TRIVIA: Overnight Non-Sleeper Services

[Ayman Ilham]

Not sure if this has already been discussed before elsewhere, but what are some examples of train services (preferably long-distance) that run through a large chunk of the night (i.e. starting before midnight but reaching its destination around 4-5am or at least late enough that you don't have to wait long for the first service of the day) other than the sleeper services? This may be an option for ALR-users if they are far from home and are looking for an alternative to sleeper trains or hotels to keep the budget down.

 

[30907]

2343 Bedford to Brighton /0002 return both take 3hr - but would you want to use them?
Slightly better would be the overnight York-Manchester Airport (or v.v.) and back, which would allow you a round trip and possibly a little sleep.
Most comfortable might be the last trains of the evening north from London, but you'd be asked to leave the station in the early hours

 

[CarrotPie]

Not sure if this has already been discussed before elsewhere

There was a discussion on it here.

 

[Ayman Ilham]

There was a discussion on it here.

Just found another thread recently started here which has some interesting ideas. The Brighton to Bedford one and back from midnight to 6am is not a bad shout, provided you go for the declassified first class at the back.

 

[greyman42]

Just found another thread recently started here which has some interesting ideas. The Brighton to Bedford one and back from midnight to 6am is not a bad shout, provided you go for the declassified first class at the back.

There is a similar service from Kings Cross to Peterborough which departs 0136 and gets back to kings Cross at 0451 which can help fill the night in.

 

[LUYMun]

Certainly not long distance, but GWR runs hourly London Paddington-Reading semi fast services throughout the night.

 

[Wilts Wanderer]

Certainly not long distance, but GWR runs hourly London Paddington-Reading semi fast services throughout the night.

Not quite hourly. During the week there are departures from Paddington to Reading at 0045, 0142, 0334 and 0505 before the daytime service commences. From Reading to Paddington it is slightly better, trains run at 0115, 0224, 0354, 0435 and 0510.

 

[FGWHST43009]

There are a couple that run on the ECML. There's the 2100 and the 2200 from King's X to Newcastle, the 2133 and the 2315 to Leeds and the 2300 to York. Southbound there's the 1936 from Edinburgh to King's X and the 1818 from Aberdeen to Leeds. I think most of these arrive between midnight and 2 in the morning. Was thinking of using one these or a slightly earlier train to get back to Newcastle from South Wales (connecting in London) once. Looking further afield Deutsche Bahn's fleet of Stadler KISS trains bought from Westbahn are still maintained in Austria so DB run them overnight to get them to and from the depot but they run them as a normal service rather than ECS.

 

[nineteenninety]

As mentioned above, TPE running night services between Manchester & Leeds/York are ideal for early morning connections from aforementioned stations. As an enthusiast, I've found myself using these when I was bashing the XC HST off Leeds early doors.

 

[Whistler40145]

Network SouthEast used to run overnight services between Birmingham New Street and London Euston, quite useful for doing Railtours

 

[LUYMun]

LNWR runs a nightly London Euston-Milton Keynes Central stopping service, departing London at 01.39 and arriving at MKC by 02.46. It then returns to London, departing MKC at 03.30 and arriving in London by 04.37.

 

[FGWHST43009]

Looking on RTT shows there's still a few GWR trains running late night/early morning from Paddington. In particular both the 2148 and 2246 from Paddington to Swansea are routed via Barry (not stopping) between Cardiff Central and Bridgend

 

[diffident]

Network SouthEast used to run overnight services between Birmingham New Street and London Euston, quite useful for doing Railtours

This sounds interesting. What were the timings for these?

 

[lione87023]

This sounds interesting. What were the timings for these?

There was an 00:15 Birmingham New Street - London Euston for many years (including Saturday night / Sunday morning). IIRC it used to arrive at Euston at around 02:45. I suspect it finished in about the years 2002/2003 but could have been earlier.

 

[D6975]

The 2333 KGX - Leeds in theory gets into Leeds at 0213, but in practice, due to being set down only all the way invariably gets to Leeds in plenty of time to get on the 0211 departure to Manchester Airport. (typically arrives LDS before 0200).