Trains on Easter Sunday: how busy are they?

[philosopher]

Out of curiosity, how busy are trains typically on Easter Sunday? I have always assumed with most things shut on Easter Sunday, trains are mostly carrying around fresh air on Easter Sunday. Is it the quietest day on the network, or is another day, which I assume would be New Year’s Day quieter?

 

[sd0733]

When I've worked them in previous years most trains were pretty dead.
The ones I was on first thing this morning were surprisingly busy though.

 

[Mag_seven]

If the weather is good then I would imagine trains to seaside resorts will be busy.

 

[wobman]

When I've worked them in previous years most trains were pretty dead.
The ones I was on first thing this morning were surprisingly busy though.

If the weathers nice it can get quite busy but not the usual bank holiday madness, Saturday was very busy on the trains

 

[TheBigD]

I'm currently a southbound LNER Edinburgh to Kings Cross service. According the one of the staff, there's 474 in standard, which given there's 480 seats it's pretty cosy. I'm in first in coach M and there's 4 of us in here.

 

[Killingworth]

"Very variable" must be the answer because it's totally leisure orientated. Football matches, concerts, beer festivals and the like with fine weather and all the usual disruptions caused by unit and staffing issues to compound the results.

An example. Northern's 11.15 from Sheffield to Manchester was a 4 coach 150 and looked to have very few seats available at Dore when about 60 more boarded. Many would have been standing from there. Nice day, lots of walkers for the Peak District, large group of well behaved lads armed with alcohol plus families going to Manchester and beyond. Typical Bank Holiday cross section.

However TPE normally run a 6 coach 185 over that section 3 minutes earlier but not today due to rest day working issues. Many end to end travellers will have been aboard the Northern service. If TPE had run I suspect a 3 car Northern would have been busy, but adequate. As it was Northern had been considering running 6 car 195s.

On a sunny Saturday the peak service of the day might have been an hour earlier. It's very difficult to plan for leisure!

 

[deltic]

Central Line at 1pm this afternoon was rammed in the centre of London, Northern Line was also fairly busy.

 

[philosopher]

"Very variable" must be the answer because it's totally leisure orientated. Football matches, concerts, beer festivals and the like with fine weather and all the usual disruptions caused by unit and staffing issues to compound the results.

An example. Northern's 11.15 from Sheffield to Manchester was a 4 coach 150 and looked to have very few seats available at Dore when about 60 more boarded. Many would have been standing from there. Nice day, lots of walkers for the Peak District, large group of well behaved lads armed with alcohol plus families going to Manchester and beyond. Typical Bank Holiday cross section.

However TPE normally run a 6 coach 185 over that section 3 minutes earlier but not today due to rest day working issues. Many end to end travellers will have been aboard the Northern service. If TPE had run I suspect a 3 car Northern would have been busy, but adequate. As it was Northern had been considering running 6 car 195s.

On a sunny Saturday the peak service of the day might have been an hour earlier. It's very difficult to plan for leisure!

I wonder how a sunny Easter Sunday compares with a cold and wet Easter Sunday in terms of passenger levels. Trips for stuff like football matches and concerts would still go on, but I assume trips to the beach or for a countryside hike would be much fewer.

From the above comments I very much get the impression that Easter Sunday is busier than I thought. Therefore I assume New Year’s day is the quietest day on the rail network.

 

[Drsatan]

I was on a Cross Country service from Birmingham to Southampton this afternoon. Despite the train being 9 carriages long there were people standing