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Northern to run some Boxing Day trains

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The Planner

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Not exactly Northern's core routes, are they? I can only imagine several of Northern's management team live in Shipley and fancy a Boxing Day walk out on the Moors!
They have to run "some" services on Boxing Day as part of their franchise commitment, doesn't specify where or what though so they are probably doing what is the easiest to do.
 
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30907

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The Airedale/Wharfedale routes are just about Northern's busiest, and Bradford has a newish shopping centre, so not totally pointless. Not to mention the Boxing Day walkers :)
Bolton-Salford C looks less efficient, as the unit and crew will have to work from somewhere off the route (or stable in the bay?)
 

Class 170101

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Are there Tram Links at Salford Central for Manchester? And will they be operating on Boxing Day?
 

Mathew S

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Are there Tram Links at Salford Central for Manchester? And will they be operating on Boxing Day?
The trams don't go to Salford Central, no. There's nowhere in the city centre that isn't within walking distance though. Alternatively, a short walk up Bridge Street gets you to St Peter's Square tram stop, which will get you to anywhere on the Metrolink network.
 

Deerfold

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They have to run "some" services on Boxing Day as part of their franchise commitment, doesn't specify where or what though so they are probably doing what is the easiest to do.

Leeds is very closed with lots of work going on, so they're probably the most obvious routes in West Yorkshire without doing just part of a route.
 

158756

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Leeds is very closed with lots of work going on, so they're probably the most obvious routes in West Yorkshire without doing just part of a route.

If Leeds is very closed will the units have to stable at Bradford/Skipton/Ilkley for the duration of the works? Can they do any work on them except internal cleaning up that way?
 

61653 HTAFC

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If Leeds is very closed will the units have to stable at Bradford/Skipton/Ilkley for the duration of the works? Can they do any work on them except internal cleaning up that way?
Plenty of units overnight at Skipton each night anyway, so I guess they'll use those if the juice is on. Tanking might be an issue, as I'm not sure Skipton has emptying facilities.

I do like how the MP quoted in the first post seems to think that magic upgrade fairies exist, and that Leeds is having a blockade just to be awkward... :rolleyes:
 

scrapy

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Incorrect. Not ONE service calling at Clifton. Moses Gate on the other hand....
Incorrect, According to the timetable on the link the first southbound and last northbound stop at Clifton.
 

scrapy

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Not exactly Northern's core routes, are they? I can only imagine several of Northern's management team live in Shipley and fancy a Boxing Day walk out on the Moors!
The routes chosen are those not under possessions and don't require multiple signal boxes to be manned.
 

Bantamzen

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Not exactly Northern's core routes, are they? I can only imagine several of Northern's management team live in Shipley and fancy a Boxing Day walk out on the Moors!

Given that Leeds station is having major engineering works taking place over the Christmas period, they are probably the only ones they can reasonably run with having to find ways around the blockade at Leeds.
 

Whisky Papa

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Not exactly Northern's core routes, are they? I can only imagine several of Northern's management team live in Shipley and fancy a Boxing Day walk out on the Moors!

:lol: A nice thought, but nobody I can think of.

Glad to see some movement on this issue in the North, but certainly this will seem an odd choice to the public. Bradford City aren't even at home that day.
 

Gems

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They have enough volunteers to run the Skipton-Bradford-Ilkley dog leg. Just need some passengers to pay for it now. Hard to say how many it will attract, you can only really base a guess on what New Years day is like, so a carriage to yourself could be on the cards.
 

Bantamzen

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:lol: A nice thought, but nobody I can think of.

Glad to see some movement on this issue in the North, but certainly this will seem an odd choice to the public. Bradford City aren't even at home that day.

Maybe, but given that anything out of Leeds is a no-go this is practically all they can operate in West Yorkshire without some very complex moves from Neville Hill.
 

Deerfold

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They have enough volunteers to run the Skipton-Bradford-Ilkley dog leg. Just need some passengers to pay for it now. Hard to say how many it will attract, you can only really base a guess on what New Years day is like, so a carriage to yourself could be on the cards.

A little more publicity might have helped.

At least on Boxing Day there are some buses to link to unlike in New Year's Day (when there's only the 757).
 

Howardh

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These Boxing day trains (in Gtr. Manchester) don't appear on the NRE website, at least not when I looked an hour ago!
 

Mathew S

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These Boxing day trains (in Gtr. Manchester) don't appear on the NRE website, at least not when I looked an hour ago!
They certainly do now (as per the screenshot attached). What were you searching for?
Screenshot_20191208-135807_National Rail.jpg
 

Howardh

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They certainly do now (as per the screenshot attached). What were you searching for?
View attachment 71319
Thanks - A train near Bolton! Although what's provided is next to useless, if they could put one on to Blackpool it's a day out for someone. Best have nothing and let the engineers have access.
 

RAPC

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Bolton to Manchester (albeit Salford Central and a few mins of walking) is far more likely to attract passengers than Bolton to stations north.
 

underbank

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I can't imagine many people risking Northern services on Boxing Day. It's a lottery risking them on a Sunday (well any day actually), but at least there are usually alternatives on other days if you end up stranded due to staff shortages, failures etc. I wouldn't want to risk having to get a taxi on a Boxing day in the likely event of Northern not running as planned. Far easier just to take the car or choose to travel a different day. I can only imagine the services will be unpopular and used as a justification for not running Boxing day services in future.
 

Howardh

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Bolton to Manchester (albeit Salford Central and a few mins of walking) is far more likely to attract passengers than Bolton to stations north.
Are the shops fully open? Didn't used to be on B-day!
 

Mathew S

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Are the shops fully open? Didn't used to be on B-day!
Yes. Busiest day of the year for many of them. I remember from the bad old days when I worked in retail as a student; boxing day was the purest form of hell.
 

73001

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Are the shops fully open? Didn't used to be on B-day!
Nice to see Aldi and Home Bargains bucking the trend to allow staff to see family etc on 25th and 26th Dec. I know these arent really the sort of shops that people go to via train but here's to more of it over the coming years.
 

Bletchleyite

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Nice to see Aldi and Home Bargains bucking the trend to allow staff to see family etc on 25th and 26th Dec. I know these arent really the sort of shops that people go to via train but here's to more of it over the coming years.

I agree. I do however think trains should run to allow people to, er, see family etc. It's an essential public service (if we are to deprecate the car) - you wouldn't expect the electricity to go off, and arguably it's more important than whether the television screens were to go blank.
 

Class 170101

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The trams don't go to Salford Central, no. There's nowhere in the city centre that isn't within walking distance though. Alternatively, a short walk up Bridge Street gets you to St Peter's Square tram stop, which will get you to anywhere on the Metrolink network.

The short walk would be fine in this scenario as a connection provided its well signposted.
 
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You'll find me helping out on the services running on the triangle, giving out general information and travel advise.
 

muz379

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Looking at the Salford to Bolton timetable . It looks like one unit diagram and 2 train crew diagrams . so that's 2 X Driver and 2 X Guard . Given the number of train-crew that sign the route it seems highly likely you would be able to attract enough volunteers . You also need dispatchers at Bolton and Salford . Although you could cover that with one at each as an hour between trains leaves long enough for a break to be taken .

I can't imagine many people risking Northern services on Boxing Day. It's a lottery risking them on a Sunday (well any day actually), but at least there are usually alternatives on other days if you end up stranded due to staff shortages, failures etc. I wouldn't want to risk having to get a taxi on a Boxing day in the likely event of Northern not running as planned. Far easier just to take the car or choose to travel a different day. I can only imagine the services will be unpopular and used as a justification for not running Boxing day services in future.

This is one of the things that has always concerned me about operations on a boxing day . If for any reason the job goes bump getting relevant staff out to support including fitters/Pway/S&T and replacement transport is not as straight forward as any other day . Particularly given that for a lot these workings are going to just be voluntary outside of contract arrangements .

All it takes is a unit failure in an awkward position and we will have yet another thread on here about how its disgraceful that people have been stranded on a train for 4 hours .
 
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Robertj21a

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Nice to see Aldi and Home Bargains bucking the trend to allow staff to see family etc on 25th and 26th Dec. I know these arent really the sort of shops that people go to via train but here's to more of it over the coming years.

Those places can always expect to attract customers on any other days, the main retail stores in city centres can't. Life in the main shopping centres is becoming increasingly difficult, particularly competing against the internet.
We need far more trains to run on Boxing Day and, in many areas, better services on Sundays too.


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Nice to see Aldi and Home Bargains bucking the trend to allow staff to see family etc on 25th and 26th Dec. I know these arent really the sort of shops that people go to via train but here's to more of it over the coming years.
 

CaptainHaddock

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A little more publicity might have helped.

At least on Boxing Day there are some buses to link to unlike in New Year's Day (when there's only the 757).

If anything I think this plan could do with less publicity. If people just see the headline "Northern to run trains on Boxing Day" in their local paper (or website), they'll assume that trains are running on all lines and will be in for a shock when they turn up at their local station to find it deserted!

Best keep it (relatively) quiet and, if it goes well, it will be a good indication of whether to run more extensive Boxing Day services in future years.
 

Deerfold

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If anything I think this plan could do with less publicity. If people just see the headline "Northern to run trains on Boxing Day" in their local paper (or website), they'll assume that trains are running on all lines and will be in for a shock when they turn up at their local station to find it deserted!

Only if they see the headline and then don't read the article.

Best keep it (relatively) quiet and, if it goes well, it will be a good indication of whether to run more extensive Boxing Day services in future years.

Not sure about that. All West Yorkshire bus and many rail stations have Metro posters up saying there aren't any trains running on Boxing Day. If you've read that and not investigated further (and until Friday there was nothing on Northern's website) you'd assume there are no trains - so who's going to turn up?

Indeed, if you have investigated further and looked at the National Rail website you'd again be specifically told Northern are running no trains.

There's a significant amount of publicity for West Yorkshire's Boxing Day buses and it's taken a while for many people to know they exist.

Keeping the publicity low key when other information specifically states there are no trains sounds a good way to be able to argue they don't need to run these trains due to low usage.
 
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