Leeds disruption again Saturday 09 August

[hawk1911]

Where were the staff saying that? I certainly didn't hear any of that, all the announcements at Victoria were saying to go via Sheffield for Leeds, with people only being advised to get the tram if they want Rochdale.

I saw a 10:45 and 11:45 bus to Todmorden appear on the boards, but I can't imagine many people got it.

That's what we were being told at 09:30 and there were plenty of people at Rochdale station in the same situation as me (there's also X/Twitter posts to that effect as well). It all added up to a complete communication / customer care failure.

 

[pokemonsuper9]

That's what we were being told at 09:30 and there were plenty of people at Rochdale station in the same situation as me (there's also X/Twitter posts to that effect as well). It all added up to a complete communication / customer care failure.

I probably was sat on either the 9:21 or 9:36 at that point.
On the 09:21 it was announced as cancelled by the boards on the train, which just suddenly turned to cancelled.
On the 09:36 the first we found out of it being cancelled was when the staff got on, and told us it's going to Wigan and they expected an empty train, I don't know if that left with people on it or empty, I can't find a passenger move on RTT so I'm guessing empty.

The 10:21 (leaving at 11:52) was suprisingly not packed full, despite being a 3 car replacing ~15 of cancelled trains, I think a lot of people either got the tram, went via Sheffield, or gave up.

 

[hawk1911]

I probably was sat on either the 9:21 or 9:36 at that point.
On the 09:21 it was announced as cancelled by the boards on the train, which just suddenly turned to cancelled.
On the 09:36 the first we found out of it being cancelled was when the staff got on, and told us it's going to Wigan and they expected an empty train, I don't know if that left with people on it or empty, I can't find a passenger move on RTT so I'm guessing empty.

The 10:21 (leaving at 11:52) was suprisingly not packed full, despite being a 3 car replacing ~15 of cancelled trains, I think a lot of people either got the tram, went via Sheffield, or gave up.
View attachment 186542

To be fair to the staff, at Rochdale, they were being very apologetic. They kept saying they were being told nothing (about alernative travelling options) and were not being allowed to arrange any transport themselves. They seemed to have no more access to which services were operating than me. We were being told to assume that nothing was going to be provided and to make our own arrangements.

When I checked RTT (around 10:45) it was not showing anything running from Todmorden towards Bradford, hence why I opted to get to Hebden Bridge by taxi. I'm aware that others opted to get taxis to their destination further along the line (e.g. Halifax). There was one group, travelling from Manchester to Kings Lynn, that had been 'sent' up by tram To Rochdale, which just demonstrates the utter confusion that Northern's poor communication was causing.

 

[Bantamzen]

...and if Bantamzen had a Bradford top on and has long hair, my sisters saw him too

That may, or may not have been me!

Where were the staff saying that? I certainly didn't hear any of that, all the announcements at Victoria were saying to go via Sheffield for Leeds, with people only being advised to get the tram if they want Rochdale.

I saw a 10:45 and 11:45 bus to Todmorden appear on the boards, but I can't imagine many people got it.

I personally didn't hear any staff saying it, but I did see on social media and the Northern disruptions page that ticket acceptance was cleared on Metrolink up to Rochdale. Admittedly I thought it slightly odd given that nothing was running through Rochdale so I personally wouldn't have attempted it, perhaps the message should have been a bit clearer that it was for people travelling to Rochdale only? And it wasn't the only mixed message, prior to the first service leaving the crew on the unit originally were telling people to get off the unit as it was going nowhere, despite staff on the platform, the boards on P5 and (I think because it was very noisy at this point) the tannoy all confirming that the 3 car 195 was going to Leeds. It even got to the point that they locked it out, only for it to be unlocked again within a couple of minutes later. I understand that it can be a very fluid situation but I do think Northern need to work on their comms on the day. Thankfully the confusion didn't cause any issues, but people being shunted from platform to platform, then on / off /on to a unit has the potential to cause a lot of upset and anger.

But all that notwithstanding I am glad I gambled on that service that left at 11:51, even after a quick game of platform chess, looks like it was almost a hour an a half before the next one left from Manchester which would have left me practically sprinting up the hill to the game. Thankfully the journey back to Cheshire went without a hitch, and even had a nice chat with some northern based Luton fans.

 

[tomoufc]

Were these problems separate in cause to the disruptions the weekend before? The Calder Valley line seems to have been unusable at weekends just when it’s needed most! I was on a packed train on Saturday which terminated at Rochdale on its way to MCV. I advised a few travellers heading to the Airport to take a taxi the rest of the way. I couldn’t be sure this was the best advice at the time (because passenger information was all over the place), but, reading this, perhaps it was.

 

[skyhigh]

Were these problems separate in cause to the disruptions the weekend before?

Totally separate.

 

[Rail Ranger]

If the problem was at Brewery Junction, why weren't trains being turned round at Rochdale from the east in the bay?

 

[Bow Fell]

If the problem was at Brewery Junction, why weren't trains being turned round at Rochdale from the east in the bay?

Impossible to turn that many trains round at Rochdale, complicated by the extra TPE service in the mix.

The joint NR / Northern contingency plan states are thinning out of services with the complete suspension of some services and 1 tph to turnback at Rochdale. However, this required a variation because of the extra TPE services, and the attention was on the three trapped services with Brewery Junction being initially route locked.

 

[GoneSouth]

Just to clarify, that’s disruption on the Calder valley on the 16th and 9th August, as well as more widespread disruption around Leeds and across the Pennines the week before, 3 weekends of mayhem in the past month, is that right?

 

[M60lad]

Hopefully things should be better this weekend as due to the amount of events on over the Bank Holiday weekend from what I can gather there's no engineering works on Huddersfield line which means oddly for a weekend both Calder Valley and Huddersfield lines will be open and available for traffic.