Northern Rail - ongoing issues (merged posts)

[whole diary]

[grahame]

From The Telegraph and Argus

BRADFORD rail users face a double blow after it was announced that a number of direct services linking the area to key destinations like Manchester Airport and Liverpool will not be introduced in December as planned.

And the much hated Pacer trains that were due to be removed from service by the end of the year will still be used on local lines until next Summer.

[snip]

Reasons for the delays include insufficient capacity, a shortage of trains and a lack of staff working on Sundays.
The same report reveals that despite promises from the government that the hated Pacer trains would not be operating after Christmas, at least 23 Pacers would still be operating, with a phasing out now expected by Summer 2020.

Some services, including the services between Bradford and Huddersfield will still be operated using Pacers.

The Combined Authority's Transport Committee will receive a report on Friday that says: "It can be seen that some changes that should have been introduced in December 2019 under Northern’s Train Service Requirement will not be.

The main such improvements not taking place are:

New Bradford Interchange – Leeds – Wakefield Westgate – Sheffield – Nottingham fast service.

Direct links from Bradford, Halifax and Calder Valley to Manchester Airport and to Liverpool.

New additional Bradford to Manchester train via Halifax and the Calder Valley.

An additional hourly service on Sundays the Calder Valley line Leeds – Bradford Interchange – Halifax – Manchester Victoria.

Noting that the paper is taking a reader vote - "Do you think Bradford will still be served by Pacer trains in 2021?".  Spoiler - 4 people out of 5 think it will.  Which shows a lack of faith in the timescales offered by the "powers that be".

[grahame]

Troubles at Northern rumble on ...  From the Manchester Evening News

The operator has told government that Pacers won’t be gone from Manchester’s railways by the end of 2019, despite promises. In the background, government officials have been discussing whether to rip up the troubled franchise's contract

The franchising system is designed to produce innovation and efficiency through companies competing with each other for business.  But companies competing also means some succeeding and some failing, with significant questions as to how the pieces are picked up in the event of a failure.  I personally have some misgivings about passing back control and (as a last resort) to the very organisation that awarded the franchise in the first place and must to some degree bear responsibility.

[johnneyw]

Northern have announced a crackdown on persistent fare Dodgers in the Beeb article linked below.
It claims that modern ticketing technology can be used to identify and target offenders.

https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-67404476

[infoman]

As no ticket gates look like they will never be installed at Sheffield
 maybe Northern should be more interested in staffing their trains correctly

[TaplowGreen]

Northern have cancelled all services on the following routes tomorrow due to staff shortage and are warning against attempting to travel - no rail replacement transport being arranged.

They are trying to get their journey planners updated as some are still showing normal service.

Morecambe/Heysham – Lancaster
Blackpool South – Colne
Wigan – Stalybridge
Clitheroe – Manchester Victoria
Manchester Victoria – Chester
Manchester Piccadilly – Chester (Via Altrincham)
Manchester Piccadilly - Crewe

[infoman]

Is this was privatisation was about?

[TaplowGreen]

Is this was privatisation was about?

Northern was taken into public ownership in 2020.

[grahame]

Is this was privatisation was about?

There was a Service Level Commitment which provided a description of services to be provided on Monday to Friday, Saturday and Sunday - now sure what it said about Bank Holidays and "Holiday Shoulders", with the franchise holders doing their best to maximise their net receipts after running expenses were taken off.  I don't know what detail was in them about replacement transport.

The SLC^▸ (Service Level Commitment) for Swindon to Westbury over a decade ago was notorious ... "2 trains a day shall run each way from Swindon to Westbury on Monday to Saturdays. On Monday to Friday one service must arrive in Swindon before 08:30 and one must leave after 17:30.    Some bright spark in the old First Great Western Intercity team that won the right to operate the line, previously Wessex Trains, noted that an arrival into Swindon at 07:45 and a departure at 18:45 was allowed, and that if a train ran from Swindon at 06:15 it could effectively form the 07:45 arrival, using a unit off the Stroud Valley line that wasn't needed there until around 07:50 from Swindon,  and that with a train as late as 18:45, it had done its day on the Stround Valley and could run back into Swindon at around 20:20.   I don't think they ever expected the 06:15 departure and 20:20 arrival to do much business, but they were save the cost of hiring a train for the line.

The Sunday SLC was worse - it said "2 trains shall run from Westbury to Swindon" and we were treated to a couple of years of a northbound service only, with an empty train running the other way.  One of the early victories for common sense put that train into passenger service.

We have come a very, very long way since those days.

[TaplowGreen]

Not sure how that all fits in with this scenario however in the case of Northern Rail's services tomorrow, apparently managers were warned by the Trade Unions weeks ago that they wouldn't have enough staff volunteering to work tomorrow given it's not only a Sunday but Christmas Eve too so they should consider an incentive - but they ignored this and it was only midweek that they realised how dire things were looking and offered an additional £100, which was only taken up by about half a dozen people.

Hence tomorrow a lot of people are going to have a very difficult journey home for Christmas.

[IndustryInsider]

Tomorrow will be quiet.  Most folk will have travelled yesterday or today.

[TaplowGreen]

Northern are warning that those services which do run are expected to be "extremely busy" and have now expanded their earlier warning to include;

DO NOT TRAVEL ON ALL ROUTES FROM 16:00 Sunday 24th December

Currently 374 cancellations listed.

[froome]

Northern have cancelled all services on the following routes tomorrow due to staff shortage and are warning against attempting to travel - no rail replacement transport being arranged.

They are trying to get their journey planners updated as some are still showing normal service.

Morecambe/Heysham – Lancaster
Blackpool South – Colne
Wigan – Stalybridge
Clitheroe – Manchester Victoria
Manchester Victoria – Chester
Manchester Piccadilly – Chester (Via Altrincham)
Manchester Piccadilly - Crewe

That presumably means that anyone from northern England heading towards Chester or north Wales will need to travel via Liverpool and the slow crawl down the Wirral.

We were due to be heading to north Wales today (though not from the north) and I'm fairly glad not to be doing it, given the general uncertainty, though sad to miss out on the festivities once we got there. Unfortunately my partner has gone down with a winter bug and we won't be travelling anywhere.

[infoman]

Andy Burnham metro Mayor for Manchester said he was surprised that Northern still use FAX machines,
which was stated by CEO^▸ (Chief Executive Officer) Matt Rice at the emergency meeting of the Rail North Committee which took place on Wednesday 30 October 2024

Don't see a problem with FAX machines as long as they are reliable.

 https://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/news/greater-manchester-news/northern-slammed-unreliable-fax-driven-30255784

[IndustryInsider]

GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) still uses communication by fax as well.  To get short notice driver diagrams from the control office to the depot the driver is one example.  Not sure of the difference between that and a printed email?

What a silly article.

[grahame]

I am reminded of "if it ain't bust, don't fix it".

I used to support a military customer base with high tech equipment that went into warships.  The equipment was specified, sourced, tested as the ship was built but by the time the ship entered service, it was already superseded old technology. It was known this was going to happen and a great deal of effort was put in at procurement time to ensuring the spares would be available over  planned 20, 25 or 30 year life.

Fax technology is old, but if it is doing the job and remains safe and appropriate and available, why not continue it?  We have far older technologies still in use on the network even a few remaining semaphore signals where in places it's not all that different from the Victorian times.