Our new ticketing site is now live! Using either this or the original site (both powered by TrainSplit) helps support the running of the forum with every ticket purchase! Find out more and ask any questions/give us feedback in this thread!
It was, when it was running, two trains a day from Preston via Clitheroe to Hellifield and back. The publicity doesn't seem to exist any more, though it was on the Community Rail Lancashire website.
It was always Preston to Hellifield during winter (Dec TT) and Blackpool North to Carlisle during summer (May TT). During Covid it was suspended for some time, but it did reappear. Unfortunately it's now a victim of short-sighted DfT cost-cutting
It was always Preston to Hellifield during winter (Dec TT) and Blackpool North to Carlisle during summer (May TT). During Covid it was suspended for some time, but it did reappear. Unfortunately it's now a victim of short-sighted DfT cost-cutting
It's a real shame the service is being cut. We picked up about twelve walkers at HLD this morning, bound for various S&C stations, who had come off the service from Preston. And on a wet, miserable day, too!
It's a real shame the service is being cut. We picked up about twelve walkers at HLD this morning, bound for various S&C stations, who had come off the service from Preston. And on a wet, miserable day, too!
From the May timetable change the 05:40 Blackpool North to London Euston is booked for a 10-car 221. Consequently it no longer calls at Poulton le Fylde (PFY) or Kirkham and Wesham (KKM) , which I think is a shame.
This means that both PFY and KKM have sadly lost their direct trains to/from London.
Didn't the 06:00 Preston to Euston used to start from Lancaster, instead of Blackpool North several years ago? Seeing it will soon be none stop Blackpool to Preston, I'd have thought it would have been more useful coming from Lancaster.
From the May timetable change the 05:40 Blackpool North to London Euston is booked for a 10-car 221. Consequently it no longer calls at Poulton le Fylde (PFY) or Kirkham and Wesham (KKM) , which I think is a shame.
This means that both PFY and KKM have sadly lost their direct trains to/from London.
Didn't the 06:00 Preston to Euston used to start from Lancaster, instead of Blackpool North several years ago? Seeing it will soon be none stop Blackpool to Preston, I'd have thought it would have been more useful coming from Lancaster.
It’s a huge shame they even trained the Preston crews on Kirkham and Poulton platforms which seems pointless exercise now if they are cutting the stops altogether
It’s a huge shame they even trained the Preston crews on Kirkham and Poulton platforms which seems pointless exercise now if they are cutting the stops altogether
It used to have to be a 221 for when it coupled with the 221 coming from Holyhead, although now it no longer does that from the May timetable change I suppose nothing is stopping it from being a 390 if needs be.
This represents a reduction in 700/0 diagrams from 8 to 4, along with an extra 700/1 diagram (which nominally could be regarded as coming off the Littlehampton service).
The number of 387 diagrams increases to 31.
Four up peak services from Kings Lynn and three down services to Kings Lynn are 12-car inwards of Cambridge. The diagrams have been designed so that all 12-car services only work in the peak direction, with attachments and detachments at King’s Cross or ECS to/from Hornsey.
The only Peterborough peak 12-car is the 700/1 diagram above. The other services are 700/0 or 8/387.
For those number crunchers, eliminating the remaining 700 working would require 11x 387s, taking the total requirement to 42. As can be seen, this cannot be met with the current fleet of 29+6+3. To make GN all-387 with this timetable would require something like 46 units. I guess it would be just about manageable if 717s were used somewhere.
== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: ==
Of the early morning services,
1C00 0502 King's Cross to Cambridge changes to 8/387
1P02 0512 King's Cross to Peterborough changes to 8/387 and departs earlier
1C02 0532 King's Cross to Cambridge changes from 8/700 to 12/700
1P04 0547 King's Cross to Peterborough changes from 4/387 to 12/700
1T94 0602 King's Cross to Cambridge changes from 12/700 to 8/387 and is extended to Kings Lynn
1C74 0002 King's Cross to Cambridge departs later (formerly 2342) and calls additionally at Stevenage, Hitchin, Baldock, Ashwell & Morden, Meldreth, Shepreth and Foxton.
9W90 2311 Horsham to Peterborough changes from 12/700 to 8/700.
Don’t know if this has already been mentioned above but Scotrail will be reintroducing the 15 minute frequency on the Edinburgh to Glasgow via Falkirk High service on Saturday’s, now the busiest day of the week.
Don’t know if this has already been mentioned above but Scotrail will be reintroducing the 15 minute frequency on the Edinburgh to Glasgow via Falkirk High service on Saturday’s, now the busiest day of the week.
Not the same pattern as the old 15 min interval service though; Polmont and Linlithgow are served by every train for instance. Croy remains half-hourly.
Still different to the present 15 min peak hour service, where the extra two servuces each hour serve Bishopbriggs and Lenzie.
Not the same pattern as the old 15 min interval service though; Polmont and Linlithgow are served by every train for instance. Croy remains half-hourly.
Still different to the present 15 min peak hour service, where the extra two servuces each hour serve Bishopbriggs and Lenzie.
Don’t know if this has already been mentioned above but Scotrail will be reintroducing the 15 minute frequency on the Edinburgh to Glasgow via Falkirk High service on Saturday’s, now the busiest day of the week.
I think the next round of changes should focus on the suburban services around Glasgow. It's not great that East Kilbride remains hourly after 19:45, along with the Maxwell Park side of the Cathcart Circle also remaining broadly hourly. (Though it is an improvement that theres some additional Cathcart Circle services until 11:15).
== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: ==
Not the same pattern as the old 15 min interval service though; Polmont and Linlithgow are served by every train for instance. Croy remains half-hourly.
Still different to the present 15 min peak hour service, where the extra two servuces each hour serve Bishopbriggs and Lenzie.
I think the next round of changes should focus on the suburban services around Glasgow. It's not great that East Kilbride remains hourly after 19:45, along with the Maxwell Park side of the Cathcart Circle also remaining broadly hourly. (Though it is an improvement that theres some additional Cathcart Circle services until 11:15).
== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: ==
Similarly Cathcart is hourly for a few hours in the evenings. Pretty poor service provision for a relatively busy suburban station in the largest city!
Looks like Cupar will be a call on every ScotRail Edinburgh-Aberdeen service for a trial period.
I always felt bad for Cupar, after the Aberdeen services were speeded up by introducing the semi-fast Dundee services, it only had an hourly service in comparison to Ladybank and Markinch (which had the Perth service) and Leuchars (which had the Aberdeen service). I think this is a good move.
Looks like Cupar will be a call on every ScotRail Edinburgh-Aberdeen service for a trial period.
I always felt bad for Cupar, after the Aberdeen services were speeded up by introducing the semi-fast Dundee services, it only had an hourly service in comparison to Ladybank and Markinch (which had the Perth service) and Leuchars (which had the Aberdeen service). I think this is a good move.
What I find ironic is that back when the Turbostars were introduced, the ScotRail Edinburgh-Aberdeen services all stopped at Haymarket, Kirkcaldy, Markinch and Cupar plus Inverkeithing one hour/Ladybank the other, then Leuchars. The standard timing then was 2h23 to Aberdeen, omitting all these stops has saved 3-4 mins.
Adding Cupar back in seems to mostly only add 1 or 2 mins...
I noticed also that some late night services to Fife have been curtailed at Inverkeithing Sunday to Thursday for electrification works – surprised they didn't just remove them altogether unless they're providing a replacement bus to/from Edinburgh.
Cupar stops on the Aberdeen services make sense given the Dundee semi-fasts were combined with the Kirkcaldy stoppers last May, and so the journey time to Edinburgh is now considerably slower.
I'm not sure if this is the case currently, but Monifieth seems to be skipped on several Dundee to Arbroath stoppers – is this for pathing reasons? They seem a rather inefficient use of resources at present given the round trip is slightly over an hour so two units must be used. I wonder if reinstating the third platform at Arbroath would reduce the turnaround time?
We are aware of an issue with emails from the Forum to Microsoft-based email accounts (hotmail/outlook/live.com email addresses). This is being looked into currently, thanks for your patience meanwhile.
