How busy have your trains been?

[infobleep]

So this evening I got the 19:57 Surbiton to Guilford.

Surbiton has a one-way system on the right as opposed to the usual left at most stations. This is due to the small single file stairs that go down to platforms 3 and 4. I wonder if anyone would be brave enough in these times to go up that side of the stairs? People use to. If I was in a rush, I'd squeeze past them. They shouldn't be there.

As ever I'd allowed just enough time to catch the train. There was a stream of people going up the stairs so the train was fairly busy I guess.

As I got towards the bottom of the stairs the guard started rapidly blowing his whistle.

I thought have I misjudged the time so I ran to the train. I hadn't. It was just a guard being very passionate about blowing the whistle multiple times. They were like this at every other station. The doors started to close at 20:56.26, so keen to close the doors too.

Once on the train it was busier than this morning but not too busy. I guess most had left at Surbtion. I didn't pay too much attention to who got on and off before Guildford but by the time I reached Guildford, early, of course, there was only one other person in my carriage. I say early by the passenger timetable.

This isn't far off what it was like pre covid-19, save the train might not be early into Guildford

 

[LowLevel]

On Sunday I noted around 100 westbound on the 1840 EMR Sheffield to Liverpool.

Peak loadings still down but off peak increasing with some ad hoc strengthening needed on various East Midlands routes. People are starting to head back to Skegness as well.

 

[LowLevel]

Approximately 80 people noted on the 1529 Nottingham to Lincoln departing this afternoon, 2 car 156

 

[ChiefPlanner]

On good authority , and from a high level source - whilst long distance traffic for now remains "soft" - local and metro services around South London are hitting about 50% at the moment.

My own experience on Thameslink this week (off peak) , and the Shenfield line was "almost normal" off peak - and the London Underground doing much better. Thanks to lockdown easing my neighbour (not been on a train since March 2000) was able to go St Albans to Fitzrovia for a well deserved and anticipated hair makeover.

Long way to go though.

 

[Mag_seven]

The government needs to drop the "work from home" instruction if passenger numbers are to get even anywhere near where they were pre pandemic.

 

[Jamesrob637]

The government needs to drop the "work from home" instruction if passenger numbers are to get even anywhere near where they were pre pandemic.

The risk being too much overcrowding for reduced frequencies at the moment though.

 

[WestRiding]

The government needs to drop the "work from home" instruction if passenger numbers are to get even anywhere near where they were pre pandemic.

If stuff goes to plan, when shoild the work from home instruction end....?

 

[Bald Rick]

The risk being too much overcrowding for reduced frequencies at the moment though.

No, frequencies are fine. The risk is too much overcrowding for the current social distancing requirements.

 

[JonathanH]

If stuff goes to plan, when shoild the work from home instruction end....?

The earliest it will be removed is during June as described here.
https://www.railforums.co.uk/thread...g-of-restrictions.214216/page-89#post-5082929

 

[alansheppard77]

No, frequencies are fine. The risk is too much overcrowding for the current social distancing requirements.

frequencies far from fine,my line Scarborough to Hull still 2 hourly

 

[Bald Rick]

frequencies far from fine,my line Scarborough to Hull still 2 hourly

I should have said frequencies are fine, generally. Clearly there are some lines / stations with a reduced service. (Including mine).

 

[Watershed]

I should have said frequencies are fine, generally. Clearly there are some lines / stations with a reduced service. (Including mine).

Reducing a service that's normally 1tph to 1tp2h means a 30 minute increase in GJT.

A decrease to a 'mere' 4tph off-peak (as in your case) is going to make very little difference to the GJT.

 

[JonathanH]

A decrease to a 'mere' 4tph off-peak (as in your case) is going to make very little difference to the GJT.

There seem to be 10 trains an hour from St Albans to St Pancras all day at present, even with a 'reduced' timetable. What is a GJT? Ah, Generalised Journey Time (from a posting in 2018)

 

[Watershed]

There seem to be 10 trains an hour from St Albans to St Pancras all day at present, even with a 'reduced' timetable. What is a GJT? Ah, Generalised Journey Time (from a posting in 2018)

I was only counting the non-overtaken services, and within those, the non-stop/one-stop options. Overtaken services are not considered when calculating the GJT.

 

[bramling]

No, frequencies are fine. The risk is too much overcrowding for the current social distancing requirements.

... which is a difficult problem to solve. There’s plenty of people who are going to be hesitant to travel on a train if this means getting too close to others. Doing something like sticking 4-car units on everything could prove counter productive.

 

[Techniquest]

Very quiet on yesterday's 1039 Hereford-Birmingham New Street, although I was only on it as far as Colwall. The 1150 Paddington-Hereford on the journey home was really quiet, more passengers than on the 170s but not by much.

Of course, most of the passengers were probably further east, or soaking up the sunshine outside. I sure took advantage of it with a new coverage mission on the bike!

 

[Class360/1]

post removed, accidentally posted same thing twice, due to my wifi connection

 

[Class360/1]

frequencies far from fine,my line Scarborough to Hull still 2 hourly

I agree, I reckon in east anglia we are going to face massive problems with overcrowding , especially on Colchester to Walton services, wherry and east Suffolk lines in the summer are jam packed.

 

[richw]

I’m currently on GWR 2C05 and 4 carriage hst, each carriage has 1 family or group. Plenty of distancing

 

[Bald Rick]

I agree, I reckon in east anglia we are going to face massive problems with overcrowding , especially on Colchester to Walton services, wherry and east Suffolk lines in the summer are jam packed.

But they are all at normal frequencies, no?

 

[Jamesrob637]

But they are all at normal frequencies, no?

Look at Manchester to Chester via Altrincham. Popular with daytrippers, and walkers in Delamere Forest (phone autocorrected to Delaware ) 2-hourly simply isn't enough especially on weekends. Plus it's a school route to and from Knutsford Grammar and Trafford.

 

[Bald Rick]

Look at Manchester to Chester via Altrincham. Popular with daytrippers, and walkers in Delamere Forest (phone autocorrected to Delaware ) 2-hourly simply isn't enough especially on weekends. Plus it's a school route to and from Knutsford Grammar and Trafford.

I was talking about Anglia

 

[DannyMich2018]

I agree, I reckon in east anglia we are going to face massive problems with overcrowding , especially on Colchester to Walton services, wherry and east Suffolk lines in the summer are jam packed.

What about the Yarmouth route? Early October last year me and my partner went to Yarmouth for a few day's break. A quite well loaded Class 755/3 from Ely to Norwich, changed at Norwich to a virtually empty Class 755/4, had no more than about 6 people on whole journey with just me and my partner and one other I think alighting at Yarmouth!! Return back to Norwich was a bit busier with more joining en route but still very quiet. Also when we went Asda during the stay seen another service arrive and depart with hardly anyone getting off. By contrast on both journeys while changing at Norwich observed much busier services to nearby Lowestoft.

 

[whoosh]

So this evening I got the 19:57 Surbiton to Guilford.

Surbiton has a one-way system on the right as opposed to the usual left at most stations. This is due to the small single file stairs that go down to platforms 3 and 4. I wonder if anyone would be brave enough in these times to go up that side of the stairs? People use to. If I was in a rush, I'd squeeze past them. They shouldn't be there.

As ever I'd allowed just enough time to catch the train. There was a stream of people going up the stairs so the train was fairly busy I guess.

As I got towards the bottom of the stairs the guard started rapidly blowing his whistle.

I thought have I misjudged the time so I ran to the train. I hadn't. It was just a guard being very passionate about blowing the whistle multiple times. They were like this at every other station. The doors started to close at 20:56.26, so keen to close the doors too.

Once on the train it was busier than this morning but not too busy. I guess most had left at Surbtion. I didn't pay too much attention to who got on and off before Guildford but by the time I reached Guildford, early, of course, there was only one other person in my carriage. I say early by the passenger timetable.

This isn't far off what it was like pre covid-19, save the train might not be early into Guildford

My TOC is Driver Only, but a notice went up last year saying that Station Staff should not use whistles due to the possibility of Covid contaminated moisture droplets from the blown air.
No such instruction on SWR then?

Some TOCs were looking into electronic whistles, but there hasn't been much need for whistles during the low passenger numbers in the months of lockdown.

 

[SteelWeelApeal]

Loadings on 1218 Reading to Moreton in Marsh and 1654 back again were about the same as precovid off peak. Much busier than a few weeks before.

 

[Watershed]

My TOC is Driver Only, but a notice went up last year saying that Station Staff should not use whistles due to the possibility of Covid contaminated moisture droplets from the blown air.
No such instruction on SWR then?

Some TOCs were looking into electronic whistles, but there hasn't been much need for whistles during the low passenger numbers in the months of lockdown.

As far as I am aware, SWR guards all now use electronic whistles, which are sounded through the press of a button.

 

[Scotrail314209]

Quite a busy load on the 1834 Glasgow to Ayr, most seats taken in the rear carriage. If scotrail think they can get away with early curtailment of services after April 26th, they’ve got another thing coming.

 

[RomeoCharlie71]

Quite a busy load on the 1834 Glasgow to Ayr, most seats taken in the rear carriage. If scotrail think they can get away with early curtailment of services after April 26th, they’ve got another thing coming.

I thought I read that they are to increase capacity on the existing services until mid-May changes? (not that that's any good for anyone travelling after 8pm!)

 

[Scotrail314209]

I thought I read that they are to increase capacity on the existing services until mid-May changes? (not that that's any good for anyone travelling after 8pm!)

The main concern is that after April 26th, people are going to want to stay out late. A last train at 8pm doesn’t really appeal to anyone.

This 18:50 Glasgow - Largs has a very heavy loading on it this evening. Most seats in each carriage taken.

 

[STINT47]

Loadings on the derwent valley line were healthy today in terms of leisure passengers but not commuters.

From my viewpoint at Duffield the EMR services during the day were pretty full with walkers and families but the services used by comuters such as the 16:57 from Duffield were not busy. Pre covid a steady stream of people would leave this train but today it was just a few passengers.

Looks like leisure travel is doing ok but people aren't using rail for work so much anymore

One point to note is that during the day EMR are running a train every two hours so this would have potentially made some services busier than with an hourly timetable.