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Telegraph reporting 50-60% of services to be cut due to impact of covid

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21C101

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There is no doubt planning fatigue is a factor. Many planners, by their nature, are cautious individuals for whom accuracy is their watchword. Meticulous attention to detail was the phrase a former boss used to use.

Now they are being asked to constantly re-invent plans at the drop of a hat, where speed as well as accuracy are demanded. Some cope better mentally than others with that concept.

The aftermath of the Hatfield derailment was the worst ever time for planners with speed restrictions spreading all over the network such that your running times were useless. Replanning timetables then was total guesswork but you knew your staff base. This time it is staff availability that is a constantly changing factor.
That is why many timetables on secondary routes and branches changed little between 1910 and 1960.
 
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DB

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I think that some of the tedium of continuously working from home arises from the current inability to go anywhere much in leisure hours. If it was practical to go out and mix in the evenings and at weekends, and have normal holidays with travel, I suspect that many more will see working at home as acceptable in the long term. Then there's the employer side where relief from the costs of premises, particularly in city centres willl be seen as a permanent gain for the business, allowing a more generous homeworking allowance. All this factored into the commuter's lot (be it by road or train), might become a somewhat more permanent change than many seem to think.

That's certainly part it it, but by no means all - it's quite clear where I work that cohesion is falling apart, and that will only get worse. It is exceptionally difficult to get new staff members in and up to speed.

Working at home for a day or two a week might well be allowed longer-term for more staff than previously, but it's not going to become a full-time norm, nor is it going to be allowed for everybody. Outside of specific industries, I would expect to see similar in most workplaces.
 

Nicholas Lewis

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Hopefully this time the DofT can specify what a lockdown/tier 4 timetable requires and operators can then have something on the shelf they can deploy whenever required as it seems clear from other threads that this situation isn't about to end.
 

MontyP

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Well Guildford to Farnham is every half hour so it certainly isn't the strike timetable.

And the inner suburbans seem to be staying at the same service level as for the last few months - only 1 per hour each to Dorking and Guildford via Epsom, but otherwise same as the standard timetable with 2 per hour on every route. No peak hour extras though, except for 1 Shepperton via Twickenham. This is a much higher service level than during the strike.
 

scrapy

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Hopefully this time the DofT can specify what a lockdown/tier 4 timetable requires and operators can then have something on the shelf they can deploy whenever required as it seems clear from other threads that this situation isn't about to end.
Problem is every lockdown has different rules so will have different numbers travelling. As most train journeys are through different local authority areas and tiers change at very short notice a tier 4 timetable would be hard to implement.
 

The Ham

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And the inner suburbans seem to be staying at the same service level as for the last few months - only 1 per hour each to Dorking and Guildford via Epsom, but otherwise same as the standard timetable with 2 per hour on every route. No peak hour extras though, except for 1 Shepperton via Twickenham. This is a much higher service level than during the strike.

Basingstoke stoppers stay at half hourly (as off peak normally) but have lost their extra peak services, Fleet also appears to have lost its 3rd tph, except in the peaks.

I get the impression that currently things have rolled back a but not as much as 50% (unless there's services not commented upon).
 

Jamesrob637

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There is 05:24 Manchester Piccadilly to Manchester Airport tomorrow followed by two round trips - will these continue to run? Incidentally Journey Check has them booked 6-car! At that time on a Sunday morning! They're only 2-car tomorrow which is surely sufficient even under normal circumstances?! I don't ever remember a train from Manchester at 5am on a Sunday when I lived near Mauldeth Road station.
 

infobleep

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There is no doubt planning fatigue is a factor. Many planners, by their nature, are cautious individuals for whom accuracy is their watchword. Meticulous attention to detail was the phrase a former boss used to use.

Now they are being asked to constantly re-invent plans at the drop of a hat, where speed as well as accuracy are demanded. Some cope better mentally than others with that concept.
I know what you mean. I've worked under people where speed seemed to be more important than accuracy or to be more precise, those that workijg at speed were less checked than those working slower. However later on some of the stuff done at speed had to be redone due to issues. The slower stuff was more generally right first time.

Being dyslexic, I don't do speed so well but I can do accuracy, given the time needed.
 

Nicholas Lewis

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Problem is every lockdown has different rules so will have different numbers travelling. As most train journeys are through different local authority areas and tiers change at very short notice a tier 4 timetable would be hard to implement.
Maybe but constantly rehashing the timetable at short notice is hardly straightforward and the railway has had bad weather timetables for years as a contingency plan so they ought to be promoting to DofT something along these lines perhaps.
 

317 forever

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That's quite possibly true. One thing I do find is that if I'm working from home I quite fancy travel at the weekend, but if I'm commuting I very much don't.

I guess that when you commute you are more tired after longer work days allowing for the travel, plus you will have had some of your travel "fix" through commuting.

In 1 way I found the converse. When I was commuting in the Autumn I found the paradox that I was being instructed to commute to work but advised not to travel for leisure, even to places with lower infection rates, quite preposterous. However, now that I am working at home and therefore not travelling to work, I can live out a coherent and consistent lifestyle without any travel.

As an aside, rare travellers will simply take whatever train times are in place for granted. When I went to Middlesbrough last September, changing at Darlington to ride an LNER Azuma, I saw that the feeder service was hourly. I took this for granted as a normal service. It was only when the ticket clerk at Doncaster pointed out it was a reduced service that it jogged my memory this had been half-hourly prior to March.
 
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peters

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Hopefully if Northern reduce services again they can first consult with those needing to make essential journeys, rather than just axing services at random and then using the "Shortage of drivers due to COVID" as their generic response to everyone saying a service they need for essential reasons isn't running.
 
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Hopefully if Northern reduce services again they can first consult with those needing to make essential journeys, rather than just axing services at random and then using the "Shortage of drivers due to COVID" as their generic response to everyone saying a service they need for essential reasons isn't running.
On our Tyne Valley line, our users Group are consulting as below and some travellers are replying:

Tyne Valley Rail Users' Group - TVRUG
is
Ee9R2064SLp.png
sharing a COVID-19 update.​

S9hctS Juanhuarny mgpanlodsnhsatdoarn 1sed1h:57 ·

Please can you help?
As a result of the latest lockdown, passengers numbers are again expected to fall to very low levels. Railway companies are experiencing staff shortages as people isolate or shield. Train operators are being asked to reduce services to a level more commensurate with the numbers of passengers needing to travel, bearing in mind the current public travel advice.
All of this means that the timetable recently introduced in December, will in turn be amended in the near future.
In order to best serve passengers making essential journeys, Northern is keen to establish the travel patterns that it needs to support.
Given that the changes are likely to be removing services from the existing timetable, the question is really "which trains would people *least like* to lose"?
If you have to travel by train during the period of lockdown, please let us know *between which stations, and at what times you travel* by leaving us a COMMENT below this post. We'll then collate this information and pass it on to Northern.
PLEASE RESPOND AS SOON AS POSSIBLE!
We would also like to know where vaccination centres are being established, so that Northern can factor this into its planning.
The ones we know about so far are at Newcastle Centre for Life and two other city sites, and also at Blaydon, Ponteland, Hexham and Brampton. If you know of others, especially in the west side of the Tyne Valley and Carlisle, again please let us know, and we'll tell Northern.
It's not great to be reducing services, but we want to ensure that the trains that do run meet the needs of the people who need to travel.
So again, please comment below with any *times of trains and which stations you still need to travel between* - or if you know of any Covid Vaccination locations we are unaware of - especially in the western side of the route.

Source: Facebook
 

xtpe

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Hopefully if Northern reduce services again they can first consult with those needing to make essential journeys, rather than just axing services at random and then using the "Shortage of drivers due to COVID" as their generic response to everyone saying a service they need for essential reasons isn't running.
Realtime trains showing STP timetable from JAN 18th
 

_toommm_

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Around Manchester, it seems we're back to basically the March lockdown timetable

What an absolute farce it will now be to get to work.

Somehow, TheTrainLine is saying there’s a service at 07:30 Northern service to Crewe on Monday, even though that’s been deleted.
 

Jamesrob637

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What an absolute farce it will now be to get to work.

Somehow, TheTrainLine is saying there’s a service at 07:30 Northern service to Crewe on Monday, even though that’s been deleted.

The 30ish past the hour from Manchester to Crewe via the Airport has always run. Without this, the smaller stations between Piccadilly and the airport would have no service.
 

peters

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On our Tyne Valley line, our users Group are consulting as below and some travellers are replying:

Firstly, it shouldn't be the responsibility of volunteers to find out what demand there is for rail services and secondly will Northern actually listen to these rail user's groups this time?

Around Manchester, it seems we're back to basically the March lockdown timetable

Unless Northern are aware that the government will tighten restrictions to the same level as last April from next week it's a stupid decision. The timetable last April failed to meet the needs of many essential workers and at the moment restrictions are more loose with more people going in to work and places of education. Also, a regional mass vaccination centre has just opened in Manchester, how are people without cars going to get there if some routes don't even have an hourly service?
 

_toommm_

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The 30ish past the hour from Manchester to Crewe via the Airport has always run. Without this, the smaller stations between Piccadilly and the airport would have no service.

It wasn’t running in the March lockdown. It only went as far as the Airport, leaving Styal with no service for months.
 

infobleep

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Firstly, it shouldn't be the responsibility of volunteers to find out what demand there is for rail services and secondly will Northern actually listen to these rail user's groups this time?



Unless Northern are aware that the government will tighten restrictions to the same level as last April from next week it's a stupid decision. The timetable last April failed to meet the needs of many essential workers and at the moment restrictions are more loose with more people going in to work and places of education. Also, a regional mass vaccination centre has just opened in Manchester, how are people without cars going to get there if some routes don't even have an hourly service?
Surely Northern would need to make a good case to thr DfT if they were cutting services more than the DfT were recommending or at least appearing in the press.

It goes back to my earlier point on services needing to take into account passengers especially key workers, staff and demand. It shouldn't be uneven without evidence to say why one should have drastically less services another someone else.
 

Goldfish62

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SWR have published revised timetables effective from this week, including a reversion to services being split at Bournemouth/Salisbury.

Unfortunately, the published timetables do not match what is actually scheduled to operate according to SWR's own journey planner and RTT. For example, the Hounslow loop service is shown in the timetable as 2tph in each direction (ie normal), but in reality is 1tph in each direction. There are many other examples.

Total farce.
 

peters

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Surely Northern would need to make a good case to thr DfT if they were cutting services more than the DfT were recommending or at least appearing in the press.

It goes back to my earlier point on services needing to take into account passengers especially key workers, staff and demand. It shouldn't be uneven without evidence to say why one should have drastically less services another someone else.

It's mentioned further above that Styal will have no service at all. There's a large prison in Styal and prison workers are classed as critical workers, so I'd be interested to see what evidence Northern have that no-one working at the prison requires the train. I get the impression Northern are envisaging a shortage of drivers in the Manchester area again and are deciding the timetables based on how many drivers sign each line, not the demand of each line.
 

Jamesrob637

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It wasn’t running in the March lockdown. It only went as far as the Airport, leaving Styal with no service for months.

Ok it ran a part route. Styal did indeed lose out during lockdown numéro uno.
 

Greybeard33

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It wasn’t running in the March lockdown. It only went as far as the Airport, leaving Styal with no service for months.
According to RTT, from 18 Jan no service between Manchester Airport and Crewe. Mid Cheshire line going back to 1tp2h. Bentham line 4tpd, Settle line 5tpd (only 4tpd north of Ribblehead).
 

Watershed

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Is the Southport to Alderley Edge going too?
That service is only running between Southport and Manchester Oxford Road.

Styal is once again left without any train services, and no bus replacement either. :s
 

bramling

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Still no news from GTR in London.

I'd be surprised if GTR go for a reduction. They seem to be holding up reasonably well most of the time, so why go to the bother of changing what they've already designed if they don't need to? I can't see what savings there are to make by ramping down, most marginal services have already been taken away in the September and December timetables. Depends on crew availability of course, though.
 
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