May 2022 Timetable Changes

[Some guy]

There’s going to be chaos for TPE once the new timetable comes out. With staff not doing rest day working there’s going to be so many cancelled trains. First should’ve at least agreed to that before the timetable

 

[Watershed]

There’s going to be chaos for TPE once the new timetable comes out. With staff not doing rest day working there’s going to be so many cancelled trains. First should’ve at least agreed to that before the timetable

It's not down to First.

 

[Some guy]

It's not down to First.

It is they should pay them more for coming in on their days off

 

[ChrisC]

Crosscountrys current service offer is more to do with ‘other factors’ than the budget provided, though.

I’m just hoping that with the introduction of the new timetable that from next week the HSTs might be being used more often again. I’m travelling down from Derby to Plymouth on Monday on the 10.31 departure from Derby (0606 ex Edinburgh). When I booked a few days ago using Trainsplit the seat selector was showing this train as a 7 carriage HST. I’ve managed to select the same reserved seat for the whole journey even though splitting at Cheltenham, Bristol and Exeter. It will be just my luck for it to be an overcrowded 4 car voyager with no reservations. Even considering the big reductions in the XC timetable there doesn’t seem to be that many double Voyagers about these last few weeks.

 

[Watershed]

It is they should pay them more for coming in on their days off

And I'll say it again, it's not down to First. ASLEF are the ones who withdrew from the agreement; the consent of the DfT is required before any new deal can be entered into. I think any further discussion of this issue is probably best kept on the Industrial Relations thread.

 

[Some guy]

And I'll say it again, it's not down to First. ASLEF are the ones who withdrew from the agreement; the consent of the DfT is required before any new deal can be entered into. I think any further discussion of this issue is probably best kept on the Industrial Relations thread.

Thanks to all this. It’s going to be like last December where trains are constantly cancelled until they’ve no choice but to resort to yet another temporary timetable

 

[Fokx]

It’s going to be like last December where trains are constantly cancelled until they’ve no choice but to resort to yet another temporary timetable

More likely to be like May 2018

Trains might turn up, they might not

 

[Some guy]

More likely to be like May 2018

Trains might turn up, they might not

Especially on the west coast services. They struggle to run a service even now. The amount of trains cancelled or cut short at Carlisle has been a disgrace

 

[Pinus contorta]

Especially on the west coast services. They struggle to run a service even now. The amount of trains cancelled or cut short at Carlisle has been a disgrace

Yea the Lime St to Glasgow service is very hit and miss.

 

[Some guy]

Yea the Lime St to Glasgow service is very hit and miss.

Even worse they only run just 2 a day so you’d think that would be easy to cover. Some days it doesn’t even run at all meaning Avanti has to pick up the slack of having more passengers and additional stops in Lockerbie

 

[Halish Railway]

TfL Rail/Crossrail are running a timetable close to, if not higher than pre-Covid (there might be a few missing peak extras?) and the Core is due to open on May 24, which is obviously a completely new service.

If I remember correctly TfL Rail East/Shenfield Metro increased from 6tph to 8tph off-peak in May 2020.

 

[Pinus contorta]

Even worse they only run just 2 a day so you’d think that would be easy to cover. Some days it doesn’t even run at all meaning Avanti has to pick up the slack of having more passengers and additional stops in Lockerbie

I've wanted to catch the early Oxenholme turnback service towards Wigan a few times but it is invariably cancelled last minute

 

[Starmill]

More likely to be like May 2018

Trains might turn up, they might not

It is likely to be worse than in 2018, because of the liklihood of industrial action by both RMT and Aslef at the same time, or on alternating days one after the other.

 

[Jamesrob637]

Even considering the big reductions in the XC timetable there doesn’t seem to be that many double Voyagers about these last few weeks.

Too many Manchesters are booked singles or just not producing doubles when booked. Next week will be a bit more excusable when some Bristols are reinstated.

 

[Some guy]

I've wanted to catch the early Oxenholme turnback service towards Wigan a few times but it is invariably cancelled last minute

It’s a miracle if that train gets past Preston south junction it’s cancelled that much

 

[class397tpe]

I’m just hoping that with the introduction of the new timetable that from next week the HSTs might be being used more often again. I’m travelling down from Derby to Plymouth on Monday on the 10.31 departure from Derby (0606 ex Edinburgh). When I booked a few days ago using Trainsplit the seat selector was showing this train as a 7 carriage HST. I’ve managed to select the same reserved seat for the whole journey even though splitting at Cheltenham, Bristol and Exeter. It will be just my luck for it to be an overcrowded 4 car voyager with no reservations. Even considering the big reductions in the XC timetable there doesn’t seem to be that many double Voyagers about these last few weeks.

Particularly on the south-west to north-east route - less than half the trains are doubled up, which begs the question if they are only running half the services (and managed to run some double-voyagers before covid), where have the rest of the voyagers gone? The single voyagers are getting reaaaaaly busy.
I never really understand the argument about crosscountry requiring a massive subsidy and required to cut costs - iirc they were profitable before covid - it doesn't make business sense. Their trains are always very busy, and their fares expensive (including advances, moreso after covid) so unless they are being run incredibly awfully it's hard to see why they need to cut costs so much.

 

[Chiltern006]

GWR are extending the 1631 Barnstaple to Exeter Central to Axminster calling all stations to Axminster bar Whimple

 

[Deerfold]

GWR are extending the 1631 Barnstaple to Exeter Central to Axminster calling all stations to Axminster bar Whimple

Yes, that was mentioned in February.

 

[Andyh82]

It may have already been asked on this thread but do any TOCs do a simple "What's changing" guide for the new timetables to save me having to download each one and compare it with the current timetable?

Generally no, and what with the lack of paper timetables, lack of an explanation of what is changing, and various between date short notice changes, I’ve started to completely lose track of what the service frequency on various routes actually is

What is a temporary change due to a lack of demand, what is a permanent new frequency, what is temporary due to a staff shortage, what will never come back, what the frequency actually was before COVID

This particularly applies to TPE and Cross Country

 

[philjo]

GTR do have a brief summary of amendments on their timetable page, broken down by service group (Great Northern, Thameslink, Southern)

Train Timetables | Train Times & Timetables | Thameslink

Find train times for your route and download timetables and maps for all Thameslink services.

www.thameslinkrailway.com

 

[janb]

The Live Departures website has their timetable comparison tool https://live-departures.info/rail/timetable-comparison/

 

[RailAleFan]

The Live Departures website has their timetable comparison tool https://live-departures.info/rail/timetable-comparison/

This is a few issues out of date apologies, I'll run a full update overnight tonight...

 

[Bantamzen]

This is a few issues out of date apologies, I'll run a full update overnight tonight...

I didn't know this was a thing, even if slightly out of date it's a terribly useful resource & has been added to my favourites. Many thanks!

 

[mjc]

And annoyingly the first departure from Derby towards Crewe is still 07:42 which doesn't arrive into Crewe until 08:58 which is relatively late. It would be nice if EMR restored the 06:42 departure from Derby.

Absolutely bizarre that this service hasn’t returned, it was well used by students travelling from along the line into Stoke 6th form, Stoke college and the university as well as commuters wanting the Manchester and Birmingham services (including me!)

 

[class 9]

Bradford –Ilkley trains to be hourly all day

Part of the reason for the demise of the Bradford –Ilkley and Guiseley – Ilkley bus services was the doubling of the frequency of the train services.

Agreed about the buses, but IMO the demise of both the buses and trains on the Wharfedale line, is outside the peaks the trains are virtually empty.
Although Menston, Burley, Ben Rydding & Ilkley are in the Bradford 'district', most people have no connection or affinities to Bradford whatsoever.

And I'll say it again, it's not down to First. ASLEF are the ones who withdrew from the agreement; the consent of the DfT is required before any new deal can be entered into. I think any further discussion of this issue is probably best kept on the Industrial Relations thread.

At TPE, yes the union withdrew, but at my TOC XC they didn't.
The problem is the DFT won't authorise RD working agreements due to the cost, they don't seem to have a problem with cancelling services.

 

[LowLevel]

Agreed about the buses, but IMO the demise of both the buses and trains on the Wharfedale line, is outside the peaks the trains are virtually empty.
Although Menston, Burley, Ben Rydding & Ilkley are in the Bradford 'district', most people have no connection or affinities to Bradford whatsoever.


At TPE, yes the union withdrew, but at my TOC XC they didn't.
The problem is the DFT won't authorise RD working agreements due to the cost, they don't seem to have a problem with cancelling services.

We agreed a RDW premium as part of a dispute resolution this year. It was only 9 hrs 15 minutes pay at flat time minimum for the day though, nothing particularly exciting - plenty of people seem to be perfectly happy to be available for it though.

 

[Some guy]

At TPE, yes the union withdrew, but at my TOC XC they didn't.
The problem is the DFT won't authorise RD working agreements due to the cost, they don't seem to have a problem with cancelling services.

Exactly what the point I was trying to make. They don’t seem to care if trains are cancelled. Which means this Monday onwards it’s going to be just like another may 2018 where almost everything is cancelled

 

[driverd]

In honesty, I'm amazed at how little furore there has been about northern timetables being decimated. Whether its Northern themselves, TPE or XC, the North appears to be getting a real bum deal here.

It's truly outrageous that some northern routes are seeing less trains run than during lockdown. In my whole lifetime I've not seen such poor service as being introduced today on, for instance, the Dearne Valley route.

Then there's the shambles that currently is cross country. I find it beyond appalling that they've been allowed to consistently run less than 50% of their services (atleast in terms of destinations).

Why is no one being held to account? The excuses keep piling up and they're very much wearing thin.

 

[liamf656]

Why is no one being held to account? The excuses keep piling up and they're very much wearing thin.

You can’t run a service if you haven’t got the resources. I can’t think of a TOC now that isn’t suffering greatly from staffing levels

 

[Peterthegreat]

In honesty, I'm amazed at how little furore there has been about northern timetables being decimated. Whether its Northern themselves, TPE or XC, the North appears to be getting a real bum deal here.

It's truly outrageous that some northern routes are seeing less trains run than during lockdown. In my whole lifetime I've not seen such poor service as being introduced today on, for instance, the Dearne Valley route.

Then there's the shambles that currently is cross country. I find it beyond appalling that they've been allowed to consistently run less than 50% of their services (atleast in terms of destinations).

Why is no one being held to account? The excuses keep piling up and they're very much wearing thin.

Totally agree. Covid is being used as an excuse.