getting one train an hour it seems Really quite appalling how the service on this line has been cut, and it hardly seems lilely to be due to lack of demand. Both times I've travelled this way in the last year - in the middle of the day, not the peaks - the trains have been standing-room only.

 

[blelic]

Southern seem to have increased the current once per hour Brighton to Hastings service to a two per hour Brighton to Eastbourne/Ore service, alternating between the two.

 

[wls1]

All North Cotswold (Oxford) services no longer call at Slough from May. Instead, Paddington-Didcot are fast Paddington-Slough

Realtime Trains | 1D22 1123 London Paddington to Oxford | 22/05/2023

Real-time train running information for 1D22 1123 departure from London Paddington to Oxford on 22/05/2023. From Realtime Trains, an independent source of train running info for Great Britain.

www.realtimetrains.co.uk

 

[g22]

Cross Country is in Real Time Trains. Shows Bristol to Manchester trains but will they stay there. 4 or 5 Reading to York or Newcastle. Although I think it was mentioned up thread that XC changes were already in the initial TT.

 

[30907]

My only hope that this is incomplete or a cut & paste job from May 2022 until something more comprehensive is completed.

Fortunately it isn't. Hourly is approximately 0900-1500 from BDQ-ILK and similarly BDQ-SKI, which is a significant improvement, meaning that all the peak and post-peak traffic is covered.
It's a similar pattern to (eg) Victoria-Orpington and East Grinstead down South.

 

[Halish Railway]

Rainhill etc. still only getting one train an hour it seems Really quite appalling how the service on this line has been cut, and it hardly seems lilely to be due to lack of demand. Both times I've travelled this way in the last year - in the middle of the day, not the peaks - the trains have been standing-room only.

It’s often been said that the Liverpool Lime Street to Warrington Bank Quay service had a relatively high subsidy per passenger, although it still really ought to come back. Perhaps platform extensions to enable pairs of 323s on the Liverpool Lime Street to Manchester Airport services will alleviate overcrowding.

 

[Peter0124]

Cross Country is in Real Time Trains. Shows Bristol to Manchester trains but will they stay there. 4 or 5 Reading to York or Newcastle.

Looks like XC have reduced Glasgow Central Mon-Fri according to RTT.

1S43 and 1S47 are now terminating at Edinburgh. 1S51 is extended instead (and starts from Plymouth) but a later arrival into Glasgow. Also happens to be a HST though which is good.

If TPE extended their Edinburgh-Newcastle/Liverpool services to Glasgow then I wouldn't mind XC reducing.

 

[Brubulus]

Maybe it’s to cut costs, which seems pointless if the depots that sign the route have more staff than pre-Covid. It also makes unit utilisation less efficient by disrupting the inter working of services at Bradford Forster Square.

Regarding ridership, whilst 4 coaches is overkill on most services, the exception being those used by Schoolkids, I think they do justify being twice-hourly; The way people will be discouraged from driving into Bradford now that the LEZ is in force is to provide a frequent, high-quality rail service. Maybe when the 331/1s are swapped for 331/0s these services can drop down to three carriages.

I see no justification for cutting these services down to hourly.

Can the 333s not cope? Airedale and Wharfedale electrics should be an all 333 operation and running 331s is probably driving up costs significantly, so I understand cutting services so the 333s can cope in the short term but the imperative in my view would to solve any maintenance issues so they can operate the full service.

 

[InkyScrolls]

Can the 333s not cope? Airedale and Wharfedale electrics should be an all 333 operation and running 331s is probably driving up costs significantly, so I understand cutting services so the 333s can cope in the short term but the imperative in my view would to solve any maintenance issues so they can operate the full service.

Were the BDQ services hourly throughout the day the fleet of 333s would be sufficient to cover all Triangle services.

 

[JonathanH]

On the North Downs, the 2234 from Reading is restored as far as Guildford, then running empty back to Reading. The unnecessary waits at Guildford on the stoppers and restoration of Turbo timings will have to wait for another timetable.

 

[SouthEastBuses]

It saves running a separate Horsham to London Bridge stopper. There will presumably need to be a driver change somewhere though to the extent that Horsham or Bedford drivers work this service. (Three Bridges drivers can work throughout.)

And to be honest, I fully approve of this change! Will make journeys into parts of Central London from Horsham even easier on Sundays & Public Holidays, without needing to change at London Bridge!