I'd be very interested to find out why things just collapse like this.
Is that the same broken rail that forced the cancellation of the 1025 Liverpool-Newcastle train on Wednesday 7 August? In Morley tunnel (or at least suspected to be there). By the time we had joined up with the following Scarborough TEP the problem appeared to have been resolved – at least there was no sign of a circuitous detour.Transpennine Express have had a rough few days, there was a broken rail on Friday near Morley which meant come the evening peak there were numerous cancellations. Yesterday they seemed to struggle with passenger volumes due to the many events across the North combined with their usual traincrew shortages.
main problem seem to be drivers cant be bothered to work at weekendsOver the past year or so TPE have seemed to have had a lot of problems, Yet the media don't pick up on it,whereas Northern get a load of guff in the media.
As someone who was on 1E04 0656 EDB KGX (Edinburgh - Kings Cross) we were delayed by 1Y11 and were 119L into KGX.On Friday 23rd there was also an LNER train (1Y11 0630 Newcastle - KX) that broke down just north of Northallerton for a couple of hours so that scuppered the TPE trains to/from Newcastle. When southbound trains (all TOCs not just TPE) got moving again from around 0930 they ended up queing north of York as they were turning up faster than they could be got through the station platforms.
Over the past year or so TPE have seemed to have had a lot of problems, Yet the media don't pick up on it,whereas Northern get a load of guff in the media.
the problem is worse at weekendsWhat you on about? Saturday &Sundays are part of the working week, so the same as any other day.
The problem is not enough Drivers, coupled with a massive amount of traction training for the new stock that's been ongoing for a fair while.
TPE do seem to avoid a lot of the bad press, not sure how!
A lot (not all) of the issues with TPE last year were as a result of tight turnarounds which would be manageable if their trains didn't go through so many congested areas. A large number of delays/cancellations came as a result of getting stuck/delayed around Manchester Oxford Road with late running Northern services causing train crew to not be available for crew changes which caused chaos in Manchester and quickly meant trains were late arriving in Manchester Airport and then late leaving, missing out on their paths and being behind trains which they should have been in front of.I think this is because of how poor Northern were last year; TPE were bad, but they got away with it as Northern (and GTR) were far worse and they stole all the headlines, especially as GTR was affecting London.
Now things with these two companies have improved (a bit) the headline spotlight has been turned off railways and perhaps the press have been distracted by other things.
TPE have got away with a lot and managed to avoid the national headlines for which I am sure the management are truly grateful.
That is a really good idea. Obviously in an ideal world there would never be any issues, everything would run punctually and there would be not need for a disruption timetable but we all know that disruption does occur.I would also like to see TPE introduce an emergency timetable to be used in times of disruption, and publish it, as some other TOC's have done, run Middlesbrough and Scarborough as a shuttle to York, Hull as a shuttle to Leeds, and cut back Newcastle to Darlington, and then run the best possible service Manchester - York
A lot (not all) of the issues with TPE last year were as a result of tight turnarounds which would be manageable if their trains didn't go through so many congested areas. A large number of delays/cancellations came as a result of getting stuck/delayed around Manchester Oxford Road with late running Northern services causing train crew to not be available for crew changes which caused chaos in Manchester and quickly meant trains were late arriving in Manchester Airport and then late leaving, missing out on their paths and being behind trains which they should have been in front of.
Recently things have been worse with staff being less willing to come in to cover sickness and fewer staff being available due to holidays particularly at weekends however they have at least run a service on all of their routes (albeit with some cancelled services) unlike Northern who have cancelled whole routes and further services still as well as short forming services.
I would completely disagree with that sentiment. Given that I have been at Leeds, Manchester Victoria and Manchester Piccadilly in recent times of severe service disruption, TPE were the only TOC visible, and MCV is a Northern station!The one thing that really irks me with TPE is the way they handle delays - all the staff suddenly disappear and leave staff from other operators to pick up the pieces.
A fair point although the more clean and modern state of TPE's trains versus Northern give them an impression of competence to Joe Public. TPE's problem is that their routes go through well-known bottlenecks. They are heavily exposed and there a clear lack of resilience.Over the past year or so TPE have seemed to have had a lot of problems, Yet the media don't pick up on it,whereas Northern get a load of guff in the media.
What to do with commuter vs express conflicts in the North is a big part of the problem that no-one seems to have an answer to. It's only going to get worse once the hybrid semi-fast Northern Connect services are all introduced. It's a balance. By the Northern service serving all the intermediate stations and providing a 'stopping' service it actually reduces available capacity on the line. Whereas 'skip stopping' with Northern services not stopping at every station and TPE potentially make a few additional calls increases capacity.I think the idea of running 5 fast tph Leeds Manchester is flawed, go back to 4, and strengthen busy services with the released stock. Remove the Crossgates, Garforth and Dewsbury stops, its an intercity service. Let Northern serve all the intermediate stations, i.e. go back to the pre May 2018 type service.
A lot (not all) of the issues with TPE last year were as a result of tight turnarounds which would be manageable if their trains didn't go through so many congested areas. A large number of delays/cancellations came as a result of getting stuck/delayed around Manchester Oxford Road with late running Northern services causing train crew to not be available for crew changes which caused chaos in Manchester and quickly meant trains were late arriving in Manchester Airport and then late leaving, missing out on their paths and being behind trains which they should have been in front of.
Personally, I have found that it is usually TPE staff that actually are around when things go wrong. At Victoria, Northern staff are too busy at the ticket gates and TPE staff actually respond to you and try to help if you ask them a question or have been stranded; I have even seen TPE staff giving alternative train details to passengers who have been left stranded by cancelled Northern services. I know that there are some brilliant Northern staff at Victoria but there are also quite a few who just stand in groups talking to each other ignoring customers and some seem to miraculously disappear when trains get cancelled.Northern fully deserved the criticisms they got, but TPE have been guilty of most if not all of the above. The one thing that really irks me with TPE is the way they handle delays - all the staff suddenly disappear and leave staff from other operators to pick up the pieces. Their Customer Services seem very disorganised and their train running records don't seem to match reality. Unfortunately I suspect a lot of this is down to First's involvement - organisation and customer service are lacking in their ethos
Whereas 'skip stopping' with Northern services not stopping at every station and TPE potentially make a few additional calls increases capacity.
A fair point although the more clean and modern state of TPE's trains versus Northern give them an impression of competence to Joe Public. TPE's problem is that their routes go through well-known bottlenecks. They are heavily exposed and there a clear lack of resilience.
What to do with commuter vs express conflicts in the North is a big part of the problem that no-one seems to have an answer to. It's only going to get worse once the hybrid semi-fast Northern Connect services are all introduced. It's a balance. By the Northern service serving all the intermediate stations and providing a 'stopping' service it actually reduces available capacity on the line. Whereas 'skip stopping' with Northern services not stopping at every station and TPE potentially make a few additional calls increases capacity.
I would argue there is scope for TPE to actually call at commuter stations as it also adds some much needed 'padding' to TPEs timetables. Less than 10 minutes is not really noticeable for passengers but makes a huge difference operationally as 'padding'. For instance, TPE are going to have problems at Manchester Airport due to lack of platform capacity once the new 5/6 coach rolling stock is introduced. Long-term it'll either necessitate either TPE terminating a service at Piccadilly, 'padding' some TPE services against delays on the Styal Line by stopping at some stations or Northern services running to Wilmslow to free up platform space.
The point I was making was that the TPE disruption was overshadowed as far as the media were concerned by the utter and widespread chaos at Northern and GTR. Now they have abated, TPE's current issues might gain more media prominence, but there are wider UK non rail issues grabbing the headlines at present.
TPE do seem to avoid a lot of the bad press, not sure how!
I would completely disagree with that sentiment. Given that I have been at Leeds, Manchester Victoria and Manchester Piccadilly in recent times of severe service disruption, TPE were the only TOC visible, and MCV is a Northern station!
I think they're trying to put too many trains through the Huddersfield corridor - is it 5tph plus 1 for Northern? As soon as anything gets delayed, the ones behind start backing up and there's a lack of overtaking spots.
Possibly this thought should be in the Speculative Ideas bit, but could they have doubled up trains at Manchester and split them at Leeds or York - say the Newcastle and Middlesbrough pairs?
Maybe I've been unlucky then! I'm surprised about Leeds though as that's usually where they disappear when there's no train to dispatch
I would agree with you if York had more than one north facing bay platform, currently occupied 20 minutes per hour by a Harrogate train. Perhaps the other track that was in the bay until 1989 for York-Darlington trains, could be reinstated off the current Platform 8 line? Two OHLE stanchions would have to be removed and replaced elsewhere first.I would also like to see TPE introduce an emergency timetable to be used in times of disruption, and publish it, as some other TOC's have done, run Middlesborough and Scarborough as a shuttle to York, Hull as a shuttle to Leeds, and cut back Newcastle to Darlington, and then run the best possible service Manchester - York
Another broken rail messing things up today, this time in the Stalybridge area.
Heard about the fatality on the Nova3 thread, thoughts to those affected. Huddersfield was a state as I passed through at around 4pm with the automated announcements seemingly fighting with each other. Credit to the platform staff who were doing their best to help people... less credit (as per usual) to the gateline staff who all seemed to have left their posts despite the barriers being in use.5F64 (vice 1F64 due to no train crew) had a fatality west of Huddersfield. That has effectively destroyed the TPE timetable for the rest of the day