May 2021 Timetable Change

[dk1]

AIUI all Wightlink services between PMH and Ryde are currently suspended, with tickets being accepted on Hovertravel instead. Since that's more easily reached from Portsmouth and Southsea, and Gunwharf Quays is presumably largely closed, demand to PMH is probably much reduced.

Would be a good opportunity to take a ride on the hovercraft with my free BR facilities if only non essential travel was currently permitted.

 

[387star]

Is the Sunday morning GWR service which runs empty to Romsey and then in service to Brighton resuming in full? All the other Sunday services to Brighton resumed in December although I'm not sure any have seen the light of day due to diversions via eastleigh and other engineering works

 

[DelW]

Would be a good opportunity to take a ride on the hovercraft with my free BR facilities if only non essential travel was currently permitted.

I presume the Wightlink fastcat suspension is the result of both much reduced demand due to Covid restrictions, and the absence of trains on the island due to the line being rebuilt. The hoverport at Ryde is much more convenient for the buses including the RRBs. Nothing bigger than a minibus is allowed on the pier.

 

[387star]

If the first service on a Sunday from Portsmouth to Bristol is still around 11 that seems far too late . Was cut back from around 9 am in December. The circa 11am one I believe should be a Brighton starter that's not running

Seems this isn't changing

 

[High Dyke]

Indeed. One of the issues here is that the improved Skegness line timetable hasn't happened, originally there was to be an early morning Boston to Newark, and I believe a late evening Doncaster (or Newark) to Boston service, but due to issues with the signalbox opening hours this hasn't happened.

In fairness Network Rail made changes to the signalbox opening times in January. All locations between Hubberts Bridge and Ancaster opening earlier. This was based on the lack of information about improved services to/from Boston. Ironically with the information now available signal boxes on that route are facing having opening times reduced; purely a cost cutting exercise by local NR management.

The improvements between Lincoln and Peterborough are something. Perhaps they'll even consider a Sunday service on the line?

 

[dk1]

I presume the Wightlink fastcat suspension is the result of both much reduced demand due to Covid restrictions, and the absence of trains on the island due to the line being rebuilt. The hoverport at Ryde is much more convenient for the buses including the RRBs. Nothing bigger than a minibus is allowed on the pier.

Yes. I tend to only connect both ends by rail.

 

[HamworthyGoods]

If the first service on a Sunday from Portsmouth to Bristol is still around 11 that seems far too late . Was cut back from around 9 am in December. The circa 11am one I believe should be a Brighton starter that's not running

Seems this isn't changing

There’s enhanced overnight access on Sunday mornings for a year (Dec 20-Dec 21) to help NR get some projects over the line including the Bristol track remodelling.

 

[pompeyfan]

Yes. I tend to only connect both ends by rail.

the bus from Portsmouth & Southsea is free for anyone with a valid rail ticket/pass/smart card as well

 

[dk1]

the bus from Portsmouth & Southsea is free for anyone with a valid rail ticket/pass/smart card as well

Thanks for the info mate.

 

[Mintona]

Did the half hourly fast Bristol service ever get going fully? I had two runs in the up direction. Both times I got off the up Swansea at Bristol Parkway and waited for the fast which followed about 10 minutes later. On one occasion the Swansea was delayed around Didcot so the fast overtook it at Reading. Result!

No, they were supposed to get going properly in May 2020 but obviously things changed in March. Interesting that they still appear in realtimetrains though, I guess there must still be an aspiration to run them at some point.

 

[RealTrains07]

RTT has some of the timetable changes uploaded already. Especially on the EMR side of things from what I have seen. Not sure about other TOCs?

Then again iam not sure what other TOCs have major changes coming in May apart from EMR?

 

[Bald Rick]

RTT has some of the timetable changes uploaded already. Especially on the EMR side of things from what I have seen. Not sure about other TOCs?

Then again iam not sure what other TOCs have major changes coming in May apart from EMR?

They should all be up now. Quite a lot of changes compared to the service running now.

 

[172101]

RTT has some of the timetable changes uploaded already. Especially on the EMR side of things from what I have seen. Not sure about other TOCs?

Then again iam not sure what other TOCs have major changes coming in May apart from EMR?

It looks like the only TOC that has not got anything loaded is SWR.

 

[Bald Rick]

It looks like the only TOC that has not got anything loaded is SWR.

That’s imminent.

 

[swt_passenger]

RTT has some of the timetable changes uploaded already. Especially on the EMR side of things from what I have seen. Not sure about other TOCs?

Then again iam not sure what other TOCs have major changes coming in May apart from EMR?

The last 5 pages of discussion in this thread have been about most other TOCs. You‘re right EMR is the most significant, but many other areas have been mentioned...

 

[172101]

Thank you.

On the news today was the reopening of the passenger service to & form Oakhampton from May, however nothing is shown for this. You can't even do a search for Oakhampton as the name is not available.

 

[Anvil1984]

Thank you.

On the news today was the reopening of the passenger service to & form Oakhampton from May, however nothing is shown for this. You can't even do a search for Oakhampton as the name is not available.

Have you tried using its proper spelling - OKEhampton. Saying that I don't think its confirmed as opening by May. The reports in the news says reopened by end of the year with work to start immediately on the works needed

 

[Watershed]

Thank you.

On the news today was the reopening of the passenger service to & form Oakhampton from May, however nothing is shown for this. You can't even do a search for Oakhampton as the name is not available.

The name is Okehampton, you may have better success with that spelling

 

[PHILIPE]

Thank you.

On the news today was the reopening of the passenger service to & form Oakhampton from May, however nothing is shown for this. You can't even do a search for Oakhampton as the name is not available.

Okehampton Timetabling is separate and here:-

www.railforums.co.uk/threads/exeter-to-okehampton-services-from-may-2021-timetable.214677/

 

[swt_passenger]

Thank you.

On the news today was the reopening of the passenger service to & form Oakhampton from May, however nothing is shown for this. You can't even do a search for Oakhampton as the name is not available.

Even if you spell it right you won’t see any trains, as they’ve been removed again since they were first discussed in the thread @PHILIPE highlighted...

 

[Starmill]

I think the meaning being conveyed is that the start is anticipated merely at some point during the upcoming timetable period, not necessarily at the start of it.

 

[southern442]

There's a few sneaky little things that are worrying me about the Southern timetable change. It seems Beckenham Junction line services are now peak hours only - even as we recover from a pandemic that isn't acceptable. There also seem to be some 2-hour gaps in places between services on the Uckfield line.

 

[berneyarms]

There's a few sneaky little things that are worrying me about the Southern timetable change. It seems Beckenham Junction line services are now peak hours only - even as we recover from a pandemic that isn't acceptable. There also seem to be some 2-hour gaps in places between services on the Uckfield line.

Not sure how you're concluding that regarding the Beckenham Junction branch?

Here's the service for a random weekday in June:

Realtime Trains | Departures from Beckenham Junction all day on 16/06/2021

Train information at Beckenham Junction all day on 16/06/2021. From Realtime Trains, an independent source of train running info for Great Britain.

www.realtimetrains.co.uk

Similarly here's the Uckfield Line which is hourly throughout except at the end of the day:

Realtime Trains | Departures from Uckfield all day on 16/06/2021

Train information at Uckfield all day on 16/06/2021. From Realtime Trains, an independent source of train running info for Great Britain.

www.realtimetrains.co.uk

 

[southern442]

Not sure how you're concluding that regarding the Beckenham Junction branch?

Here's the service for a random weekday in June:

Realtime Trains | Departures from Beckenham Junction all day on 16/06/2021

Train information at Beckenham Junction all day on 16/06/2021. From Realtime Trains, an independent source of train running info for Great Britain.

www.realtimetrains.co.uk

Similarly here's the Uckfield Line which is hourly throughout except at the end of the day:

Realtime Trains | Departures from Uckfield all day on 16/06/2021

Train information at Uckfield all day on 16/06/2021. From Realtime Trains, an independent source of train running info for Great Britain.

www.realtimetrains.co.uk

That's unusual, they weren't there when I last checked
I was primarily going off of this website which has been used in this thread before, but it might well be that it hasn't updated properly. Similarly last time I checked RTT they weren't that frequent. At least that's put my worries to rest!

 

[PHILIPE]

That's unusual, they weren't there when I last checked
I was primarily going off of this website which has been used in this thread before, but it might well be that it hasn't updated properly. Similarly last time I checked RTT they weren't that frequent. At least that's put my worries to rest!

The final versions will appear in Journey Planning systems and still liable to be undergoing some tweaking until then.

 

[RailAleFan]

That's unusual, they weren't there when I last checked
I was primarily going off of this website which has been used in this thread before, but it might well be that it hasn't updated properly. Similarly last time I checked RTT they weren't that frequent. At least that's put my worries to rest!

The Comparison Tool uses the weekly (Saturday AM) RSP feed, RTT updates daily as I understand it so anything appearing there as of the last few days should be in the RSP feed tomorrow.

I note that the future timetable completion indicators appear misleading in this case as they refer to the TOC as a whole not by location (green indicating > 75%) so I'll review how this works (it's a lot of data so mostly cached!)

 

[theironroad]

That’s imminent.

Any chance you know how imminent?

 

[Bald Rick]

Any chance you know how imminent?

Next week.

 

[theironroad]

Next week.

Ok, cheers.

Is this a new 'normal' timetable that will last intact until December at least or just more amendments to the current 'emergency' timetable?

 

[AJW12]

ScotRail presumably hasn’t been finalised yet… a lot of services looking no different to December’s timetable. The Far North and West Highland routes are back to full timetables, but nothing added to the Highland mainline - only every 2 hours (a gap of 2h40m in the afternoon) south to Glasgow/Edinburgh. Hardly going to be enough to accommodate / attract people to visit areas like the Cairngorms, is it?