PSUL
Passenger Train Services over Unusual Lines
listing regular passenger trains over obscure rail routes in the British Isles
Compiled by Richard Maund
This page was updated on 22 December 2008
Introduction
This publication's long established title is, perhaps, something of a misnomer - hence the addition of the subtitle. The objective is to tabulate the passenger trains using obscure rail lines in the British Isles. The lines included here are those scheduled to be used reasonably regularly - albeit not necessarily frequently - by passenger trains that may not readily be evident from the official publicly-available rail timetable for Great Britain, its accompanying map (when published) or the equivalent publications of other railways. The categorisation adopted by other, unofficial publications has no bearing on the selection of lines for inclusion in PSUL.
The facility is offered partly to those wishing to travel over such "unusual" lines but also as a data source for those interested in the history of such obscure services. With the latter in mind, the aspiration is to make available, on this website, information in respect of earlier years too.
Many may know the title as a small pamphlet, originally issued through the auspices of The Stephenson Locomotive Society and latterly the Branch Line Society, who still issue a printed booklet version of the data from this website.
If you have visited this site seeking current train service timetable information you should consult the on-line journey planners of National Rail
(for Great Britain), NI Rail (for Northern Ireland) or Iarnród Éireann (for the Republic of Ireland).If you are interested in information about similar obscure lines elsewhere in Europe, visit the
Enthusiasts' Guide to Travelling the Railway of Europe and similarly for the Rest of the World.Some services may be shown in abridged form rather than by full listing of all trains. In editions from 1993 onwards, lines which had service in the previous timetable period but have no service this time are endorsed either "Service ceased", where a regular service has been withdrawn, or "No service", where only temporary engineering diversions had previously operated. Lines which did not have service in the previous timetable period, but which now see use, are specifically endorsed.
To receive automatic advice as pages are up-dated, use a web monitoring program, such as WebMon.
Explanation of references
|
M = Mondays |
W = Wednesdays |
F = Fridays |
Su = Sundays |
|
T = Tuesdays |
Th = Thursdays |
S = Saturdays |
plus O = only or X = excepted
Engineering diversions
Some diversions are pre-planned in the working timetable and are listed herein, prefaced by the days/dates of operation in CAPITALS (the symbols ¶ or <+> have also been used at some periods to denote diversions in conjunction with engineering work); all Sunday trains are subject to further diversion or alteration. BBC Ceefax gives outline information of forthcoming engineering work, as do some train companies' websites and the National Rail
Service Bulletins website. Late information may be available through the Gensheet Yahoo! Group.Semi-regular land cruises and excursions
Brief mention was, until the Summer 2002 edition, made of some of these arrangements, where timings appeared in the working timetables or where the route was reasonably established. There always was some debate about whether such trains warranted inclusion but when they appeared in the working timetables it seemed sensible to cover them. Subsequently, the degree to which many (even those still running) have disappeared from the working timetables and the relative infrequency of some routes has led to an inability to provide reliable total coverage, leading to inconsistency; for this reason, they were deleted with effect from the Winter 2002-3 edition, apart only from the VSOE "line service" between London, the Channel and Venezia.
Grouping of lines
The listing is sub-divided, as follows:
Within each region, lines are listed generally from west to east, with more northerly lines before southerly ones. For reference purposes, against each line some or all of the following may be shown (not applicable for all editions of PSUL) -
And now the small print:
Copyright and Disclaimer Notice:The copyright of all the documents on this website is reserved by the compiler. Copies of the documents must be for personal use only and shall not be used for commercial purposes. The information supplied in the documents is for general reference only and should not be relied upon without further specific enquiry. You may alter the formatting and content of the documents only to suit your own computer or printer.
The right of Richard Maund to be identified as the compiler of this work in this format has been asserted in accordance with the Copyright, Designs & Patents Act 1988. All rights, including copyright and publications rights, reserved by the compiler. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without written permission of the copyright holder.
Please click on the service period you wish to consult:
These editions contain corrections or amendments which may have been inserted at any time:[Other archived material will be available here in due course]
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History of PSUL
You can find a note of the origins and history of PSUL here.
If you have any information, comments on or updates to any of the documents, you can e-mail the compiler.
Copyright
© Richard Maund, 1963-2008