I was travelling back to York today and as my train approached Stockport, I had a look at how trains were running from Manchester to York.
It didn't look good, so I looked at Stockport towards Sheffield, and that looked diabolical, with a huge gap in service.
On arrival at Piccadilly at 2008, there was no obvious sign of what passengers heading towards Huddersfield & beyond should do, so I asked staff and got a variety of different answers. One member of staff even used Trainline as his source of information. A member of TPE staff assured me the 2121 would run, but I may be better off going to Victoria. There didn't seem to be anything official stating this advice though.
I decided to go to Victoria, from where I caught the 2037 to Leeds; although the front of the train was crowded, to my surprise there were hardly any seats taken in the rear (4th) coach.
When I got to Leeds, there was no indication as to whether the first train to York would be the delayed 2214 (expected at 2230) from platform 16 or the 2229 Northern stopper from platform 8. Several passengers were wondering which train to go to. Platform 16 looked crowded but I was thinking I may still go there anyway as it looked likely to go first.
The decision was then taken to put a Sheffield stopper into platform 16, and I realised this would further delay the TPE, which had no sign of a platform alteration. I hung around on the bridge for a while and then went for the 2129, which I note had TRTS (train ready to start) button pressed long before the booked departure time; a green light was eventually given at 2130 and until that point I was ready to leap out for the TPE. Several people boarded at the last minute as they realised it was the best train for York. Some were panting as if they'd done a marathon and were very unhappy with the lack of information.
In the end I had clearly made the right choice; the train was crowded at the front but not so busy in the rear coach and after Cross Gates had a table to myself. Relatively few passengers alighted at the local West Yorkshire stops; this would have been very different years ago but I suspect many of those passengers have abandoned rail due to the poor service. Loads got off at York; clearly many of these had boarded at Leeds and would normally have got TPE.
The TPE pulled into platform 9 as I approached the underpass and I saw it was crush loaded. I was glad I wasn't on it from Leeds, let alone all the way from Manchester.
Overall the rail industry gave me the impression of one where their customers are absolutely taken for granted and you need to be "in the know" to avoid a terrible experience.
The only positive thing was the last train to Newcastle was actually held at York to avoid a missed connection for many people; large numbers of passengers transferred onto it. I shouldn't be surprised at this, but my expectations have been lowered so much that I almost was.
When I read or hear people suggest the rail industry can rely on passengers being loyal and that people are happy with the service and there is nothing to worry about, I know that what I am reading is quite wide of the mark; yes I will continue to use it as I've chosen not to buy a car and I know how to get fares down to affordable levels etc, but many others will abandon rail if the current poor service continues or gets even worse.
Everyone in the rail industry ought to be pulling out all the stops to give passengers a better experience, but I have zero confidence that this will actually happen.
It didn't look good, so I looked at Stockport towards Sheffield, and that looked diabolical, with a huge gap in service.
On arrival at Piccadilly at 2008, there was no obvious sign of what passengers heading towards Huddersfield & beyond should do, so I asked staff and got a variety of different answers. One member of staff even used Trainline as his source of information. A member of TPE staff assured me the 2121 would run, but I may be better off going to Victoria. There didn't seem to be anything official stating this advice though.
I decided to go to Victoria, from where I caught the 2037 to Leeds; although the front of the train was crowded, to my surprise there were hardly any seats taken in the rear (4th) coach.
When I got to Leeds, there was no indication as to whether the first train to York would be the delayed 2214 (expected at 2230) from platform 16 or the 2229 Northern stopper from platform 8. Several passengers were wondering which train to go to. Platform 16 looked crowded but I was thinking I may still go there anyway as it looked likely to go first.
The decision was then taken to put a Sheffield stopper into platform 16, and I realised this would further delay the TPE, which had no sign of a platform alteration. I hung around on the bridge for a while and then went for the 2129, which I note had TRTS (train ready to start) button pressed long before the booked departure time; a green light was eventually given at 2130 and until that point I was ready to leap out for the TPE. Several people boarded at the last minute as they realised it was the best train for York. Some were panting as if they'd done a marathon and were very unhappy with the lack of information.
In the end I had clearly made the right choice; the train was crowded at the front but not so busy in the rear coach and after Cross Gates had a table to myself. Relatively few passengers alighted at the local West Yorkshire stops; this would have been very different years ago but I suspect many of those passengers have abandoned rail due to the poor service. Loads got off at York; clearly many of these had boarded at Leeds and would normally have got TPE.
The TPE pulled into platform 9 as I approached the underpass and I saw it was crush loaded. I was glad I wasn't on it from Leeds, let alone all the way from Manchester.
Overall the rail industry gave me the impression of one where their customers are absolutely taken for granted and you need to be "in the know" to avoid a terrible experience.
The only positive thing was the last train to Newcastle was actually held at York to avoid a missed connection for many people; large numbers of passengers transferred onto it. I shouldn't be surprised at this, but my expectations have been lowered so much that I almost was.
When I read or hear people suggest the rail industry can rely on passengers being loyal and that people are happy with the service and there is nothing to worry about, I know that what I am reading is quite wide of the mark; yes I will continue to use it as I've chosen not to buy a car and I know how to get fares down to affordable levels etc, but many others will abandon rail if the current poor service continues or gets even worse.
Everyone in the rail industry ought to be pulling out all the stops to give passengers a better experience, but I have zero confidence that this will actually happen.
