07:45 Leeds to York via Harrogate 02/10 (disruption at Harrogate)

[johntea]

Bit of a strange journey to work this morning!

Got to Leeds station, boarded the 07:45 Leeds to Harrogate via York service which departed on time, nothing out of the ordinary until about 5 minutes in when an announcement is made due to disruption in the Harrogate area the service would be terminating at Horsforth, apparently the crew had been informed earlier the disruption was cleared but then told shortly after setting off it wasn't.

It was advised more information would be provided at Horsforth station including the prospect of a replacement bus service, however the staff there (mainly revenue protection) had obviously been given no more information than passengers!

A rail replacement bus service did eventually turn up...at 09:00 - by this time the problem had cleared and the 08:59 service from Leeds was running to time so the bus arrived in Harrogate pretty much exactly the same time as the train service! Apparently some passengers had been waiting at Horsforth since around 07:00

Seems as if there was a bit of a communications breakdown by Northern, at least if the 07:45 had been cancelled outright or advertised as terminating at Horsforth before it departed passengers would have been stuck in Leeds (and had the option of catching the 36 bus) rather than stood in quite cold temperatures at Horsforth!

I also know it can be difficult to organise the bus transport but surely it shouldn't take 2 hours to get a singular bus sorted to turn up 5 miles away from the centre of Leeds?

 

[ainsworth74]

I also know it can be difficult to organise the bus transport but surely it shouldn't take 2 hours to get a singular bus sorted to turn up 5 miles away from the centre of Leeds?

The fact that it turned up at around 0900 suggests to me that there is a good chance that when Northern were ringing around they were being told "all our buses are on the school run!".

 

[Bantamzen]

Its poor comms I agree, but on a school day in the middle of the morning rush its hard even to get a taxi around North West Leeds, let alone hire a bus at short notice. Unfortunately that part of the world is only close to First's Bramley depot (I think) who would be pushing buses towards Leeds, and the smaller ones will have been busy with school runs. Just out interest, what company supplied the rail replacement?

 

[theblackwatch]

I'm not surprised at the bus issue - if anyone here can name a bus company that is going to have buses and driver spare during the morning peak/school run, I'd like to know who they are! However, the shambles of sending the train out to Horsforth by Northern is pretty inexcusable. I knew of the signalling problem at Harrogate at 07.45 and I hadn't even been near the railway or a station (thank to my local radio station, Stray FM).

 

[johntea]

The coach company were J & B Travel Ltd, it almost felt like a school service the amount of students also seemingly caught up in the rail disruption!

 

[Bantamzen]

The coach company were J & B Travel Ltd, it almost felt like a school service the amount of students also seemingly caught up in the rail disruption!

It probably came straight from one as well, as they do a fair few school services!

 

[30907]

I'm not surprised at the bus issue - if anyone here can name a bus company that is going to have buses and driver spare during the morning peak/school run, I'd like to know who they are! However, the shambles of sending the train out to Horsforth by Northern is pretty inexcusable. I knew of the signalling problem at Harrogate at 07.45 and I hadn't even been near the railway or a station (thank to my local radio station, Stray FM).

Given that according to RTT trains started running through Harrogate around 0810, I don't think sending the train out was at all unreasonable. However, it looks suspiciously as if the train was then deliberately terminated to form a (desperately needed, no doubt) special back to Leeds.

 

[Condor7]

Bit of a strange journey to work this morning!

Got to Leeds station, boarded the 07:45 Leeds to Harrogate via York service which departed on time,

I’m being a bit pedantic I know, but I think you mean Leeds to York via Harrogate.

 

[bluenoxid]

Its poor comms I agree, but on a school day in the middle of the morning rush its hard even to get a taxi around North West Leeds, let alone hire a bus at short notice. Unfortunately that part of the world is only close to First's Bramley depot (I think) who would be pushing buses towards Leeds, and the smaller ones will have been busy with school runs. Just out interest, what company supplied the rail replacement?

And I wouldn’t call that close in the Leeds peak hour (although it would be worse in the evening peak.

Hunters Coaches are based in Stanningley but they will have demands too.

 

[sefton]

I also know it can be difficult to organise the bus transport but surely it shouldn't take 2 hours to get a singular bus sorted to turn up 5 miles away from the centre of Leeds?

Having stood around for 90 minutes at Welwyn Garden City on a weekday evening at 7pm whilst they tried to get some taxis to turn up, nothing would surprise me about the inability of the railway industry to organise anything.

90 minutes after the staff had put in a call for taxis not a single one had turned up, and I only got in one from the staff flagging down passing taxis and asking if they would take people.

 

[DarloRich]

The fact that it turned up at around 0900 suggests to me that there is a good chance that when Northern were ringing around they were being told "all our buses are on the school run!".

is the correct answer! i am amazed how little connection with the real world some posters have.

 

[DarloRich]

Having stood around for 90 minutes at Welwyn Garden City on a weekday evening at 7pm whilst they tried to get some taxis to turn up, nothing would surprise me about the inability of the railway industry to organise anything.

90 minutes after the staff had put in a call for taxis not a single one had turned up, and I only got in one from the staff flagging down passing taxis and asking if they would take people.

one of the big issues for me is hte fact that local staff are not always empowered to make these arrangements TOC's have centralised contracts ( that offer money savings) and third party suppliers they use for these things.

Local staff would just arrange local cabs to ferry people about.

 

[sefton]

one of the big issues for me is hte fact that local staff are not always empowered to make these arrangements TOC's have centralised contracts ( that offer money savings) and third party suppliers they use for these things.

Local staff would just arrange local cabs to ferry people about.

And that was exactly the problem.

The staff at Welwyn Garden City had contacted the relevant team, but instead of GTR having a system of contacting local cab companies GTR has a contract with a national company who then just advertises that taxis are required to local taxi firms to pick up if they wanted to. And none did, presumably because GTR pay below the market rate.

So meanwhile the 50 disrupted passengers stood around with the staff waiting for the taxis to turn up; which they never did as the trains started running again before anyone decided to pick up the job.

 

[DarloRich]

And that was exactly the problem.

The staff at Welwyn Garden City had contacted the relevant team, but instead of GTR having a system of contacting local cab companies GTR has a contract with a national company who then just advertises that taxis are required to local taxi firms to pick up if they wanted to. And none did, presumably because GTR pay below the market rate.

So meanwhile the 50 disrupted passengers stood around with the staff waiting for the taxis to turn up; which they never did as the trains started running again before anyone decided to pick up the job.

hopefully helping to keep ticket costs down.

 

[talltim]

hopefully helping to keep ticket costs down.

You could not run anything and reduce ticket prices to zero...

 

[DarloRich]

You could not run anything and reduce ticket prices to zero...

These contracts offer value for money to the owning company and transfer the risk/hassle of arranging transport to a third party. That should help keep costs down

 

[bb21]

The use of a contractor for all taxi/bus bookings also offer advantages in streamlined billing and accounting process, in a similar way explaining why a lot of businesses still contract thetrainline for their corporate travel services despite the fees.

 

[sefton]

I am sure the billing is made easier when you fail to provide any taxis so there is nothing to charge for.

 

[johntea]

I did have an incident once where after speaking to the station manager at Wakefield Westgate, the taxis outside the station refused to do the job as apparently East Coast (at the time) were quite behind with their payments to the taxi company!

In the end I had to book my own taxi, get a receipt and send that off to East Coast who in fairness did provide me with a full refund!