Early Departure Times?

[StewieG]

Is it common for trains to leave earlier than scheduled/advertised??

Waiting to get the train back from Middlesbrough today to Darlington, the train left at xx:48 leaving myself and a few other confused passengers left on the platform.

Fair enough we should have been there earlier, but to leave 2 minutes early, withthe departure board saying xx:48 as well was weird...

 

[Mintona]

It could be a revised timetable for leaf-fall, did you check the time before you went or just use "previous knowledge"?

 

[MCR247]

Is it common for trains to leave earlier than scheduled/advertised??

Waiting to get the train back from Middlesbrough today to Darlington, the train left at xx:48 leaving myself and a few other confused passengers left on the platform.

Fair enough we should have been there earlier, but to leave 2 minutes early, withthe departure board saying xx:48 as well was weird...

If the departure board said xx48 then the service was scheduled/Advertised to depart then

 

[The Planner]

Sounds iffy, you often can have public times shown departing before working times though, and public arrival times shown arriving after working times.

 

[StewieG]

Nah it's departure time was meant to be 15:50 according to NR and my Iphones XC app. Yet when it departed, the departure board
also said it's scheduled departure time was xx:50, and as I say, it left at xx:48 leaving myself and at least 8 other passengers behind

 

[royaloak]

The database which works on real time says it arrived at 1544 and departed at 1550, now as it works in 1/2 minutes that means the earliest it would have left was 1549 and 31 seconds, hardly 2 minutes early.
I take it the train you are on about is 2D25 1520 Saltburn to Bishop Auckland.

 

[The Planner]

I thought TRUST rounded down regardless of the amount of seconds ?? ie: if it left at 15:49:59, the departure would still read 1549 ??

 

[StewieG]

The database which works on real time says it arrived at 1544 and departed at 1550, now as it works in 1/2 minutes that means the earliest it would have left was 1549 and 31 seconds, hardly 2 minutes early.
I take it the train you are on about is 2D25 1520 Saltburn to Bishop Auckland.

Erm... I don't think so... If it had left 'ontime' I would have been on that train... It definitely left at xx:48. And it wasn't there when I went to the toilet at quarter to... So it wasn't there at xx:44 as the database says

 

[Trains06]

Its certainly not very common - Only early departure Ive seen is a Virgin Pendolino a bit back scheduled to leave at 22:23 leave at 22:19 - luckily wasn't my train

 

[HORNIMANS]

Ithink this is a practice that should be abolished, no point having a time table if trains leave when they like?

 

[Trains06]

Haha! Quite

 

[ChrisTheRef]

Staff info confirms that the train left - as scheduled - at 1550, having arrived 4 minutes early at 1544 (due 1548)

Maybe the station clock was wrong?

 

[royaloak]

Well it doesn't happen very often, its usually passengers turning up at the last minute and missing it, but of course its easier to blame the train isn't it!
I have given the info off the log which shows it left on time, end of.
Now station clocks can be a bit different, at Woking P3 I was on the 1833 to Waterloo and the CIS screen said we were on time, which we were, but the time displayed was 38.22.38 so we are obviously now on a 39 hour day.

 

[yorkie]

It is possible the station clock was wrong; it does not appear that the train left early - but it is quite possible for the train to have left a few seconds, maybe up to just under a minute early, but not 2 minutes. Unless something strange is going on!

 

[First class]

Departed from platform 1 at MBR ON TIME 1550. It actually arrived 6 minutes early and waited for it's booked departure slot.

Was on time right through it's journey, arriving BIA at 1646.

Headcode: 2D25 UID: G58077 22/11/2009 1520 Saltburn [SLB] to Bishop Auckland [BIA]
This Train is operated by Northern.

But seriously, even if it had left early, who leaves it 2 minutes before their train is due? You're almost asking to be left behind!!

 

[royaloak]

As StewieG states, if the train left at 1549 and 50 seconds then it would have shown on the log as 1549, but as the log shows 1550 then it left between 1550 and 01 second and 1550 and 59 seconds.
thanks for correcting me earlier, I was thinking of the WTT

 

[Darandio]

It confuses me how a train left from Middlesbrough for Darlington today. The line is blocked due to the road being ripped up at Thornaby and being moved across to the new bridge that has been built. Therefore, there are rail replacement buses between Middlesbrough and Darlington.

The possession started at 22:30 last night and is due for the whole of today.

Are you sure it didnt just head off to the sidings behind the signal box in order to allow another service to use the platform?

 

[First class]

the train ran via the following route:

 

[Darandio]

Very confusing then. Is that concrete what is shown there, or is it similar to traintracker where trains that aren't even running miraculously arrive on time.

It's just that Northern Rail and others are still showing the Thornaby portion as closed all day with rail replacement.

 

[royaloak]

That is 100% concrete, guaranteed.

 

[Darandio]

Well, do we give credit to Notwork Fail for delivering a job early! Or did they not bother to start, although I went past about 8pm last night and everything was there ready for the possession, even personnel.

 

[Trains06]

Sorry - maybe a newbie question but what is that you got that info from?

 

[royaloak]

from a website that the public are not entitled to use.

 

[Trains06]

Okie Dokie :roll:

 

[royaloak]

I know its not fair, but could cause issues if too many people want to play, sorry about the earlier post just read it back and its a bit curt and not as nice as it was supposed to sound.

 

[Trains06]

Ok :roll:

Thanks anyhow

 

[thefab444]

Firstclass takes a far too liberal attitude with it's use - I hope he realises quite a few people will be very angry if that website is locked out/taken down due to people posting links/print screens all over the internet.

 

[87015]

Firstclass takes a far too liberal attitude with it's use - I hope he realises quite a few people will be very angry if that website is locked out/taken down due to people posting links/print screens all over the internet.

Which is very unlikely to happen. If they wanted it to be anywhere near 'secure' they'd at least make some effort to tighten up the passwords - there is nothing particularly sensitive on there anyway, most of it it published on the public LDB versions anyway.

 

[StewieG]

Well, regardless of whatever - I feel Yorkie's idea is the most entertaining. If it was logged as saying it left at xx:50, then it must have done... BUt the clocks, hand on heart, on the Departure Board, said xx:48

 

[jon0844]

I have access to the staff website and tonight, coming back from York on East Coast, I was tracking my connecting train at Stevenage in case we arrived late and missed the train and had to wait another hour.

The data actually changed from start to end - and so I am beginning to believe that it IS possible that the supposed hard record could have been different to reality.

We were connecting with a train leaving Cambridge at 2155, first stop Foxton, then Shepreth and so on. It arrived at Foxton 2 minutes early, then showed as having arrived at Shepreth the same time it was supposed to leave Foxton (so, still 2 minutes early). This suggests it left early from Foxton - or else the stations must be VERRRY close together.

However, upon subsequent refreshes nearer its position in relation to Stevenage, it had mysteriously changed to 1 minute late at Foxton and On Time pretty much the rest of the journey, (subsequently getting to King's Cross 9 minutes early thanks to recovery time).

How does a train go from being 2 minutes early to showing as 1 minute late? I saw this with my own eyes, but sadly I don't have a screen capture because I had no reason to think the data would change!

Perhaps the OP was still right about the early departure after all.