South Western Railways Waterloo - Bristol services axed

[whole diary]

[Mark A]

I remembered this thread touched on through services in the North East when I saw this news from The BBC^» (British Broadcasting Corporation - home page)

A train company is planning to scrap one of its train services to London due to low passenger numbers and a lack of trains.

LNER^» (London North Eastern Railway - about) said it would no longer run from Sunderland to London Kings Cross from December, with the service instead starting in Newcastle.

The operator said the service had low passenger numbers since it was introduced in 2015 and passengers could still travel to London using other companies.

or am I getting confuse with this daily service

07:08 Middlesbrough
07:15 Thornaby
08:13 York
10:20 Kings Cross

15:27 Kings Cross
17:21 York
18:08 Thornaby
18:18 Middlesbrough

The morning train's arrival from Sunderland at Kings Cross being just after 9am, is very peak-timey, with fares to match. A Sunderland resident is looking at £550 for a return to London first class on the LNER through train, or £275 standard.

Book in advance, and that brings rail travel costs down to £217 there and back, advance 1sts available for ~£350. Return tickets aren't sold.

And indeed, the Sunderland LNER service is a separate train to the one from Middlesbrough (and turning to Middlesbrough, this looks to be peak time in both directions, so... 1st Class both ways is £616 or £387 standard class, though there does seem to be rather more availability of advance fares).

A quick dip into National Express coach prices from either Sunderland or Middlesbrough looks to be about £15-£25 each way with a journey time of around 7 hours.

Mark

[paul7575]

The eventual aim is a direct Kings Cross - Middlesbrough via Northallerton service every 2 hours. AFAICT^▸ (as far as I can tell) that might take passengers off Grand Central’s Sunderland open access which doesn’t directly connect with Middlesbrough, but picks up passengers from the area at Eaglescliffe.

The Middlesbrough trains are and will be completely separate to the once a day Sunderland service.  The relatively short lived Sunderland runs in marginal time via Newcastle, ie the early up train leaves Heaton depot and runs empty to Sunderland through Newcastle, then back to Newcastle in service, presumably it then heads off in the normal timings for a Newcastle starter.  Same for the late down train, it runs to Sunderland from Newcastle, then empty back to Heaton depot via Newcastle.  So effectively the Sunderland service doesn’t require additional rolling stock.

Coincidentally, the empty stock for the first Middlesbrough up service runs empty through Sunderland, and vice versa at end of the day.  (It does make you wonder if those services could serve Sunderland instead.)

Paul

[Mark A]

Fast forward to July 2024: not saying that the loss of the service affected any if the outcomes as there are far greater forces at play* but happy to see the backs of a couple of the transport secretaries who oversaw those times.

Mark

*HS2^▸ (The next High Speed line(s)) phase 2a being a consideration asfar as the rail network is concerned.

[grahame]

Fast forward to July 2024: not saying that the loss of the service affected any if the outcomes as there are far greater forces at play* but happy to see the backs of a couple of the transport secretaries who oversaw those times.

Mark

*HS2^▸ (The next High Speed line(s)) phase 2a being a consideration asfar as the rail network is concerned.

I am getting some sleep ... running a wind-down environmental hustings meeting this afternoon and I will be working on transport futures for the area.    Yes, I have read Labour's ideas, and listened to our new Lib Dem MP^▸ (Member of Parliament)'s views and look to see how we can ask them to move things along appropriate lines for passengers but also in line with their policies, requirments, dogmas.

[Mark A]

A quick reflection at the weekend that we're still in the month that, three years back and mid-pandemic, saw the last Saturday Bristol to Waterloo services, at a time when the Saturday services in particular were rapidly rebuilding their passenger numbers.

Given the years of diversions east of Reading to Euston looming large, cutting these really does now look to have been one of the less inspired moves by the DfT^» (Department for Transport - about). If I never see that advertising screen again it'll be too soon.

Here's that photo of the last Saturday morning service at Bath Spa. I revisited the station the following Saturday at the time it would have run, place was dead.

Mark

[ChrisB]

Given the years of diversions east of Reading to Euston looming large,

Eh?? 
A few days a year - 18 at most for one year. Might all add up to a month in total.

[Mark A]

Now look at it again from the POV of someone who's tied up weekdays and uses trains at weekends.

Mark

[ChrisB]

So even fewer days diverted to Euston then. About 2 (1 weekend) a year on average, the worst year being 3 weekends (6 days)