On Fri, 07 Aug 2015 22:03:13 +0100, Roger Lynn
wrote:

On 05/08/15 13:48, Recliner wrote:
snip

Having some trains going to Paddington and others to Marylebone would be
particularly awkward when travelling out from London as you could go to one
station only to find that the next train left from the other.

They've got things called timetables (printed or electronic form) to
cure that. People travelling from various SR stations will be fairly
used to trains leaving by more than one route.

"Charles Ellson" wrote in message
...
On Fri, 07 Aug 2015 22:03:13 +0100, Roger Lynn
wrote:

On 05/08/15 13:48, Recliner wrote:
snip

Having some trains going to Paddington and others to Marylebone would be
particularly awkward when travelling out from London as you could go to
one
station only to find that the next train left from the other.

They've got things called timetables (printed or electronic form) to
cure that. People travelling from various SR stations will be fairly
used to trains leaving by more than one route.


Timetables are fine but if you want to catch the next service to HW and are
travelling from (for example) Trafalgar Square it is difficult to judge how
long it will take you by each route on the Underground and therefore which
mainline station you should had for. Suppose you aim for the next train out
of Paddington but are slightly delayed and miss the train. Now you've got to
get from Paddington to Marylebone before *that* train departs, when if you'd
known you were going to be delayed you'd have gone directly to Marylebone
and been certain to catch that train. At least Paddington and Marylebone are
close enough that it doesn't take long on the Bakerloo line between one and
the other, so you can probably do it before the next train leaves *if they
are equally spaced*.

In uk.railway NY wrote:
Timetables are fine but if you want to catch the next service to HW and are
travelling from (for example) Trafalgar Square it is difficult to judge how
long it will take you by each route on the Underground and therefore which
mainline station you should had for.

As already discussed, this happens for KX/Liverpool St to Cambridge. The
journey time difference is such that it isn't real competition: if you're in
about a 15 min tube radius of Liverpool St or further east then that route
can swing it, otherwise it's almost always faster to go to KX, except in
case of disruption. The arithmetic varies a little bit during the day (in
the peaks KX/LST are about evens, off-peak KX wins, late evening both are
slower but KX still wins) but not enough to sway it. It can also vary if
you want to do Tottenham Hale (all LST trains) or Finsbury Park (KX
semi-fasts) rather than the terminus, which can work out depending on your
start point.

The frequency, spacing and journey time to get between the two is such that
if you miss a train, it's still quickest to stay put and wait for the next
one.

Theo

On 07/08/15 22:23, Charles Ellson wrote:
On Fri, 07 Aug 2015 22:03:13 +0100, Roger Lynn
wrote:
Having some trains going to Paddington and others to Marylebone would be
particularly awkward when travelling out from London as you could go to one
station only to find that the next train left from the other.

They've got things called timetables (printed or electronic form) to
cure that.

That's fine if they're actually kept to, but previously it wasn't necessary
to study a timetable, you could just turn up and be sure of catching the
next train, whenever it happened to be.

People travelling from various SR stations will be fairly
used to trains leaving by more than one route.

That doesn't stop it being a new and unnecessary inconvenience on this route.

Roger