Northern Trains Ltd

[knutstransport]

RE: Northern Trains Ltd
Lack of disaster planning by Northern today.

What should have happened is:
07:56 Chester to Manchester should have been operated by a 2 car 156, which would have then worked the 10:10 Manchester to Chester
08:56 Chester to Manchester should have been operated by a 150+156 (including the 156 off the Ellesmere Port-Helsby service), which would have then worked the 11:10 Manchester to Chester

The 156 due to work the 07:56 developed a fault. That service and the 10:10 back to Chester were cancelled.
The 156 off the Helsby service was left at platform 6, to be later coupled to the faulty 156. That meant the 08:56 from Chester and the 11:10 from Manchester was operated by just a 150.

It's a race day in Chester. That meant after a cancelled service, passengers were trying to squeeze on to a single 150 like sardines and got 13 minutes behind schedule, mainly due to overcrowding.

[childwallblues]

RE: Northern Trains Ltd
769421 arrived at Allerton Depot yesterday. This is one of two units on loan from Porterbrook whilst the core fleet receives C6 overhauls.

[knutstransport]

RE: Northern Trains Ltd
A lot of cancellations due to staff shortages yesterday and today, including consecutive cancellations on the Mid Cheshire line today, despite Oasis and Chester Races both being on - as well as other events like the Foodies Festival.

[knutstransport]

RE: Northern Trains Ltd
Northern haven't removed Advance fares completely on affected routes during the Stockport closure, but they seem to have restricted them to just the most expensive Advance fare rate i.e. the one that's less than £1 cheaper than the walk-on single price.

[knutstransport]

RE: Northern Trains Ltd
I saw people waiting for the 08:55 Manchester to Piccadilly to Chester RRB in Knutsford over 30 minutes after it should have departed. I don't know if it was a no show or just very late.

There is Blackpool Transport bus tracking on a Stockport to Manchester RRB, and a WOB tracking on a Manchester to Wilmslow RRB at present.

[knutstransport]

RE: Northern Trains Ltd
Northern's Mid Cheshire timetable seems to have collapsed because a class 150 developed a fault this afternoon. It seems they have no other unit at Chester and haven't managed to think up an alternative solution to get one there.

[DVG526]

RE: Northern Trains Ltd

(16/08/2025 19:50)knutstransport Wrote:  Northern's Mid Cheshire timetable seems to have collapsed because a class 150 developed a fault this afternoon. It seems they have no other unit at Chester and haven't managed to think up an alternative solution to get one there.

The poor users of the Mid Cheshire have well and truly been hung out to dry by the Stockport blockade, a very poor effort from Northern to only have a 2 hourly 150 to Altrincham, shouldn’t be any unit issues as they come empty from NH via Helsby anyway

[knutstransport]

RE: Northern Trains Ltd
Northern's normal approach to a unit failure on the Manchester Piccadilly routes seems to be to split a 4 car set and have another diagram short formed.

Looking at Chester arrivals and departures yesterday it looks like they decided to also not make an attempt to keep Chester to Victoria running when there was a problem at Hebden Bridge, which lasted a few hours.

Chester does seem to get a poor deal from both TfW Rail and Northern. The Chester-Runcorn-Liverpool service seems to be TfW's first route to drop, and they seem happy to have rammed single sets on North Wales routes, when they want to strengthen Cardiff services.

[iMarkeh]

RE: Northern Trains Ltd

(Yesterday 10:57)knutstransport Wrote:  Northern's normal approach to a unit failure on the Manchester Piccadilly routes seems to be to split a 4 car set and have another diagram short formed.

Looking at Chester arrivals and departures yesterday it looks like they decided to also not make an attempt to keep Chester to Victoria running when there was a problem at Hebden Bridge, which lasted a few hours.

The whole Chester - Manchester route is a mess.
Northern cancel from Victoria to Chester as soon as the smallest thing happens, and TFW cancel Chester - Manchester when the smallest thing happens on the wider network. There is no attempt from either operator to do their best and link people to Warrington at least for onward connections.

I think it's just taken for granted that if one line goes down, people can divert via Crewe or use other TOCs services to get to Newton/Earlestown and anyone at intermediate stops is just irrelevant and ignored.