laurenceb Posted December 27, 2015 Share Posted December 27, 2015 When did trains stop running on Christmas and Boxing Day in England? Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bert Cheese Posted December 27, 2015 Share Posted December 27, 2015 I believe the last trains on Christmas day at least ran in 1964. Times may have changed but at the time there was apparently little demand for such a service, my father recalled the last Christmas day he worked as basically having burned 4 tons of coal for picking up less than 10 passengers during his shift. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold The Stationmaster Posted December 27, 2015 RMweb Gold Share Posted December 27, 2015 Definitely back in the 1960s but I'm not sure of the year. Boxing Day trains were still running in places in the 1970s but starting quite late in the morning. The fashion for 'big bang' engineering work over the Christmas - New Year period is more recent but then so is the holiday pattern a more recent development. A lot of the pattern in the past depended on which day of the week Christmas Day fell as this influenced considerably the pattern of post-Christmas travel home. This has also changed because of the increasing move to more and more people having a full week's holiday between Christmas and New Year and what that change has also done is alter the way in which travel patterns run after the New Year. So for example if New Year's day is on a Friday the peak for long distance 'return home' travel will normally be on the Sunday, but if New Year's Day falls on a Saturday the return travel pattern will extend through to the Monday evening. New Year's Day on a Thursday will spread the return travel over the following Saturday & Sunday but there will be some on the Friday. Also it will vary around the country depending on the number of people likely to travel by rail who live and work away from their parents' home. Forecasting Christmas/New Year travel patterns for lng distance rail travel used to be fairly easy but changing holiday habits have made it a lot more difficult. The way Christmas fell this year would suggest to me - without analysing any figures but based on past experience - that some return travel might commence on the Sunday but there would be little demand on the Saturday apart from possibly outings to sporting events. But once you inject the 'week's holiday' element return travel will in fact spread into three distinct phases - the first being the immediate post-Christmas group (Sunday and probably Tuesday plus those on the Monday who need to be back at work on the Tuesday), the second group will be those who drift back over the week in order to get to their destination for New Year's Eve (or are travelling out for New Year's Eve), while the third group will be the post New Year group. So, standing aside any question of engineering work, if I were a train operator in the UK domestic market for this year I doubt if I would be likely to run any long distance services at all on Boxing Day (Saturday) but on the Sunday I would go for a normal Sunday afternoon/evening service maybe even starting mid-morning if I thought the business would be there and operational factors made sense and the same again on the Boxing Day Bank Holiday (Monday) although possibly starting later in the day if it made economic sense. Any local services would depend entirely on anticipated local market circumstances - possibly sporting events and possibly shopping attractions but it really comes down to an economic gamble that the costs will be covered (and whether NR are prepared to open the routes concerned). Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fat Controller Posted December 27, 2015 Share Posted December 27, 2015 Not all railways were shut over the Christmas period. I worked both Christmas Day and Boxing Day nights, and was surprised how busy things were; lots of people, having had Christmas Day with the family, seem to be going away for the rest of what is effectively a two-week break this year. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold beast66606 Posted December 27, 2015 RMweb Gold Share Posted December 27, 2015 Merseyrail ran it's first ever Boxing day services this year - limited stop services. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
laurenceb Posted December 27, 2015 Author Share Posted December 27, 2015 The reason for the question was that a friend was doing a security check on his station when someone turned up to catch a train! On being told that there were no boxing day trains and had not been for a long time the would be traveler said that this was nonsence and that he had traveled on boxing day recently. I have vauge memories of Railway Mag listing boxing day services in the mid seventies and they were not many then. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold PaulRhB Posted December 27, 2015 RMweb Gold Share Posted December 27, 2015 I've opened up the box a few times on Boxing Day night and found people waiting for trains. Again yesterday as we were open for engineering trains there were people out the front when I went in. They just assume they will be running and don't check by phone or net, prob some there Xmas day too! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold The Stationmaster Posted December 29, 2015 RMweb Gold Share Posted December 29, 2015 Amazingly small world - my former Director has just 'phoned me to ask exactly the same question (because he has been asked by one of our former Drivers). I wonder if anything from that direction (the former Driver) might emerge in this thread? Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
trisonic Posted December 29, 2015 Share Posted December 29, 2015 The last time I travelled to see Grandmother on Christmas Day we were in maroon coaches pulled by a 2-6-4T. I remember it because the old dog would go mad passing Stratford due to the smell from a dog biscuit plant - they were probably working too. Thinking back the train must have started at Southend Victoria so it was before that branch was electrified.... Best, Pete. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Catkins Posted December 31, 2015 Share Posted December 31, 2015 I think that some Passenger Transport Authorities/Executives run some sort of 'service' over Christmas. My elder brother is a Conductor with London Midland, and he's worked Boxing Day before - this year Christmas fell on his rostered long weekend. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold big jim Posted December 31, 2015 RMweb Gold Share Posted December 31, 2015 chiltern ran an oxford parkway to london service on boxing day, last year it was bicester north to london Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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