Obscure Services Abbreviations
Introduction
This page lists the various abbreviations used in the lists of trains on the Obscure and Sparse passenger services pages.
Individual trains are sometimes marked with a code to draw attention to restricted days or dates of operation, or other important information. These codes are:
Dates
- D Only runs certain dates
- E Only runs certain dates during summer timetable period only
- H Only runs certain dates during winter timetable period only
It is important to distinguish between trains which run only on certain dates, but use the obscure route on every day that they operate, and those which do not use an obscure route on every date on which they run. In the latter case the dates on which the train uses the route are normally specified in notes.
Days
(unless otherwise shown, trains run every day of the week)
- M Monday
- T Tuesday
- W Wednesday
- Th Thursday
- F Friday
- S Saturday
- Su Sunday
plus
- O only
- X excepted
Weekdays should be taken to mean Mondays to Saturdays, unless the context suggests otherwise. Public holidays (for which dates are usually shown in the country timetable) generally have a Sunday service or in some cases a modified service. Services may also vary on weekdays immediately before and after public holidays. It is not practicable to include such exceptions in tables and users should check schedules particularly carefully if travelling around public holiday periods.
For some countries, the above abbreviations are replaced by ISO 8601 weekday numbers (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ISO_week_date)
Train Timings
- : (for example 17:34) This is how normal station stops are shown.
- s (for example 17s56) Train stops only to set down passengers. Boarding at this station may not be allowed.
- u (for example 18u03) Train stops only to pick up passengers. Alighting at this station may not be allowed.
Category
(shown after the train title)
- A car carrier train which carries foot passengers
- AA car carrier train barred to foot passengers
- N unadvertised train
- * Route subject to confirmation – it applied to the equivalent train in a previous timetable.
