AIBU to be surprised that the trains don't run over Christmas?

[HeritageQuay]

So I've been invited by friends to their Christmas lunch in central London. Having been on my own for the last few years, I was delighted to be invited and immediately accepted.

I live about 50 miles outside London and so travel by train is clearly the most sensible option. Accordingly I have been ordering presents etc. on Amazon for delivery to my hosts.

So today I tried to look up train times, only to find that there are no trains at all on Christmas Day and Boxing Day. This came as complete surprise to me, is this a one-off or is it a regular thing?

Not quite sure how to get there now as the last thing I want to do is drive through London with all the issues re Congestion Charge / Ulez / Street parking etc., and in any case I wanted to enjoy a few drinks at Christmas!

How do other people travel at Christmas?

I use it public transport all the time but not in the UK. I just pictured it being even better in London because it's a much more major city than mine.

They use this time to do their rail maintenance

Yes

And that demolishes the arguments about the importance of Christian festivals.

Because from the POV of Christianity, Easter is by fat the more important festival.

Christmas is still celebrated religiously, but (from stats earlier in the thread) only about half of those who celebrate do so with any religious aspect.

The reason Christmas matters is that it's the current incarnation of a mid-winter festival (was Saturnalia and Yule) and it's very widely observed - as a festival in itself, aside from the Christian version.

I mean, they barely run on a normal day round here 🙃🙃

This.

This is not Europe, it’s England, in England the trains are never run well.

England is part of Europe unless it’s been moved overnight.

We are travelling from York to London on National Express coach

Was that in Scotland?

It's physically part of Europe, but it's trying its best not to be.

Mind somewhat blown! I lived in the UK for 15 years, and never realised trains don't run on Xmas Day! (Possibly because I either spent Xmas abroad, or had holed up in my cottage with a metric tonne of food and no plans to travel.)

In car-dependent North America, I used to work on Xmas Day until about noon, and then run to the subway and train to get to my parents' city...and now, living in a small town near a European continental capital, I just checked the connections for the day, and all the public transport is running as on a normal day. But the country I'm in seems quite serious about its public transit infrastructure and helping commuters, at least, to be able to rely on it.

Here, almost all shops are closed on all Sundays and holidays, with the exception of hospitality and petrol stations and a few other exceptions. So it's not that everyone expects 24/7 service, but more that public transport is seen as a priority/necessity. The Saturday and Sunday public transport schedules are a little bit lighter than weekdays, but not by much---and still miles better than the weekday schedules in the UK.

But the country I'm in seems quite serious about its public transit infrastructure and helping commuters, at least, to be able to rely on it.

Must be nice, because yeah that certainly doesn’t describe the UK!

I feel we’re being gaslit a bit over here, told to give up our cars even though the infrastructure just isn’t there yet. I used to live in an East Asian city and the public transport was amazing. Clean, on time, cheap.

None of the Americans or Brits I knew there who drove back home, missed having a car.

The UK is still in Europe!

In the past a limited train service ran on Christmas Day in some places, but it wasn't on all lines and it was only for a very limited part of the day. This was all 50+ years ago, though.

There was a time when the London Tube ran on Christmas day, free (which took away the need for ticket office and collectors to work.)

I think it was a Ken Livingstone scheme.

Sure -- it's not as if we're not used to the idea of peak and offpeak pricing (have you seen the price of train tickets if you are going to London before 9:30am for example?)

But that's not really how transport pricing works. They put the prices up when the trains/ buses are most likely to be crowded. Christmas Day, like any bank holiday, would not only be off peak but they'd probably start with offers to encourage people onto the buses/ trains.

The shortage of bus and train drivers is a much more serious issue because that affects links all year round, not just on one day.

It does indeed, but that's why trying to get people to work on a day that the majority of the UK celebrates as a holiday presents significant practical issues. There isn't another day in the calendar that's like Christmas, hence there's no reason to assume the usual pricing and demand models would apply.

Just checked, where I live (in Europe). Trains definitely running on Christmas Day and Boxing Day.

The cost of public transport in London is ridiculously high compared to most (all?) other countries.

How many passengers do you think that each train would carry on Christmas Day? Wouldn't pay for a fraction of the cost of running it, let alone any enhanced pay for working anti-social hours.

Trains near me aren't running on Christmas and Boxing Day.
Train drivers get paid a lot so they probably can't be persuaded to work by overtime being offered.
My best friends partner is a train driver and they can pick up overtime whenever they want so none of them are going to want to work Christmas Day.
Strange that they are also not running on Boxing Day. I suppose essential workers have no choice but to drive/ walk/ stay over. I'm working Christmas Day but I can just drive there so it isn't an issue.

So you're off work for Christmas but don't think the railway staff should be?!

They're not an emergency service. Or a care provider. Therefore like everything else, they're closed.

Good grief.

Christmas is a great day to drive into London! No charges and low traffic. Enjoy

I don’t know why everyone is so surprised that the OP didn’t know this. If she’s never needed to use a train at Christmas, it’s not surprising she didn’t know.
in Edinburgh, the buses still run. It’s a reduced service but still plenty of them.

Granted they have never used public transport at Christmas but you only have to listen/watch/read the news and there is aways talk of the Christmas transport shutdown. There have been adverts running about it since the end of November.

Have you justed arrived from the planet Zog ?