Changing travel patterns on Sundays drives demand for new services

More than 20 years after the Sunday Trading Act, services on many bus and train routes in the UK on Sundays are still poor relations of the weekday and Saturday timetables. However, as Rhodri Clark reports, there are signs of significant improvement in some areas

Stagecoach is now operating an hourly commercial Sunday service on this route, between Bargoed and Newport, after Caerphilly council used its reducing budget to stimulate growth on the previous Sunday tendered service

Stagecoach is now operating an hourly commercial Sunday service on this route, between Bargoed and Newport, after Caerphilly council used its reducing budget to stimulate growth on the previous Sunday tendered service

Derry station, pictured here, has departures to Belfast at the same minutes past each hour on Sundays as on other days, except in the early morning and late evening

Derry station, pictured here, has departures to Belfast at the same minutes past each hour on Sundays as on other days, except in the early morning and late evening

When the Maesteg branch line in South Wales reopened to passengers in 1992, the new train service operated Mondays-Saturdays only. The scheme was pared back to satisfy the Welsh Office, sceptical of the benefits of investing in local railways. Sunday services would have required additional revenue support, demand for travel on Sundays being lower than on other days.

Two years later, the Sunday Trading Act 1994 provided for large shops in England, Wales and Northern Ireland to open for limited...

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