Stranded please help asap northern rail

[Harry help]

Hi guys.

Northern have left me stranded as they have cancelled the last train to Liverpool like street. I am currently at mauldeth road train station.

What is my best course of action as I do not have money for a taxi. Do northern not have to help they are currently shut.

Regards harry

 

[yorkie]

Sorry to hear this. Unfortunately incidents like this are becoming all too common lately. What happened in the end?

 

[transplanted]

Please let us know how this turned out.

Now Northern have completely overhauled (ie ruined) the south Manchester line by combining it with extension to liverpool and messing with the skip stations service pattern I expect this will be more common.

 

[Harry help]

I had to make my own way from mauldeth road to piccadily. Where i found many other stranded passangers all awaiting non existant bus replacement services.

Eventually at around half 2 northern finally managed to arrange a taxi back. Which took me and a few other passangers to the wrong station (st helens central) getting in for almost 3 am.. how can this be reasonable is beyond me. I had to take the day off after unpaid from work due to northerns failures but i dount northern would care or compensate me more than refund my ticket lets be honest

 

[transplanted]

I had to make my own way from mauldeth road to piccadily. Where i found many other stranded passangers all awaiting non existant bus replacement services.

Eventually at around half 2 northern finally managed to arrange a taxi back. Which took me and a few other passangers to the wrong station (st helens central) getting in for almost 3 am.. how can this be reasonable is beyond me. I had to take the day off after unpaid from work due to northerns failures but i dount northern would care or compensate me more than refund my ticket lets be honest

sorry to hear that mate. yeah it is unlikely they will refund you any more than the ticket. what you can do next time if this happens is check other stations on the same line; now Burnage and East Didsbury have different calling patterns to Mauldeth Road. It is an absolute shambles on that line and the service and current/future reliability has been decimated with the new timetable.

 

[323235]

Sounds about right - twitter and the customer experience centre are closed by 2200 , unlike some other TOCs who are open later or 24 hours.

I would encourage you to write to your MP as it is a very serious issue.

If you use Northern Journeycheck they do sometimes put replacement bus details on there.

Don't forget to claim delay repay claim and email them as it is far from acceptable.

 

[Merseysider]

I would encourage you to write to your MP as it is a very serious issue.

Seconded.

 

[Harry help]

what action can my MP actually take? out of interest

 

[6Gman]

what action can my MP actually take? out of interest

Can't take action as such, but is in a better position to rattle a few cages than you or I.

 

[trainmania100]

Would be good if TOCs ran 24hrs it would stop it happening

 

[221129]

Would be good if TOCs ran 24hrs it would stop it happening

Then when does the maintenance happen? Who pays for it? Etc

 

[Starmill]

All that is really needed is for Northern to have the proper arrangements in place to send customers a rail replacement bus or taxi if they are cancelling the final service from a station. It's not clear why this didn't happen in this case.

This isn't always easy in the case of an unstaffed station but there are options including displaying a message about where to go to wait for a bus or making an announcement at the station. Did you try the help point / was it working?

How did you get from Mauldeth Road to Manchester Piccadilly? If you used a service bus or paid for a taxi and kept the receipt, then I would argue that Northern should cover the cost of this, in addition to your Delay Repay compensation, if they were themselves unable to offer any way to transport you from Mauldeth Road.

 

[chorleyjeff]

Then when does the maintenance happen? Who pays for it? Etc

Depends who you think the railway should put first - passengers or the railway.

 

[najaB]

Depends who you think the railway should put first - passengers or the railway.

Well, without maintenance the passengers aren't going to be going anywhere - except A&E or the local undertakers.

 

[chorleyjeff]

Well, without maintenance the passengers aren't going to be going anywhere - except A&E or the local undertakers.

The complaint was in respect of the TOC contact system closing at 10.00pm when the TOC had stranded passengers needing help into the early hours. But never mind if the passengers were vulnerable.
After all what do they expect - good service ? Experience says no.
If staff need to get home ( of course they do ) then how about a manager or two stepping into the breach?

 

[WelshBluebird]

My view is there should be members of staff who are contactable by passengers available to help from first train to last train.

 

[najaB]

The complaint was in respect of the TOC contact system closing at 10.00pm when the TOC had stranded passengers needing help into the early hours.

With respect, that isn't what @trainmania100 wrote.

 

[AlterEgo]

Depends who you think the railway should put first - passengers or the railway.

Having a 24h timetable means limited opportunity for maintenance, and therefore much poorer operational performance. Not really in the passenger interest.

 

[NSEFAN]

Having a 24h timetable means limited opportunity for maintenance, and therefore much poorer operational performance. Not really in the passenger interest.

For the operational railway I agree, but I'd be surprised that a help phone line need so much maintenance that it needs to close at 10pm every day.

 

[AlterEgo]

For the operational railway I agree, but I'd be surprised that a help phone line need so much maintenance that it needs to close at 10pm every day.

He wasn’t talking about that.

 

[323235]

All that is really needed is for Northern to have the proper arrangements in place to send customers a rail replacement bus or taxi if they are cancelling the final service from a station. It's not clear why this didn't happen in this case.

This isn't always easy in the case of an unstaffed station but there are options including displaying a message about where to go to wait for a bus or making an announcement at the station. Did you try the help point / was it working?

How did you get from Mauldeth Road to Manchester Piccadilly? If you used a service bus or paid for a taxi and kept the receipt, then I would argue that Northern should cover the cost of this, in addition to your Delay Repay compensation, if they were themselves unable to offer any way to transport you from Mauldeth Road.

Have you ever had a reimbursement for a taxi?

 

[johnnychips]

This is sort of off-topic but not so: coming back off a Eurostar which was delayed, we arrived at London at about 2330, obviously too late to catch the last train to Donny (we had CIV tickets). The guard on the Eurostar told us to get a hotel and claim back, and stamped our tickets so there would be no probs travelling onward next day. We got a room in London for £107, which my mate claimed back with no trouble, but it’s a good job I was with him as it was just before payday and I was skint. Really don’t know what I would’ve done if I was alone.

 

[Bungle965]

This is sort of off-topic but not so: coming back off a Eurostar which was delayed, we arrived at London at about 2330, obviously too late to catch the last train to Donny (we had CIV tickets). The guard on the Eurostar told us to get a hotel and claim back, and stamped our tickets so there would be no probs travelling onward next day. We got a room in London for £107, which my mate claimed back with no trouble, but it’s a good job I was with him as it was just before payday and I was skint. Really don’t know what I would’ve done if I was alone.

I don't believe you were under any obligation to buy the hotel yourself, I think the advice that you were given by the Eurostar guard was not the best. What he should have said was for you to speak to staff in London who would have found a hotel for you or put you in a taxi. It is certainly not uncommon for Eurostar to be finding hotels or taxi's, in fact I believe there is now a certain amount of automation to it where you can fill out a form on their website when your train is late or cancelled to give you a hotel, however I have never had to use this myself.
Sam

 

[Harry help]

Northern still havent responded to my complaint

 

[221129]

Northern still havent responded to my complaint

Are you surprised?! It's only been a week...

 

[Bungle965]

Northern still havent responded to my complaint

Dependant on where you sent the complaint to the response time will vary.
If you sent it to their twitter team then you will get a pretty speedy response, however may tell you to send their Customer Experience Centre as it would be deemed too complicated for them to deal with.
If you sent it to their Customer Experience Centre then I am afraid you'll probably be waiting a while for them to respond, they seem to be understaffed anyway but coupled with the strikes and the shambles with their new timetable (and lack of drivers) have meant that their usual response time (whatever that is!) is not being met.
The only other advice is to phone them.
Sam

 

[gazthomas]

The key issue is that the OP should be provided with support when their train, the last train is cancelled by the Operator

 

[Harry help]

Hi guys northern just stranded me again. Boarded an atw train at piccadily to take me to earlestown and then waited to board the 11 31 northern service to st helens junxtion. At 11 35 the train was announced as cancelled (again....). Went into the earlestown booking office where a nice lady booked a taxi for me.. not looking good for northern though is it.

 

[bb21]

Why are you stranded if you had a taxi booked for you?

 

[Harry help]

Not litteraly stranded. More a sense of last train cancelled and no orovisions out in. Taxi hasnt turned up yet and the northern operator has gone home.. fingers xrossed