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How busy have your trains been?

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bramling

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The trains around East Lancashire seemed quite busy, considering the lockdown by stealth.

I did a little run up the GN Peterborough route this afternoon, partly as there was somewhere I needed to go, and partly taking the opportunity to get some 365 action.

It was surprisingly busy, I’d have thought with the engineering work and thus no service to London it would be largely empty, but not so at all - though I had no trouble getting the front carriage to myself both ways. It was also an hourly service compared to half hourly on a normal Saturday.

Like some of my observations earlier in the week, the demographic was again conspicuously trashy. This doesn’t bode well to be honest. I know Saturdays don’t bring out the suit types, however this looked like what one would find on the Skegness line in summer rather than Home Counties; or perhaps to put it another way more like what one would expect to find on buses round here rather than the railway. Clearly a lot of people are still deserting the railway.
 
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yorksrob

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I did a little run up the GN Peterborough route this afternoon, partly as there was somewhere I needed to go, and partly taking the opportunity to get some 365 action.

It was surprisingly busy, I’d have thought with the engineering work and thus no service to London it would be largely empty, but not so at all - though I had no trouble getting the front carriage to myself both ways. It was also an hourly service compared to half hourly on a normal Saturday.

Like some of my observations earlier in the week, the demographic was again conspicuously trashy. This doesn’t bode well to be honest. I know Saturdays don’t bring out the suit types, however this looked like what one would find on the Skegness line in summer rather than Home Counties; or perhaps to put it another way more like what one would expect to find on buses round here rather than the railway. Clearly a lot of people are still deserting the railway.

The clientelle on my trains seemed sufficiently trashy. It included me afterall :lol:

Joking aside, the trains were lots of young people, lots of families as you'd expect.

To be fair the Blackpool North - Leeds/Colne services have never got many suit and tie types to start off with. I think that Northern's traditional lack of ABC1 types is probably a more robust client base.
 

greyman42

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I travelled on the 1158 York to London yesterday. There were 2 passengers including myself in the coach i was sat in.
 

route101

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0957 East Kilbride to Glasgow Central, good load on a 2 car 156. Hardly anyone gets on at Busby for some reason now compared to other stations.
 

bramling

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The clientelle on my trains seemed sufficiently trashy. It included me afterall :lol:

Joking aside, the trains were lots of young people, lots of families as you'd expect.

To be fair the Blackpool North - Leeds/Colne services have never got many suit and tie types to start off with. I think that Northern's traditional lack of ABC1 types is probably a more robust client base.

Yes I remember doing Blackpool to Colne a few years back. Mill Hill was quite an eye-opener, everyone who got on there looked malnourished, a whole family got straight in the toilet and re-emerged the moment the train stopped at Blackburn, whilst the rest who got on all sat looking shifty.

Jokes aside though, the London area operation isn’t going to be supported by Jeremy Kyle families, which was what I saw last Saturday. For the simple reason that there aren’t actually that many of them.
 

Jamesrob637

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Yes I remember doing Blackpool to Colne a few years back. Mill Hill was quite an eye-opener, everyone who got on there looked malnourished, a whole family got straight in the toilet and re-emerged the moment the train stopped at Blackburn, whilst the rest who got on all sat looking shifty.

Jokes aside though, the London area operation isn’t going to be supported by Jeremy Kyle families, which was what I saw last Saturday. For the simple reason that there aren’t actually that many of them.

South Manchester trains and trams are like London in terms of the suited types pre-COVID.

From Tuesday last week, here is some feedback from the West Midlands:

15:31 from Wolverhampton to Birmingham - only around 4-5 in my carriage and lightly-loaded in general. 8-car London North Western Railway service

16:04 from Birmingham to Coventry - around 10 in my carriage and again not well-loaded. 9-car Cross Country service

18:47 from Canley near Coventry to Birmingham - me and a friend were the only ones in our carriage until Birmingham International whereupon one other boarded. 8-car London North Western Railway service

19:30 from Birmingham New Street to Wolverhampton - around six or seven in our carriage. 9-car Cross Country service

22:14 from Wolverhampton to Stockport - around ten in my carriage until Stoke-on-Trent then around half a dozen thereafter. 8-car Cross Country service

23:20 from Stockport to Heaton Chapel - think us two were the only ones in the front 3 carriages and one or two in the rear three carriages. 6-car Northern service

On Monday I did two very brief train journeys plus some other transport:

08:14 Heaton Chapel to Manchester Piccadilly - a fair few seats taken but nowhere near as busy as it would have been pre-COVID given it's a 6-car service and gets people into the city centre perfectly comfortably for a 9am start.

A National Express coach from Manchester to Birmingham was reasonably well-loaded - we were mandated to sit in window seats which didn't bother me in the slightest. Most window seats were occupied.

15:59 Duddeston to Four Oaks - up to ten in my carriage between some of the stops but I was in the very front coach of a 6-car train so coaches further back may have been a little busier

Midland Metro (actually a tram!) from Bilston to Wednesbury was almost dead - maybe ten on the entire tram. Mind you it was after 20:00 on a Monday evening.

Buses around the West Midlands over the two days were lightly-loaded but some around Walsall were saying Full around 5-6pm on Monday.
 

baz962

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Yesterday while out on the Gospel oak to Barking line. Previously reported during most typical rush hour time's. Actually decided to count an off peak and around 35per carriage in a four car.
 

Ianno87

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Mother in law is currently on the 1203 Paddington-Penzance.

Reports about 10 other people in her carriage (in the front half of the train)
 

route101

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Last few weeks ive noticed a few long distance business travellers in suits at Glasgow Central and Edinburgh.
 

greyman42

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Yesterday I travelled on the 1158 York - London service. There were 4 of us in coach J.
Later on at about 1700 i caught a District line tube at Cannon Street. There were 3 of us waiting on the platform as it arrived.
 

ChiefPlanner

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Son reports 4 per car on the 0937 Pendo WFJ to BHNS and a stunning 3 per car on the 1830 return.

Not exactly 3 train an hour turf for the moment. Not that central Brum was exactly humming , no football , etc etc.
 

LowLevel

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Observed the 1735 Grantham to Kings Cross which was easily into 3 figures, 10 car Azuma.
 

philjo

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I used The 1654 Kings Cross to Baldock service on Friday (8 coach 365) - there was 1 other passenger in the front coach. Though the front coach of the Baldock services are normally quiet anyway, particularly the 1654.
The adjacent 1648 GC service to Sunderland appeared to have passengers on almost every row of seats throughout the 5 coaches. It was by far the busiest service I have seen recently.
Most of the passengers on the 0812 Baldock to Kings cross appeared to be going to school in Hitchin as very quiet after that.
I think there were 5 passengers in the rear unit alighting at kings cross (not sure how many had left at Finsbury Park)
I saw an LNER service that passed near Stevenage that had lots of seat reservation labels but did not see many passengers.
 

Ianno87

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Had a trip Cambridge-King's Cross-St Pancras-HS1-Strood and back today, daytime off-peak.

Probably 30-40 passengers on each train.
 

Huntergreed

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Currently on 20:10 GLC - CRE as far as Lockerbie, only person in coach A at the moment
 

bramling

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Currently on 20:10 GLC - CRE as far as Lockerbie, only person in coach A at the moment

I did a London and back today. Early morning start, 700/0 going in, I’d say loadings actually slightly *up* on normal, though this might be partly accounted for by another slightly earlier service being missing. Having said that I suspect many of the passengers were in fact various breeds of railway staff, so this may not be entirely representative as this can vary day-to-day or week-to-week.

Return journey 700/1 on Brighton to Cambridge service in early afternoon, very lightly loaded, well down on normal (normally fairly light loadings but I’d say today there were barely 15 on the whole train).

Not quite sure what has caused the early-morning increase, which I’d say was the same on LU too. I could understand an increase in the 0600-0700 period, but not pre-0600.

Also saw some TFL mask inspectors for the first time, rent-a-goon alive and well it seems. Certainly lesser contributors to running a railway, which was my caustic comment to them!
 

rg177

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I'm just concluding five days of rail travel around the country.

Services have, in general, been reassuringly well used in comparison to past months.

0822 GC from York to London on Thursday must have been about half full- most window seats taken.

Local services in Devon I've found to be pretty well used. Certainly at least 40% loading on 4 car Paignton services.

2000 Peterborough to Newark this evening (5 car Lincoln) was about two thirds full. Fair few family groups.
 

Peter Mugridge

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I saw an LNER service that passed near Stevenage that had lots of seat reservation labels but did not see many passengers.

They're not reservation labels; they're just instructions to sit in your allocated seat ( red labels ) or warnings that particular seats cannot be reserved ( black labels ).
 

superjohn

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Also saw some TFL mask inspectors for the first time, rent-a-goon alive and well it seems. Certainly lesser contributors to running a railway, which was my caustic comment to them!
I’m sure they laughed uproariously at your razor sharp wit, or perhaps it was the hundredth such smart Alec remark they had heard that day. These are human beings, doing as they are asked in order to earn a living. As the old saying goes “If you don’t have anything nice to say...”.

At my workplace we currently have a duty called “Social Distancing Ambassador”. It is randomly allocated to different people each shift and is universally hated. Officially it involves walking the floor with a large ‘Keep your distance’ sign and asking people who are too close together to move apart. In reality it means being ignored and taking abuse for an entire shift. Having had my fair share of turns at it I have nothing but sympathy for the TfL people doing their job.
 

bramling

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I’m sure they laughed uproariously at your razor sharp wit, or perhaps it was the hundredth such smart Alec remark they had heard that day. These are human beings, doing as they are asked in order to earn a living. As the old saying goes “If you don’t have anything nice to say...”.

At my workplace we currently have a duty called “Social Distancing Ambassador”. It is randomly allocated to different people each shift and is universally hated. Officially it involves walking the floor with a large ‘Keep your distance’ sign and asking people who are too close together to move apart. In reality it means being ignored and taking abuse for an entire shift. Having had my fair share of turns at it I have nothing but sympathy for the TfL people doing their job.

I’m afraid I don’t have sympathy for people who choose to strut around pretending to be undercover cops. We didn’t need them back in April / May, and we don’t need them now, especially for an organisation seeking a hefty bail-out from the taxpayer.

Returning to topic, just on GTR into London and similar to yesterday - loadings if anything very slightly up on normal.
 

fishquinn

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I’m sure they laughed uproariously at your razor sharp wit, or perhaps it was the hundredth such smart Alec remark they had heard that day. These are human beings, doing as they are asked in order to earn a living. As the old saying goes “If you don’t have anything nice to say...”.

At my workplace we currently have a duty called “Social Distancing Ambassador”. It is randomly allocated to different people each shift and is universally hated. Officially it involves walking the floor with a large ‘Keep your distance’ sign and asking people who are too close together to move apart. In reality it means being ignored and taking abuse for an entire shift. Having had my fair share of turns at it I have nothing but sympathy for the TfL people doing their job.
Spot on, these are people who probably don't want to be doing that job but need something to keep the bills being paid - don't like the job all you want but hate on the people doing it and you're just contributing to their already low mood.
 

baz962

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Back to a very busy train yesterday. I drove out of Clapham at around teatime , heading for Stratford. Quick headcount while waiting to depart and had 150-200 on. Picked up around 80-100 at three of the next four station's and 50 at one . Around 50 got off between all four . Had 400+ on my five car , when I got relieved 20 minutes later. The EMR I got to London at 13.00 yesterday had around ten in my coach and my Thameslink home at 22.00 had around five .
 

Jamesrob637

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I’m afraid I don’t have sympathy for people who choose to strut around pretending to be undercover cops. We didn’t need them back in April / May, and we don’t need them now, especially for an organisation seeking a hefty bail-out from the taxpayer.

Returning to topic, just on GTR into London and similar to yesterday - loadings if anything very slightly up on normal.

Half term increasing loads a little this week?
 

bramling

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Spot on, these are people who probably don't want to be doing that job but need something to keep the bills being paid - don't like the job all you want but hate on the people doing it and you're just contributing to their already low mood.

Normally I’d heartily agree, however I completely object to heavies in pseudo cop uniforms strutting round railway premises like they’re doing something important.

As I’ve posted elsewhere I will (grudgingly) comply with masks in shops simply to avoid putting staff in a difficult position, however this does not extend to Khan’s bouncers. Their very existence contributes to my low mood.

Another similar ThamesLink experience just now - 700/1 this time on Horsham to Peterborough, very empty even for time of day, no more than about 15 on going north from London. A couple of families in the core section.

Still haven’t seen any on-train revenue activity on GTR since March.

So my observations tend to form a pattern - slightly busier than normal in the very early morning period (but this may be accounted for by some trains being missing), but very quiet in midday. I haven’t really done the traditional peaks at all. Normally for half term the trains would have been quite busy, though the weather has been a bit dismal so that may be a factor.
 

43055

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Went on the train for the first time in months last week from Tutbury to Derby and back. The way in had around 15 people on and the journey home was myself and one other in the front coach.
 
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