Perfect storm hits May 2018 Timetable
Network Rail had completed the May 2018 Working Timetable (WTT) on 17 November last year. With infrastructure enhancements, including Thameslink and the Manchester-Bolton electrification, coinciding with the arrival of new train fleets, the timetable had required almost four million services to be rescheduled. This represented seven times the usual workload.
But then it was decided to phase the introduction of Thameslink services. The Manchester-Bolton electrification was delayed, requiring the timetable for the North of England to be re-written. Late delivery of ScotRail’s new trains added yet another timetable re-write.
The end result of all these changes was that on 23 February the Rail Delivery Group (RDG), announced that Network Rail had been forced to suspend ‘Informed Traveller’, or T-12 for short. This finalises timetables, particularly weekend timetables that can change owing to project or engineering work, twelve weeks ahead of travel.
Thus, T-12 is the date when train operators open their retail systems for the booking and purchase of advanced tickets. It is also important for operators when preparing staff rosters and rolling stock allocation. As a result the process is a licence condition.
Following the Timetable change on 20 May. T-12 will now be replaced by T-6. In some cases it may be nearer T-4.
Network Rail has a recovery plan in place with the aim of restoring T-12 for the December 2018 timetable change. But this is by no means certain.
While T-6 is in force, train operators will continue to offer the usual range of discounted tickets. Should you want to buy a an advance ticket for a service affected by the change to T-6, and only standard discounted rate tickets are available when you go on-line, the advice is to book your journey at the standard fare then, when cheaper advance tickets subsequently become available, buy another set of advanced tickets for the same journey . You can then request a fee-free refund on the original standard ticket.
This approach requires a leap of faith and a healthy credit limit on your plastic. For long distance travel, even a super off peak return ticket can be the wrong side of £100. Note that RDG advised that on some weekends Informed Traveller ‘may not be available until four weeks before travel or fewer’. And what if the operator can’t offer the full allocation of advanced fares?
As a result of the various delays and changes, early in February Network Rail did not have a stable May WTT for Scotland, London North Eastern, London North Western or the South East Routes. Having to divert an already understaffed Timetabling Department to rewriting the May 2018 WTT has threatened preparation of the December 2018 Timetable. According to Network Rail there is a risk that two teams would not be able to start work on the December timetable when train operators presented their Priority Date Notification Statement (PDNS) at T-40 in March.
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