dvboy
Established Member
Let's talk about Thursday evening peak out of Birmingham. 
The line between Wolverhampton and Sandwell & Dudley closed at 3pm for engineering work until start of service on Tuesday. The diversion via Bescot is unavailable too as the work is close enough to Wolverhampton station. Nothing is able to run on tracks into or out of the south end of Wolverhampton for this entire time. For those unfamiliar with the line between here and Birmingham, it's double tracked, and Sandwell & Dudley is about half way along.
London Midland put on a woefully inadequate half hourly 2-car 170 shuttle between New Street and Sandwell & Dudley. If it wasn't for this, it would be busses the whole way. They are departing at the times the normal all-stops trains run from Birmingham.
The 1738 this evening was so full it left people on the platform with a hald hour wait until the next one. I understand from various reports on twiter, that trains through to 2038 were full and standing. There were queues for the replacement buses at Sandwell & Dudley at 1800 even after three had filled and left.
Many people making this journey will have been travelling beyond Wolverhampton, to places like Telford, Shrewsbury and those in between, and Penkridge, with no alternative option of the Midland Metro tram due to not having multi-modal season tickets. On Tuesday due to overhead line damage, LM arranged ticket acceptance on the Metro; they didn't do it tonight because they had put in their own alternative arrangements.
Remember, it's Maundy Thursday, the last working day before a bank holiday weekend, one of the busiest days of the year on the railway according to a recent television documentary. I don't have any figures for the number of commuters between Birmingham and Wolverhampton and beyond but given the crowding of peak hour services on a normal day, I'd put them in the tens of thousands.
Let's simplify this: a half-hourly two coach train service and a handful of buses taking the place of what's normally 10-11 trains per hour on one of the busiest days for travel in the year. Poor doesn't even come close.
LM got a lot of stick on twitter tonight for this shambles, and rightly so. By the evening they were admitting that they had underestimated the number of people that would be using this service. It might be fine for the rest of the long weekend, but it was completely inadequate this evening.
They claimed that they were using their rolling stock to capacity. If they knew this was what they'd have available, they could have informed their passengers in advance that they expected these services to be busy. I think many passengers expected longer trains to be used on the Sandwell Shuttle, as there's been no mention of electrics not being available.
It seems a shame that it should fall on one out of 4 TOCs to organise any kind of service. VT and ATW simply terminated short of their destinations, XC seemed to abandon Wolverhampton altogether (although I understand some of the late night buses are of ATW's organising).
Surely some of the responsibility should fall on other TOCs, who have spare rolling stock available, and a collaborative effort to run a better service should have been made. On the face of it they appear to have done bugger all and left everything to LM.
XC have a Voyager and a 170 sat at Birmingham New Street doing nothing most days, and all of ATW's rolling stock is diesel, perhaps some temporary loaning could have been done to strengthen the shuttle this evening.
I am told the works needed to start so early because of the time it would take to complete them. Surely it would be better for them to start later this evening and finish later on Tuesday morning, when services will be naturally quieter anyway with it being school holidays?
Also, Smethwick Galton Bridge was business as usual on the Snow Hill lines, yet people still took New Street trains to SGB, and were waiting for them in the other direction even though trains to Snow Hill are more frequent; perhaps the shuttle should have been non-stop to SAD?
What went right?
Use of Wolverhampton bus station rather than the rail station forecourt for the rail replacement buses was an excellent decision.
Extensive announcements and organisation by bus staff at Sandwell & Dudley who kept everyone calm and informed despite volume of passengers.
That's about it really.
The line between Wolverhampton and Sandwell & Dudley closed at 3pm for engineering work until start of service on Tuesday. The diversion via Bescot is unavailable too as the work is close enough to Wolverhampton station. Nothing is able to run on tracks into or out of the south end of Wolverhampton for this entire time. For those unfamiliar with the line between here and Birmingham, it's double tracked, and Sandwell & Dudley is about half way along.
London Midland put on a woefully inadequate half hourly 2-car 170 shuttle between New Street and Sandwell & Dudley. If it wasn't for this, it would be busses the whole way. They are departing at the times the normal all-stops trains run from Birmingham.
The 1738 this evening was so full it left people on the platform with a hald hour wait until the next one. I understand from various reports on twiter, that trains through to 2038 were full and standing. There were queues for the replacement buses at Sandwell & Dudley at 1800 even after three had filled and left.
Many people making this journey will have been travelling beyond Wolverhampton, to places like Telford, Shrewsbury and those in between, and Penkridge, with no alternative option of the Midland Metro tram due to not having multi-modal season tickets. On Tuesday due to overhead line damage, LM arranged ticket acceptance on the Metro; they didn't do it tonight because they had put in their own alternative arrangements.
Remember, it's Maundy Thursday, the last working day before a bank holiday weekend, one of the busiest days of the year on the railway according to a recent television documentary. I don't have any figures for the number of commuters between Birmingham and Wolverhampton and beyond but given the crowding of peak hour services on a normal day, I'd put them in the tens of thousands.
Let's simplify this: a half-hourly two coach train service and a handful of buses taking the place of what's normally 10-11 trains per hour on one of the busiest days for travel in the year. Poor doesn't even come close.
LM got a lot of stick on twitter tonight for this shambles, and rightly so. By the evening they were admitting that they had underestimated the number of people that would be using this service. It might be fine for the rest of the long weekend, but it was completely inadequate this evening.
They claimed that they were using their rolling stock to capacity. If they knew this was what they'd have available, they could have informed their passengers in advance that they expected these services to be busy. I think many passengers expected longer trains to be used on the Sandwell Shuttle, as there's been no mention of electrics not being available.
It seems a shame that it should fall on one out of 4 TOCs to organise any kind of service. VT and ATW simply terminated short of their destinations, XC seemed to abandon Wolverhampton altogether (although I understand some of the late night buses are of ATW's organising).
Surely some of the responsibility should fall on other TOCs, who have spare rolling stock available, and a collaborative effort to run a better service should have been made. On the face of it they appear to have done bugger all and left everything to LM.
XC have a Voyager and a 170 sat at Birmingham New Street doing nothing most days, and all of ATW's rolling stock is diesel, perhaps some temporary loaning could have been done to strengthen the shuttle this evening.
I am told the works needed to start so early because of the time it would take to complete them. Surely it would be better for them to start later this evening and finish later on Tuesday morning, when services will be naturally quieter anyway with it being school holidays?
Also, Smethwick Galton Bridge was business as usual on the Snow Hill lines, yet people still took New Street trains to SGB, and were waiting for them in the other direction even though trains to Snow Hill are more frequent; perhaps the shuttle should have been non-stop to SAD?
What went right?
Use of Wolverhampton bus station rather than the rail station forecourt for the rail replacement buses was an excellent decision.
Extensive announcements and organisation by bus staff at Sandwell & Dudley who kept everyone calm and informed despite volume of passengers.
That's about it really.
joke aside.
