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How busy have your trains been?

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philosopher

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I have been on two return trips on Saturday and Monday from London to Birmingham with Avanti West Coast since the start of the third lockdown. All four trains had about 10 to 15 passengers in the carriage. In paper this does not seem too bad, however Avanti have reduced the number of trains between London and Birmingham from 3 to 1 per hour.

Most of the London Northwestern trains that the trains I were on overtook all looked really quiet, with there only appearing to be one or two people per carriage. However the 1214 New Street to Euston London Northwestern train on Saturday did look reasonably busy, the carriage I saw looked like it has 20 to 30 passenger in it.
 
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james60059

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Couple of times the last week (Tuesday and Thursday), I've been at the Tesco by Hinckley Station getting some bits for work as a Birmingham service departed at 11:09 - both 3 car services and hardly anybody on them - 11 one day and 13 the other
 

route101

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1748 from Glasgow to East Kilbride yesterday. 4 car 156, had a semi decent load. every other bay filled in my carriage.
 

Paul Jones 88

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SEML, Charing Cross has recently been running 4 car trains once an hour to Ramsgate via Ashford so some services have been very busy, next week will be interesting with the huge amount of school children at Tonbridge and Sevenoaks and to a lesser extent Padlock Wood entering the fray.
 

Kite159

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10:59 Grateley to Whitchurch. 8 passengers on board when it arrived with 2 joining. Around 10 boarded at Andover.

15:51 Whitchurch to Grateley. Couldn't tell how busy it was on departure from Whitchurch but at least 8 alighted at Andover. 5 passengers on board after Grateley.

Both single units.
 

Peter Mugridge

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My food shopping trip today... roughly 30% more people travelling than a month ago, on all stages of the journey.

I really hope all these extra people are actually buying tickets...
 

ScotGG

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Danger is that once it becomes the norm for people not to buy, a real struggle to then change that. Depends on route of course, barriers and staff on board, but in some areas a permanent culture shift can occur
 

yorksrob

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Northern have been very good at checking tickets recently, to their credit.
 

LowLevel

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Danger is that once it becomes the norm for people not to buy, a real struggle to then change that. Depends on route of course, barriers and staff on board, but in some areas a permanent culture shift can occur

Experience last time round suggests it took a couple of weeks at most once you're back at it as long as you crack on with it.

I'm a big lad and just open my local door on trains I'm anticipating will be a problem, for the first week, no money, no ticket gets a refusal and an instruction to stand in the naughty corner, then when everyone else has boarded a warning that "we aren't stupid, but we are checking again and if you haven't got a ticket, you won't be allowed on". Word soon gets around.

Second week is your money or your life. No ticket or means, you get left behind.

A few people with suitable bulk and personality doing that soon gets things sorted - even drug runners and general pains in the backside don't like being left on a platform.

One morning last year I left 8 out of my 12 intending passengers stood on the platform and made them late for work (but only by about 20 minutes with the next train) after I'd warned them the previous day on the same train. Two days later all had tickets :lol:
 

Scotrail12

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1557 Queen St LL - Airdrie (originated at Balloch) was 3 carriages and totally rammed yesterday. Huge groups of young teenagers all taking up full rows without distancing at all and lots of other people on the train as well. People are travelling about and it's just going to get more obvious, government need to wake up.
 

D6130

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Calder Valley services getting busier and busier in the last few weeks. My wife made an essential journey from Hebden Bridge to Halifax and return last Wednesday to have her first Covid vaccination - 3 car 195 each way, approximately three-quarters full in each direction. Large groups of teenagers travelling to and from the skateboard park at Hebden Bridge - no masks, no social distancing. Lots of family groups having a day out - lockdown has become a complete joke! No ticket inspections on the trains, but my wife reported an RPA barrier check at Halifax. I have to go to Burnley next Wednesday for my first vaccination, so it will be interesting to see what it's like then after the schools have gone back. In more general terms, Hebden Bridge is a bit of a tourist honeypot these days and every weekend - including this one - the town centre is thronged with day-trippers milling around, drinking takeaway coffee, eating takeaway food, dropping litter and letting their dogs poo all over the pavements without picking it up. The majority arrive by car (the car parks are often full), but a small proportion arrive by train and an even smaller proportion by bus. Rant over!
 

Jamesrob637

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Northern have been very good at checking tickets recently, to their credit.

Not on my trains last Thursday they didn't. Mind you, I was in the front 331 of a 6-car set on two journeys, and another journey was only very short, literally 5 minutes with a station stop in the middle as well! Anyway there is a separate thread for ticket checks.

My trains last Thursday looked as follows:
3-car Heaton Chapel to Manchester Piccadilly probably had 10-15 people per carriage - the busiest I've seen one for a while however it was the first off-peak service from Stockport, Heaton Chapel and Levenshulme into Manchester.
6-car Manchester Oxford Road to Bolton around 10am was nearly empty in the front set: can't say for the rear set.
2-car Bolton to Farnworth at 10:30 had a few on it - but it was short-formed according to Journey Check. Probably would have been much more spread out had it been a 4-car. This highlights how important a booked double set is, especially in these times.
6-car Manchester Oxford Road to Heaton Chapel at 15:50 was almost empty in the front set until a few more boarded at Piccadilly. Again I can't say for the rear set.
Kudos to Northern for having kept all Blackpool services booked 6-car.
 

route101

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Was through Edinburgh yesterday, first time since November.
0857 East Kilbride to Glasgow Central, Id say about 40 to 45 % loading.
0945 Glasgow Queen St to Haymarket. 4 car 385, quieter about 20% loading.

1607 Edinburgh to High St, 3 car 334, about 50 % loading from Haymarket, quiet after Bathgate.
1818 Glasgow Central to East Kilbride, 4 car 156, about 30 % loading.

Did notice police at top of Waverley steps yesterday, I didn't see any get questioned or pass them. Looked like they would question people as one officer was on stair side and other escalator. No police at the ramp sides, so anyone could avoid them and go that way.
 

route101

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Noticed a group of Business travellers come off a pendolino at Glasgow Central other day, something you don't see often nowadays.
 

Jamesrob637

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Noticed a group of Business travellers come off a pendolino at Glasgow Central other day, something you don't see often nowadays.

Would've surprised me more had you seen them in Edinburgh. Glasgow is very business-orientated especially since the Commonwealth Games revamped large parts of the city in the 2010s.

Closer to home (for me), a Southport to Manchester Oxford Road had a couple of dozen over 4 coaches between Farnworth and Salford Crescent, and a Leeds to Wigan Wallgate had around three dozen over 3 coaches between Salford Crescent and Atherton. Again, both small journeys were part of daily exercise.

Trains are definitely getting a little busier, but still a long way off pre-COVID levels. Much busier than during lockdown one, but use this term relatively not absolutely, since between late March and May/June 2020 they were mostly absolutely dead.
 

route101

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Would've surprised me more had you seen them in Edinburgh. Glasgow is very business-orientated especially since the Commonwealth Games revamped large parts of the city in the 2010s.

Closer to home (for me), a Southport to Manchester Oxford Road had a couple of dozen over 4 coaches between Farnworth and Salford Crescent, and a Leeds to Wigan Wallgate had around three dozen over 3 coaches between Salford Crescent and Atherton. Again, both small journeys were part of daily exercise.

Trains are definitely getting a little busier, but still a long way off pre-COVID levels. Much busier than during lockdown one, but use this term relatively not absolutely, since between late March and May/June 2020 they were mostly absolutely dead.
Just as much business traffic to Edinburgh I think. Just not a common sight at the moment.

Yes more people are using the trains, for essential and non essential reasons.
 

MDB1images

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Noticed a group of Business travellers come off a pendolino at Glasgow Central other day, something you don't see often nowadays.
Haven't had a business traveller in 1st Class on a Anglo-Scot service since February 20 so a very rare sight(and a positive one at that).
 

route101

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Haven't had a business traveller in 1st Class on a Anglo-Scot service since February 20 so a very rare sight(and a positive one at that).
This was a group of them too. I have seen the odd one or two come off the Euston service.
 

Kite159

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11:20(ish) arrival into Salisbury had 10 'passengers' on board at the end
11:33 Salisbury - Portsmouth had around 9 passengers (including myself). Of which 8 were all in the middle coach

15:55 Mottisfont & Dunbridge - Salisbury had 2 passengers (including myself) at Salisbury
16:47 towards Basingstoke had ~ 5 passengers

Carpark at Grateley had 2 vehicles parked at 11:00 (plus 2 vehicles picking up passengers from the Ex-Basingstoke service). 1 car at 5pm
 

Hadders

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Stevenage to London yesterday was relatively busier than normal. Outward at SVG I counted over 30 passengers waiting to board the 08:25, I couldn't count them all but there must have been more than 50 alighting from the 17:55 arrival.
 

infobleep

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I'm on the 18:15 Gatwick Airport to Guildford service. When I got on just myself in the back carriage departing Gatwick Airport, save guard in their hole.

I saw one peeosn in the next carriage

More were waiting to board at Redhill. Well I assume they wanted this train. We even used platform 0 for a change. I guess many of the Redhill to Reading stoppers use that and this is one of those, abet running from Gatwick Airport and terminating at Guildford. Once we departed my carriage was now the front one. Actually this is running in place of the fast service, abet its stopping at all stations between Redhill and Guildford.

By the time we departed Dorking Deepedeene, I was the only one in my carriage and there was two I could see in the next carriage.

This perticular service is clearly not making a profit. I just hope things pick up soon as from 19 April there isn't a direct service from Gatwick Airport to Guildford on a Sunday. One is listed from 2 May though, so hopefully that will still run.
 

infobleep

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Today I'm on the 17:40 Guildford to Gatwick Airport. The back carriage had 6 or 7 people in it when I boarded it. Looked like a lot of school children had got off.

Before arriving at the station I saw on National Rail Enquiries the platform of 4. As I was going along the footbridge I saw the train arrived. On to 4 I go and no train.

Turns out it bad switched to platform 6. So I legged it round and as it so happened, I had time to board still.

Perhaps it was announced just prior to my arrival at the station.

Once on board I opted for the coach second from the back. This also had either the same amount of people or just slightly less.

I do wonder what the optimum number for a service to break even is. I do appreciate some trains will be busy than others and offset the cost of running the quieter trains and of course stay at home is the current message, so I'm not expecting the trains to actually break even.
 

route101

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0825 from East Kilbride to Glasgow Central, decent load.
Yesterday around 4pm Glasgow Central was fairly busy, back to pre Xmas Pre Lockdown busyness.
 

Jamesrob637

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Do you remember this discussion 9 months ago when emerging from first lockdown? Trains are/will be busier in the next few weeks because there are fewer of them! This is why timetables need to be ramped up ASAP.
 

Kite159

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Do you remember this discussion 9 months ago when emerging from first lockdown? Trains are/will be busier in the next few weeks because there are fewer of them! This is why timetables need to be ramped up ASAP.

Definitely

Especially those which are heading towards the seaside or other tourist hotspots possible with daytrips (S&C line for residents of West Yorkshire for example)
 

ChiefPlanner

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Observations from working at St Albans South today are trains are carrying people (as opposed to being completely empty - especially the slow trains) - but a long way to go. 20 per train , admittedly off peak.

A Welsh correspondant reports 20 per car , Swansea to Paddington - with much the same on the District line to Wimbledon. Some way to go then. But better than a year ago.
 
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