What ought to be a good news story in our area – the restoration of the half-hourly peak service at Slaithwaite & Marsden which existed from 1990 until May 2018 – turned into a farce by the inability of TransPennine Express to provide sufficient staff to operate the new timetable. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
BBC article follows, below<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Rail commuters in the north of England have been hit by cancellations and delays as new winter timetables were launched.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Northern had cancelled 19 trains by 10:00 GMT and 31 were delayed, which\nit said was down to “operational issues” rather than the timetable\nchange.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Transpennine Express also cancelled 29 services on Monday morning.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The issues largely affected commuters in Yorkshire, Greater Manchester,\nLancashire and Merseyside.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Transpennine Express services hit included those linking Manchester\nAirport with Edinburgh and Newcastle, and trains from Liverpool Lime Street to\nScarborough.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The firm’s managing director Leo Goodwin said he was “really\nsorry” for the disruption to customers at such a busy time of year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n He said: “Due to a number of issues with crew training caused by the late delivery of some of our new trains, along with a maintenance backlog and some infrastructure issues we have had to implement a temporary timetable, cancelling some journeys along one of our routes.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n Northern services which were affected were between Blackpool North and\nManchester Airport, from Leeds to York and Sheffield, and Darlington to\nSaltburn.<\/p>\n\n\n\n A spokesperson for the rail firm said: <\/p>\n\n\n\n “Very few of our services have seen any changes as a result of the timetable coming in.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n “The small number of delays and cancellations are due to operational issues including driver sickness, signalling failure and train faults.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n Greater Manchester Mayor Andy Burnham said rail issues had “gone on\nfar too long” and called for Northern to be stripped of its franchise.<\/p>\n\n\n\n “If the government is serious about supporting the north, then it needs to show it by acting this week to sort out our failing rail services,” he said.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n “As a first step, it should strip Northern of its franchise. That would send a clear signal to all rail operators – notably Transpennine Express – that we will not accept a second-class rail service for people in the North.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n “If Transpennine Express fail to respond to that message, they should be next.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n The National Rail timetable is changed in May and December each year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Northern had said the new timetable would see 50 new trains being\nintroduced across its services.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In October, fewer than half of Northern rail services ran on time, the\nfirm’s figures showed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Cancellations were also at their highest level since July and August.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The operator had said the changes in its new winter timetable would\nfocus on “reliability and stability” and add to the services each\nweek.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Transpennine is running a pre-planned temporary reduced timetable on\nsome routes as a maintenance backlog and infrastructure problems have delayed\nstaff training on new trains.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Its managing director Mr Goodwin said as new trains were introduced\nimprovements to services would be made.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Anthony Smith, chief executive of watchdog Transport Focus, said: <\/p>\n\n\n\n “Passengers don’t care what causes the disruption – they just want things running again as soon as possible, and plenty of visible staff on hand to help them in the meantime.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n “Train operators should ensure every eligible passenger knows how to claim compensation so that they get the money they are entitled to.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n https:\/\/www.bbc.co.uk\/news\/uk-england-leeds-50807987<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" What ought to be a good news story in our area – the restoration of the half-hourly peak service at Slaithwaite & Marsden which existed from 1990 until May 2018 – turned into a farce by the inability of TransPennine … Continue reading