Grr Sunday train timetable

Yorkie1

Have got to travel home for a parent's significant birthday in May. I've done the trip by train from York to Stevenage many times over the years.

I've just looked at the return timetable on the Sunday and there are no longer any direct trains between the 2 stations at all. Cannot believe it! A journey which usually takes 1 h 45 minutes will take minimum of 45 minutes longer, including a 30 minute stopover at sunny Peterborough, and cost quite a bit more too.

Shame on you East Coast. :mad:

I feel slightly better for that. Better out than in, and all that

Mids_Costcutter

Can you explain why the journey should cost more on a Sunday?

rs65

Try 8am and 9pm. Maybe engineering works going on.

Yorkie1

Mids_Costcutter wrote: »

Can you explain why the journey should cost more on a Sunday?

I don't think it's the Sunday aspect; I'm pretty sure it's because one of the trains isn't an East Coast train but a smaller company's train - a single / direct EC train would be at least 25% cheaper because of the online EC deals through the EC website.

Yorkie1

rs65 wrote: »

Try 8am and 9pm. Maybe engineering works going on.

Nope, no works planned. There are no direct trains in the entire Sunday timetable.

TBH the service has been getting worse over the last few years - there were only 1 or 2 direct Sunday trains in the previous timetable if I recall correctly. Now they've cut them out all together.

rs65

Trainline shows one at 8am and one at 8.56pm.

East Coast Trains - 1hr 39 mins

Yorkie1

Ah, see what you mean. Sorry for the confusion, I'm referring to the return journey the other way (Stv to Yk) ... Many thanks for the research though, much appreciated!

alanrowell

Can't you stay Sunday night and take the 06:34 train to York?
There are direct trains to Leeds & Doncaster on Sundays so you could use separate tickets or force a routing via them using advanced options
You could also consider the 13:22 and 15:22 which take less than 2h15m, the 19:54 which takes less than 2 hours or the 19:28 or 20:54 which take a fraction over two hours

Yorkie1

Thanks for the suggestions Alan; I did think about staying overnight into Monday but need to get parents to drive me to Stevenage - don't think they'd appreciate getting up at 530am (and neither would I!)

I've bitten the bullet and bought a ticket from Stv at 1148, which gets me into York at the civilised hour of 1419 with a half hour stop in Peterborough. At under £24 it's not too expensive. I'll just have to take a book or my laptop plus dongle ...

Just letting off steam really about the revisions to the timetable!

s_b

think yourself lucky we havent had a train stop at our station since the titfield thunderbolt problem:D
bally beeching

Yorkie1

s_b wrote: »

think yourself lucky we havent had a train stop at our station since the titfield thunderbolt problem:D
bally beeching

Indeed :rotfl: