All trains are showing in the May RTT Rob. Have just viewed the all day schedule for Skipton on 19th May and it looks like Northern have restored the full service on the Bentham Line including the late train that turns round at Ribblehead and the 2244 Skipton arrival from Lancaster?
Thanks for this. This is a sort of positive, although I think that the current end of service is still inadequate for the interim, which I will expand upon below.
Leeds-Harrogate the last train is now 21.29 v 23.39, not quite 4 hours but still a decent cut. Leeds-Doncaster is generally every other hour now. A lot of lines have suffered service reductions.
They're not being "egged on" by the DfT. In the brave new world, the DfT make the decisions and tell Northern what to implement. Northern don't have much choice in the matter. You might think Northern are doing it wrong, but I can tell you there's no point complaining about them, because they're not the ones making decisions here. If you're unhappy, speak to your MP.
That is a bit poor for the Harrogate line, although given the closure of hospitality, not entirely unjustified.
I'm aware that the DfT are behind this. Perhaps they should move it to Leeds.
I think it’s unfair to criticise the operator that tried to implement (probably) the best ever service frequencies on the Bentham Line and S&C, that didn’t come to fruition due to a global pandemic.
It’s probably a very difficult task providing a usable service at the moment while controlling costs, and let’s face it even pre-pandemic evening trains on these routes were quiet outside of the summer- I speak as someone who has lived in Lancaster, Carnforth, West Yorkshire and even had Garsdale as my local station over the last 30 years so have used these trains frequently. I’m also normally a great champion of these two routes and a basher of Northern, but a bit of realism wouldn’t go amiss in the present climate.
It is however a great shame that the pandemic killed evening service usage just as a decent timetable was arriving.
And I think it’s right that Northern prioritises services where people actually live.
Good intentions, but the fact remains that we've not had a full year of working services on the route since 2017 what with the strikes and the pandemic. Prior to this lockdown, the S&C service was almost back to normal, with one of the evening trains missing but the last one in place. That's the sort of reduction that people can work around and would suit the transition phase out of lockdown.
I’m not quite sure what the issue is here, Northern are ramping up the S&C service to what looks like a full timetable at the May change which is when the majority of operators are having their post timetable uplift..
If they had more or less an all day service, this wouldn't be an issue. The problem is the early ending of services doesn't suit the outdoor activities stage of coming out of lockdown. Don't forget that in April, non essential retail and outdoor hospitality should be reopening too, so this timetable which finishes in mid-afternoon is entirely unsuited to that situation.
Not necessarily- first of all, even though you are no longer legally required to stay at home under English law, you are required to stay local until at least April 12, which would rule out travel from Leeds to Carlisle (although admittedly a journey from e.g. Skipton to Settle or Ribblehead might be just about OK). I must say I’m losing track of all these restrictions now- is the English ‘stay local’ one comparable to the Scottish one which forbids you to leave your council area without a good reason, but will allow you to travel freely within it from 5 April? A slightly unbalanced rule, as some Scottish council areas are the size of Belgium while others are just one city. Presumably ‘local’ in England can also be defined as within your local authority area?
Also, the Department for Transport in England may well continue to stipulate that public transport is for essential journeys only, not for recreational activities. They may continue to stipulate this even after shops, pubs and accommodation reopens- I noticed that when the first lockdown eased, the ’essential journeys only’ rule was not dropped by the DfT (and not removed from TOCs’ websites) until 15 July, even if the ‘stay at home’ order expired in June. How this rule is enforced I am not sure, as the police can no longer force you to return/stay at home. Could they still stop you boarding a train if you didn’t show an essential need to use one? I don’t know. That said, if the ’essential journeys only’ rule persists, the TOCs will do no more than is required to facilitate essential travel (often because they don’t have the staff or logistics to do so, however much they might want to) and will do their utmost to dissuade non-essential use of their services to avoid ovecrowding.
Given that there are still significant restrictions on our activities until May 17th, when we see the full reopening of hospitality and most other leisure activities, it wouldn’t surprise me if operators like Northern kept the ‘essential travel only’ rule until then and then restored a full timetable at the May timetable change.
No, this is not the case at all. There is a suggestion to stay "local" if possible, not a requirement, nor should there be.
The whole point of the rule of six and outdoor activities is that people can see friends and family that they haven't seen for a while. This isn't medieval England and we don't all live around the same turnip patch anymore. This phase will inevitably involve some people travelling further than their own settlement, and lets face it, for many urban Yorkshire residents, a wander in the Dales is their "local" leisure activity.
And saying public transport is for essential journeys only whilst opening up more generally doesn't cut it anymore either.
The S&C and Bentham lines are probably the biggest basket cases under Northern's remit. That's a pretty solid reason why they shouldn't get as good a service as, say, local services around Manchester. It's also worth noting that neither route really links any cities together in a meaningful manner (what little traffic there is Leeds-Carlisle is adequately dealt with the WCML. And Appleby isn't exactly a city!), so I think your premise is a bit off anyway.
Oh indeed, and I wouldn't expect half hourly services like on a Manchester local even without the pandemic. The normal Carlisle and Bentham timetables are designed for the needs of those areas anyway, so the covid timetable should be a tweaked version of this, not slashed in half.
There needs to be more engagement if the train operators want to run a service which meets passenger demand. Northern could easily email those who have purchased smart card season tickets since March 2020 with a survey link to find out if they still need to travel and when they need to travel. It could also identify which lines should be priority for flexible season ticket roll out.
With the schools being back and Northern running fewer services, there are some services which have the same or more demand than they had in March 2020.
I observed they asked people to avoid travelling on the busiest peak trains where possible. That would be easier to do if they didn't have gaps of up to 2 hours between services.
Absolutely. I note that mid-cheshire also tends to get the mucky end of the stick.
I agree with your point. It's like telling people to stay apart, closing half of the shops then wondering why everyone is crammed in the remaining ones, or forcing hospitality to chuck out at the same time, then wondering why everyone's on the pavement at the same time. Or telling people to travel on direct trains to avoid changing too many times, then removing all the direct trains so that they have to go on a longer more roundabout route.
SAGE and the Government at their best.
