Today there's a significant shortage of train crew affecting Manchester and some other other parts of the North West of England.
The information that most trains would be cancelled on some routes was put out yesterday. Today it reads as follows:
www.northernrailway.co.uk
On some routes between 2/3 and 3/4 of services have been cancelled the day before, but between Wigan and Bolton there's no service whatsoever, which means that Westhoughton is unserved. The information above doesn't make that clear, indeed it implies the opposite where it says "you can travel on the earlier or later Northern service".
There is no alternative train service between Wigan and Bolton, no rail replacement bus service, and no ticket acceptance on local buses.
The social media team suggested to me that I could travel via Leyland. When pressed, they were unable to say that there was special permission in place to do this; normally it would not be permitted with a ticket from Wigan to Bolton. I didn't ask, but it seems that there's also no assurance that a ticket purchased from Westhoughton would also be accepted for travel on any train from nearby Daisy Hill station.
There's no further travel information provided and there was only a day's notice.
I would agree that almost all of Northern's conductors would be happy to allow travel via Manchester Oxford Road or Leyland given the complete absence of any other routes, once this had been explained, but I don't think that this makes it OK. In addition some ticket retailers will (correctly) charge a much higher price for use of the route via Leyland. Anyone booking through one of those will have been charged more than usual for a slower, less convenient journey.
I think that everyone understands that train crew shortages are very real. But is this really the best that could have been done?
The information that most trains would be cancelled on some routes was put out yesterday. Today it reads as follows:
Cancellations to services in the North West | Sunday 12 December | Check before you travel | Northern
On Sunday 12 December, there will be some cancellations to services in the North West due to impacts of covid and availability of train crew. The following routes will be affected: Blackpool North – Liverpool Lime Street Wigan North Western – Manchester Victoria Lancaster –…
www.northernrailway.co.uk
On some routes between 2/3 and 3/4 of services have been cancelled the day before, but between Wigan and Bolton there's no service whatsoever, which means that Westhoughton is unserved. The information above doesn't make that clear, indeed it implies the opposite where it says "you can travel on the earlier or later Northern service".
There is no alternative train service between Wigan and Bolton, no rail replacement bus service, and no ticket acceptance on local buses.
The social media team suggested to me that I could travel via Leyland. When pressed, they were unable to say that there was special permission in place to do this; normally it would not be permitted with a ticket from Wigan to Bolton. I didn't ask, but it seems that there's also no assurance that a ticket purchased from Westhoughton would also be accepted for travel on any train from nearby Daisy Hill station.
There's no further travel information provided and there was only a day's notice.
I would agree that almost all of Northern's conductors would be happy to allow travel via Manchester Oxford Road or Leyland given the complete absence of any other routes, once this had been explained, but I don't think that this makes it OK. In addition some ticket retailers will (correctly) charge a much higher price for use of the route via Leyland. Anyone booking through one of those will have been charged more than usual for a slower, less convenient journey.
I think that everyone understands that train crew shortages are very real. But is this really the best that could have been done?
