It’s now a bit more than a month into the new timetable, and how well has it worked?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The actual timetable has good things which weren\u2019t there before, such as a half hourly peak service with some of those trains going through to Leeds. If the full weekday timetable operates as planned, there are 50 trains a day calling at Slaithwaite, which is more than there have been at any time since the station reopened in 1982.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Th earliest train to\nLeeds is now 20 minutes later, but it appears this is likely to be rectified at\nthe next (May 2020) timetable change.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The pre-Christmas period\nwas fairly poor, as a result of TPEs staffing issues. Every day up to Christmas\nsaw at least one, and often more than one, cancellation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Some of those staffing issues have been resolved, and since Christmas our hourly stopping service, plus the extra services in the peak, have generally turned up at or close to the appointed time. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Setting aside the first week of the new timetable, the level of cancellations has been significantly lower than under the previous timetable. Apart from a couple of bad days, cancellations have been a rarity. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
TPE have withdrawn\nseveral of the long distance services between Manchester and the North East.\nHaving fewer expresses running on our route may enable the remaining services,\nincluding our stopping services, to become more punctual \u2013 we shall see when\nthe expresses are reintroduced whether this affects punctuality. However, it\nmeans fewer trains and fewer seats between Manchester and Leeds, and this\ncontributes to overcrowding on our trains.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
All the extra peak trains were supposed to be 6 carriages, but because of staff shortages often they have been operating with only three carriages or with the rear three carriages locked out of use. On occasions this has caused severe overcrowding, even to the extent that some passengers have been unable to board. It\u2019s something which shouldn\u2019t happen, and which ought to be fixable.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
At a recent (17\/01\/2020) meeting of the Greater Manchester Combined Authority Transport Committee Kathryn O\u2019Brien, Customer Experience Director for TPE stated that one of the measures they had taken to counteract the impact of driver shortages arising from additional training requirements was to prioritise local over some cross country services. If so, it’s welcome that there’s now an understanding that the impact of cancelling a service that only runs hourly is much greater than the impact of cancelling a service when it’s only a 15′ wait until the next one.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It may be significant that even on the day of Storm Ciara, not a single train at Slaithwaite or Marsden was cancelled. Many were late, half of them more than 10′ late, but every single one ran. That would not have happened in 2018 or 2019.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
It’s now a bit more than a month into the new timetable, and how well has it worked? The actual timetable has good things which weren\u2019t there before, such as a half hourly peak service with some of those trains … Continue reading