In message , at 13:23:54 on
Sun, 29 Jul 2012, Recliner remarked:
I came across this set of pics via Twitter showing how at least some
of the in-costume performers at the opening ceremony successfully made
their way home on the Tube:
http://liberalconspiracy.org/2012/07...pics-ceremony/

They were on pretty early in the evening though.
--
Roland Perry

Paul Corfield wrote:
There was an endless flurry of tweets from National Rail telling
people that last trains with a whole pile of operators running from
London terminals were held for 20-30 minutes so that people caught
their trains home. It was an admirable effort and showed that
flexibility had been designed into the arrangements.

Looking at LDBs at about 2am on Saturday morning, there was a service of
some kind on pretty much every route from every London terminal, long
distance and suburban, even to places like Newcastle. The last last trains
were at about 3am. The one terminal that looked lacking in services was
Liverpool St - one Norwich, one Southend, lots of Shenfield but nothing on
West Anglia (unless it had already gone by then).

Theo

"Roland Perry" wrote in message
...
In message
.
net, at 08:10:57 on Sun, 29 Jul 2012, Neil Williams
remarked:
Not that it would have been sensible to plan on using those services
after a late evening event anyway.

Given that that is their explicit purpose that seems a silly statement,
though as with taking any last train or bus there is always a small risk
of
getting stuck.

The services are simply not late enough to be able to make an exit from
the events and get to the stations in time. eg The late basketball
sessions don't even start until 22.15 and are scheduled to run up till
midnight. A last train at 00:30 is hopeless for that.
--
Roland Perry

There are several unadvertised extras which run "on condition" (in other
words if there are enough people). This evening an HST has gone down to
Weymouth empty to form a 2053 departure if necessary
http://www.opentraintimes.com/schedule/V76583/2012/7/29 There is reported
to be a 1z25 at 0215 from Paddington to Bath, Bristol and Cardiff on an as
required basis and that one is loco hauled but it's not showing on
opentraintimes so maybe I'm misinformed. On the same basis there are
supposed to be similar timed trains from other London termini "as required".

Roland Perry wrote:

I thought the early shutdown was so Network Rail could do maintenance,
rather than a lack of demand.

Most probably. But it doesn't mean that should be the way they work. The
sleeper is all very well, but later evening and earlier morning trains
(competing with the crack of dawn business flights, for instance) would be
very useful.

Neil
--
Neil Williams in Milton Keynes, UK. Put first name before the at to reply.