The EMR timetable is not as bad as the GTR shambles from the user point of view. The GTR was all bets are off when you turn up at the station, in fact you were say on the train arrival time came and went and the train got cancelled. My record is was 3 in a row. EMR seem to know the day before what is going to bite the dust so it is mainly failed units the cause the very short term cancellation.
As normal EMR are getting hit because other operators have chosen to purchase new stock. The 170s are late arriving. I am not sure if 15x availability is lower or not, or if the majority of the short forms are 15x covering 170 daigrams.
Some frustrating patterns I can see for local users. Such as Leicester - Lincoln services getting turned at Nottingham. I know it is just the local service between Loughborough and Leicester that are impacted but they can't be happy. The Liverpool - Norwich does stand out. One that I would not have expected, but then if Nottingham train crew need training on the 170s I guess missing crew diagrams appear everywhere. Not sure if the significant ramp up in trains isn't helping when you consider the "Covid removals" are all back in the timetable.
Nottingham Depot has had the most problems of late (things like COVID isolation notifications for drivers and guards having a bit of a spike recently, mainly related to their kids I think) but Boston and Norwich have also had short notice availability problems.
Resourcing is tight enough that if you get a driver go off with an hour or two notice the whole diagram will probably be cancelled which further displaces units and other crews so it snowballs - at least if you have a driver but not a guard you can shift the train.
The other problem being availability of trained 170 drivers giving problems using them on many routes - things like Nottingham to Worksop and Leicester are core routes for various links, some who have knowledge and some who don't and therefore finding a whole 170 diagram that can be fit to traction knowledge is hard. Most guards now sign them except for Norwich bar a few individuals who missed their training slot for various reasons who are now being mopped up.
There is also a depot driver shortage at Nottingham meaning it is hard to get units prepped and into service from the depot.
This all puts pressure on the 15x fleet which is already very elderly and creaking with quite a few in service failures of late.
The timetable itself is a bit of a mess with lots of squeezed running time that makes it difficult to maintain time and recover delays - recovery time on single track routes like Nottingham to Skegness and Worksop has been chopped so once you're late, you stay late, with 2 minutes diagrammed for stops including a crew change or minimum turnaround times also not helping, or stupid issues to fit planning rules like the morning Derby to Sheffield train that calls at Belper to get college kids to Chesterfield no longer stopping at Chesterfield, or a morning down Robin Hood that is very busy trundling non stop through Hucknall at 20 mph to tick a box.
Hopefully there will be a good look at all of these issues because at the moment it is a nightmare for all concerned.