Grand Central cancellations (03/10)

[Gemz91]

That depends doesn't it?

The one I am currently on, now nearly empty, was so crowded leaving kings cross folk could not get to the toilets.

God help us if the thing had had to stop suddenly.

Of course if you felt it was that dangerous, the sensible thing to do would be to have left the train at the point you felt it was dangerous and wait for the next train so you could travel in an environment that you felt was safe. It couldn't have felt that dangerous if you remained on board.

 

[_toommm_]

Interesting that their Twitter is currently empty with 0 posts on it. Doubt I've been blocked as I've never posted to them before much...

 

[centraltrains]

Interesting that their Twitter is currently empty with 0 posts on it. Doubt I've been blocked as I've never posted to them before much...

Are you looking at the right account?
https://twitter.com/GC_Rail

 

[Darandio]

Interesting that their Twitter is currently empty with 0 posts on it. Doubt I've been blocked as I've never posted to them before much...

Still seeing it all here. Although all of the posts I alluded to from the summer in post #12 have been removed, the ones with careless comments to queries etc. All other posts around the time remain.

 

[_toommm_]

Are you looking at the right account?
https://twitter.com/GC_Rail

Oops, looking at GCRail instead. Easy mistake... I hope...

 

[Mugby]

LNER (and their predecessors) always seem to come to the rescue of Grand Central. Do they have to or could they refuse?

 

[philthetube]

That depends doesn't it?

The one I am currently on, now nearly empty, was so crowded leaving kings cross folk could not get to the toilets.

God help us if the thing had had to stop suddenly.

How many trains have you been on which have stopped suddenly?

They only stop suddenly if they hit something, they are not capable of it otherwise.

 

[tsr]

LNER (and their predecessors) always seem to come to the rescue of Grand Central. Do they have to or could they refuse?

Often it's more practical and worthwhile to work together rather than just refuse to help. It does very occasionally happen (usually with a very good reason behind it, such as "xyz plan didn't work last time"). Don't forget that during really major disruption, all operators are likely to be impacted severely and it's worth having some goodwill so that everyone helps each other out.

Interestingly, GTR bailed out Hull Trains yesterday with a train-to-train evacuation at Sandy after a 180 sat down. My understanding is that GTR could quite legitimately have found reasons not to help, but did it anyway. Whatever you may say about any given company, the railway as a whole typically runs on a principle of helping out where possible, even if there are still sometimes long delays in getting the helping-out done!

 

[Adam0984]

LNER (and their predecessors) always seem to come to the rescue of Grand Central. Do they have to or could they refuse?

They did a couple of months back I believe it was a Sunday when the LNER trains were packed so they didn’t agree acceptance and GC passengers had to buy new tickets and GC would reimburse. Also around the same time a lot of ticket acceptance was via EMT so not sure if LNER took their bat and ball home

 

[sprinterguy]

I am glad you don't have to put up with bad performance anymore. If I ever have a reason to venture to that part of the North then I will make sure to avoid them.

I can't speak for the Wakefield services as I've not travelled on them, but as a Mackem in exile who has reason to travel back to his home town sporadically I can state that Grand Central have been a boon to the inhabitants of Sunderland since they started up a little over ten years ago. After some initial highly visible teething troubles with the service, they settled down to offer affordable fares and valuable journey connections at times people want to travel from Sunderland and Hartlepool to York and London, at a time when the franchised ECML operator couldn't give a stuff about the hinterland of the Durham Coast, and still don't beyond a token early morning and late night service extension from Newcastle to Sunderland that's "neither nowt nor summat".

Grand Central's current performance woes have arisen this year as a result of them discarding their HSTs in December last year in exchange for an expanded fleet of ailing class 180 DMUs, as other contributors have mentioned on this thread: Hull Trains have been suffering similar difficulties with their own fleet, and you have to wonder whether these temperamental units are already reaching their "best before date" prematurely, though reportedly some of the issues earlier in the year were due to supplier issues in obtaining spare parts.

 

[DarloRich]

The wibble on this thread - it is like the school holidays!

@sprinterguy has it right btw.

 

[sprinterguy]

Of course if you felt it was that dangerous, the sensible thing to do would be to have left the train at the point you felt it was dangerous and wait for the next train so you could travel in an environment that you felt was safe. It couldn't have felt that dangerous if you remained on board.

Indeed: It's easy to reflect in hindsight, but as LNER felt it was inappropriate to put all of Grand Central's booked passengers onboard the 17:00 Kings Cross - Edinburgh, they also agreed ticket acceptance on the flanking 16:30 and 17:30 services in an attempt to dissipate passenger loadings. I can't say how well this might have been communicated to passengers at the time.

The reason for yesterday's cancellation of the 16:48 Kings Cross - Sunderland was an unhealthy 180103 running with two engines failed on the 12:28 Sunderland - Kings Cross, which was subsequently cancelled at York after fire bells started sounding on a third vehicle.

 

[Robertj21a]

Reading this, it seems Arriva have all but given up with rail

Strange comment.

Is there a problem with Chiltern ? - or London Overground ?

 

[Darandio]

Strange comment.

Is there a problem with Chiltern ? - or London Overground ?

Add Northern and then some would say there is a problem. Some might even argue the same for CrossCountry. But then some people just hate Arriva!

 

[bussnapperwm]

Strange comment.

Is there a problem with Chiltern ? - or London Overground ?

With Chiltern, it seems if there's even a thought of an event due to happen, Snow Hill to Moor Street as well as the peak Kidderminster to Moor Street trips get dropped, Marylebone - Amersham - Aylesbury gets reduced, Aylesbury V Parkway gets buses.

Couple of weeks time Solihull to Leamington gets buses due to engineering works. They've already announced Stourbridge/Kidderminster loses its through trains because of it. Have they never heard of diverting via New Street and Coventry (it's not as if Chiltern have even been to new street)?

And then there's the 710 issues at London meaning that us Midlanders can't have our 172/0 units. Yes, I appreciate that's partly down to the manufacturers, but surely Arriva should have been on top of it.

XC are overcrowded and extortionate (again admittedly that's only partly Arrivas fault). Half of the 170 fleet looks like it needs a refurb.

ATW couldn't organise the PRM modifications in a brewery. Constant overcrowding on services between the Midlands and Shropshire during peak times and the PRM mods causing short forms.

So yeah, one would think that Arriva are giving us on rail

 

[sprunt]

Interestingly, GTR bailed out Hull Trains yesterday with a train-to-train evacuation at Sandy after a 180 sat down. My understanding is that GTR could quite legitimately have found reasons not to help, but did it anyway.

Do the TOCs charge each other for that kind of thing? I'm assuming they at least charge enough to cover their costs, but do they charge a commercial rate over and above that?

 

[cactustwirly]

With Chiltern, it seems if there's even a thought of an event due to happen, Snow Hill to Moor Street as well as the peak Kidderminster to Moor Street trips get dropped, Marylebone - Amersham - Aylesbury gets reduced, Aylesbury V Parkway gets buses.

Couple of weeks time Solihull to Leamington gets buses due to engineering works. They've already announced Stourbridge/Kidderminster loses its through trains because of it. Have they never heard of diverting via New Street and Coventry (it's not as if Chiltern have even been to new street)?

And then there's the 710 issues at London meaning that us Midlanders can't have our 172/0 units. Yes, I appreciate that's partly down to the manufacturers, but surely Arriva should have been on top of it.

XC are overcrowded and extortionate (again admittedly that's only partly Arrivas fault). Half of the 170 fleet looks like it needs a refurb.

ATW couldn't organise the PRM modifications in a brewery. Constant overcrowding on services between the Midlands and Shropshire during peak times and the PRM mods causing short forms.

So yeah, one would think that Arriva are giving us on rail

What a load of wibble!

So there's RRBs because of engineering works - hardly the end of the world.
There probably isn't enough capacity for Chiltern to divert into New Street anyway.
Chiltern only operate a token service beyond Snow Hill, it isn't as if there's 4tph from Kidderminster to Moor Street anyway...

You do realise that TfL is responsible for everything on LO (except the operating of services), so there isn't much that Arriva can do about the 710s.

ATW really don't have much control over the PRM mods, they're carried out by the RoSCos not the TOCs.

If any operators have given up, then you should be looking at Stagecoach...