Whats the Point of Set Down only?
ReWind:
Was travelling on the 23.35 BRI - EXD yesterday, as far as Taunton, and apparently some stations ( I think Highbridge and Bridgwater ) were set down only meaning passengers could get off but not get on.
Whats the point of this? If the train is stopping at the station and passengers can get off, then surely it makes no difference to the running of the train if passengers can get on too.
Are the a lot of services like this?
northwesterntrains:
The underlying reason will usually be to put local passengers on local trains rather than boarding an inter-city/express/longer distance train for a short journey.
The reasons for doing this include faster journey times for express trains and to prevent longer distance trains being overcrowded by local passengers.
It used to be the case that you couldn't do Stockport-Manchester on a London-Manchester train. However, an increase in London trains and a decrease in local trains to accommodate this has seen this decision reversed.
However, I can think of a valid reason to do it on other services. When Virgin increased the frequency of Chester-London and Manchester-London via Crewe services they removed calls at Crewe for Glasgow-London and Liverpool-London services. However, this has been criticised as it reduces the frequency of trains between Crewe and Warrington/Wigan/Preston/Lancaster/Glasgow by 50% even though Crewe-London hasn't really been affected, so a set-down only call at Crewe on southbound trains and pick-up only on northbound could overcome the problem and still put Crewe-London passengers on the less crowded trains.
John R:
Although northwesterntrains answer is correct in the majority of cases where set down only is used, for the service in question the reasons are more practical.
If the service is cancelled due to engineering work, taxis can be used to take pax from Bristol to their stations, but are not required to turn up speculatively at stations where there are highly unlikely to be any passengers.
Also, it can run early after Bristol to try and get ahead of engineering work further down the line - in some instances resulting in an arrival at Exeter 30 minutes ahead of time by not having to wait at single line working.
northwesterntrains:
Also in the case of engineering works a TOC may need to call at a station that they usually don't call at, from there a bus may be arranged to a station that the operator usually calls at so the set-down or pick-up restriction could be to prevent one TOC from taking another TOCs passengers.
paul7575:
Some other factors.
The famous (in enthusiast circles anyway) Virgin 'Pretendolino' loco hauled Friday relief set is set down only throughout. This means it can depart once everyone has got off at a particular station, as there shouldn't be anyone waiting.
Late night trains are often set down only for slightly similar reasons - experience will have shown no-one ever gets on. An example is SWT's late Eastleigh to Portsmouth service around 0030. It is all stations but no pick ups - and is also a regular bustitution for engineering works. So the set down only restriction means they only have to organise taxis from Eastleigh, and don't need to position them at every other station for pickups as well.
Of course there are also many examples of pick up only calls as well - normally to keep local pax off the faster long distance services outbound from main London stations. Watford Jn and Clapham Jn are good examples where this restriction is operated.
Paul
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