As I am not from Britain, I haven't figured out the system behind the nomenclature of the British train services. Like, for instance "1A45" etc. Is there a specific system? In order to explain, a comparison with Germany/Austria: RE, in Austria REX ("Regionalexpress") means, that the train only stops at a few stations between start and terminus. A Number, like "RE16" for instance means a specific line in the Network. A RB ("Regionalbahn"), in Austria R ("Regionalzug") stops at almost every station.
Yes, there is a meaning behind the number at the start of the headcode: 1 - express passenger (line speed) 2 - stopping passenger (line speed) 3 - special working (RHTT for example) (75mph unless stated otherwise) 4 - fast freight (75mph) 5 - empty coaching stock (line speed) 6 - medium-loaded freight (60mph) 7 - heavy freight (45mph) 8 - unfitted freight (35mph) 9 - Eurostar, Thameslink or TransPennine Express 802 diagrams (line speed) Hope this clears it up, and feel free to correct me if I'm wrong
The letters are part of the phonetic alphabet but don't mean anything and the two numbers after the letter again don't mean anything other than service order e.g. 2O03 comes after 2O01 as 2O02 would be a service in the other diagram
So the last numers are sort of service numbers... I see. We have something similar in Austria too. Thank you again!
Just to add to TG08 and sorry for lack of detail but I have just seen the time , 0 at the beginning is a light loco move. Also the letter denotes the route and each route will have its own letter for example I know that London Kings Cross to Leeds/Harrogate/Skipton/Bradford BS is the letter D, for example the 12:33 train from Kings Cross to Leeds was 1D14 the 1 (as already said) means express passenger, D meaning the route in this case only to Leeds and 14 denoting its the 14th train with the 1D headcode in the region. However this is not the only train in the country with the 1D14 headcode but the only one on this route today. To a Western railwayman I belive the D means the route from Paddington to Oxford. So essentially 1D14 in my region would mean that it is the 14th express passenger train using the route to Leeds that day. On the Western network it would mean the 14th express passenger train to Oxford (I believe that's the route) that day. I am not great at explaining things so I am very sorry if I have confused matters and feel free to bombard me with questions. Also it is close to bedtime so I may have missed bits of info so please if someone notices something a bit off please do let me know: I am by no means an encyclopedia and information often leaks through me like a sieve!
With stations that recieve a lot of similar services (such as the two Glasgow stations or Birmingham NS), it's common to see duplicates as well. It's more confusing the more you know
There is, or was, supposedly a logic to the route letters, although that has gradually devolved into soup. The first thing one needs to understand is whether it is a local or long-distance route. Long distance trains are those which travel between two or more (old BR) regions, in which case the letter indicates the destination region. So E: Eastern L: Anglia M: Midland O: Southern S: Scotland V: Western A: Greater London But this being Britain, the country where a hundredweight is 112 pounds, nothing can be quite that simple. So trains from the Western Region bound for London use an L instead of an A. Why? Who knows. How many pecks to a bushel? Now, bin all that with regional trains. Here the route letter refers to a particular destination within the region. So, for example, on GWE two westbounds out of Paddington can be labeled R and V respectively: one to Reading (the R code, within the London region), but one headed through Reading to Bristol in the western region (V). Better yet, often local route letters no longer match the destination, but have been inherited from an old terminus which has changed. Makes a lot of sense, don't it?
Interesting! Thanks for trying to explain a supposed sytem to the letters! This "devolving" reminds me of the line nomenclature sytem of the Viennese tram system, which was also more and more diluted over the decades.
S Scotland If you look at the Wikipedia article selected regions have a headcode for destinations Here is the section I quoted from the Wikipedia article pertaining to Cathcart Circle and Edinburgh Waverly to Glasgow Queen Street via Falkirk High codes 'Examples from the Scottish Region include A: Aberdeen B: Edinburgh G: Fife, including Fife Circle via Dumfermline, and Longannet power station H: Inverness I/O: Cathcart Inner/Outer Circle, respectively R: Express services between Glasgow Queen Street and Edinburgh (even numbers eastbound, odd numbers westbound) T: Glasgow (trains from the north) Y: West Highland'
If we're doing Scotland then it's this: A - Aberdeen B - Edinburgh C - to/from Cumbernauld D - to/from Paisley Canal, to/from Dunbar E - Balloch <-> Airdrie services F - to/from Ardrossan South Beach G - Fife Destinations or Gourock H - Inverness, Wick, Kyle of Lochalish, and Helensburgh <-> Edinburgh services I - Cathcart Inner J - to/from East Kilbride K - to/from Ayr L - to/from Carlisle, Larkhall <-> Dalmuir, as well as Dundee and Arbroath. M - to/from Neilston N - to/from Alloa, to/from Newton O - Cathcart Outer P - to/from Dunblane Q - R - Edinburgh <-> Glasgow "Express" S - Motherwell <-> Dalmuir T - Glasgow Queen Street, to/from Largs, and to/from Tweedbank U - V - Milngavie to/from Springburn W - to/from Wemyss Bay X - Y - West Highland Line and services to/from North Berwick Z - That's what I can find. Fairly simple.
Spot on, but I found that the Inverurie-Montrose 'Aberdeen Crossrail' services also use Bravo as well: (odd numbers going northbound, even numbers going southbound) Realtime Trains | 2B15 0742 Montrose to Dyce | 10/07/2023 Realtime Trains | 2B16 0651 Inverurie to Montrose | 10/07/2023
LNER's 1Exx Scotland-London services use Echo, as does Lumo for their Edinburgh-London services, TPE use November for their Edinburgh-Newcastle services, TPE also use Mike for their Edinburgh/Glasgow to Manchester Airport services, as do Avanti for their Edinburgh/Glasgow-London services, CrossCountry use Victor for their express services from Scotland This might fall into the England pile but regardless: LNER, Lumo, XC, Avanti West Coast and possibly TPE all use Sierra for their northbound Scottish expresses Hope this adds some extra information on some other operators headcodes within Scotland except for ScotRail
These are cross-border, and as they cross regions they follow different rules. They don't fall under the Scotland Region's system, afaik. The default letter for any train to Scotland from England is S. Some are different as shown, but the S is the "to Scottish Region" designation. Hope this adds some extra information on some other operators headcodes within Scotland except for ScotRail [/QUOTE]
Yeah, the cross-border services must follow the English system then Yeah, thought so, as 'S' could be and probably is interpreted as Scotland as Scotland starts with an 'S' hence using Sierra
