Storm Bert Saturday 23rd November

[87015]

really? I haven't noticed that at Bletchley - the service is less than ideal but not rammed

Yes, been unable to board AM peak trains all week throughout. Theres a total of 3 Euston LNR arrivals between 0730 and 0900, and not 12-cars. One 4-car circulating today as well. Presumably at Bletchley thats northbound with not rammed?

 

[DarloRich]

Yes, been unable to board AM peak trains all week throughout. Theres a total of 3 Euston LNR arrivals between 0730 and 0900, and not 12-cars. One 4-car circulating today as well. Presumably at Bletchley thats northbound with not rammed?

Fair enough.

one day southbound travel, others by way of observation.

northbound has been fine - this morning a 4 car which cant have helped. I note Bletchley sidings are full.............

 

[Bletchleyite]

It seems odd not to be running the MKC shuttles at 12 car if there are units parked up at Bletchley.

 

[87015]

Fair enough.

one day southbound travel, others by way of observation.

northbound has been fine - this morning a 4 car which cant have helped. I note Bletchley sidings are full.............

I fought my way onto the 0630 off MK, left people behind Tring onward - not a single boarder possible (rear coach) from Hemel. 45 mins until next one and that reported as not even close to clearing the platform at Leighton. 2tph only isn't enough in the peaks even if its 12-car, and neither of those are really being met. The 'stopped for handback' 350/2s at Wembley and Camden are very visible...

 

[Merle Haggard]

Meanwhile, on NRES LNw are selling tickets for New Street - Euston travelling 'now' - £48.30, which seems a bit steep for the service provided.
So, if your journey really is necessary and you have no choice, you'll have discomfort and standing, possibly two RRBs - and LNw will charge a premium fare. (I make it £5 more than Avanti in S.P.).

 

[Bletchleyite]

Meanwhile, on NRES LNw are selling tickets for New Street - Euston travelling 'now' - £48.30, which seems a bit steep for the service provided.
So, if your journey really is necessary and you have no choice, you'll have discomfort and standing, possibly two RRBs - and LNw will charge a premium fare. (I make it £5 more than Avanti in S.P.).

£48.30 is a walk up any-operator Off Peak Single. Nobody is going to buy that and use it on WMT, they'll use Avanti (or save a few quid and go with Chiltern).

 

[DarloRich]

I fought my way onto the 0630 off MK, left people behind Tring onward - not a single boarder possible (rear coach) from Hemel. 45 mins until next one and that reported as not even close to clearing the platform at Leighton. 2tph only isn't enough in the peaks even if its 12-car, and neither of those are really being met. The 'stopped for handback' 350/2s at Wembley and Camden are very visible...

I travelled in a bit later so perhaps the passenger flow was "very peaky"

I have to say that, for once, the MV chugs have done very well this week !

 

[Bletchleyite]

I travelled in a bit later so perhaps the passenger flow was "very peaky"

Probably. Most discretionary leisure travel is probably not bothering or is going another route.

 

[SLC001]

After all their good work, there was a points failure this morning at Northampton which disrupted the interim timetable. Anyhow, this has been fixed and the hourly service is running.
I do wonder how you dry out a train which had stood in water for a good few hours.

 

[DarloRich]

I do wonder how you dry out a train which had stood in water for a good few hours.

fill it with scrunched up newspaper and put under the radiator?

 

[setdown]

EMR does have acceptance, yes (though "aim to have" probably needs updated). Full details here:

Severe Disruption To Services (28/11)

www.londonnorthwesternrailway.co.uk

Confusingly, if you look on the London Northwestern website under the 'Problems Reported' section, there is an update from this morning at 08:58 saying that Avanti services can be used as far as Crewe

"Your ticket can be used, at no extra cost, with the following operators:
Avanti West Coast:

• London Euston - Watford Junction - Milton Keynes - Rugby - Coventry - Birmingham - Wolverhampton - Crewe
• Rugby - Nuneaton - Tamworth - Stafford - Crewe"

 

[Wolfie]

Much to my very pleasant surprise (and despite what the automated voice announcements were saying at Euston) l am currently on a very comfortable non-smelly Avanti Voyager between Euston and Birmingham New Street on the outbound part of a London North Western Super Off-peak return.

Ticket acceptance is in place due to flooding around Northampton. Bitter past experience suggested that there might be issues but all worked exactly as it should.

I did take the precaution of taking a photo of the board at Euston... It wasn't wholly consistent with what was posted online... Ho hum....

 

[infobleep]

I was on one of the first trains from Reading to Guildford stranded before Ash (2O57). The train manager told us at Ash that they have arranged taxis coming to the station for passengers travelling beyond Guildford. For passengers going to Guildford, we were advised to use the local bus (Stagecoach South 20).

About an hour later GWR’s advice changed specifically that GWR tickets were not available on local buses, and hence the later arrangement of taxis from Ash to Guildford. I wonder what happened that prompted this specific announcement and arrangement…

Interesting as SWR had ticket acceptance on local buses but maybe they were different. Of course SWR were allowing taxis to be booked personally and claimed back later on.

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 28 Nov 2024 ==

I'm looking forwards to playing the dance of 'That's an off-peak LNR ticket, this is a peak time train' with the Avanti Euston gateline this evening...

Let us know how you get on.

 

[Wolfie]

I'm looking forwards to playing the dance of 'That's an off-peak LNR ticket, this is a peak time train' with the Avanti Euston gateline this evening...

Good luck. For what it's worth Euston had a whole screen message about ticket acceptance (at least between Euston and Birmingham New Street) earlier. I caught a Voyager no problems.

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 28 Nov 2024 ==

fill it with scrunched up newspaper and put under the radiator?

Does it get white stains on the outside?

 

[DarloRich]

Some Birmingham > Northampton > MKC trains will run tomorrow. Things must be bad damage wise if LNWR cant get a full service running

 

[E6007]

Watch latest Green Signals episode for some explanation if needed. Emergency signalling through Northampton until end of week. Therefore can't extract units from Northampton depot etc.

 

[AndrewE]

Watch latest Green Signals episode for some explanation if needed. Emergency signalling through Northampton until end of week. Therefore can't extract units from Northampton depot etc.

Surely they could get a possession and clip the points to extract the units?

 

[Bletchleyite]

Surely they could get a possession and clip the points to extract the units?

Is there anywhere to put them? @DarloRich was reporting Bletchley as full of units, so perhaps they got out as many as they could?

 

[Merle Haggard]

Watch latest Green Signals episode for some explanation if needed. Emergency signalling through Northampton until end of week. Therefore can't extract units from Northampton depot etc.

It suggests that the 350s stabled in bays 4 and 5 might be water damaged after all - there's usually 12 cars in 4, not sure 8 or 12 in 5.

Useful for the explanation of why so few trains are running at the moment; official sources gave been silent apart from 'floods'..

 

[87015]

Kings Heath is open and fully signalled routes available since Tuesday.

 

[AndrewE]

Is there anywhere to put them? @DarloRich was reporting Bletchley as full of units, so perhaps they got out as many as they could?

How about running (12-car) trains with them if they work? If not, I'm sure there are acessible sidings where they could be put temporarily while awaiting access to workshops. How busy is Crewe ETD or Longsight? Even Wolverton might have some undercover storage where they can start drying out...

 

[Bletchleyite]

How about running (12-car) trains with them if they work?

I was looking at Euston yesterday and at least some 12s are running.

If not, I'm sure there are acessible sidings where they could be put temporarily while awaiting access to workshops. How busy is Crewe ETD or Longsight? Even Wolverton might have some undercover storage where they can start drying out...

The ones in the depot shouldn't be wet, it's on high ground compared to the station.

 

[moogal]

Out of interest (because I might need to use them to travel from LBZ later today) - how have the MKC-EUS LNR services been holding up off-peak? I read some horror stories up-thread about them being too full to board at some south WCML stations earlier in the week, but wondering if that was just on-peak?

 

[allotments]

I'm looking forwards to playing the dance of 'That's an off-peak LNR ticket, this is a peak time train' with the Avanti Euston gateline this evening...

Here we go... even before you arrive at the gate line

Avanti direct message on X denying LNR ticket holders travel from Rugby to Euston

Attachment shows X message with conflicting/ambiguous advice from LNR

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 29 Nov 2024 ==

Here we go... even before you arrive at the gate line

Avanti direct message on X denying LNR ticket holders travel from Rugby to Euston

Attachment shows X message with conflicting/ ambiguous advice from LNR

LNR replied saying ticket acceptance is in place

 

[Bletchleyite]

I think he's just misinterpreted your question and said "we are indeed" having quickly scan-read your question as being "are you accepting" not "are you refusing". Likely if he was saying that it'd be worded "I'm afraid not" or similar.

 

[Mikey C]

I think he's just misinterpreted your question and said "we are indeed" having quickly scan-read your question as being "are you accepting" not "are you refusing". Likely if he was saying that it'd be worded "I'm afraid not" or similar.

Agreed.

 

[Lewisham2221]

Here we go... even before you arrive at the gate line

Avanti direct message on X denying LNR ticket holders travel from Rugby to Euston

Attachment shows X message with conflicting/ambiguous advice from LNR

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 29 Nov 2024 ==



LNR replied saying ticket acceptance is in place

I think the issue is the wording and meaning of your question to Avanti.

I initially read "are Avanti trains not allowing" as "aren't Avanti trains allowing", which would be a valid question from someone who might not be aware that Birmingham to Euston includes Rugby to Euston. The response of "we are indeed" suggests that Miles at Avanti read it the same way.

I suspect what you meant was along the lines of "are Avanti refusing to accept LNR tickets between Rugby and Euston?".

Having said that, Miles from Avanti's response could have been clearer - "I can confirm that we are accepting LNR tickets between Birmingham/Rugby and Euston" or "Sorry, we are not accepting LNR tickets on our services".

 

[allotments]

I think the issue is the wording and meaning of your question to Avanti.

I initially read "are Avanti trains not allowing" as "aren't Avanti trains allowing", which would be a valid question from someone who might not be aware that Birmingham to Euston includes Rugby to Euston. The response of "we are indeed" suggests that Miles at Avanti read it the same way.

I suspect what you meant was along the lines of "are Avanti refusing to accept LNR tickets between Rugby and Euston?".

Having said that, Miles from Avanti's response could have been clearer - "I can confirm that we are accepting LNR tickets between Birmingham/Rugby and Euston" or "Sorry, we are not accepting LNR tickets on our services".

So this may have been a miscommunication...

I asked for a cycle reservation on an Avanti service from Rugby to Euston but didn't receive it, instead received the response I reported here.

Avanti have now provided the requested reservation.

This came after having to fight my way up north earlier in the week, with boarding denied
by Chiltern for a few minutes at Marylebone with ticket acceptance in place "because your ticket's from Euston there's no ticket acceptance with Avanti" without looking in detail at my ticket. I said I was travelling with LNR and after the gate line staff checked with control came back to say that ticket acceptance was only in place with West Midlands Trains. So I then had to shout across that LNR is West Midlands Trains and the gates were opened remotely.

Then again at Birmingham New St booking office Avanti reluctant to provide a cycle reservation to Crewe when ticket acceptance was in place according to LNR. The 17:04 WMT service to Crewe had just been cancelled but the 17:07 Avanti service was on time.

LNR advice was ticket acceptance any reasonable route with Avanti to Crewe and I had to show a screenshot of this.

Surely when ticket acceptance is in place rail staff are updated ? Often not it seems.

I have a short fuse now

 

[AndrewE]

So this may have been a miscommunication...

I asked for a cycle reservation on an Avanti service from Rugby to Euston but didn't receive it, instead received the response I reported here...
This came after having to fight my way up north earlier in the week, with boarding denied
by Chiltern for a few minutes at Marylebone with ticket acceptance in place "because your ticket's from Euston there's no ticket acceptance with Avanti" without looking in detail to see that I had a West Midlands Trains ticket.
Then again at Birmingham New St booking office Avanti reluctant to provide a cycle reservation to Crewe when ticket acceptance was in place according to LNR.

I have a short fuse now

And with very good reason. This is one of the main reasons why I think TOCs should be abolished immediately, for all public-facing railway functions anyway. Keep them for management purposes in the short term if you have to - but make all staff realise that it is now one railway again.

 

[Mikey C]

And with very good reason. This is one of the main reasons why I think TOCs should be abolished immediately, for all public-facing railway functions anyway. Keep them for management purposes in the short term if you have to - but make all staff realise that it is now one railway again.

To be fair, other "state owned" railways have different categories of train, some requiring supplements or premium priced tickets, so it's not as if a ticket from A to B would automatically be valid on every train.