I had to drive to Chester this morning and the roads were clear. Not even icy.It's pathetic. PD: the Ellesmere port Northern service doesn't seem to be running today, either.
I had to drive to Chester this morning and the roads were clear. Not even icy.
There is no snow or ice and still Merseyrail are not running a service. Don't know who is to blame but both NR and ME own this. I suspect ME will be happy to take the compo from NR for not opening the network.
Meanwhile this tweet from NR is pathetic:
Liverpool Lime St on Twitter: "⚠️It’s a cold one this morning! Here’s our version of a road gritter. They’ve been running around @merseyrail network so the snow ❄️ & ice doesn’t stick on the track. Be safe Be patient Be kind @Merseytravel https://t.co/4QLgGlHQYS" / Twitter
I suspect that ME are more than happy to take the compo from NR for not providing infrastructure especially as there owners are Merseytravel that are losing masses of revenue at the moment...........It's nothing unusual to keep trains running through the night for frost protection and it's on of the absolute basics to send engineering trains out in this weather.
I get the impression they just don't like running trains, and Merseytravel who get paid a fortune to oversee this contract have for many years become utterly inept - time for the operator's contract to end, and the many useless, expensive 'Qango' PTE's across the UK to shut, and be reformed into far smaller organisations.
I'd go as far as to suggest pushing Merseyrail into Northern, given the current costs compared with what we actually get for our money.
I wouldn't be so sure that NR are actually compensating them for anything. I think there is a lot more going on here than meets the eye.I suspect that ME are more than happy to take the compo from NR for not providing infrastructure especially as there owners are Merseytravel that are losing masses of revenue at the moment...........
I know that Merseyrail asked NR to provide a rescue engine (just in case) earlier in the week. 57312 provided at Chester. NR then probably couldn't give a 100% guarantee that the infrastructure would be OK this morning and so Merseyrail make the decision not to run a service. Perhaps something like that.I wouldn't be so sure that NR are actually compensating them for anything. I think there is a lot more going on here than meets the eye.
I used to live in Southport and always assumed it was The Gulf Stream.I don't know how scientific it is, but the view locally always used to be that anything extreme coming in over the Atlantic dumped on Ireland instead, meaning Merseyside and West Lancashire tended to lack weather extremes usually experienced by the South East.
To be fair all the weather forecasts I saw last night were predicting heavy snow, with probabilities greater than 90% and met office weather warnings.
Very much so... we have to remember as well that the network will have been haemorrhaging money for nearly 12 months now and the effects of driver absence and unit failures from last week will have lead to these decisions.Can't help but think this would be a wholly different thread if merseyrail didn't put a plan in place for the bad weather and people ended up stranded in places
The railway cannot run on whataboutery. Merseyrail could have easy said 'there maybe some disruption to services in the morning, passengers should check before they travel'. Rather instead saying we're not running tomorrow, get lost.......Very much so... we have to remember as well that the network will have been haemorrhaging money for nearly 12 months now and the effects of driver absence and unit failures from last week will have lead to these decisions.
Agreed. Just throwing in the towel the day before is just not good enough. Yes, I appreciate that resources may be stretched, but Merseyrail are not the only company struggling at the moment - there are many companies that are experiencing difficulties for many reasons.The railway cannot run on whataboutery. Merseyrail could have easy said 'there maybe some disruption to services in the morning, passengers should check before they travel'. Rather instead saying we're not running tomorrow, get lost.......
It's true that Merseyside doesn't usually suffer from extremes of cold or snow; but on the other hand it does have quite frequent high winds. So to that extent the third rail is more resilient in the face of the predominant local weather extremes than an overhead electrification system would be. I've lived in Southport since 1995, and can only recall one winter (2010) when snow lay for more than a day. On the other hand, it is not uncommon for it to snow at Ormskirk or Parbold, say, and only rain here on the coast.I don't know how scientific it is, but the view locally always used to be that anything extreme coming in over the Atlantic dumped on Ireland instead, meaning Merseyside and West Lancashire tended to lack weather extremes usually experienced by the South East.
I don't think it matters if it was NR or ME, the whole thing is ridiculous and even more so that it took until midday to get the service up and running when it was obvious at 08:00 that there wasn't an issue.I given to believe that the Mayor of Liverpool City Region is quoted as saying that he believed Network Rail had issued a restriction of use order, if true then Merseyrail cannot be blamed in the slightest
I don't think it matters if it was NR or ME, the whole thing is ridiculous and even more so that it took until midday to get the service up and running when it was obvious at 08:00 that there wasn't an issue.
Not relevant for top contact 3d rail operations.
You can run trains all night if you have crews - (cut in and with heaters on) , you can spray de-icer on shoes before departure , you can treat the sliding doors with de-icer and give the train crews portable de-icer garden sprays to get them out of trouble if needed. You can call out all your staff -including management above the "on call" arrangement , (subject to safety training) the PW gangs can scrape critical areas , the point heaters can all work - and still have trouble.
Not much else you can do really..... any other ideas ?
The Chester and Ellesmere Port lines were impassable overnight with issues with route proving train, once the early morning de-icer and a further route prover traversed the line, the line was given back.
the only sure way to not get stranded on ice is heated third rail, however much de-icer you lay, if it rains or snows this washes it off then if it freezes you have iced rails, or even worse, frozen snow on third rail. Trains laying de-icer wont shift this and will, if electric, become stranded themselves.
of course a couple of feet of snow will stop everything regardless.
That's probably not the only reason someone buys a car, but if someone was perhaps considering getting rid of a second car and using public transport more, stunts like this will discourage them. Then every subsequent journey will be priced as petrol v rail fare, rather than total cost of car v rail fare. Which makes the train uncompetitive. Outside London, driving is still generally a practical alternative.How many people in Merseyside have a car on the basis that they would use the train, but can’t rely on it for the odd day a year the trains might not run because rain washes off the anti-ice solution and freezes the con rail?
If it’s more than zero I’d be surprised...