(14 Nov 2021, 11:20 am)Andreos1 wrote Which means naff all in the grand scheme of things, when the 71 is stand-alone and could easily have its timetable tweaked to improve its headway with the 78.

The 35 fits around the 8, which fits around the 78 (no major timetable changes with the latter for many a year if I remember correctly - always a quarter to and quarter past from Park Lane with the 638 being bottom of the hour and 777 top of the hour). 
Absolutely nothing to do with the 71 running. That's just poor planning. Or not?

The 71 was secured between Houghton-le-Spring and Seaham and ran at the times specified in the contract, so the commercially operated section between Houghton-le-Spring and Chester-le-Street ran at the times it did because of the contracted times on the other section of the route.

This means that the 78 would need to be re-timed to fit around the 71, to maintain an even headway between Chester-le-Street and Great Lumley on these services. But to do that, the 8 would also need to be re-timed, then the 35 too. The challenge with this is that the 35 is secured on an evening so needs to run at the times it does so that it easily runs onto the secured evening service without impacting on customers.

As I said before, it’s not that simple and there’s a wider context to be considered. It’s not within anyone’s interests to have a poorly planned timetable with uneven headways on common sections of route.

Appreciate customers don’t care about any of this and they’d prefer an even headway on services, but given this is an enthusiasts’ forum, we can have a greater appreciation for the logistics and why things aren’t as simple as one might think at first.


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