So as another cold wet Bank Holiday weekend in Birmingham looms, what better way of spending the Friday afternoon than catching up with Rail 722, in particular with Barry Doe's article on the National Rail Timetable (NRT)?
As regular readers will know, Barry is a favourite columnist of mine so, although he didn't have much to say on the Birmingham-London timetables this time (in truth, there is little to say - see my blog on the minor changes), I remain grateful for his reminder of the varities of ways of getting to the NRT: electronic, printed and working...
Electronic first. Network Rail makes the complete timetable available as a PDF download, either complete or in individual tables - see http://www.networkrail.co.uk/aspx/3828.aspx Also on this page is the ability to obtain printed copies of individual timetables where errors occured in the file sent to the publishers (in this case Table 31).
Printed... Two companies actually publish the NRT in print: Middleton Press at £16.95 and TSO at £18. Don't forget that TSO also publish the Avantix Traveller Fares Information CD-ROM at £10.81 incl VAT
Working... Network Rail now makes the Working Timetables for the whole country available - "it shows all movements on the rail network including freight trains, empty trains and those coming in and out of depots. It also includes our unique identification codes for each train, and intermediate times for journeys, including which stations a train is not scheduled to stop at". NOTE the important proviso: This document has been made available for rail industry professionals and should not be confused with the passenger timetable
For the Birmingham to London routes, the following sections are relevant:
CB01 - EUSTON TO WATFORD JUNCTION (MAIN LINE)
CB02 - WATFORD JUNCTION TO RUGBY
CC03 - RUGBY TO STAFFORD (via Birmingham)
CG01 - MARYLEBONE TO AYLESBURY AND BANBURY
CG02 - HEYFORD TO BIRMINGHAM
PA01 - LONDON PADDINGTON TO GREENFORD (and link to South Ruislip) - pedants only!
So, if you have the patience, you can track +Chiltern Railways / +London Midland / Virgin Trains performance against what Network Rail has agreed rather than what is published to the public...
Have fun (next wet bank holiday project.. the National Routing Guide. Noooo!)
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