New Years Day timetable eccentricities

[HerstonHalt]

Every year I am struck by the wide variety of service levels offered on New Years Day. Almost every type of service can be found, from no service (Valley Lines, Tyne and Wear local routes), to a full Monday to Friday service (Transpennine and parts of Northern). Various other operators run timetables based broadly on Monday to Friday timetables with some minor amendments.

Obviously this leads to some bizarre anomalies. From a quick browse around I have spotted the following:

In Carlisle you can catch a train to the Cumbrian Coast as early as 05:15 or to the Settle and Carlisle line at 05:50, but you can't catch a train to Newcastle all day.

In Millom and numerous other places you can't catch a train today (New Years Eve) because there is no Sunday service, but the full unedited Monday to Friday service is available tomorrow. Whereas in Hexham or Hartlepool there are plenty of trains today but none tomorrow.

How can it be that the likes of Barmouth, Llandrindod Wells and Maesteg require services starting long before dawn on New Years Day (eg 0445 Shrewsbury-Llandrindod and 06:18 Llandrindod-Crewe) but Pontypridd and Merthyr Tydfil don't require any all day?

Anyone planning to commute into Greater Manchester from the Mid Cheshire Line will be extremely well catered for, as the 'rush hour' extras to and from Stockport are all running just like on any other weekday of the year (and unlike any weekend day). Residents of Glossop will similarly benefit from three trains per hour until 09:00, before settling back into a half hourly service for the rest of the day. By contrast on a Sunday the first train is not normally until 10:08!

Huddersfield will see 37 departures between 0600 and 0900. On a normal weekday this number is 42 and on a Sunday it is just 6.

I'm sure there are numerous other examples that could be quoted but I think I've illustrated my point!

I may be missing something, and I do accept that there may be local differences in activity on New Years Day (hence I have left Scotland out of the above which is clearly a different case), but most of the extreme examples above seem arbitrary and based on nothing other than the fact that it is how things have always been done. Would it be reasonable to guess that many of the areas with a weekday-based service have always had such a service since before New Years Day became a public holiday in 1974, and that similarly the areas without a service have never had one?

New Years Day is one of the quietest days of the year for travel, especially for local travel and especially in the morning, and it seems clear to me that in running a weekday service a very large amount of fresh air will be carried (and a very large number of traincrew will have to work). Bus operators run a Sunday service at most, and many run less than that. If someone suggested to a bus operator that they should run a weekday service on New Years Day they would be laughed out of the room. Local road traffic levels are also very low. Equally I find it hard to believe that there is no demand at all in the areas, some very close to the weekday service areas, which have no service.

In the South East most of the TOCs do what would seem to be the most sensible thing and run a Sunday service, and it is surprising to me that this isn't the standard across the board. I understand that running a Sunday service on a day which isn't a Sunday can cause complications with unit diagrams etc, but as the large southern-area TOCs seem to manage it this presumably isn't insurmountable especially given the scale of the potential cost savings.

Does anyone have any insight?

 

[Starmill]

This is very common. You see every range, much as you have described. Some operators are indeed running the Sunday service, some a slimmed down version of the weekday service either with or without a late start, and some simply no service.

For what its worth there is a reasonable case for intercity travel in the afternoon, although not really in the morning. It amuses me hugely that reseources are available for the completely unnecessary peak relielf services on the Glossop and Wharfedale lines (to give two examples) but none for any services on 26th December. There is a limited case for local trains. Here in Greater Manchester there is next to no local bus service at all on New Years Day but there was a relatively comprehensive service on Boxing Day for shopping and sports. The problem appears mainly to be down to the rigidity of franchising. Commercial bus services can operate on Boxing Day but often don't on New Years Day. The fact that the railway is more likely to run the inverse service tells you about how responsive to demand it is.

 

[matt_world2004]

According to citymapper trains are only stopping in one direction on new years eve at peckham rye which seems bizarre

 

[LowLevel]

West Midlands Railway deciding to run a Sunday service on New Years Day leaving the Shrewsbury line with a theoretical lack of service to the local stations and ATW having to put stops on their long distance trains instead. I can't remember London Midland ever having done that - on lines with no Sunday service operated by them on bank holidays they used to run Saturday services.

 

[Kite159]

According to citymapper trains are only stopping in one direction on new years eve at peckham rye which seems bizarre

It's the same in other places, the additional services put on to get people home are one way, running away from the centre of London.

 

[Taunton]

Operators ought to have a good idea of demand trends, but as the day falls on a different day of the week each year (being a Monday, followed by a 4 day work week, is different to it falling on a Friday), and given the limited length of franchises and their records, the experience may well be lost.

As I understand it the absence of trains on Boxing Day is enshrined in union agreements. As all previous attempts at changing the scope of such holiday services have led to extreme opposition, demands for excessive compensation, strikes, and such like, the franchise operators likely conclude it's not worth the effort. This is regardless of whether a new franchise would require a service on these days or not - if there's implacable opposition to running it you won't get anywhere.

 

[Carlisle]

1. The problem appears mainly to be down to the rigidity of franchising. Commercial bus services can operate on Boxing Day but often don't on New Years Day. The fact that the railway is more likely to run the inverse service tells you about how responsive to demand it is.

Given the amount of time and detail (especially since the West Coast fiasco) that must go into preparing and scrutinising every aspect of the franchise process these days it’s surprising these anomalies have simply beeng left as they are for so long .particularly on recently let TOCs eg northern

 

[Ianno87]

Going out gricing one New Years morning on a full weekday peak timetable (sans passengers) a couple of years back was just...bizarre! Total waste of resources....

 

[Dai Corner]

Are staff paid flat rate or an enhanced rate on New Years Day?

 

[matt_world2004]

Are staff paid flat rate or an enhanced rate on New Years Day?

I think london underground staff get a bonis for working new years day

 

[plymothian]

Normal TOC staff are likely to be flat rate due to bank holidays not being recognised, unless company negotiations have been made.
GWR staff will be on normal rate.

 

[PHILIPE]

Cardiff Valleys is a historical situation when in BR times and peoples habits and customs on New Years Day were different, the decision was made to suspend the service and this was carried forward into new Franchises without any thought being given to changing circumstances.

The current ATW franchise, due to expire late in 2018, commenced in 2003 as the same but, since then, there have been re-openings of the Ebbw Vale an Vale of Glamorgan (VOG) routes so the DfT specification allowed for services on these routes. An eccentricity here is that at Rhymney line there is no service but over the the hill at Ebbw Vale, there is.

The VOG services work through from the Cardiff Valleys but as the route itself is crewed by Cardiff Main Line crews rather than Valley crews it is possible to run a service. This means that Cardiff Valley stations from Cardiff Central to Barry can have a service on New Years Day.

I may be wrong but I'm sure I have read somewhere that the Valley conductors are not contracted to work on New Years Day.

Representations to ATW, being the contact rather than the DFT who specified the services, have fallen on deaf ears as ATW will do what the DFT tells them to do, nothing more and nothing less.

There is nothing to stop ATW from introducing a service on their own initiative but that would cost them money. Let's hope that things will be different on New Year's Day 2019 following the introduction of a new franchise without ATW being shackled by a franchise lasting 15 years.

 

[Failed Unit]

Are TPE really running the full peak service.

My local line (for tomorrow) Grimsby to Newark starts late. As it always has. First train 0930ish. No point in running earlier as the OP says.

Surprised all operators don’t start later than normal or at least reduced frequency.

 

[Segedunum]

Are TPE really running the full peak service.

My local line (for tomorrow) Grimsby to Newark starts late. As it always has. First train 0930ish. No point in running earlier as the OP says.

Surprised all operators don’t start later than normal or at least reduced frequency.

NYD 2016 saw TPE start with the 0708 Newcastle to Lime Street rather than the 0603. There were about 3 of us on the journey to York. Guard's announcement was "Happy New Year folks, this is the 0708 to Liverpool Lime Street, i've put the one or two reservation labels out but I don't think we really need to bother with them do we?"

This year they're running the 0533 and 0602 in addition!

 

[Andyh82]

Quite a ridiculous over supply running a normal peak weekday service. On local services should really be a Sunday service maybe starting late, and maybe ramping up to a Saturday service after lunch if demand requires it or if the Sunday service is particularly thin.

Long distance services probably should start late but then be a Saturday service.

I'm thinking if staff get a bank holiday rate could unions do the opposite to Boxing Day and complain that their staff are being denied additional wages (to pay fat cat bosses in Germany!) if NYD was slimmed down. If they don't get a bank holiday rate then I assume they'd prefer to have more chance of being off.

 

[MidnightFlyer]

The problem with saying things like 'It should start out a Sunday until midday then turn into Saturday, but remove some of the evening extras since it'll still be dead' is that by the time you get a plan together that fits all that criteria, you've probably wasted more man hours for your planning and resources teams than you would end up saving in the form of crew and unit costs.

I will agree that running a full weekday plan tomorrow is probably going to be over the top, but unless there's an easy answer such as just forming one diagram of a single 150 all day in lieu of a pair; or knocking out a couple of peak extras and directly saving a couple of traincrew then in all honesty it may just be easier to take the hit on over-provision for half a day.

 

[DanTrain]

Looks like TPE are running the 03:25 Sheffield to Manchester Airport. Saying that, I doubt it will be deserted as it's a decent time for people going home, not sure if this is early or late then!

 

[6Gman]

The problem with saying things like 'It should start out a Sunday until midday then turn into Saturday, but remove some of the evening extras since it'll still be dead' is that by the time you get a plan together that fits all that criteria, you've probably wasted more man hours for your planning and resources teams than you would end up saving in the form of crew and unit costs.

Indeed. In my train planning days at Crewe the services through Stourbridge Junction were thinned out on bank holidays. We were therefore instructed to remove the Stourbridge Town shuttles that connected into/ out of those trains. But since the return legs were usually needed to connect with services that were still running, and the unit and traincrew were still there it was really a huge waste of our time and a small copse of paper!

 

[tbtc]

The problem with saying things like 'It should start out a Sunday until midday then turn into Saturday, but remove some of the evening extras since it'll still be dead' is that by the time you get a plan together that fits all that criteria, you've probably wasted more man hours for your planning and resources teams than you would end up saving in the form of crew and unit costs.

I will agree that running a full weekday plan tomorrow is probably going to be over the top, but unless there's an easy answer such as just forming one diagram of a single 150 all day in lieu of a pair; or knocking out a couple of peak extras and directly saving a couple of traincrew then in all honesty it may just be easier to take the hit on over-provision for half a day.

Good points.

The railway is great but the railway is horribly inflexible - sometimes it's easier to suck up the losses caused due to a broad brush approach - keeping things simple for passengers and avoiding the need to haggle for paths (with NR) and deal with conflicting movements (with other TOCs).

So you either go for "normal service" or you go for Sunday service or you go for "no service" (which is the case in Tyne'n'Wear, the Valleys etc). That way passengers know what to expect.

That then creates some anomalies (where a tiny station gets a service but a normally busy one gets no trains), but coming up with a bespoke timetable for the day is probably more hassle than it's worth - otherwise there's other days when we could have a bespoke timetable (should we have different timetables to seaside destinations every half term? should Friday night frequencies be better than quiet nights at the start of the week? should commuter services be lower on Fridays due to the increasing number of people doing four days weeks?)

I'm more bothered about Boxing Day tbh!

 

[Andyh82]

In that case then I'd at least go for a Saturday service, which tends to start a bit later and doesn't have weekday peak extras.

Surely though planning a unique timetable is no different than when engineering work is effecting part of the network, or indeed when there is a strike on, or some sort of other disruption. Unlike those occasions a special NYD timetable could probably be the same every year.

 

[6Gman]

If only there was some unified body at a national - or even regional - level which could determine the appropriate level of service, rather than being tied to franchises of different timescales involving private companies with no interest in public service but only their own commercial returns ...

You could call it something like ... British Railways.

 

[gareth950]

Cardiff Valleys is a historical situation when in BR times and peoples habits and customs on New Years Day were different, the decision was made to suspend the service and this was carried forward into new Franchises without any thought being given to changing circumstances. The current ATW franchise, due to expire late in 2018, commenced in 2003 as the same but, since then, there have been re-openings of the Ebbw Vale and VOG routes so the DFT specification allowed for services on these routes. An eccentricity here is that at Rhymney line there is no service but over the the hill at Ebbw Vale, there is. The VOG services work through from the Cardiff Valleys but as the route itself is crewed by Cardiff Main Line crews rather than Valley crews it is possible to run a service. This means that Cardiff Valley stations from Cardiff Central to Barry can have a service on New Years Day. I may be wrong but I'm sure I have read somewhere that the Valley conductors are not contracted to work on New Years Day.
Representations to ATW, being the contact rather than the DFT who specified the services, have fallen on deaf ears as ATW will do what the DFT tells them to do, nothing more and nothing less. There is nothing to stop ATW from introducing a service on their own initiative but that would cost them money. Let's hope that things will be different on New Year's Day 2019 following the introduction of a new franchise without ATW being shackled by a franchise lasting 15 years.

The next franchise is due to be for another 15 years. That could end up being a blessing or curse, depending on whether Welsh Govt have to competence to get it right from the start this time.

ATW advertising that there will be *NO VALLEY LINE SERVICES* tomorrow has caused confusion for people online. When you mention the 'Valley lines' or 'Cardiff Valleys' many people automatically class Vale of Glamorgan services in that (myself included) as they normally operate to & from the Valleys, so thought there were no trains between Bridgend - Barry - Cardiff tomorrow.

It's also misleading tweeting that out as Ebbw Vale is a South Wales Valley! When questioned on twitter, ATW's response was that 'these are services that run via the mainline' so are not Valleys services! Joe public know the difference do they? The other 364 days of the year when do Barry services ever go via the mainline?

 

[Agent_Squash]

If only there was some unified body at a national - or even regional - level which could determine the appropriate level of service, rather than being tied to franchises of different timescales involving private companies with no interest in public service but only their own commercial returns ...

You could call it something like ... British Railways.

Is running many peak time extras which will be empty really 'no interest in public service' - it sometimes seems this forum will try and find any argument for nationalisation it can.

 

[the sniper]

I'm thinking if staff get a bank holiday rate could unions do the opposite to Boxing Day and complain that their staff are being denied additional wages (to pay fat cat bosses in Germany!) if NYD was slimmed down. If they don't get a bank holiday rate then I assume they'd prefer to have more chance of being off.

Your thinking is fantasy. While it'd be fashionable here to assume lazy commie entitled rail staff get fantastical enhancements for working on a bank holiday, I'm afraid to disappoint you by saying that for the vast majority I know of, bank holidays outside of Christmas Day and Boxing Day are just the same as any other weekday.

 

[Seaeagle]

I think london underground staff get a bonis for working new years day

That hasn't happened for years, went out sometime during the 90's. They get paid extra for working New Years Eve night, but no extra for working any bank holiday.

 

[30907]

If only there was some unified body at a national - or even regional - level which could determine the appropriate level of service, rather than being tied to franchises of different timescales involving private companies with no interest in public service but only their own commercial returns ...

You could call it something like ... British Railways.

Many of these variations pre-date privatisation, such as WYPTE (as it was) insisting on a full weekday service on all Bank Holidays (while GMPTE didn't, so Tod lost its peak extras to Manchester...).
Going back further, somewhere around 1960 there was comment in the railway press about the confusion on the South Western Division by electric trains running to the Sunday timetable but steam trains to a modified weekday one... (understandable if you look at the then Sunday service level).

 

[xotGD]

Don't we still have 'BHX' in timetables indicating those early morning / rush hour services that don't run on Bank Holidays?

 

[Mojo]

I think london underground staff get a bonis for working new years day

No, they don't.

 

[Macwomble]

Scotrail have the right idea......absolutely nowt running.

 

[Statto]

Merseyrail operating a Sunday service although Realtime Trains showing a Saturday service with delays & cancellations lol, as normally Merseyrail operate a Saturday timetable on Bank Holidays.