My local station is Spital, which is always missed out for semi-fast. I pay the same precept to Merseytravel via Council Tax as other Wirral residents but get a sub-standard service. On the day in question I took the earlier train to Chester, expecting it to stop at Chester. When travelling from Spital to Liverpool/Chester for a connection I always have to allow extra time for the frequent cancellations/semi fast running which is annoying.Yes seems reasonable, especially as it was only 3 minutes late at that point.
Service decisions can be a mixture of:
Ideally you don't hammer the same passengers every time but depending on the infrastructure/service/crew available and the nature of the late-running that is not always possible.
- Run fast/non-stop
- Terminate short/Start forward
- Divert
- Cancel and reform
- Unit swaps (where available)
Also where a reduced (and tight) timetable is in operation, controllers pretty much have their hands tied on what they can do. It's either let everything run late or lead to 30 minute gaps (less in reality due to the late running anyway) in service and/or cancellations. This might also be true - not in Merseyrail's case - where only 2 out of 4 lines are available for engineering reasons so running fast may not be suitable.
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Opening and closing of doors/setting off is definitely slower with the new trains which negates any savings due to better acceleration.Just to reiterate what was said about the new trams . “They are faster in acceleration and will take minutes of the chester service” someone was obviously not telling the truth.
Plus one now delayed again.