Southend-2
You are correct on both counts. The bespoke taxi service available seems able to cater, so far, for the numbers of pax missing the last train, although at £27.50 to Liverpool Street it's obviously not ideal. Apparently some train drivers at Ilford are being rostered onto 'airport duties' in the near future so whether that might mean earlier and later trains from May I don't know.
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So as promised - Tried the Approach on RW27 at EGLC in the 737-800 simulator and lets just say we made it in but it weren't pretty! PM was calling unstable most of the way down the approach!! I think our VSI was around -1200ft or more, Flap 40 and Airspeed sat around 119kts!! Tanks were a tad over a tonne, I'll keep trying with some legal amounts but don't fancy my chances :-)
So as promised - Tried the Approach on RW27 at EGLC in the 737-800 simulator and lets just say we made it in but it weren't pretty! PM was calling unstable most of the way down the approach!! I think our VSI was around -1200ft or more, Flap 40 and Airspeed sat around 119kts!! Tanks were a tad over a tonne, I'll keep trying with some legal amounts but don't fancy my chances :-)
Smartwings land their 737-700's at Paros Island with payload restricted to 120 pax
Rumours seem to be growing that early and late trains on the Liverpool Street line might soon be introduced. The latest report suggests that these would terminate/originate at SEN and operate with limited stops from/to Liverpool Street.
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Can't happen. No crossover for the train. Could put one in or build a bay road (3rd platform), but that's not something that can be done overnight. Early trains to London are more than adequate, but there's nothing to hope for other than 1 additional train in the evening. There's an army of workers waiting to access the track every night after the last train, and every train has to be prepared for the next day's service.
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Can't happen. No crossover for the train. Could put one in or build a bay road (3rd platform), but that's not something that can be done overnight. Early trains to London are more than adequate, but there's nothing to hope for other than 1 additional train in the evening. There's an army of workers waiting to access the track every night after the last train, and every train has to be prepared for the next day's service.
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I doubt very much they work on either of the two lines every single night of the week, let alone both of them. The GA mainline for example has freight running through the night to/from Stratford jct. Therefore it would be possible to run a later/earlier train in either direction. It’s more likely an issue with staff contracts or some weird railway bureaucracy, although if it were such a thing they overcame it during the Olympics.
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I'm possibly being a bit thick, but what is there against the airport providing a subsidy to National Express or another coach company for early morning / late night ? It solves all the problems of rail engineering works, and means rather than one single train service with 300+ seats (and potentially a very long wait between services) you can instead have coaches spaced at regular intervals. Maybe set up some revenue sharing scheme so coach and train have interchangeable tickets. If these coaches can show up in the national rail timetable this would encourage potential passengers
Stansted had far more pax per year than Southend does before early morning / late night trains were introduced. I really think that some sort of interim and lower cost scheme is needed to ensure demand can be proven further to all the relevant stakeholders in a train service
Stansted had far more pax per year than Southend does before early morning / late night trains were introduced. I really think that some sort of interim and lower cost scheme is needed to ensure demand can be proven further to all the relevant stakeholders in a train service
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They got National Express signed up a while back, sadly it was launched during the winter when there were few flights and even fewer that needed late/early buses. It didn’t last long. It probably would now be more viable.
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Anyway, the timetable changes in May and the last London bound train remains 23:05. Timetables are planned a year or so in advance, so the next revision - Dec 2019 - will be more or less set in stone by now.
If the train operator could get away with it they would simply run trains to London in the morning and back to Southend in the evening peak. They are contractually required to run an off-peak service, it's the only reason they do so.
The only way Southend Airport will get late night services to London is if it becomes a contractual requirement when the franchise comes up for renewal.
DJ is right. A coach service is required, I am surprised no one has come forward given the increased in pax
numbers.
There is currently a Andrews Taxi/Southend Airport joint experimental coach service from SEN to Upminster Tube station, apparently running hourly from 09.15 to 22.30 each day at a cost of £10. This is mentioned on the SEN website only in the 'Rail Replacement' notice so people thinking of using a coach during the day are unlikely to find out about it. Oh, and you can only get further information about it "from the Taxi Marshal" - very helpful if you wanted to book in advance. Not very impressive.