I don’t know all the ins and outs of it but I am certain it’s nothing like as simple as you suggest. There are matters such as contracts with Hitachi and drivers traction knowledge that are likely to play major parts in which trains are put out, to say nothing of ‘pingdemic’.
It’s all stuff that LNER could have sorted out by now if they were that bothered about it, they’ve had sufficient time, it’s not as if the cracks on the 80xs were only discovered yesterday. I know that traction knowledge for the 91s for all Newcastle and Edinburgh crews, as well as even some London crews has lapsed, but if that’s seriously limiting usage of the mark 4 fleet to two sets out of seven and leaving working sets idle whilst passengers suffer short forms then it’s time LNER got on with traction refreshers.
Whilst they’re doing said traction refreshers they can train their guards not to delay trains during dispatch for a ticket inspection that could be done after departure, as that held up the LNER service I was on yesterday. I won’t name the guard in question but will say it’s one regularly mentioned on this forum for the wrong reasons.
I should imagine that the majority of passengers don't give a toss about railway bureaucracy and hundred odd different reasons given everything something is thrown into the "too difficult" basket. What they do care about is paying through the nose for a ticket when the company concerned seems to make very little effort to provide a reasonable standard of service. Time and again they're met with short formations, lack of information all the other things makes them believe that the railway sees them as nothing more than an inconvenience and to be frank, who can blame them for feeling that way?
I fully agree. I try to look at these issues from both the passenger and railway side of the argument, but in this case all of the evidence suggests that this situation could have been handled considerably better and if they’d applied themselves to it they could have got more stock running. I have seen what seems like thousands of supposed reasons why the mark 4 fleet can’t be used more extensively, but I’m yet to see one that couldn’t be resolved in the medium term if LNER got their act together. I know several people that have abandoned LNER altogether in favour of the car because of the (now ditched) compulsory reservations and the frequent short formed trains.
All the more reason to get all the Mk4 sets which they are keeping back into service!
Indeed. There are seven Mark 4 sets and twelve 91s, it isn’t unreasonable to expect four of them in service each day, but at present it’s three if you’re lucky, more commonly it’s only two.
If the public knew this they’d be (understandably) incredibly angry with LNER.
(edit: corrected spelling)