Rapid fire platform changes at Crewe

Something is going wrong near Crewe, I presume, but the announcements have been announcing replatformings nonstop for LNWR and Avanti services. That sounds very much like an ordinary midday thing. What sounds less normal is two replatformings in rapid succession for the same train. An Avanti service to London Euston (I didn’t catch the departure time) was replatformed from platform 5 to platform 11, and then less than two minutes later from platform 11 back to platform 5. There was a resultant flow of people on the footbridge which simply reversed direction suddenly, all carrying luggage and bags and such. The number of people involved wasn’t too bad, but if it was a rush hour service it does seem like something which could be dangerous.

Relatedly, another Avanti service to London via B’ham was delayed by 30+ minutes, and the announcements said that passengers for London should board another Avanti service (1055) for London not via B’ham; but the original service is arriving now, and will depart before the other service. Why would the announcement say so and would passengers with advances get into trouble with it?

Fermiboson said:

Relatedly, another Avanti service to London via B’ham was delayed by 30+ minutes, and the announcements said that passengers for London should board another Avanti service (1055) for London not via B’ham; but the original service is arriving now, and will depart before the other service. Why would the announcement say so and would passengers with advances get into trouble with it?

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The answer to "why would the announcement say so" is that Arriva trains going straight to London, rather than via Birmingham, are significantly faster, so passengers will get there sooner. I don't know about advance tickets in that situation, would be interested to know if "because the announcement said I should" is a valid reason for using an Advance ticket on a different train from the one reserved

LickeyIncliner said:

The answer to "why would the announcement say so" is that Arriva trains going straight to London, rather than via Birmingham, are significantly faster, so passengers will get there sooner. I don't know about advance tickets in that situation, would be interested to know if "because the announcement said I should" is a valid reason for using an Advance ticket on a different train from the one reserved

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Late announcements of platform changes seem to be normal at Crewe now. Yesterday the 0943 Euston-Liverpool was announced as departing from p6 as it was running in, cue further delay as the 1st class refreshments refill trolley raced from the extreme S end of p11 round the bay platforms and back down to the S end of 6. Whatever RTT says, it definitely stood at Crewe for more than 2 minutes! But for the trolley problem it could have picked up a bit of time...

(p.s. they have always switched trains between platforms 6 and 11, usually for good reasons, but the very short notice is poor practise. It even led to rail staff further delaying the train.)

LickeyIncliner said:

The answer to "why would the announcement say so" is that Arriva trains going straight to London, rather than via Birmingham, are significantly faster, so passengers will get there sooner. I don't know about advance tickets in that situation, would be interested to know if "because the announcement said I should" is a valid reason for using an Advance ticket on a different train from the one reserved

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Legally speaking the announcement unquestionably counts as authorisation from a member of staff - if you can prove that the announcement happened. But most people wouldn’t know that, and I’m wondering if RPIs would be notified of those kinds of announcements so nobody gets in trouble in the first place.

I was on the delayed Avanti service in question and the TM was announcing that passengers on board should change at Warrington for London if they had an Off-Peak or Anytime ticket. He then announced that you should change at Crewe if you accidentally stayed on anyway...

The automated announcements at Carlisle were saying similar though - simply 'your next fastest direct service to London Euston will be the 0849 to London Euston'.

rg177 said:

I was on the delayed Avanti service in question and the TM was announcing that passengers on board should change at Warrington for London if they had an Off-Peak or Anytime ticket. He then announced that you should change at Crewe if you accidentally stayed on anyway...

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That is quite good, as long as they do emphasise that people need to be travelling on a flexible ticket to make that change. In my experience they do lay it on quite thick, and if people have not changed at Warrington (or have got on the via-Birmingham train by accident) then changing at Crewe gives them the relatively fast trains from Liverpool and Manchester about 20 and 30 mins later. That is 1 bit of the current timetable which works quite well.