Odd Stations to Change At

[trickyvegas]

...why? :?

Surely it would have been easier to just wait for the Rose Hill service :?

I was getting a bus from High Lane into Marple and the route was suggested by Traveline.

 

[Welshman]

Indeed. They are often written by people in an office hundreds of miles from where the journey is being made though, and almost always by people with no local knowledge.

When I was on the West Coast I would see people with print outs telling them to get off of the Euston bound express at Watford and then catch a stopper into Euston from there because the advertised arrival time of the stopper was a minute earlier than the express due to padding of the journey time on the long distance train.

Interesting. A similar thing used to happen with journeys from Grantham to Leeds. On certain trains, the NR Planner advised passengers to change at Wakefield Westgate because the closely-following XC service did not have the padding for the 15 minute-section the EC had, so, technically it was advertised as arriving in Leeds before it!

Of course, those familiar with the route chuckled and stayed on the EC train, knowing there was no way one train could overtake another between Westgate and Leeds, but I wonder how many unfamiliar folks fell for it.

 

[Mark_re]

There are a few times when the journey planner suggests changing at Basingstoke on a Southampton - Waterloo journey. Of course it's often a good idea to catch the XC up there and then change on to an Exeter/Bristol - Waterloo train, but the arrival into Waterloo is sometimes 1 minute before the direct Southampton - Waterloo train, which leaves Southampton 15 minutes later and avoids a potentially dodgy connection at Basingstoke.

Much the same in reverse: the 1820 (to Exeter) is suggested as sensible departure from Waterloo to Winchester, changing at Basingstoke to pick up the XC service. It's a pretty big gamble, though, as the connection is very tight and if the 1820 picks up a delay, you'll miss the 1910 out of Basingstoke. And of course the 1835 ex-Waterloo is first stop Winchester.

 

[martinsh]

3 or 4 years ago when travelling Crewe - Oxford, the journey planner suggested changing at Birmingham International. On enquiring closer I found that Virgin were diverting Crewe - London once an hour via Bescot, first stop International, then a 5 min interchange onto an XC to Oxford. Total journey time lest than 2 hours, which I could never have done by the obvious changing at New Street ! [ Worked in reverse direction too !]

Also once had to change at Burton on Trent when travelling Nottingham to Crewe due to train being diverted at last minute via Castle Donnington and not stopping at Derby !