Whitechapel Terminator

ECS to Gidea Park CHS

Impossible to say in that particular instance, though somebody might know.

In general the question of 'why run trains empty over longer distances, why not just run in service' has many potential answers. On the face of it, it is a very reasonable question. I mean, if you're going that way anyway, if the train is there and the staff are there and the miles are being put on the set and the diesel is being burned (if indeed it is, which obviously it isn't on Crossrail, but electricity isn't free either (source: my latest bill)) why not let passengers use it if they want?

As I say there are a number of possible reasons. Obviously it can be a lot quicker to run empty rather than stopping at a number of stations to let the air in and out and nothing more. Obviously running ECS and not having to stop can allow a train to get to or from a depot much quicker. At the start of a day this can mean the set can leave the depot later, meaning staff can book on later, maintenance and cleaning on the set can finish later so you have longer to do it, engineering work on the line can finish later because the set doesn't need to leave the depot until later, etc. At the end of a day it means the set can arrive on the depot earlier, meaning staff book off earlier (so crew hours are coming into play), maintenance activities can start earlier, or the workload for the cleaners and maintainers can be spread out better and last trains can go away on the depot, potentially, earlier (although a dead last train might well go along calling at all stations for last orders anyway it all depends), so there's that sort of thing to consider. At other times of day, too, running empty might just help get a set out of the way quicker as service levels start winding down and again at all times of day crew rostering could potentially be a factor. Another reason first or last trains might run long distances empty could be to allow staffed stations to open later or close earlier. Again we're specifically talking here about trains at the very start and end of the day that wouldn't have many people on them anyway. Another factor might be simple pathing. You might need to squeeze a freight train in there or something. Timetable planning is a dark art with many weird and unfathomable facets to it! Then there's tipping the train out and making sure everyone's off the train. This needs to be done at a suitable time and place and sometimes it really helps if it's already been done somewhere else and the train can just go straight onto the Depot/Sidings. But also I mean at the end of the day if trains at the start and end of service are known to be very quiet and aren't making very much money, although it might seem to us that the obvious thing to do is to let passengers come along for the ride if and when they do turn up, it's not necessarily such a good idea in practice. If you schedule a train to run in passenger service you are supposed to run it in passenger service and you are supposed to try and keep it on time, and it really matters if you don't, and it really matters if you divert it, and you can't put it on a goods line or whatever and you need to tell your passengers if it's been cancelled and so on and it's quite a headache. The railway, as we know, would run much better if there weren't any passengers getting stuck in the doors and throwing up everywhere. You'll know this as a teacher. Think how much better your school would run if there weren't any blooming kids in it! It'd be so much more efficient wouldn't it? You might not want your deluxe fresh-air transportation service to become a magnet for vandals, for example.

I can't say which if any of these apply to the train you're asking about, it seems pretty clear to me that some of them don't, but it might be useful food for thought anyway.

Could the choice of terminus perhaps be linked to station staff availability to assist detraining?