ATW change of Destination en route.

[Arglwydd Golau]

Travelling to Cardiff from Bangor on last Monday (15h04 ex-Bangor) we were very surprised to hear an announcement just before we arrived at Chester that the train was not now going to Cardiff but Manchester instead, therefore we had to change at Chester!
I have never been on a train before when the destination has been so radically altered (terminating short is a different matter).
Does anyone know why this happened and is it a frequent occurence?

 

[PHILIPE]

Travelling to Cardiff from Bangor on last Monday (15h04 ex-Bangor) we were very surprised to hear an announcement just before we arrived at Chester that the train was not now going to Cardiff but Manchester instead, therefore we had to change at Chester!
I have never been on a train before when the destination has been so radically altered (terminating short is a different matter).
Does anyone know why this happened and is it a frequent occurence?

Possibly change of sets required to get one of them to a suitable location for a Maintenance issue. It's not unknown. Units were falling down all over the place in the heat on Monday.

 

[Arglwydd Golau]

Possibly change of sets required to get one of them to a suitable location for a Maintenance issue. It's not unknown. Units were falling down all over the place in the heat on Monday.

Ah, OK, thanks for that explanation, I thought it might be something like that or a capacity issue, it was a change from a 3-car to a 2-car 175. Still, it was an odd experience!

 

[ashworth]

Travelling to Cardiff from Bangor on last Monday (15h04 ex-Bangor) we were very surprised to hear an announcement just before we arrived at Chester that the train was not now going to Cardiff but Manchester instead, therefore we had to change at Chester!
I have never been on a train before when the destination has been so radically altered (terminating short is a different matter).
Does anyone know why this happened and is it a frequent occurence?

At least you heard the announcement and got off the train at Chester!
A few weeks ago I was travelling on a Blackpool North to Hazel Grove train that had departed from Blackpool about 15 minutes late. After arrival at Preston, shortly before it about to depart, there was an announcement that the next stop on this train will now be Bolton. A group of people got up out of their seats just before Chorley to get off and looked with horror as the train passed through the station at speed. I think that they were wearing earphones, listening to music, and so therefore had not heard the brief announcement just before departure from Preston.

 

[xc170]

Must be an ATW thing because I was nearly caught out by this trick a few weeks ago.

Was on a Holyhead - Cardiff service (From Llandudno Jn to Shrewsbury) as we pulled into Chester the gaurd made an announcement that the train would be gong back to Holyhead and we'd have to get off and get back on the train in the next platform, I was asleap but somehow woke up just before the announcement.

 

[Philip]

They tend to switch around quite a lot at Chester, as well as for maintenance, I suspect the other main reason is so that the booked number of 2 and 3-car sets are at each depot that night.

 

[Elecman]

Given that Chester is the Home Depot for the 175s it makes sense for unit swaps yo take pkace there for swapping sets onto/off depot

 

[IanXC]

It's not so much a change of destination, as the original service terminating short of its destination, or being swapped onto a different unit. Clearly it's easier to describe 'this train is now going to..' for a guard making an announcement but it is much rarer for there actually to be a diversion of the service.

 

[Arglwydd Golau]

It's not so much a change of destination, as the original service terminating short of its destination, or being swapped onto a different unit. Clearly it's easier to describe 'this train is now going to..' for a guard making an announcement but it is much rarer for there actually to be a diversion of the service.

I think that I see what you are getting at, but I'm not sure that it is correct. Any passenger me, in this case - who joins a train, settles into a seat and expects to be taken to the destination on the front of the train and then is told, sorry, the train is going elsewhere is getting a bit of a raw deal.
I understand the comments about enabling units to be in the right place, maintenance schedules etc but I think that this is an issue with today's railway structure, it wouldn't have happened years ago! (Yes, I know, I'm a bit long in the tooth with memories)
Imaging boarding a train for Exeter at Waterloo in the early 1960's and then, on the approach to Basingstoke being told, sorry, this train is now going to Bournemouth and you'll all have to get off. It wouldn't have happened!

 

[30907]

Its mildly inconvenient rather than a raw deal - but announcing it at the last minute is unimpressive.

Happened to me on a TPE from Wigan to Manchester Airport - though the unit swap itself at Oxford Road was pretty efficient, to be fair.

 

[IanXC]

I think that I see what you are getting at, but I'm not sure that it is correct. Any passenger me, in this case - who joins a train, settles into a seat and expects to be taken to the destination on the front of the train and then is told, sorry, the train is going elsewhere is getting a bit of a raw deal.

Oh absolutely agree. Not trying to defend the situation at all, just being a bit pedantic really!

 

[Greenback]

It isn't just ATW, as it's happened to me on GWR as well. And on one of those GWR occasions, at Bristol Temple Meads, I didn't hear the announcement at all, and ended up going to Bath Spa rather than Taunton...

 

[edwin_m]

Announcing a change of destination, rather than that there will be a unit swap and everyone has to alight, means that people who were intending to get the connection to the new destination don't have to alight only to re-board the same train. This should reduce the general mayhem a bit as well as making at least some of the passengers slightly less grumpy.

I do agree it makes it more likely that those who weren't listening (and what about the deaf?) will end up not knowing - seeing everyone else getting off is a pretty good indication that the train isn't going any further. Really in this situation a member of staff should come down before the train departs to make sure that every single passenger knows what is happening.