How to impress new MPs (not!)

[AndrewE]

Avanti doing themselves no favours... BBC reports "New MPs hit out at 'shambles' train services"

New MPs hit out at 'shambles' train services

Several newly-elected Labour MPs suffer disruption during journeys to take their seats in the Commons.

www.bbc.com

Several newly-elected Labour MPs have criticised the reliability of train services after suffering disruption during journeys to take their seats in the House of Commons.
The politicians took to X to complain as they travelled to London ahead of Parliament sitting on Tuesday for the first time since the general election.
Paul Foster, MP for South Ribble in Lancashire, wrote, external: "Day One on my way to Parliament and guess what... AvantiWestCoast go and cancel my train just as I get to Preston station". He added it was an "utter shambles".
The rail company said: "We are sorry for any inconvenience caused to our customers with some of our train services being cancelled."

Avanti don't sound very contriite to me, also

Another disgruntled Avanti West Coast passenger was Claire Hughes, MP for Bangor Aberconwy, who wrote, external: "In news that will shock absolutely no-one, my AvantiWestCoast train down to London for my first day in Westminster has been cancelled."

"That'll be my train too," replied Andrew Ranger, who was elected to represent Wrexham, adding "we have another thing to add to the list of things to tackle".

and

Josh Fenton-Glynn, MP for Calder Valley, suffered disruption while travelling with Northern, which is already controlled by the Department for Transport.

'Work to be done'​

He posted an image, external at 09:24 BST of himself at Hebden Bridge station in Yorkshire, with the caption: "On my way to London! I'm so excited to be starting a journey to be the voice in Westminster for the Calder Valley communities I love."
In a subsequent post eight minutes later, he added: "In news that will shock absolutely no one, my northernassist train is delayed."
Kirith Entwistle, who represents Bolton North East, posted an image of the town's railway station, external with the caption: "Day 1 and my train into Manchester to get to London is cancelled. Off to a great start!"
Henry Tufnell, MP for Mid and South Pembrokeshire, who travelled to the capital on Sunday, posted, external: "Heading to London and excited to begin work as the MP for Mid & South Pembrokeshire.
"Unfortunately the journey involves no direct trains from #Pembrokeshire and a delayed GWRHelp train via Gloucester. Lots of work to be done..."
Northern apologised and said staff sickness and industrial relations issues were having an "impact".

 

[gazthomas]

Just another day in North Wales

 

[Kite159]

Even if Avanti West Coast was run by the OLR, would things improve? Just look at Northern and the answer is no. TPE are only better because they cut back the number of trains they run.

And does that MP from Pembrokeshire want an all day London train so they can avoid changing at Swansea [or Cardiff]?

 

[ajp999]

Whilst a lot better than Avanti West Coast, performance and cancellations at LNER seem a lot higher now under OLR than they used to be.

 

[AverageJoe]

Even if Avanti West Coast was run by the OLR, would things improve? Just look at Northern and the answer is no. TPE are only better because they cut back the number of trains they run.

And does that MP from Pembrokeshire want an all day London train so they can avoid changing at Swansea [or Cardiff]?

TPE have taken on a lot more drivers and conductors and also agreed a RDW deal so it’s more than just a reduced timetable.

 

[Class 170101]

TPE have taken on a lot more drivers and conductors and also agreed a RDW deal so it’s more than just a reduced timetable.

Are they new drivers though or just drivers moved from other operators?

 

[John R]

Even if Avanti West Coast was run by the OLR, would things improve? Just look at Northern and the answer is no. TPE are only better because they cut back the number of trains they run.

And does that MP from Pembrokeshire want an all day London train so they can avoid changing at Swansea [or Cardiff]?

Indeed, GWR has massively improved the direct services from Carmarthen to London on weekdays from the previous one a day. And it’s hardly anyone’s fault that a planned closure of the Severn Tunnel happened to coincide with the start of a new parliament that nobody expected to happen two months ago.

 

[AverageJoe]

Are they new drivers though or just drivers moved from other operators?

Loads of new drivers

 

[HullRailMan]

No doubt they will claim the fare on expenses and then pocket the delay repay.

 

[Hadders]

I suspect this was all a co-ordinated bit of rail bashing by Labour.

 

[Flange Squeal]

Whilst a lot better than Avanti West Coast, performance and cancellations at LNER seem a lot higher now under OLR than they used to be.

When you say performance AND cancellations are higher at LNER, what exactly does that mean? Performance going up sounds like a positive, but cancellations going up obviously isn’t, so sounds a bit conflicting?

 

[lachlan]

No doubt they will claim the fare on expenses and then pocket the delay repay.

Why, do you travel on business out your own pocket?

 

[John R]

Why, do you travel on business out your own pocket?

Exactly. Train fares from constituency to Parliament are clearly a business expense, and in my business experience, any Delay Repay is typically collected by the traveller, who is the one who has been inconvenienced by the delay.

So it’s just a cheap shot, and an unjustified one at that.

 

[SuspectUsual]

So it’s just a cheap shot, and an unjustified one at that

Yes, it is.

Where there are valid grounds to criticise both MPs and the system is where MPs book first class advances that are cheaper than a standard class anytime, and are therefore allowed to claim. In such cases, 99.99% of the time a standard class advance would be even cheaper.

The rules shouldn’t be “you can spend up to the cost of a standard class anytime” but “you should minimise the cost to the public and if you want to go first class you can pay for it yourself”

 

[John R]

Yes, it is.

Where there are valid grounds to criticise both MPs and the system is where MPs book first class advances that are cheaper than a standard class anytime, and are therefore allowed to claim. In such cases, 99.99% of the time a standard class advance would be even cheaper.

The rules shouldn’t be “you can spend up to the cost of a standard class anytime” but “you should minimise the cost to the public and if you want to go first class you can pay for it yourself”

Personally I think MPs should be allowed to go first class, especially for longer distances. Contrary to what people think they are very busy, and I am sure they would welcome the extra space and privacy to be able to use the time effectively, typically on constituency business.

The MP for Penzance will spend around 10 hours a week on GWR, travelling between their constituency and London, and I am sure they could work much more effectively in first.

 

[chesterred16]

I suspect this was all a co-ordinated bit of rail bashing by Labour.

I strongly disagree, certainly the ones who travelled Avanti. The service from North Wales / Chester is abysmal and getting worse. The only reason I use it any more is that the inevitable delay repay makes the ticket price more palatable, as long as I'm not in a desperate hurry. If I absolutely need to be somewhere on time, then car is the only option now. Sad, considering the service it used to be.

 

[SuspectUsual]

Personally I think MPs should be allowed to go first class, especially for longer distances. Contrary to what people think they are very busy, and I am sure they would welcome the extra space and privacy to be able to use the time effectively, typically on constituency business.

The MP for Penzance will spend around 10 hours a week on GWR, travelling between their constituency and London, and I am sure they could work much more effectively in first.

You might be right, but my point was that a number of MPs have in recent years stayed within the letter of a badly written rule, and abused the spirit of it

 

[Hadders]

I strongly disagree, certainly the ones who travelled Avanti. The service from North Wales / Chester is abysmal and getting worse. The only reason I use it any more is that the inevitable delay repay makes the ticket price more palatable, as long as I'm not in a desperate hurry. If I absolutely need to be somewhere on time, then car is the only option now. Sad, considering the service it used to be.

I’m not defending the service (been caught up in three hour long delays myself in the last 36 hours…)

That said why no co-ordinated messages like this at any point over the last few years.

 

[Djgr]

I suspect this was all a co-ordinated bit of rail bashing by Labour.

But the rail industry makes it SO easier for them by being totally broken

 

[Energy]

No doubt they will claim the fare on expenses and then pocket the delay repay.

Delay repay is compensation, not a refund, to the passenger who is inconvenienced. The railway does not need to offer a refund as long as it gets you to your destination at some point. Even if you are expensing your ticket you can claim the delay repay as the passenger who is inconvenienced.

 

[zero]

I wonder how many MPs know how to claim DR, and once they get into the swing of things, how many MPs book their travel personally

 

[Gaelan]

This phenomenon is, of course, why every little town has a direct service to London and why CrossCountry is in such a sorry state. When the connections to London are bad, politicians notice.

 

[WesternLancer]

Yes, it is.

Where there are valid grounds to criticise both MPs and the system is where MPs book first class advances that are cheaper than a standard class anytime, and are therefore allowed to claim. In such cases, 99.99% of the time a standard class advance would be even cheaper.

The rules shouldn’t be “you can spend up to the cost of a standard class anytime” but “you should minimise the cost to the public and if you want to go first class you can pay for it yourself”

They can’t claim the anytime fare but buy advanced and pocket the difference afaik. Claims have to be against receipts post the ‘expenses scandal’ c2008 iirc.

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 9 Jul 2024 ==

I wonder how many MPs know how to claim DR, and once they get into the swing of things, how many MPs book their travel personally

I suspect in similar proportion to the general public at large. Why would they be more or less likely to know hope to claim D-R than anyone else?

 

[poffle]

There is a particular issue with the Avanti services in North Wales which is the replacement of half the Voyager services with the new 805s since the beginning of June.

The 805s do not yet seem to be running with any degree of reliability. Trains are frequently cancelled, only run part of the scheduled journey or are short formed.

There also seem to be staffing issues but it's hard to tell what the ratio of staffing issues and train reliability issues are.

 

[185]

A reminder that the primary issues that kicked most of the politicians off with Avanti was...
- the cancellation of the early Blackpool London (no TM)
- Avanti ran it empty stock for the entire 3hr journey to reduce their penalty by 50%.
- Both Blackpool Preston and Preston Euston drivers drove their booked jobs.
- Avanti head of HR did state three years ago they prefer to recruit the TM role internally only (about 99% are internal promotions, no externals, or external qualifieds).
- Avanti almost never use contingency train managers (ie bosses playing guard for the day) except on strike days.

 

[Topological]

Even if Avanti West Coast was run by the OLR, would things improve? Just look at Northern and the answer is no. TPE are only better because they cut back the number of trains they run.

And does that MP from Pembrokeshire want an all day London train so they can avoid changing at Swansea [or Cardiff]?

I was just reading about the MP in Pembrokeshire.

IF Labour want to pay for GWR to run a unit further west then ok, but someone better order some more 80x because there are already too many shortforms on GWR as it is.

We all hope the new government can resolve the rest day working agreements and bring cancellations down accordingly. I would suggest they will find it easier said than done though.

 

[Neo9320]

The railway should not be there to be impressing MPs, they should be the ones doing something about it!

About time they suffered like the rest of us! They might be motivated to get something done!

 

[Lurcheroo]

IF Labour want to pay for GWR to run a unit further west then ok, but someone better order some more 80x because there are already too many shortforms on GWR as it is.

If they get the 175 fleet then that will help Release 80x back to their booked work.

The railway should not be there to be impressing MPs, they should be the ones doing something about it!

About time they suffered like the rest of us! They might be motivated to get something done!

Well isn’t that the point of what was said originally?

 

[BeijingDave]

Personally I think MPs should be allowed to go first class, especially for longer distances. Contrary to what people think they are very busy, and I am sure they would welcome the extra space and privacy to be able to use the time effectively, typically on constituency business.

The MP for Penzance will spend around 10 hours a week on GWR, travelling between their constituency and London, and I am sure they could work much more effectively in first.

I agree.

 

[HullRailMan]

Why, do you travel on business out your own pocket?

Where do I suggest that I did? In the case of a delay, any compensation goes to my public sector employer, not my pocket. Yes I’m inconvenienced, but I’m travelling on works time.

The recent appointment of two former Blair/Brown ministers who both fiddled their expenses, with one gifted a peerage, suggests financial morality has not been reestablished with a new government.