Great Western Coffee Shop

The first train to depart anywhere in the UK for more than 24 hours left London Victoria just after 5am, destination Clapham Junction, East Croydon and Gatwick airport.

Soon afterwards, another link aimed at airline passengers started up – between Stansted airport in Essex and Tottenham Hale in north London. The normal terminus in the capital, Liverpool Street, is closed for the day – along with most other major stations across the UK.

A handful of other services are running in England, mainly to, from and within London: from Victoria to Brighton plus some local South London trains; between Marylebone and Oxford; and Clapham Junction to Stratford on the London Overground.

In the Liverpool area, Merseyrail is running a “special service for some stations” including Aintree for the Boxing Day race meeting.

Despite a full football programme running – with matches including Manchester United against Birmingham team Aston Villa, and Newcastle United v Nottingham Forest – no long-distance links are running.

The only significant intercity service is between London St Pancras International and Continental Europe.

From The Independent (https://www.independent.co.uk/travel/news-and-advice/rail-boxing-day-trains-coaches-b2469457.html)


A survey the article goes on to discuss suggests that just 7% of people believe there's no call for Boxing Day services, and I know that GWR have asked the same question.

This is an annual topic that comes up every Christmas, with valid inputs stating that staff should be given the day off at least for these 2 days a year, that the services would not be used, that it's a good annual demonstration that the country doesn't actually need a railway, and that it's a good opportunity to do engineering.

Limited won't work as demand would quickly exceed supply and there would quickly be social media complaints of serious overcrowding. Peak fares all day might cover the increased costs of staffing and reduce demand to fit.

As I said, there's a balance to be struck, but if people are serious about the railway making a difference in the environmental sense as well as ensuring its long term future with all the other options which are available, measures need to be taken to give the public an alternative to the motorways on days like today, encouraging them to use the service, not pricing them off or prioritising staff holidays.

The first people that need to be serious about that are those in government.  Nothing much is likely to happen without that.  And at the moment we certainly are very much without that.

If we really do need a 24/7 365 day railway then we have to undo many of the cuts to routes from the Beeching era so that trains can divert round maintenance works. Beeching cut duplicate routes. The result was there was no possibility of diversion to accommodate engineering works. The availability of diversionary routes on the continent is why they can contemplate night services returning.  If we really need this sort of availability then we need more routes!

I'm interested in what can be achieved not what can't be - I get the temptation is to blame/cite the Government at every turn however given GWR's proactive survey on Christmas services earlier in the year, how would it work?

Would it be a case of GWR approaching the relevant DfT bod and making the case for them running a limited service on Boxing Day, or is it something they can do themselves without the need for Government approval in conjunction with NR? (Allowing for planned engineering etc?)

Seems to be something Chiltern manage most years.

There is obviously "some" demand to travel by rail every day. I suspect the demand on Christmas day is limited, but given the number of events that traditionally take place on Boxing Day, then demand on that day is likely to be high.

One of the arguments against providing a service on those days is that it allows the rail industry to use that time to do essential maintenance works. Railways are obviously in a unique position in that achieving ongoing maintenance is often going to mean a reduction or temporary closure of available lines. But what i have never heard asked, or stated, is just how much maintenance actually does take place over those two days, and whether any of it could realistically take place at another time. I would be interested in hearing whether anyone knows.

In terms of the survey, to get an official response perhaps you should ask GWR directly?  Or Graham could ask them directly on behalf of the forum.

That makes some sense to me.

That makes some sense to me.