As a daily commuter on TPE from Dewsbury via Leeds, the experience is markedly less pleasant and less convenient than it was before the May timetable change. Despite everywhere having either the same number of trains, or more trains, per hour, they have managed to make it worse.
As described above, the spacing between key trains through the core on the north route and the tight turnarounds do not work. Throw crew changes into the mix and it only compounds matters as TPE do a lot of theirs at Manchester Victoria, and Northern at Oxford Road, so they will get in each other's way if relief crews are late or absent.
Everything is crowded in the peaks - for example what was a 6 car set in the evening peak (1740 from Leeds) is now a 3 car, with 3 additional stops to make west of Leeds. Everything is slower as a result of additional calls. Many peak services run late; for example the aforementioned 1740 from Leeds is frequently on time on the approach to Leeds, but then leaves 5 late after trying to get everyone boarded (often leaving people behind), spends two minutes at Batley disgorging some of the crowds, and drops to 8 or 9 late by Dewsbury (an 11 minute journey). The 0654 from Dewsbury has departed at 0654 just once since May, and the 0710 is cancelled at least once per week in my estimation.
Heading west from Dewsbury, the one positive is that it has its direct service to Manchester Airport back (although the through service to Liverpool has gone, which was also useful). If you're travelling to Manchester Piccadilly, however, it's worse than it was, despite having three services per hour instead of two. One of these is the Hull-Manchester, which has additional stops at Slaithwaite and Mossley, so is slower than before; the second is the Middlesbrough - Manchester Airport, which gets to Victoria nice and quickly, but if you're going to Piccadilly it's slower than the HUL-MAN; the third is the all stations service, which is tedious and takes forever - but it's not worth letting it go in favour of a faster service, even changing at Huddersfield, as you won't get to Piccadilly any quicker.
It used to be quite good, really, once the 5 TPH timetable bedded down. Generally speaking, there was an appropriate level of capacity where it was needed, in the form of enough 6-car sets, following some good work in the previous franchise. Almost three months on, this timetable is still rubbish; it's less of a pleasant experience and more of an endurance test.
