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Hafren
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« Reply #31 on: May 31, 2009, 18:48:55 » |
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My experience is similar - conductor tells the driver after checking tickets, and 1 buzz will then be given for any extra stops needed. Until they've finished checking, the driver will stop - last time I went on the Heart of Wales line, the conductor started checking at Llanelli, and didn't seem to finish until Llandeilo, leading to stopping everywhere (which meant he had to stop checking every few minutes) which didn't help with timekeeping! Coming back, the conductor didn't seem to give the driver the list of required stops, and just gave 2 for no-stops. Except at Sugar Loaf, where passengers are unusual!
Still in Wales, but bringing it back to FGW▸ , HSTs▸ and request stops produce an interesting mix. The Summer Saturday Pembrokeshire Coast Express workings miss out the halts on the Pembroke branch, but the balancing trains make request stops. In practice a lot of crews just treat them as mandatory stops - the timetable appears to allow a minute for each one these days so it doesn't do any harm if the train's on time. On the afternoon up working in particular, when there can be a lot of passengers on at Tenby, and short runs before the request stops at Lamphey and Kilgetty, it would be difficult to check the whole train and then rush to the right door for SDO▸ at the next stop. In the morning the requests are more useful - yesterday it stopped at every station but I didn't see passengers at many of them.
On the other hand, on one occasion last year the 1455 PMD-PAD» was doing request stops. In fact, it was the end of the season, and there was no-one for Saundersfoot, where there's a proper stop with long dwell time for holidaymakers... but the TM‡ gave 2 and the train pulled away, and ended up being 2 minutes early at subsequent stops. Similarly, it's common for ATW▸ conductors to treat Manorbier as a request stop on down trains (it's a mandatory stop in the timetable and up trains have to stop for the crossing). This could create problems for uninitiated passengers - the timetable says the train will stop, and on rural routes people often travel short of the destination shown on the ticket, e.g. see sights or walk to another station, so the conductor wouldn't know they're going there and they wouldn't think to say.
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