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TPE worst in the country!

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steve158

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from tuesday's doncaster star:

Rail service is poorest in the country

TRAINS from Doncaster to Manchester Airport have the worst punctuality record in the country, according to new figures from watchdogs.

In July and August this year TransPennine Express ran 78.8 per cent of its trains on time, meaning more than one in five were late.
The new figures, from Network Rail, also show that Central Trains, which runs services from Doncaster to Lincoln, were little better with just 79.5 per cent arriving on time.
East Coast Main Line operator GNER and regional operator Northern, which also runs trains through Doncaster, performed slightly better than the national average.
There was good news for Midland Mainline, which runs a limited number of trains from Doncaster to London via Sheffield. It was named as one of the most punctual operators, and the best long-haul company in the country.
TransPennine today blamed its out of date trains for the poor performance, but stressed they were slowly getting better.
A spokesperson told The Star: "Performance is improving. The trains we run are around 15 years old and are due to be replaced next year. The targets we have to hit are arriving within five minutes and that is for a service that runs all the way from Cleethorpes to Manchester Airport.
"When we started the franchise the figures were in the low 70s. Our target is 80 per cent. We are also working with Network Rail to make sure the network is as sound as it can be."
TransPennine took over the route from the much-criticised Arriva Trains Northern. Last week the firm was slammed for its record on overcrowding, which often sees passengers having to stand from Sheffield to Stockport during peak times.
The firm told The Star the overcrowding may continue even after it introduces its new trains next year. Network Rail defines "on time" as being within five minutes of the scheduled arrival time for a regional train. For long-haul trains, "on time" is defined as within 10 minutes of the scheduled arrival time.
Network Rail chief executive John Armitt said: "August's performance has been good and builds on the momentum of the past two years that has seen steady and consistent improvement," he added.
"The industry's challenge is to keep this momentum going throughout the autumn leaf-fall season ahead."
The Association of Train Operating Companies said: "This is an especially good result for August, from train operators and Network Rail, but punctuality remains a very real challenge."
Overall throughout the country punctuality for July to August was 6.4 per cent better than the 2004 period with more than 85 per cent of trains on time. Operators cut the numbers of minutes in which delays occurred by 29 per cent compared with the same July to August period last year.
The company also announced it had reduced delays from 885,000 to 564,000 minutes over the same period.


what a pathetic excuse IMO! 158s are one of the most reliable units you can get.

i reckon they'll blame it on the ex-CT 158s, or that they have to run trains east of sheffield so often..
 
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yorkie

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I agree, it is ridiculous!

The last available statistics that I've seen showed 50% of delays attributable to NR, with around 25% other TOCs on TPE.

Only around 25% of delays were within TPEs control (although I am not sure what delays that are out of the railway's control count as, or whether these figures just exclude them), but I don't know how many of them can be attributed to train failures. Not many I would have thought, given that I've rarely experienced a train failure and I travel on TPE quite often.

It's a case of them saying any old thing as an excuse, and the fact they're replacing their trains soon means that the old trains excuse fits the bill. However does anyone believe that TPEs punctuality will really improve with the new trains? If so, only due to superior acceleration and a higher top speed for the Church Fenton-York-Newcastle route and the resulting slack in the timetable, and the margin for improvement is small (as the trains aren't actually the reason for delays anyway). Expect fuel costs to rise considerably and TPE to put the fares up blaming "fuel price increases", despite defying logic by actually increasing fuel usage in a time of fuel price increases. :roll:
 

steve158

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what has got me over the years is that i've been given a lift to barnetby or habrough in the past(both unmanned stations), to find out there is no train, with a bus arriving half an hour later. so now i'll get a lift into lincoln on sundays to pick a train up from there.

also why don't they make barnetby a manned station again? it gets more custom than you would think: people travel from barton, immingham, brigg etc to use it. i also wonder why they didn't take habrough from arriva either - trying to run it down with very few TPE trains calling there these days!

i've only been on one TPE Failure, the 12.10 from Sheffield to Cleethorpes. we were delayed for a while at doncaster and were moved onto a second train at scunthorpe. i asked the driver what the problem was, he explained it, while the guard was a bit more mardy and aimed a comment at me :shock:

however, i'll give them some credit: there was a break in the track at brocklesby and the staff at cleethorpes did really well to organise alternative transport to doncaster for the long distance travellers(including me!)
 

David

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Personally, I haven't any serious problems with TPE. most of the delays I've had are due to signal checks around Stockport and Manchester. The only other delay of note that i've had was when there was a problem at Wrawby Jn, but then that was only 8 minutes.
 

tramboy

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Personally (sorry about the repeated post start!), my latest problem on TPE was today...when no driver for the 1508 Newcastle-Manchester service (ie calling at Durham) turned up.

So, the conductor closed the doors at 1507, hit the buzzer and then the train power went out! Until the driver turned up, at 1517, started the train and we left...passing the TPEX on King Edward Bridge that wanted to use our platform!

Excellent stuff!

Dave

(It should be noted this is also Ian's/Bluecont's latest experience of TPEX too)
 

AlexS

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Nonsense about the trains. TPX have the best 158s in the country, closely followed by ScotRail, Central, Wessex and trailing back in last, Arriva with the dodgy Perkins mobiles.
 

yorkie

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Ironically in the latest issue of Rail, TPE are quoted as saying that they are putting 158s through an overhaul that fixes the 15 most common faults, and that the 158s that have had this treatment are very reliable.

Why is it that one part of TPE moans at "old trains", while another part of the same company is showing off at improvements to the same trains?

What a total farce! Clearly TPE have very poor internal communication, and I would suggest that is more likely to cause them problems than the trains. Sort it out First!

Also, it does add further evidence that the "old trains are bad" brigade rarely check their facts before they spout rubbish. ;)

The first 185 may be in service from March, apparently. I just hope they run them as decent lengths and keep plenty of 158s to run longer trains, instead of just a like for like replacement and squeezing people in like sardines.
 

Z12XE

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yorkie said:
Why is it that one part of TPE moans at "old trains", while another part of the same company is showing off at improvements to the same trains?

Similar to what One have done with their clapped out scrap (MkIIIs)

Went in the rag one month going on about their new trains.

1 month later in the same rag saying they want compensation from Porterbook for their unrelilable, badly worn out, 30 year old second hand trains.

To use an example I heard on the radio, just like the Goverment using Spin to cover up bad management.
 
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