The reduced EMR timetables are a big inconvenience but if you could be certain there wouldn’t be any cancellations, they can be worked around and just about tolerated. The short formed trains, especially between Nottingham and Liverpool, and on the Robin Hood Line on a Saturday afternoon can make travelling very unpleasant or impossible if the train is too full to board and you get left behind. After a year of using my car and not travelling by train I have tried these past few months to get back on the trains. After just a few journeys I have had enough and as the winter weather approaches for many journeys it will be back to my car or even the bus for more local travel. Unfortunately we have at least 3 more months of this and I have heard a few rumours that many of the cuts may not even be restored in December.
It’s the terrible lack of connections that have made me come to this decision. Travelling to and from Mansfield I have had enough of sitting for almost an hour on Nottingham, Worksop or Sheffield stations waiting for connections because with the reduced timetables very little seems to connect. Today I travelled back from Manchester to Mansfield and there are currently only 2 morning departures from Manchester to Nottingham at 0842 and 1042. They both arrive in Nottingham just as the Mansfield train is departing meaning an hour to wait. Instead I caught a TPE train from Manchester, but that arrived in Sheffield just after Leeds to Nottingham train had departed and there was a also s 45 minute wait for a train to Mansfield via Worksop. This is a problem trying to travel anywhere as the hourly train from Mansfield to Nottingham arrives in Nottingham just as trains to so many important destinations have just departed. Regular late running also means that the connection into the fast train to London is usually missed. It’s inconvenient enough sitting around in sunny weather but will be even worse during the winter months.
I’ve just concentrated upon connections to and from Mansfield but the reduced timetables are causing passengers long waits for connections throughout the East Midlands.
Whilst travelling today on a late running 170 with very tatty worn seats I noticed that on all the stations between Mansfield and Worksop there were big posters showing an EMR Class 170. The words on these posters said ‘Modern trains, better journeys. We’re rolling out new trains on your route’. Yes, the very trains that used to run on the route 20 years ago in Central Trains days. Time keeping on the line has never been so poor with almost every train, every day, late. It’s easy to blame the single line section but things were not this bad even pre Covid with double the current frequency. Even on off peak lightly loaded trains they are regularly losing 5 or 6 minutes during the journey and that’s without waiting for trains to clear the single line sections. If this doesn’t improve trying to restore the timetable that has been successfully operated on the line for over 20 years will be a disaster. Try to explain to the public why they can no longer run the well established successful timetable.
It's hard to drive any modal shift when the rail system is too overcapacity to do so.
Even Mr Beeching would have done a better job of funding the railways than the successive governments over the last 20 years. Even with shrinking passenger numbers, they were looking at improving service and speeding up journeys.
Now, despite passenger numbers at record levels - investment in the industry is incredibly underwhelming. It's frustrating because people are both relying on, and seeing the value in switching to, public transport, yet the lack of investment in it means we are perpetually dealing with overcrowding.
I'm not going to say EMR is completely not at fault, but cancelling swathes of electrification schemes has really knackered up the rolling stock situation for the whole country, especially if diesels are supposedly no longer to have a full operational life if procured today...
Edit:
I moved up to the northern region during the worst part of their meltdown, so I've seen this sort of stuff happen before. Northern has recovered a decent amount these days and a slightly reduced but consistent timetable seems to be working well around Manchester...at least until passenger demand REALLY picks up again...
For EMR, I think they need to admit the 170s were a bad idea and unsuitable for local routes. However, I think things could be recovered by using 170s for Liverpool/Norwich duties and then 158s for local routes. This way we are playing a little more to strengths. 158s are express units too, but generally perform similar (if not better) to 156s on local routes.
170s would benefit Liverpool/Norwich passengers from having a little better circulation (useful for navigating the Chaos at Manchester Castlefield) and will be a bit more reliable on that long distance stuff, which will be useful when operating so far from base.
