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How busy have your trains been?

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LowLevel

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0735 Leicester to St Pancras fast was pretty heavily loaded, all bays taken in first class both ends and most seats in standard. 10 car 222.
 
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boiledbeans2

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I'm on the 00:09 Waterloo to Guildford. Last departure from Waterloo for the day.

It's full and standing with a lot of people standing around the doors. I managed to get a seat after Wimbledon when some got off.

I was expecting an empty train. I've been on the Saturday post-midnight stopping services to Guildford and they were always rather empty trains.

I guess SWR needs to provide later last trains on weekdays.
 

Failed Unit

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It is hard to judge if passenger numbers are returning or if disruption is playing a part in this.
All EMR services between Grimsby and Newark I have taken in the past few weeks are standing room only.

Between WGC and London all about 75% full in evening (2030 London - WGC the last one) and full in the Morning peak.

However a lot of services are still missing from the timetable including the London - Cambridge fasts which may be making the ones that stop at WGC busier then they would be.
 

LowLevel

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It is hard to judge if passenger numbers are returning or if disruption is playing a part in this.
All EMR services between Grimsby and Newark I have taken in the past few weeks are standing room only.

Between WGC and London all about 75% full in evening (2030 London - WGC the last one) and full in the Morning peak.

However a lot of services are still missing from the timetable including the London - Cambridge fasts which may be making the ones that stop at WGC busier then they would be.
EMR Regional has always had a lot of pent up demand caused by infrequent services and the operation of class 153s. I regularly work trains that are now full and standing 2 cars that were once 153s leaving people behind and so on.
 

Killingworth

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EMR Regional has always had a lot of pent up demand caused by infrequent services and the operation of class 153s. I regularly work trains that are now full and standing 2 cars that were once 153s leaving people behind and so on.

EMR Regional on Liverpool - Norwich is one of the worst. A string of medium distance local services with some quite long cross country journeys interworking with other operators and picking up delays across the land. Add short forms and cancellations of their own and other TOCs and it's all but impossible to judge true demand for the overlapping services.
 
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Failed Unit

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EMR Regional has always had a lot of pent up demand caused by infrequent services and the operation of class 153s. I regularly work trains that are now full and standing 2 cars that were once 153s leaving people behind and so on.
It certainly has amazed me how busy the trains are. I often use the 1735(ish) from Lincoln - Nottingham. It leaves Lincoln with Standees but then the 1635 is missing. It is hard to tell if the 1735 is fuller because of this or if the missing train(s) are actually more likely to have people drive.

But it would be very sad if the Lincolnshire routes didn't go upto hourly as promised when the franchise was awarded. I know it is more important for EMR to re-instate the services that were removed as part of the Covid / reliability changes (I see a lot of Lincoln - Newark Northgates return in December)

My experience of EMR regional at the minute is they are doing their best, but if you were trying the service for the first time as an alternative to driving you wouldn't be converting to rail just yet. On Sunday a lot of people change at Lincoln for Grimsby from the London services that do have a decent connection (TPE are not the best) making a very full train. But a lot of the time talking 1h57 connections between the 2 if you are going south. People from Market Rasen will just drive to Lincoln.

But it is amazing the growth since the 153s went, it will be even bigger if the regional routes ever got an hourly service.
 

infobleep

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Yesterday I got the late running 14:19 Guildford to Woking service.

Being only 5 carriages it was busy but I could have had a seat if I wanted.

I then picked up the 14:33 Woking to Surbiton service. It had a scattering of people in some of the carriages but the one I chose, carriage 4 of 8, was practically empty when I boarded it. It got busier as we headed to Surbiton.

In the evening I got the 18:47 Surbiton to Clapham Junction service. It was early into Surbiton and early into Clapham Junction. It was 8 carriages and reasonably busy but there were seats if one wanted to sit down.

At Clapham Junction, I got the late running 19:15 to East Croydon as the 19:12 was cancelled. It was a fairly busy 8-carriage train so I decided to stand. I could have waited for the 19:22 to Haywards Heath but I couldn't be certain it would depart on time.

Once at East Croydon I went to platform 3 to find a non-stop train to Gatwick Airport that was about to depart. A member of the platform staff helpfully pointed this out in case I was expecting it to stop elsewhere.

I wasn't. This class 700, which had been due to go to Gatwick Airport via Redhill, was devoid of most of its passengers as they wanted stations between East Croydon and Gatwick Airport. As a result, it was a very quiet service and very pleasant.

In the back declassified first class compartment there were just 3 of us.

I decided I would change at Gatwick Airport as I would expect the train I could have got from Clapham Junction to Haywards Heath, to be busy and I only need to experience that got 10 minutes.

We headed to Gatwick Airport via the query line so got held outside the station whilst an up train departed. Then we were put into platform 1, crossing the other lines to get there

Once at Gatwick Airport, I didn't hang around as I knew the train to Haywards Heath would be behind the one I was on.

As I got to platform 7, my train pulled in.

I managed to get a single seat near the disabled loo.

The train wasn't as busy as I had been expecting but busy enough.

This evening I got the slightly late running 18:12 Haywards Heath to Gatwick Airport.

It would say it was medium-full. I then picked up the 18:29 Gatwick Airport to Guildford service and this was busy but there were seats free.

It may be too early to notice an increase in passenger numbers. I will be travelling to London later this week so u might get some idea then
 

boiledbeans2

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Yesterday I got the late running 14:19 Guildford to Woking service.

Being only 5 carriages it was busy but I could have had a seat if I wanted.

I then picked up the 14:33 Woking to Surbiton service. It had a scattering of people in some of the carriages but the one I chose, carriage 4 of 8, was practically empty when I boarded it. It got busier as we headed to Surbiton.

In the evening I got the 18:47 Surbiton to Clapham Junction service. It was early into Surbiton and early into Clapham Junction. It was 8 carriages and reasonably busy but there were seats if one wanted to sit down.

[...]

It would say it was medium-full. I then picked up the 18:29 Gatwick Airport to Guildford service and this was busy but there were seats free.

Out of interest, how did you buy a ticket for this journey?
Guildford to Clapham Junction (via Woking), then back to Guildford (via Gatwick)
As a Guildford to Clapham Junction ticket is only valid via Woking and not Gatwick Airport.
 

infobleep

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Out of interest, how did you buy a ticket for this journey?
Guildford to Clapham Junction (via Woking), then back to Guildford (via Gatwick)
As a Guildford to Clapham Junction ticket is only valid via Woking and not Gatwick Airport.
Farncombe has the route not via London, which allows one to travel via either Clapham Junction or Dorking. Not via London does mean you can't travel via London but most of the time I don't need to do that.
 

davews

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Out of interest, I am planning a walking trip tomorrow in the Twickenham area. I am expecting my train, 0905 from Martins Heron, to be busier than normal but wondering how much and being the first off peak train there may well be a rush of people heading up to London to pay their tributes.
 

Hadders

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18:12 peak time extra from Kings Cross to Peterborough was fully loaded, all seats taken with several standing. Not seen it that full since pre-covid.
 

JonathanH

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GWR really quiet westbound through Swindon this morning. Front coach to myself on the 5-car 0828 from Swindon to Cheltenham (and there weren't many on the Bristol train I took from Reading to Swindon either). (47 passengers in total)

No particularly significant numbers going the other way either.
 
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WizCastro197

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Sorry this was a week ago but.

On Friday the 9th the 17:11 Southern Service from Reigate to London Victoria was extremely busy. All the way to Victoria no one got off at the big stations presumably because they wanted to pay respects to the queen...
 

philosopher

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10:37 from London Marylebone to Birmingham Moor Street was very quiet today with probably less than 10 people in the carriage I was between London and Leamington Spa. It got a bit busier after Leamington Spa. This train had 7 carriages and does not normally run on Saturdays.
 

zero

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The SWR commuter trains that run past my house seem to be very full throughout the day, every day (maybe even a bit more last week because of the funeral).

At present I am travelling around the ECML and the parts of EMR that are linked to it, and they all seem emptier than April/May this year.

Also my tickets have not been checked at all on any trains. On LNER a TM did walk down asking for tickets, but nobody showed them even though we had all just boarded at the previous station, and she didn't say anything...

I am seeing a lot more masks than over summer, maybe 5%. I took a bus from Peterborough and it was 50% masked! All elderly though - but the non-effective type of masks... No FFP2 or better
 

railfan99

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Yesterday I was on the 1729 hrs Birmingham New St to Nottinghan.on time departure with about 20 standing in the last of three cars. I stood until we departed Tamworth.
 

PGAT

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0728 from Selhurst to Epsom Downs is full and standing, despite being in the opposite direction of peak travel.
 

WizCastro197

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0728 from Selhurst to Epsom Downs is full and standing, despite being in the opposite direction of peak travel.
I have been noriticng this with Southern recently. Opposition flows are equally as busy as the right direction of flow in the morning or evening.
 

Kite159

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Saw a 2 coach 165 depart Reading for Basingstoke yesterday evening leaving passengers behind due to being full

Thankfully there was a voyager 15 minutes later to allow those who couldn't board to travel to Basingstoke to avoid both the gamble with rail replacement buses & the longer journey time.

An Elizabeth Line service in the morning was quite busy after Maidenhead, had to fight to get off at Iver.
 
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