Monday 12 January 2009

Cancelled due to lack of interest?

How fairs the new, improved, DafT specified, Arriva CrossCountry network?

All is much the same except that it is nigh on impossible to travel North to South with ease.

No matter - Marsham Street knows best!

In the matter of timetables however, Arriva certainly doesn't.

Awaiting a train at York a reader was shocked to see a CrossCountry train departing at 18:24 for Guildford!

Believing these to be extinct he quickly consulted the lurid orange CrossCountry pocket timetable to see if this was indeed the case.

Alas.

Despite a pretty map showing Guildford as a destination on the cover, not one mention of that station could be found on any of the timetable pages within.

Courtesy of NRES it emerges that this is the only train of the day that links the North East with Guildford.

But with potential passengers unable to find this solitary train in CrossCountry's own timetable how long can this rump service survive?

UPDATE: An 'Anonymous' reader writes...

"There are a number of calls missing from the main parts of this timetable, but shown as notes in the back, it was always done this way by XC previously. For instance look up some of the minor stations in Cornwall or Scotland.

"However the Green SE/NE/NW timetable, with less stations to show, clearly shows the Guildford times in the main timetable."

The Fact Compiler still can't understand why Guildford is shown on the timetable's cover map, but the station isn't listed inside.

Mind you, if it was good enough for BeardieRail...