Things to remember while using phrases like “Northern putting their feet up”… how do train crew get around? What are platforms and approach roads like? (Hint: not as gritted as you’d expect). Is it “safe”?
It was safe to operate to Lancaster during the last one of these, because TPE were doing so.
Northern didn't, and I found that unacceptable. The result was Lancaster, which wasn't affected by any severe weather, having three trains that day. Even if it had been totally impossible to get a 195 up there to shuttle to Preston and back to connect onto the Blackpools and a few drivers and guards*, a RRB would have been perfectly safe, though I suppose in reality a refund and potentially as low as a pound for the service bus (Lancashire County Council presently subsidise £1 fares in the evening and on Sunday in the whole County) might have been preferable if a bus journey was involved.
If you check that thread you'll note I didn't criticise them for initially failing to operate past Lancaster, it was failing to operate TO Lancaster which wasn't in the amber warning area I criticised them for, and secondarily in not starting up for a further day, which was alleged by some, me included, to be because they were going to struggle to get the crews out on that Sunday and it was less bad publicity to be shut down due to "weather" than due to the perennial Sunday problem manifesting itself in yet another December.
* It wasn't something silly like Preston-Lancaster only being signed by Barrow crews, was it, as Barrow depot was in the amber warning area and thus not accessible for units and crews? If it was, someone needs their head banging against a metaphorical brick wall for the lack of resilience planning in that.
Yes, there may be buses running (and sliding on ice) but they won’t be running on untreated estate roads. They can turn and find alternative routes; trains can’t. And you, the passenger, still have to negotiate the walk home. I’m sure we’ve all done the walk through snow down or up a steep hill the bus can’t handle.
I’d rather operators proactively cancelled things than carry on regardless. Wouldn’t you? Really?
In some cases they should cancel and in some cases they should not, however they should not be held responsible for me once I am off their premises in any way shape or form. What they should be is poised and ready to get going again as soon as it's proven safe. They are probably justified in issuing a Do Not Travel for a longer period, but not in taking the easy option to operate nothing throughout that period if it becomes safe enough to operate sooner. The service should be restored as soon as it is safe and practicable to do so with regard to the reason for its suspension. Last time that didn't happen for Northern, but it did for Avanti (normally enthusiastic to pull north of Preston when someone sneezes on the WCML) and TPE, and many suspect, as do I, that that was because of issues getting guards to volunteer, and thus that the communication on why they didn't when TPE and Avanti did was more than a little, shall we say, obfuscatory and avoiding of embarrassment.
Of course, if that was the reason perhaps we'll see the Hadfields run back up as soon as Network Rail reopen the line on Friday. It will be interesting to see. I'd agree that the Hope Valley is likely to be a much bigger problem if the promised snow does all materialise, though if it doesn't then it applies to that too.
