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Does anybody have experience with Northern covering taxis in disruption? I’m stuck in Edale with no trains moving any time soon. I need to get home. I’m thinking of trying to get a taxi to Stockport and then train from there.
Have you asked Northern how they are proposing to transport you? This is the first step you should take - ideally by phone or social media, so there is a record of ehat was said and agreed/refused.
Have you asked Northern how they are proposing to transport you? This is the first step you should take - ideally by phone or social media, so there is a record of ehat was said and agreed/refused.
I have asked, but no reply and nobody active on their social media it seems.
I have also asked TPE to consider stopping one of their services as lots of people stranded currently as there have no trains for a couple of hours.
At this rate I’ll just swallow the cost myself to get home, but would be nice to not be out of pocket seeing as both my journeys today have been over two hours delayed.
Is there a Help Point at the station? This will be an intercom with two buttons, labelled something like Information and Emergency, located somewhere on the platform. The Information button should allow you to actually talk to someone in person. That would probably be what I'd try in this situation if you haven't already.
Looks like the 1749 Northern departure (from Edale across to Manchester Piccadilly) has now departed Sheffield, but an hour down. Has there been some issue affecting Hope Valley trains?
Looks like the 1749 Northern departure (from Edale across to Manchester Piccadilly) has now departed Sheffield, but an hour down. Has there been some issue affecting Hope Valley trains?
The following one (1814 from Sheffield that has actually been covered by the one running an hour late) is showing as cancelled due to a member of train crew unavailable.
TPE Journey Check is showing a points failure at Dore.
Is there a Help Point at the station? This will be an intercom with two buttons, labelled something like Information and Emergency, located somewhere on the platform. The Information button should allow you to actually talk to someone in person. That would probably be what I'd try in this situation if you haven't already.
Is there a Help Point at the station? This will be an intercom with two buttons, labelled something like Information and Emergency, located somewhere on the platform. The Information button should allow you to actually talk to someone in person. That would probably be what I'd try in this situation if you haven't already.
In my experience, help points can be completely useless and if they do connect will connect with the call centre of National Rail Enquiries who are as much use as a chocolate teapot.
Hopefully the OP actually gets on a train at some point, but knowing Northern they will decide to run everything nonstop to recover the delay rather than serving the intermediate stations.
In my experience, help points can be completely useless and if they do connect will connect with the call centre of National Rail Enquiries who are as much use as a chocolate teapot
Northern is 0800 200 6060, with a note saying that they are available between 06:00 to 23:00 when trains are running.
Unfortunately, often the help points can be configured to put you through to National Rail Enquiries as they are 24/7 rather than the TOC that manages the station, and although NRE can give you a TOCs contact details or pass on to a TOC details of any stranded passenger needing assistance, they can be variable in doing so unless explicitly asked. Keeping the find a train company page bookmarked in your phone can be really helpful to get you through to a TOC when stuck somewhere.
In the end I made it home about 3.5 hours late. I was also 2 hours late on the outward journey. Think I’ve set a personal record for delays in a day.
what’s really frustrating is we still have no joined up thinking or effort in the railway to deviate from the norm to help stranded passengers. If it was only an hour to the next train, fine, I can understand no special stops. But the delay was huge and a whole platform worth of people stood there for hours on end watching TPE and EMR trains crawl through at 5mph is just not good enough.
I'm afraid I have any just seen this. If using a help point I will try the information button first. If this connects to National Rail Enquiries I will abandon the call and then use the emergency button as this is more likely to connect to the control of the train company managing the station.
In the case of Northern I have heard reports previously of people calling the 0800 number above and Northern booking a taxi for the passenger during disruption.
I did not know that National Rail Enquiries had the ability to pass details of stranded passengers onto train company control.
I did exactly this earlier this week, when asking if I could use an Advance ticket on the trains of a different operator due to the problems in Manchester. (I got a positive answer by the way.)
It took quite a while to explain to her my situation though, and even which station I was calling from.
In the case of Northern I have heard reports previously of people calling the 0800 number above and Northern booking a taxi for the passenger during disruption.
But the delay was huge and a whole platform worth of people stood there for hours on end watching TPE and EMR trains crawl through at 5mph is just not good enough.
That's what I assumed, was a bit confused as the OP described the delay as "huge" which, whilst just over an hour is unfortunate, id be inclined to think something would come eventually!
When I mentioned huge delays there were no trains expected from 1749 to after 2100 as they all said cancelled or delayed with no ETA or information. In the end obviously the 1749 turned up about 75 minutes late. I then missed my connection in Manchester and hung around for another hour or so waiting.
So I would class that as a huge delay (particularly when at the time I asked for info there was no ETA for the problem to be resolved). Anyway, it is done now and got home eventually.
When I mentioned huge delays there were no trains expected from 1749 to after 2100 as they all said cancelled or delayed with no ETA or information. In the end obviously the 1749 turned up about 75 minutes late. I then missed my connection in Manchester and hung around for another hour or so waiting.
So I would class that as a huge delay (particularly when at the time I asked for info there was no ETA for the problem to be resolved). Anyway, it is done now and got home eventually.
certainly agree here. It's not reasonable for passengers to be expected to be left at an unstaffed halt for potentially up to 3 hours (or thinking them might be), in a location with no facilities at the station eg toilets, drinking water - yes I know there is a pub nearby at Edale station but I doubt Northern expect them, or pay them, to provide basic facilities for stranded passengers.
Other stations on the route eg Hope and Bamford are more remote IIRC, without the benefit of anything much a short distance away and it would not be a good idea to leave the immediate station vicinity should a train suddenly appear.
The only customer facility provided at the station is presumably the help point - the likely effectiveness of which has been discussed up thread.
As CASDO is a safety system, it's not meant to be overridden unless you have a fault or an emergency. Especially so when working a 6-car service when doors would have to be locked OOU, and there's no scheduled stops for TPE services.
According to the CASDO appendix, both platforms only fit 3 carriages, which means a double set would be prohibited from stopping, similar to how Normanton is omitted when the York stoppers are double sets.
I think that technically NRE are supposed to check if the TOC's customer service centre is still open and if so give you their phone number. Only if they are closed or uncontactable and you are truly "stranded" are NRE supposed to send a message to TOC control for them to contact you. But NRE aren't great at pro-actively giving you the TOC phone number if they are open in cases like this where you could benefit from help from customer services.
Hazel Grove, Chinley, and Dore & Totley are the only stations fitted with beacons between Stockport and Sheffield. None of the stations via Romiley are fitted at all.
As mentioned above, Edale would only fit 3 carriages. In theory this means a 3 car could stop there in an emergency via override, but still extremely unlikely.
A 6 car would almost certainly not be permitted to stop, as UDB isn’t allowed to be used when passengers are in a unit, and pigs would fly before it would be allowed to manually lock out all but the very front set of doors in the rear unit…
In an extreme situation it can be, but only with direct instruction from the Duty Control Manager and only when all carriages are fully accommodated.
Owing to a recent high number of operational incidents relating to C-ASDO override usage, it is now extremely rare to be granted permission to do so, and should only be used in the event of a train being stranded, the reported failure of a C-ASDO beacon or to get the train to a suitable staffed station for detraining passengers whereby a repetitive door fault keeps occurring and the train needs to return to the depot.
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I can't comment on Chinley confidently as I haven't signed the route since the route upgrades have taken place
If it was a 6 carriage service and a booked stop there would be a C-ASDO beacon.
If it was a 3 carriage service and wasn't a timetabled stop but had a special stop order (SSO), then either the GOP would be used or C-ASDO overridden with permission as part of the SSO if there is no beacon.
In an extreme situation it can be, but only with direct instruction from the Duty Control Manager and only when all carriages are fully accommodated.
Owing to a recent high number of operational incidents relating to C-ASDO override usage, it is now extremely rare to be granted permission to do so, and should only be used in the event of a train being stranded, the reported failure of a C-ASDO beacon or to get the train to a suitable staffed station for detraining passengers whereby a repetitive door fault keeps occurring and the train needs to return to the depot.
as an aside it seems rather sad to me that a requirement that prevents a train helping stranded and delayed passengers, over rules passengers being foolish enough not to open a door at a station they had no previous intention to get off at and step out into fresh air where no platform existed.....
Would this have applied to EMRs trains too? (158s or 170s presumably in operation on the route yesterday)
As an aside, as the delay was a points failure at Dore, presumably not many other trains got through, unless it were those that had cleared Dore before the intended Northern.
I do not see why one passenger door cannot be opened on the TPE services. Indeed this is what used to happen when the TPE units were working the Windermere branch at one of the stations.
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