The Ormskirk - Preston and the Wigan - Kirkby lines are local to me and has never had a Sunday service barring one day in 2016 IIRC. I'm sure we could populate this thread with more examples across the country but I ask is it acceptable to still have No Sunday Services any more?
No, it isn't. Sunday is a normal shopping day and also the day when families whose parents don't work take days out - without a rail service they're doing it by car.
A different
timetable is probably justified, as the shopping day is compressed - so a late start and a thin service on local routes before about 1000 and after about 1900
is probably justified. But not an early finish, as that causes issues for those who have been away somewhere and are coming back with the last bit on the local route.
Interestingly Northern had agreed, I understand, to trial a Sunday service on the Ormskirk-Preston line, but then the dispute and timetable/crewing issues caused them to knock it on the head.
My opinions only. Bedford to Bletchley would never warrant a Sunday service. Without going into loads of timetables I sure there are lines that need a Sunday service.
It does justify one (at least as much as it justifies one on any other day
) on three grounds:
1. Sunday is a shopping day;
2. Connectivity - it's a useful link between the WCML and MML in both directions, which is useless for a weekend away if you can't use it to get home on Sunday;
3. It goes through some fairly nice places which are popular for people going walking etc, which is a pursuit often (if not primarily) undertaken on Sundays.
If anything I reckon you'd get more custom on a Sunday between about 1100 and 1600 than you would in the same time range on a typical weekday.