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?

Despatch from Greater Manchester - what's a train?! :D

Buses and coaches are running though, although to a limited timetable.

We're giving in next year and getting a car.

Yes, and also ‘just stay in a hotel’, staffed by workers who for some arbitrary reason don’t deserve the time off either!

The doctor having to shell out for taxis who posted up thread must be feeling queasy at the virtue signalling ‘I’m glad they get to spend the day with their families’ bollocks.

I had mentioned upthread after a lifetime of not driving that I now hope to pass my upcoming driving test and get a car next year.

As much as they downplay cars they are indeed still important in the UK until the public transport improves in terms of cost, reliability and coverage.

More and more people who previously gave up car usage will go back to back to them until they get the transport sorted.

I found reference to free Tube travel on New Years Eve between 2000 and 2020, perhaps I was thinking of that.

Taxi my dear. That is how you travel on Christmas day. There is commonly known that there is no public transport of any such on Christmas day. It has been like this for ages. So sorry, check if National Express goes, this is not public transport though.

This wasnt ment to say that non celebrating people should be keeping public transport running.

Drive there. Congestion charge doesn’t apply Christmas Day.

It has been the case as long as I remember.

Interestingly, it was not the case when my Dad was a child, as his Dad had to work on Christmas Day as a railway man.

They could work the same way that all the rest of us essential workers have to work at Christmas too. As part of our normal duties and take leave if they don't want to work. Particularly as they get paid an absolute fortune.

nhs staff, police, hospitality staff, highways, electricity, all these people that work on Christmas Day, don't you think they deserve a break ? It must be really shit if you are one of them in London having to work on Christmas if you normally use public transport

What did it mean then?

Im not in the UK and this blows my mind. All of our public transport runs in order to get people where they need to go on Xmas day and every other public holiday. Aldi, how else are people who need to work Xmas day (hospitals, emergency services) meant to get to work given we don’t live in the world of Harry Potter where we can magic ourselves places.

We sold our "public service" industries and gave up the notion.

Who is going to pay for all of this? Because you'll get nothing out of the Treasury unless you can prove that it'll wash its face. And it won't.

Emergency services and utilities suppliers are critical infrastructure. People die without them. People don't die because trains aren't running for two days.

In Scotland I don’t think the trains run on January 1st either. Buses are few and far between from what I remember.

I think it's missleading to portray this as being down to whether an industry is essential or non-essential, it's much more to do with the industry culture and economics.

To illistrate the screensnap shot at the bottom is the ground traffic at Heathrow at about 1015 this Christmas Day.

Every aircraft you see there has either just landed or just departed. It was apparently busy in the terminals with passengers who will have needed to get to/from the airport, buy fuel, use hotels, use restaurants.

Now all that activity probably counts as non essential in many peoples books but nevertheless aviation is an industry that has a culture of running 24/7/365. Christmas day working is part of the gig, you accept that when you sign up for a job in it.

There may be economic reasons why running UK rail over Christmas won't work but it does also look as if that industry, UK at least, has lost the 365 working days a year culture, if it ever had it...

I used to work in the Electricity industry, and the older employees had a public service mentality. If necessary they would work through the night and travel across the country to keep the lights on, and they considered it their duty and their pride.

Older railwaymen used to be the same.

Older railwaymen used to be the same

And episodes of On The Buses show that bus crews were the same too.

But public transport on Christmas Day was phased out almost completely in 1973, and finished off absolutely in 1979. Taking the first of those years - next to no-one in the workforce will remember it, as its 67 years ago. Those aged over 61 might have memories of taking the bus to work until 79, and of course people over about 50 might remember them from childhood.

It's a lost culture - those working in transport will see this as one unified day off that's just their norm (except management and maintenance/engineering, who may well be working). And those who are working in other sectors will also be used to it because they simply won't have experienced anything different in London (where discission on this thread commenced) or elsewhere in UK.

Is there a gradual shift towards greater opening on Christmas Day? I think there is, but it's very slow. I walked ~3 miles yesterday in London to go to family for lunch, passing a few rows of shops. More were open than I remembered ever seeing before: 2x convenience stores, 2x coffee shops (same ownership, local-ish chain) and what must be the duty pharmacist.
Very few other pedestrians (except dog walkers) but lots of runners. Few cars (indeed none on some side roads) much bigger gaps between planes going over, so the lack of engine noise was noticeable (and I really appreciated it) Boris and Lime bikes seemed to be working as normal.

But public transport on Christmas Day was phased out almost completely in 1973, and finished off absolutely in 1979)

That's not true where I live. It's a massively reduced service, but there is still a bus service on Christmas Day. Last year I travelled 70 miles by public transport (bus) to get to where I was spending Christmas Day. This year I was able to travel up on Christmas Eve, but I could have done the same.

Oh, that's interesting! Which counties/boroughs and bus companies are they?

I know some coach services kept running, that's been mentioned manty times on this thread; but getting buses (no doubt with several changes to cover that distance) I really hadn't thought was possible. So I'm quite interested to know where, as if popular/well used/not loss making, then perhaps it will spread from those local authorities who have retained/re-introduced it

(And I was being a bit London-centric about buses, as the OP was about getting in and out of central London; of course the thread has meandered since then)

I'm in Scotland. Im pretty sure the services are subsidised by the local councils for the areas they cover - having said that, in my previous council area there were no buses at all on Christmas Day, so it's not universal.

Yeah, my main local bus route normally runs every half hour from early morning to late night, but on Christmas Day it runs every 2 hours between about 10am and 6pm. If you look at the schedule, you can see it's designed for operating with one bus and one driver over one shift on Christmas Day. The local council pays for it.

We didnt travel on the roads yesterday but did today, traffic horrendous, huge queues, a 1.5hr journey on the way turned into 2.5hrs, on the way back 2 hours

So 90mins lost to traffic queues

but no options for us to travel by public transport and we certainly wouldnt be able to afford it anyway

Actually the more I think about this, the more I think there should be public transport 365 days a year. It is absolutely ridiculous that there isn't.

Not everyone is interested in Christmas, and many people would be happy to work.

Can you imagine what public transport would be like on Christmas Day? The odd passenger dotted here and there. The cost per head would be mind boggling.

Depends where you are..there are thousands trying to get to/from work on Christmas Day in places like London for example, but TfL pretty much shutdowns completely for the period.

Many countries manage to run at least some form of skeleton/Sunday style type service for public transport during their main national holidays, which may not be Christmas. I guess those countries feel the cost is worth paying