Northern cancellations getting worse

[johntea]

Interesting glitch with the announcements at Leeds this morning

Northern decided to terminate their Nottingham service at Sheffield due to staffing

‘Platform X for the 12:34 Northern service to Sheffield…via Sheffield’!

 

[Sheffcaster202]

Interesting glitch with the announcements at Leeds this morning

Northern decided to terminate their Nottingham service at Sheffield due to staffing

‘Platform X for the 12:34 Northern service to Sheffield…via Sheffield’!

It was doing that at Lincoln today too, Leeds section cut off and terminated at Sheffield and kept announcing Sheffield via Sheffield

 

[ricoblade]

Weird one this morning at Donny.

Waiting for the 07:20 ex-Hull to Sheffield, shown as running and on time.

Announced on Platform 4 but then a very long freight appeared from the north and stopped parallel to Platform 8 with its wagons way in the distance appearing to block the entry to 4.

Platform alteration then announced over to 3 where an empty service ex-depot was standing that hadn’t been prepped and only had 2/3 engines.

Arrived into Sheff (with some very stressed Manc Airport refugees from the cancelled TPE) about 15 mins late.

No idea what happened to the original Hull service.

 

[Tractor37]

It’s a bus replacement between Hull and Doncaster due to engineering work with Goole swing bridge for the rest of this month

 

[Peterthegreat]

Yesterday four consecutive stopping services from Doncaster to Sheffield cancelled in the evening. No additional stops made.
Today all afternoon and evening Doncaster to Scunthorpe stopping services cancelled. Passengers advised to catch next available Northern service (which is tomorrow).
It's not just the cancellations it's the total abandonment of passengers. Pathetic management.

 

[Sheffcaster202]

Yesterday four consecutive stopping services from Doncaster to Sheffield cancelled in the evening. No additional stops made.
Today all afternoon and evening Doncaster to Scunthorpe stopping services cancelled. Passengers advised to catch next available Northern service (which is tomorrow).
It's not just the cancellations it's the total abandonment of passengers. Pathetic management.

Staff shortages meaning no Doncaster to Scunthorpe for the rest of the day, multiple diagrams not able to be covered by any of the depots so busses are running instead

Wouldn't say it's abandonment or pathetic management . . . just takes time to get everything in place, busses confirmed, timetable in place for them...

 

[Peterthegreat]

Are buses running? There is no mention of that on the Northern website. The national rail website has been updated to confirm buses.
However the last stopping train from Doncaster is cancelled. (Along with 2 of the previous 3). No mention of any alternative services.

And as I said a four hour gap yesterday from Doncaster to Sheffield stopping services.

Staff shortages meaning no Doncaster to Scunthorpe for the rest of the day, multiple diagrams not able to be covered by any of the depots so busses are running instead

Wouldn't say it's abandonment or pathetic management . . . just takes time to get everything in place, busses confirmed, timetable in place for them...

 

[Sheffcaster202]

Are buses running? There is no mention of that on the Northern nor National Rail websites.

Incident: Scunthorpe | National Rail

Buses replace Northern services between Doncaster and Scunthorpe. Find details of all current incidents on National Rail Enquiries.

www.nationalrail.co.uk

 

[Peterthegreat]

Incident: Scunthorpe | National Rail

Buses replace Northern services between Doncaster and Scunthorpe. Find details of all current incidents on National Rail Enquiries.

www.nationalrail.co.uk

Both Journey Check and the National Rail websites show the 20.35 and 21.35 services from Doncaster as cancelled and have been shown for a couple of hours at least. However they are NOT shown as cancelled on the Northern Rail website (as at 16.15).
Why not?

 

[Sheffcaster202]

Why not?

Are you referring to Doncaster to Scunthorpe services as they depart at '38 each hour?

 

[Peterthegreat]

Are you referring to Doncaster to Scunthorpe services as they depart at '38 each hour?

No. I'm referring to the Doncaster to Sheffield stopping service which does depart at '35 each hour.

 

[AY1975]

It’s a bus replacement between Hull and Doncaster due to engineering work with Goole swing bridge for the rest of this month

Pity they can't divert via Selby, or at least run some trains via Selby, as I'm sure would have happened in BR days. Unfortunately Northern crews probably don't sign the route via Selby, though, and I suspect Northern can't be bothered to carry out a route learning exercise.

 

[ItsGrimUpNorth]

Pathetic showing on the Tyne Valley Line yesterday evening with several trains cancelled, including the last two from Newcastle to Carlisle (2023 and 2127). Left the 1923 as the last train to head west, very poor!

 

[GoneSouth]

Pathetic showing on the Tyne Valley Line yesterday evening with several trains cancelled, including the last two from Newcastle to Carlisle (2023 and 2127). Left the 1923 as the last train to head west, very poor!

Hopefully nobody was left stranded and Northern did the right thing in getting everyone to their destination.

Do intermediate stations all have help points

 

[Kite159]

.

Hopefully nobody was left stranded and Northern did the right thing in getting everyone to their destination.

Do intermediate stations all have help points

Stations having help points is one thing. Having a help point which connects into someone useful (rather than the near useless National Rail Enquires) or gets answered is a different kettle of fish.

 

[skyhigh]

.

Stations having help points is one thing. Having a help point which connects into someone useful (rather than the near useless National Rail Enquires) or gets answered is a different kettle of fish.

All Northern managed stations have help points which link to the control center (either Manchester or York depending on location).

 

[Killingworth]

All Northern managed stations have help points which link to the control center (either Manchester or York depending on location).

Some go to a call centre in Sheffield.

 

[BoroAndy]

Northern are currently over compliment with drivers, no overtime needed.

Interesting, I have just received an email advertising Northern driver vacancies at 4 depots

 

[Sheffcaster202]

Interesting, I have just received an email advertising Northern driver vacancies at 4 depots

On the recruitment page there’s no driver vacancies at the moment?

Northern are currently over compliment with drivers, no overtime needed.

I believe are a lot are still trainees, in training school, with minders, doing rules, road learning…they’re there and employed but not able to go out solo just yet

 

[railfan99]

I believe are a lot are still trainees, in training school, with minders, doing rules, road learning…they’re there and employed but not able to go out solo just yet

How many weeks or months from a medical to driving a train solo does the process typically take?

 

[Moonshot]

Interesting, I have just received an email advertising Northern driver vacancies at 4 depots

We were briefed on this a while back on one of the weekly director videos...if I remember correctly, the West and Central regions had something like an excess of 80 to cover the timetable. There is no RDW at the moment, but it's not needed anyway.

 

[Lewisham2221]

On the recruitment page there’s no driver vacancies at the moment?

There were, at the very least, vacancies for Liverpool and Piccadilly being advertised within the last week

 

[Sheffcaster202]

How many weeks or months from a medical to driving a train solo does the process typically take?

I’m far from an expert but after reading adverts before and speaking to others it’s 17 weeks classroom/theory/practical, 15 hours with a driver manager, 230 hours with a minder, core route learning, map drawing, rules (around a week I think) and then, depot specific, road learning can take a good few months

Tie in annual leave, minder/manager availabity etc it’s long process

 

[skyhigh]

How many weeks or months from a medical to driving a train solo does the process typically take?

Depends on quite a lot of things but between 10-18 months is typical.

 

[railfan99]

Depends on quite a lot of things but between 10-18 months is typical.

Similar to my nation, where there's been reference to a range of 48 to 73 weeks, although I'm not au fait with every rail operator.

 

[td97]

if I remember correctly, the West and Central regions had something like an excess of 80 to cover the timetable. There is no RDW at the moment, but it's not needed anyway.

In that case, is the recent increase in cancellations down to guard shortages, or lack of driver competency for route or traction?

 

[CaptainHaddock]

Tonight's 2102 Sheffield-Barnsley-Leeds stoppers was cancelled "due to a landslip".

The landslip is between Chesterfield and Dore, nowhere near where this train is running. The fast trains didn't make any additional stops so passengers for Chapeltown, Elsecar and Wombwell were abandoned at Sheffield for nearly two hours until the next stopping service at 2231.

Thanks a bunch Northern! Such great customer service.

 

[muz379]

We were briefed on this a while back on one of the weekly director videos...if I remember correctly, the West and Central regions had something like an excess of 80 to cover the timetable. There is no RDW at the moment, but it's not needed anyway.

On paper the complement of crew might be enough to run the timetable at a stretch , but that assumes everyone signs everything they should which I am led to believe is not the case . And of course at a stretch means that there is little room for manoeuvre if there is a spike of sickness , you want to run anything additional , or on the day you have severe disrutption

RDW would of course be key to allowing more crew to go out and learn routes or traction so that the coverage is less stretched .

 

[Whistler40145]

Several Blackpool North to Manchester Airport services were cancelled on Friday afternoon and early evening, supposed to be two trains per hour, not acceptable being reduced to hourly

Northern are as bad as TransPennine Express

 

[Shaw S Hunter]

Several Blackpool North to Manchester Airport services were cancelled on Friday afternoon and early evening, supposed to be two trains per hour, not acceptable being reduced to hourly

Northern are as bad as TransPennine Express

It may not be acceptable. Arguably no cancellation should ever be acceptable. But we are where we are with staff availability so cancellations are going to be around for many more months to come. OTOH we could have the affected TOCs (ie nearly all of them) reduce their timetables on a very long-term basis with an expectation that services will only be restored when staffing levels allow. Which will be never because the DfT will insist that keeping the numbers on the payroll down is an easy win on the cost side of the equation. Be careful which boats you choose to rock!