ANorthernGuard
Established Member
- Joined
- 8 Oct 2010
- Messages
- 2,662
Thankyou just say it as I see it
A return from Huyton to Manchester is now £12.90 and a single £9.90, I could drive both ways to eccles and jump a tram into the centre of the city for less than that I reckon.
As long as I know I have done my best during my shift - really couldn't care less what some people think of me, I get plenty more thankyous then I get complaints so I am happy with that.
Northern's staff are generally very friendly (though I'd question the professionalism of those who work on the Morecambe branch as you rarely see them check tickets - yes, we all know the ticket machines are heaps of junk). Northern as a company are, however, abysmal. As for the terms of their franchise, they share equal blame with the government on that front (actually, their franchise was let by the Strategic Rail Authority) given their no growth, spend very little and get away with as little as possible franchise bid was accepted.
I raised the first comment about staff and stick by what I said.... In general Northern on-train and ticketing staff are OK people - polite, helpful where they can be.. so thank-you
The only staff I have a general beef with are gateline staff (MCV perhaps being the worst). I've been told on this thread they are outsourced staff (G4) in disguise (in Northern Uniform). The trouble is if they are in Northern Uniform then they are representing the business and their general attitude and demeanor mean they really let the rest of the good staff down.
I rang Northern Customer service to complain about the attitude of these people and was met by the same attitude - I was clearly in the wrong by giving feedback about the gateline staff
The trouble with G4S is poor training, poor selection of employees, poor pay and the poor attitude of some of their staff. I have had a few run ins with them over the years, they are cheap labour and since Ian Bevan took over from Heidi Mottram everything is about making as much money for the company and less for the staff, our commission has nose dived and morale is at an all time low. we used to get £25 worth of vouchers as a Xmas bonus, they went last year, In our magazine we got told it was due to the "current economic climate" even though they made millions in Profit. We used to have a family fun day once a year, tickets were limited but it gave Morale a boost...they went Last Year as well, we are demoralised and fed up but we still do our utmost for our passengers, unfortunetly The Higher management do not feel that way about their staff. Internally its a sorry state of affairs for us but the majority of us will always do our best for our passengers and always will (until Mcnumpty gets his way)
Quite, I have noticed an increased contempt for managment among a lot of the staff actually employed by Northern since Heidi left, but I would say the vast majority of them don't let the idiots at the top grind them down.
Perhaps Ian Bevan doesn't realise that if his staff are better motiviated it does change the income of the company, is a guard that is for lack of a better word ****ed off with his managment going to make the effort to check tickets between Bolton and Victoria (that I have seen a drop in again recently, and hence an increase in fare evasion) when he/she doesn't see as much comission from it, gets no thanks from managment, and usually ends up taking a shed tonne of abuse from someone who thinks the world owes them a free ride, (5ft9, 14st, brown hair, always boards between 0945 and 1025 onto a Victoria service so he can avoid the barriers, uses a blocked Natwest Visa card to attempt to pay the kicks off when it doesn't work, that he knows full well it won't).
Is a motiviated employee, even if he/she does check tickets, likely to start reporting suspected serial fare evaders up the chain so something can be done about it? No...
When managment cut our wages and terms everyone at work started working to rule and slowing everything down, ques instantly got much longer and turnover droped by about 10% the week after we had the pay and conditions cut. Every time someone complained at us for not doing someting exactly right, the routine got longer and longer per customer, the re-stocking took longer, everything took longer because no-one can be bothered. I had the feeling this is starting to happen among NT's employed staff anyway, but now I know why. It's nice to know though, for both sides, that I havn't seen an appreciable drop (among most on duty staff) in the level of courtusy and service to paying cutsomers.
I was on an ex LM 150 a couple of days ago which had already had Northern upholstery fitted !
Luck of the draw I'm afraid. Some refurbed units are quite nice (moreso at the start of the day) whilst others are looking "tired".
Northern often have more like 10 minutes and many run to small towns on branch lines.
the 323's are also good.
As far as I could see nothing else had changed - it was still in LM livery. Didn't notice the floor to be any different.
I don't have a problem with the litter picking on Northern services, it is the lack of deep cleaning that is the issue IMO.
It should be included in the rental costs considering how much Northern pay for there stock from the ROSCO's
I travel 30,000 rail miles per year on many of the TOCs - those who defend the state of Northern's rolling stock should come with me on Virgin, or East Mids, or Southern or anywhere and then you will see what a clean, tidy, well presented train generally looks like (and no not always all perfect but the average/general standards are what I mean)
I was on an ex-LM 150 on Friday that had very shabby seat covers. It was in a de-branded Network West Midlands livery with a Northern vinyl stuck over the top.
Be glad you didn't get back on the one we had out to Glossop when me and Lampshade did - the PTSO was flooded.I'll be taking more note as I embark on a few trips with Northern in the near future thanks to the £10 offer they're doing.
I have travelled Northern a few times recently and the stock on the whole isn't all that bad. The 333's are pretty good (the older coaches are a little warn but nothing too bad) and the 323's are also good. With the 323's even the non-refurbed ones aren't too bad (was impressed with the fact the toilets had running HOT water...even the likes of EC don't seem to be able to manage that one!) and the new ones currently look fantastic (though how long it will last is debateable given I saw someone grab one of the handles on the seat and it fell off in their hand!)
Not quite ready to attempt to use the toilets on a Pacer yet though!
Sorry are you under the impression us defending northern only travel on northern? This year i have travelled on- XC, EMT, EC, FTPE, GC, Northern, ATW, Virgin, FCC, SE, FGW, LM and FGW.
And yet i still defend northern.
Anyway my point is that none of the TOC's are particularly dirty, some are a little tatty, but none are dirty. And Northern certainly aren't the worst.
Well I know from working on a tourist railway (and having to clean it every morning as part of my train prep) just how dirty trains can be, and just how scruffy kids can be. And thats just a steam hauled tourist railway, the mainline must be far, far worse!There is one way of keeping trains clean - remove the passengers. I know how hard the cleaners work for TOCs (often on low wages) but as soon as a unit has completed its first working of the morning, it will be a tip. Plus not all the time is it little sods leaving rubbish - I've seen quite well to do people in suits leave a mess after eating their lunch and spreading half of it on the table.
The other scourge is the Metro free paper. A good idea at the time but not when you hear it can make up 60% of the litter collected on some services.
North Western Trains carried out a major refurb on the 150s and also did up the 142s under their tenure