Well, the thing to remember is that every line will see an improvement eventually. There's not a line that hasn't seen a refurbished train yet. There was a change in tone from some of the responses we were getting from customers after the 170s were announced - because it hadn't really been communicated prior to the announcement a few weeks ago, I think a lot of people thought that by "extra refurbished trains" that meant we were only getting in a load more 150s, when actually the 170s are quite modern by comparison - in fact, quite a few customers think that they (and even the ScotRail 158s) are the brand new trains we've been talking about. It's bizarre how people can have such high expectations in terms of wanting brand new trains and yet not actually know what a brand new train is
Would point are you trying to make here? Have the 170s entered service with Northern and have the Northern passengers who have travelled on them said they thought they were brand new? If not they are judging them on photographs and the shape and condition of the exterior of the train.
A number of Northern passengers have very low expectations - when old Northern said refurbish they meant new seat covers, a deep clean and an internal repaint, when they said we're getting new trains they meant additional 150s from the West Midlands and 319s from Thameslink etc, so some passengers aren't expecting complete new interiors on refurbished trains and new meaning straight off the production line.
However, it's obvious some passengers (such as those who use Buxton line services) are expecting a lot more than what Northern are doing. The Buxton line is immune from Pacers, but the average passenger doesn't know which train belongs to which class or family so some Buxton line passengers thought the 150s were the ones being scrapped. However, that's not all - some of them have seen the refurbished 150s and think that they have just tarted them up for their final couple of years in service and are expecting something on a par to 158s refurbished to ATW/EMT standard to replace them.
The overcrowding is frustrating but I think a lot of the complaints we get in from customers about this are a bit short-sighted, in the sense that peak time trains will always be busy and are always very likely to be overcrowded. That said, the number of complaints about overcrowding has dropped over the last few weeks, which suggests the extra units that have arrived have made a difference. The problem is obviously the number of services is going to grow in May which will spread the fleet thin again. I know that's not much of a response, but it's the reality of the situation - until the DfT, WYCA, Greater Manchester or whoever pull their chequebook out, capacity's always going to be an issue
I can think of three other reasons why there's less complaining about overcrowding:
1. It's also a time of the year when schools are off are a lot of people take time off work, so loadings are more spread out than they would be usually be.
2. Passengers get fed up of complaining after a while if they just get generic responses saying they put as many units as possible in service and that more units are on the way
3. I've also noticed an increase in guards telling passengers they think the level of overcrowding is unacceptable so they'll report it to control. If passengers are under the impression the guard has told someone who can actually do something, why would they waste their time telling a customer service assistant who probably won't escalate the problem.
Passengers expecting a seat for everyone at peak times might be being unrealistic but are passengers who expect the train to be big enough for people not to be left on the platform for an hour on a Saturday morning being unrealistic?
