[original thread on uk.railway and cam.transport]
[x-posted to uk.transport.london]

On Sep 12, 4:55 pm, tony sayer wrote:

In article , Roy Badami
scribeth thus

When did Cambridge lose its late train back from King's Cross in the
mid-week timetable? There always used to be a (very) slow train just
after midnight; now the last train seems to be 2315...

Does anyone know whether this change is permanent, or just due to
engineering work?

In fact I've been meaning to raise this very question for some time.

[For those coming in on utl, it seems the original premise of this
thread is incorrect - however the OP's confusion is quite
understandable given that it's what an online journey planner told him
- for which we can thank the ongoing hash of the new Network Rail
timetable system which is the underlying data source for all such
journey planners.]


If you go to London to do most anything, Prom at the Albert Hall
Theatre, concert whatever and then want something to eat or drink
afterwards then you really mustn't be out that late. Tube across town to
be back before the last train goes home.

Now I seem to remember when my dad was younger i.e. back in the 30s and
40's I remember him saying that there were trains back around 1 am at
the weekends or later still you could get a mail train. Now I don't know
if thats fact or fiction so be interesting if anyone does know did
trains run so late?.

Also do other locations say within a 50 odd mile radius of London get
any late night services, or as I expect does everyone drive there and
have to park somewhere.


There are a few routes that do currently offer a regular service
throughout the night (as opposed to just a particularly late last
train):

* Southern - Victoria to Three Bridges, calling at Clapham Jn, East
Croydon, Purley, Horley, Gatwick thence to Three Bridges.

* FCC Thameslink - because of Thameslink 3000, the route is split in
two but services do still run:
- St Pancras to Bedford all stations.
- London Bridge to Three Bridges, calling at East Croydon, Gatwick
Airport thence to Three Bridges.
- FCC provides a bus link between St Pancras and London Bridge,
furthermore this isn't just a theoretical service as the buses really
do run, albeit seemingly empty much of the time!

* FGW - Paddington to Reading - well this is rather less regular, with
a two hour gap, but it is through the night.
The 01:34 and 03:34 services call at Ealing Broadway, Southall, Hayes
& Harlington, West Drayton, Slough, Maidenhead, Twyford thence to
Reading.
The 00:34 calls at all these plus Langley, the 05:22 calls at Iver and
Langley, whilst the 05:17 calls at Slough only.

All are subject to bustitution because of engineering works of course
- e.g. on Sunday night/Monday morning just gone (i.e. early this
morning) the FCC Thameslink service from St Pancras to Bedford was
being bustituted as far as St Albans.


I'd have thought that there would be a demand for later services seeing
that in central London it sometimes doesn't appear to be any less busy
at 1 in the morn compared to 1 in the afternoon..

There's a big demand for the extensive night bus service in London,
which has seen a very significant expansion in recent years - a lot of
this happened under ex-Mayor Ken's watch, though there had been a bit
of a trend for more limited expansion beforehand (i.e. LT days, pre-
TfL). The majority of night bus routes are radial running from
somewhere in central-ish London out, however there are a number of
routes that don't touch central London but instead provide what are
more orbital links between districts in (Greater) London, e.g. the 93
from Putney via Wimbledon to North Cheam (though I wouldn't say
there's necessarily a clean distinction between what routes are radial
and what are orbital).

As an example of frequent services can be, the N155 - which is
basically the nocturnal version of the Northern line south of the
river - runs every 10 minutes on Friday and Saturday nights.

How well the night bus network will hold up after the October spending
review and seemingly inevitable cut to TfL's - well, we shall see. The
infamous N213 twixt Croydon to Sutton already got the chop last year.