Great Northern at Cambridge North and disruption

[gingerheid]

My local station is Cambridge North, and while I've given up trying to go to Ipswich from it because connecting onto the hourly service just doesn't seem to work and leads to hour long delays, I have been clinging on to the idea that I can make my weekly trip to London from there. In theory it should work really well.

However it's obvious that GN will cancel services at Cambridge North for any reason at all. If it's a case of the slow train from KX getting delayed along the way and turning it round at Cambridge gets most people to the right place on time and the train back on timetable then it's annoying but I understand the greater good.

However, they often seem to do a little bit more than that. When there was the weekday work near Ely they cancelled the first slow train to King's Cross, which is formed from an ECS from Cambridge to the terminating platform and clearly had nothing to do with the engineering works at all.

Today the like was blocked at Waterbeach and that was unfortunate and unavoidable, but my KX - Ely fast was terminated at Cambridge instead of Cambridge North, before being taken into the sidings.

Are there other places this kind of thing happens? I assume that Cambridge North is just victim to low passenger numbers and that they wouldn't do that kind of thing if the avoidable delay repay claims meant it would hurt them too much?

And is there any significance in the fact that sometimes the explanations given seem to be different from the explanations that would be given if what was being said was correct? Are these recorded anyway for performance purposes?

 

[robbeech]

I’m a firm believer in the theory that a toc will outright lie to its passengers to pass the blame for things. I have seen it happen on multiple ocassions where there can be absolutely no doubt.
As to whether the reasons given are recorded officially and action taken upon this is based on these reasons I am afraid I cannot tell you.

I was once delayed at Worksop due to the driver becoming ill and being unable to continue. We were told this by the guard, who even asked if there was a medical professional on board. There were claims that they were sending another driver and the quickest way to get one there was to put him on a spare train and have him drive it there from Sheffield. This didn’t seem plausible and I decided to see what the social media team had to say. They told me the train was delayed due to passenger disruption. This also went onto RTT.
Now I’m not in any way sugggesting that Northern Rail as it was lied about what caused the train to be delayed and eventually cancelled in a way to pass the blame so network rail picked up the tab but you can understand why people might think this.

 

[TheDavibob]

I also feel the low passenger numbers are a direct consequence of the stopping pattern, and how fragile the service is. I'm not cycling to Cambridge North (ever so slightly closer than central but a much more pleasant route) to go to Kings Cross if I have only an hourly service southbound and an hourly service northbound. Come May, with double the services (though an awkward wait at the main station) to Kings Cross, I may switch to using Cambridge North, especially as there's a reasonably regular 4tph Cambridge - Cambridge North (well, 5tph but they don't all line up usefully). I'll be interested to see how temperamental the service is from May, given I imagine it'll be far more popular.

On the plus side, suddenly northbound connections at Ely starting from Cambridge North (eg. to Birmingham or Nottingham on) suddenly feel a lot more practical than at present, with 2tph regularly spaced, and there's actually a service from Waterbeach to Cambridge North (though it'll be packed). I wonder if the double-back easement via Cambridge will be lifted? That'll be a little annoying as it's a nice to have. Anyway, I'm rambling away from whatever point I'm making.

 

[gingerheid]

The fragility of the service must be fatal to passenger numbers. Everyone I know that's used it once says it's wonderful; and everyone I know that's used it regularly says it's hopeless and has given up.

There's an extra problem in Cambridge as perhaps most people will have cycled (especially given the location), so do need to go back to the same station.

I was wondering if this happens in other places, though, or if it's just here because the station is new and "extra" in people's minds. Did they just forget that they could have been serving it yesterday? Or have they decided that any small number of delay repay claims are a small price for convenience?

Yesterday they told me that Cambridge has greater capacity to terminate and turn around services while giving good clearance to the affected area... and then ignored me when I asked why the trains that were due to terminate at Cambridge North anyway were also affected...