RMT DOO Dispute on West Midlands Trains

Given its a strike timetable it seems strange that the Birmingham to Liverpool service isn't running via Stone, Stoke, Alsager and Kidsgrove rather than the direct route between Stafford and Crewe to serve those stations.

 

My boss resides in Worcester and she was planning to go to Birmingham for the German Market. I've told her to get the 144 instead

 

What do we think the Sunday service will be like? Other half got me tickets to a gig in London Sunday and booked advanced tickets from Nuneaton her closest station well before all this was announced, as it's Sunday and early afternoon I am hoping any carry over disruption due to out place units etc will be sorted by then?

 

Is "A half-hourly service will operate between Leamington Spa and Nuneaton" a mistake? I believe it's normally hourly?

 

I swear 1 day the plan is for that service to become half hourly in general anyway?

 

Half hourly Coventry - Nuneaton once the new bay platform at Coventry is built, can't see there being many spare paths from Coventry to Leamington unless the proposed extension of the loop north of Kenilworth happens

 

Unless there's also a ban on rest day working I'd imagine so - Saturday onto Sunday is the only day a unit (only one - the one working the 0134 off Euston) doesn't stay out all night.

 

Okay fingers crossed then thanks

 

I was due to go to the Warley exhibition this weekend but with only TfW running Shrewsbury onwards to the NEC don't think I'll bother.

 

Yeah it's a mistake alright. Imagine the reaction if the strike day service is better than the normal!

 

It's not totally unknown. For instance during the FNW strikes in the 1990s they put on a Sunday Preston-Ormskirk service because coupled with Merseyrail it would also ensure a Preston-Liverpool service but only require one crew for a usable (1h15 ish) frequency. The other kind of thing you sometimes get is stations getting a better service to keep things simple, e.g. LNR might run a half hourly all stations Euston-Northampton service, which would double Cheddington's service from the daytime hourly norm - this has certainly happened in the past, maybe as recent as the other week.

 

Virgin will not be accepting LNR tickets but will create an additional unreserved coach by withdrawal of lower tier advances.

 

"will make a load of extra profit by..." - a cynical move in the last month of the franchise indeed.

 

Yes indeed, despite all the meaningless blurb frequently generated from the RDG about the industry working together .

 

Virgin (and other TOCs in the area) have spent years picking up the pieces from WMR and it's predecessors failings. Can they be blamed for looking out for their own passengers this time - and indeed those who've paid a premium for an Any Permitted ticket?

 

They will probably have to pay for staff overtime to assist on the strike days, and to process a greater than normal number of complaints about overcrowding. Depending how bad it is they may end up paying out compensation to people who are delayed if they cannot board a train they've booked, or if they reserved seats and for whatever reason cannot sit in them.

It does also seem they will generate at least some extra revenue, mainly through people choosing to use their services because the alternatives are either non-existent or deeply unattractive. Whether they will switch bookings from Off Peak WMT tickets to their own Advance tickets (going up in price), or from intervariable tickets for local journeys to Virgin Trains only walk-up tickets (going down in price), who knows, but probably. It is a little counter-intuitive when WMT lose a lot of their trains to switch people onto cheaper Virgin Trains only tickets but I imagine that will happen to an extent. Rugby to Birmingham for example will probably be wedged with people going to the Christmas Market.

 

I'm not suggesting they should offer acceptance without WMT coughing up[1]. Rather, I'm just suggesting that lopping the lowest Advance tiers is a *bit* of a cynical money making scheme.

[1] Though they do need to wind their neck in from the (not entirely legal) position they apparently took at MKC during the Silverlink strikes, which was not to accept 19(c) splits from Bletchley passengers (i.e. Bletchley-London season plus MKC-Bletchley Anytime Day Single/Return), requiring them to buy a whole new Anytime ticket. One hopes they will not try this again.

 

There’ must have been a similar fallout between Virgin & Trans Pennine as you often hear station announcements directing TPE passengers enduring cancellations to replacement busses nowadays rather than Virgin trains

 

But did WMT offer to cough up? If not, I suspect the well of good will at Virgin has long run dry - given that even without strikes WMT have been unable to run a full timetabled service for years - especially on weekends.

Reducing the amount of advance tickets that sell also seems to me to be a sensible move by Virgin. Services are going to be manic this weekend as it is, without enticing more people to travel through low fares!

 

At least they've still got a usable service of any form. There will be no Hereford services during the strike periods which means Worcester to Hereford is cut off from the rest of the Midlands (only having GWR services) and Droitwich is effectively removed from the rail network, with no services at all. I wouldn't have minded if there was a Worcs-Kidderminster shuttle to connect the two halves - if only Chiltern or GWR had a spare unit knocking about they could run such a service with!

 

Not like they ever actually run properly tbf.

 

I'm on a VT this Saturday (the last one i'll ever get) and i'd rather it wasn't ridiculously overcrowded because of the chaos caused by WMR/RMT

 

Wonder if WMR will do the same when Virgin go on strike next Tuesday. Just shows how fragmented the railway is and will VT managements patience really be waring that thin seeing as Branson and Stagecoach will not be around on the West Coast much longer so it's not like it's going to affect the viability of their company too much.

 

Better that you have to put up with crush than people not being able to travel.

 

I can't bear being on overcrowded trains, particularly long distance so if it's going to be bad I might not travel. I'd avoid December anyway because it's always busy then at the weekend.

Sick of the WCML chaos

 

The Warley National Model Railway Exhibition at the NEC is actually on 23 and 24 November rather than this weekend - although you're still likely to be up against the WMT dispute next weekend, of course.

 

Yes, I meant next weekend.
Old age, etc.

 

Was planning on going to Birmingham for the christmas fair on a Saturday but i think i might avoid that now

 

Services seemed to go live on RTT yesterday. Snow Hill lines set to be hourly between Whitlock's/Dorridge and Birmingham, then half hourly towards Kidderminster. Quite some reduction and interesting on the Whitlock's path the departure is xx:30 bound rather than from the usual xx:00,20,40(ish) scheme.

 

Reading a statement from WMR they were claiming that they never proposed DOO and have offered a deal which means responsibility for train dispatch remains with the Guard if that is the case what is it within this deal the RMT are unhappy with or are they just flexing their muscles so to speak?