Do people really believe thousands of people ran to the station without a pre-booked ticket yesterday as soon as they heard about the new restrictions?

[Tellmetruth4]

Just that really. I keep seeing pictures on the news of busy London train stations yesterday. Does anyone truly believe that after hearing the news at 4pm, people managed to pack all of their stuff, turn up to the station without a ticket and find accommodation on the last Saturday before Christmas? Or do they think the people at the train station booked it some time ago to leave and stay with family after finishing work on Friday?

YABU - Yes they ‘fled’ when they heard the news
YANBU- No they’d booked trains when they thought households were allowed to mix and the news and government are trying to make it look like these people on trains yesterday were trying to get around the new rules.

I know 10 people who left London yesterday after the announcement. Some went north, some south west and others to wales

St Pancras line still goes north doesn’t it, just more middle north rather than east coast?

The only people I know who were fleeing around London yesterday were young adults fleeing to their parents homes in other parts of London. The trains stations were not busier than normal. I saw a clip on the news of a heaving station but no one was wearing a mask so it clearly wasn’t filmed recently

@Glamflimfloogety how long do you have to be resident for to call yourself a Londoner? You sound exactly like the people in my very small (minded) town. I’m still an incomer after 25 years.
Don’t try to start a fucking pointless north/south argument. It’s irrelevant.

I know of several people who shoved what they could in a bag and came 'home' from London early. Do I think it is a good idea, no, I think that where I am on the edge of tier 4 is going to see a massive increase. However, if I were in their position, potentially alone over Christmas, I might do the same.

@Glamflimfloogety

Given that the biggest crowds were at Kings Cross and Euston, it's easy to conclude that they were heading north (as that's we're most trains out of those stations go). But of course there will be rich wankers heading to second homes - news flash though, not everyone in London is a millionaire, and this group won't be a large number of people!

I doubt the people heading north have booked themselves into a Travelodge for the next week? They've gone to their families.

My point being, when the cases up north inevitably start to spike in the next few weeks, and the new strain is found there too, don't blame the scummy southerners. It was Northern family members that raced home and infected you all.

Seriously? Seriously?

Or Londoners leaving London to stay with family while it's in Tier 4 in my small knowledge of a family member doing so.

They did the same during the first lockdown. As I suppose so did I when I stayed with my mum across town from March until August.

If you have ever travelled from Euston, it looks busy when there is the wait for boarding a Manchester, a Liverpool and a Birmingham train, which are all within a few minutes of each other. Last trains are before 9 I understand, from issues resulting when Manchester City or another football club play in the FA Cup final and it was moved from a 3pm kick off to 5 or 5.30pm, in normal times.

So it would not have taken many extra people to be travelling to look crowded at the station, and could well have been people from the north returning home as much as to families. Even 50 would have made a difference, not thousands.

Of course, if the changes had been made/announced on Wednesday as they should have been, not on Saturday to dodge parliamentary scrutiny, none of this would have happened to any scale.

@SoupDragon

Or do they think the people at the train station booked it some time ago to leave and stay with family after finishing work on Friday?

Do most people usually finish work a week before Christmas then?

Well in my wfh but normally London based team, more than 90% had their last pre-Christmas day on Friday. So if that is representative, yes.

Hahaha at "find accommodation". Like people aren't just planning to hunker down in the same houses they were going to on the 23rd for 5 days.

I think some people went home/second homes

Some were christmas shoppers, some worker, some students

Does anyone now see how irresponsible of the Government to have the Christmas bubble start on 23rd? If you think the train stations looked busy last night, how would it have looked on the 23rd? How would social distancing be possible on those trains. It's better to let people spread travel over 2 weeks.

I can believe it. I work for an airline and was sorting tickets for people who were changing their plans to travel last night rather than over the next few days from about 4.30pm

The pictures were St Pancras. LNER and Avanti run out of Kings Cross and Euston and have been pre booked seats only from the start of COVID. You can't turn up at the station buy a ticket and get on their trains, you have to have a seat booked in advance. I've travelled on Avanti and they sell maybe half the seats maximum. It appears East Midlands trains don't do that and allow anyone to turn up and get on. Hence the crowds at S Pancras.

@SoupDragon

Or do they think the people at the train station booked it some time ago to leave and stay with family after finishing work on Friday?

Do most people usually finish work a week before Christmas then?

Most of my colleagues finished for Christmas on Friday, me included, though I am working inbetween Christmas and New Year.

I saw a clip on the news of a heaving station but no one was wearing a mask so it clearly wasn’t filmed recently

Yes everyone - please don't take photos and videos at face value. They are very often misleading.

It’ll be a mixture of reasons why so many people were travelling. I know of three different people who drove down to London last night (3hrs each way) to collect family members to ‘get them out’ before tier 4 came into effect. They were all due to come up for the Christmas bubble so they brought their plans forward. If you think that everyone travelling yesterday had planned it well in advance of the announcement you are very naive.

The crowds at St Pancras were smaller than they are for a typical pre Christmas get-away day. I've been through that statoin quite a lot, and they were filming the choke point at the top of the escalators.

As they hold you back on the main concourse until your train is ready to board, it's bound to look busy there!

I imagine the majority of them are people who had planned to travel on 23rd/24th but have decided to go earlier. So yes I recon they did pack their cases and head to the train stations.

I bet Southwold is packed today, then

I'm split on this one, the m1 was heaving heading north at 6pm but traffic got much lighter at Milton Keynes which is still tier 4. And trains from Euston at that time of evening all stop everywhere inc generally to mk so potentially people were relocating within tier 4 to parents etc. who have gardens and more space.

I think that some people travelled to London for the day and had a return ticket that evening. The pics circulating of Oxford St and Harrods will be on foreign tourists and daytrippers- Londoners don't shop there.

I think that a fair percentage got off at Tier 4 stations like Luton.

I also think that a fair percentage were students who pre-ordered.

Some of those people will have been made redundant or put on furlough yesterday so are returning home whether it's T4 or T2 areas.

Train companies can only sell half as many tickets as usual and with it being the weekend before Xmas, I suspect that trains are full in normal years.

There will have been people who fled but they can only flee if families up north give them a place to stay so the blame is not just on the person who fled but also family offering a place to stay.

As a matter of interest I used the Trainline app to look for a hypothetical ticket and can travel from Euston to Manchester today

@Glamflimfloogety

Given that the biggest crowds were at Kings Cross and Euston, it's easy to conclude that they were heading north (as that's we're most trains out of those stations go). But of course there will be rich wankers heading to second homes - news flash though, not everyone in London is a millionaire, and this group won't be a large number of people!

I doubt the people heading north have booked themselves into a Travelodge for the next week? They've gone to their families.

My point being, when the cases up north inevitably start to spike in the next few weeks, and the new strain is found there too, don't blame the scummy southerners. It was Northern family members that raced home and infected you all.

You are utterly ridiculous.

@FoxyTheFox

When large parts of Northern England first went into tier 3 I remember reading comments on here about selfish Northerners spreading it around, stupid Northerners not sticking to the rules, and bitter Northerners whinging about the consequences of such.

But these would’ve been Northerners going home. Why would southerners decamp to the north when they can’t stay in hotels etc..? Were they planning on a homeless Christmas ?